Word: quintets
(lookup in dictionary)
(lookup stats)
Dates: during 1990-1999
Sort By: most recent first
(reverse)
...long ago, it was difficult to overstate Bobby Brown's influence on black pop music. In the mid-1980s he was a teenage star in the bubblegum-soul quintet New Edition, which became the blueprint for dozens of harmony groups, including Boyz 2 Men. On his own in the late '80s, he became even more innovative with Don't Be Cruel, a small masterpiece that helped create new jack swing--a commercially potent rap-R. and B. hybrid that still echoes in the work of Mary J. Blige and R. Kelly...
...them coming out of the English press. The problem began for me, like most people, before any benefit of the doubt or exploration into their songs. Most people who deny the Spice Girls' social and musical presence have allowed the overwhelming candy-coated energy of the chipper female quintet go underappreciated for all the wrong reasons. The names, personalities, voices, Girl Power motto-they are all packaged, glossed and ready for consumption. Any objection to the perfectly prepared merchandise is absurd. Looking beyond the bright colors and flashy presentation will uncover the Spice Girls as a corporate fantasy turned real...
Composer Alan Menken, on vacation after the operatic Hunchback score, hasn't delved this deeply into pop pastiche since his 1982 off-Broadway hit, Little Shop of Horrors. The quintet of Muses, like Little Shop's black-thrush trio, tells the story, doing justice to the jaunty R.-and-B. inflections ("and then along came Zeus") of David Zippel's serviceable lyrics. The ballad Go the Distance, as pummeled by Michael Bolton, is the tune you'll hear coming from every radio, music store and elevator this summer...
...doctor-assisted suicide, has just released a compact disc of original jazz tunes entitled "A Very Still Life." Listing for $18.95, the aptly titled CD contains 12 tracks in which Dr. Death can be heard jamming on the flute and organ with the background assistance of the Morpheus Quintet. "The thing I hope the world will say about me years from now is that I was a physician who helped relieve human suffering," Kevorkian writes in the CD's liner notes. "Music has often soothed me and I hope these works will make you smile." Song titles, 11 of which...
...catch some blackbird's wings/ And we will fly away to heaven") in the gorgeous remake of her Gulf Coast Highway, a duet with Hootie's Darius Rucker. His gruff baritone and Griffith's twangy soprano soar apart, then join in double rapture. The instrumentation--string quintet, Floyd Cramerish rolling piano, electric slide guitar--makes the song a pretty little anthology of pop's fine old tendency to synthesize, not isolate, strains of music. Listening in the Great Beyond to Griffith's salving ballads, God might tap His foot. Even Kurt Cobain might crack an enlightened smile...