Word: songe
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Dates: during 1990-1999
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...Carey. Aguilera, 18, is poised to become pop's next female superstar. Her debut single, Genie in a Bottle, took only a few weeks to rise to No. 1 and is generating the kind of genuine enthusiasm on radio and MTV that doesn't come around much anymore. The song reveals a crystalline voice full of wonderful shadings and with a soulful ring that sets her apart in the overhyped teen market. If bookmakers take odds on who will be a bigger star after Aguilera's self-titled debut album comes out Aug. 24, the smart money...
There's a long, strong history in R. and B. of female singers taking lovers to task. Pop music, of course, is full of songs about romance gone wrong, but when R.-and-B. divas dress men down, they're often a bit more real. Blues great Bessie Smith, in Hard Time Blues, sang about leaving a man with "dirty ways"; today Erykah Badu castigates her cell phone-hogging lover on her song Tyrone; TLC ridicules deadbeat men on No Scrubs, and the vocal group Destiny's Child cries out for men who can pay their girlfriends' Bills, Bills, Bills...
...Elton John's Bennie and the Jets, she takes a look at her own emotional baggage. On Not Lookin', Blige derides "player sh__" but is confident enough to bring in male singer (and ex-boyfriend) K-Ci Hailey for a sort of vocal debate. Mary is somewhat inconsistent in song quality, but Blige's soul-singed vocals save the weaker material. There are also several high points: on Don't Waste Your Time, Aretha Franklin and Blige stage a soulful summit meeting on trifling men, and on All That I Can Say, Lauryn Hill, the song's producer and writer...
...vintage basics, dressed up with enough electric guitar and soul to make Hendrix smile from above, from "Tangled up in Blue" to "All Along the Watchtower" to "Desolation Row". But the most touching moment was Dylan's "Not Dark Yet", which was the sole post-Blood on the Tracks song, from his most recent album, Time Out of Mind...
...James Bradfield's voice combines with Nicky Wire's lyrics ("I've got to stop smiling it gives the wrong impression") to create an air of bleakness not unlike the vast empty expanse on the album cover. This slips into pretentiousness at times, such as in the final song "S.Y.M.M." ("South Yorkshire Mass Murderer"), but on the whole the Manics have cut a gloriously anthemic album...