Word: songcraft
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Looking back, though, it seems likely that the Beatles--with their buoyant spirits, their bottomless charm, their unaccustomed and irrepressible wit--could probably have boosted the mirth quotient at a clown convention. Their overflowing gifts for songcraft, harmony and instrumental excitement, their spiffy suits and nifty haircuts, their bright quips and ready smiles, made them appear almost otherworldly, as if they had just beamed down from some distant and far happier planet...
...ERYKAH BADU BADUIZM (Kedar Entertainment/Universal) Some singers can break your heart; Badu can put it back together again. Her neo-soul songcraft draws from soul, jazz, blues and hip-hop--but instead of a chaotic swirl of sound, the result is a slow-burning, meditative album that brings all these genres together. This is healing music about magic and love, racism and reincarnation, late-night parties and Afro picks. Badu's voice is a natural wonder, sharp and metallic, wounded and sad, yearning for empathy in one song, decrying injustice in the next. Her brilliant companion CD, Live, which captures...
...Joni Mitchell song go? "I've looked at life from both sides now..." McLachlan has certainly seen both sides in the music business. As the Founding Mother of Lilith--and the only performer playing every date--she is sure to win a wide new audience for her lush, thoughtful songcraft. Her new CD, Surfacing (Arista), out this week, is an elegant, old-soul album, with several standout songs, including the bewitching Building a Mystery and the ravishing Adia. Radio is already all over it. But not too long ago, McLachlan couldn't buy airplay. "When my album Fumbling Towards Ecstasy...
...best working with others--he is a musical catalyst. Says Arista Records chief Clive Davis: "He brings something special out of the artists who interpret his material. He writes different ways for different people." His work is sometimes slight and sentimental, but over the years, his songcraft has grown stronger. The Day's lyrics have a solid moral core: the family unit is revered, love comes with respect, and men do a lot of crying. "Done 'bout run out of tears," he coos on Talk to Me, a pop-soul-blues number featuring Clapton on guitar. "The thing that makes...
...pleasant, floating falsetto, and he shows his vocal skills off well on Cruisin' as well as on the romantic, melodic Me and Those Dreamin' Eyes of Mine. He could, however, work a bit more on his lyrics, which lack the lubricated finesse evident in the rest of his songcraft. On Me and Those Dreamin' Eyes of Mine he sings, banally, "If I had the chance, I'd treat her like a queen." And on one atypically crude song-whose title is too scatological to print here-the chorus consists of curses. It's a little like the Fuhrman tapes, with...