Word: balladic
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Dates: during 1990-1999
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Even the tracks which don't project the guitar-heavy brashness of corn-belt rock'n'roll heroes fit neatly into other cliches of popular music. The third track, "New Test Leper," is a low key ballad complete with the type of jangly acoustic guitar which seems to typify radio candy marketed towards teenage girls. On this track, and on the ballad "Be Mine," Stipe's voice takes on the sticky sweetness one would expect from Evan Dando, and his lyrics the groveling desperation of Matthew Sweet: "I want to be your Christmas tree...
...should be fair warning to say that Nearly God is an acquired taste. Tricky isn't the most cheerful of musicians. One of the album's best tracks, the somber and deeply funky love ballad "Poems" won't necessarily put the listener in the mood: This is the kind of make-out music designed to depress Peter Murphy fans. But Nearly God's ambition, the stark beauty of its musical landscapes and its willingness to explore the complex motives behind what we call love are just compensation. The album is a brilliant antidote to the makeshift angst of Jewel...
...only in their 30s, but the group's newest album, No Code, makes it sound as if they're having a midlife crisis. The songs on the CD flail this way and that, screamingly loud on the vocal-chord-stripping song Lukin, restrained and dreamy on the ballad Off He Goes and fuzzily philosophical on the mostly laid-back number Present Tense. Sonic variety can be a good thing--the Smashing Pumpkins' brilliant double album, Mellon Collie and the Infinite Sadness, also veered all over the map--but too few of the songs on the Pearl Jam CD explore...
...Pearl Jam are only in their thirties, but the group's newest album, 'No Code,' sounds as if they?re having a mid-life crisis. "The songs on the CD flail this way and that, screamingly loud on the vocal-chord stripping song 'Lukin,' restrained and dreamy on the ballad 'Off He Goes,' and fuzzily philosophical on the mostly laid-back number 'Present Tense,' says Farley. 'No Code' is the sound of a band looking for a new direction, but too comfortable and cautious to follow through on its vision." Instead, the band seems content to follow trails blazed...
...Pearl Jam are only in their thirties, but the group's newest album, 'No Code,' sounds as if they?re having a mid-life crisis. "The songs on the CD flail this way and that, screamingly loud on the vocal-chord stripping song 'Lukin,' restrained and dreamy on the ballad 'Off He Goes,' and fuzzily philosophical on the mostly laid-back number 'Present Tense,' says Farley. 'No Code' is the sound of a band looking for a new direction, but too comfortable and cautious to follow through on its vision." Instead, the band seems content to follow trails blazed...