Word: vocalists
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From an unseen hallway, Sade's mournful voice floats into the TV studio like a ghost passing through a wall. She's singing these words, "I'm the king of sorrow..." The vocalist is backstage at HBO's comedy-interview program the Chris Rock Show. She's just wrapped up rehearsals for her appearance on the program to promote "Lovers Rock" (Epic), her first CD of new music in eight years. That's a lifetime in pop: time enough for the Seattle rock scene to have exploded like a supernova and to have collapsed like a white dwarf, time enough...
...would expect more of Sarah Cracknell, lead vocalist for dance-pop band Saint Etienne. Critics have always found it hard to pigeonhole the band (that is, until "electronica" conveniently became a music industry buzzword). Their sonic experiments have consistently yielded intriguing results, drawing from pop's rich past while carrying an attitude which points boldly towards the future. Cracknell's solo LP, Kelly's Locker, isn't particularly bad. However, as an electric pop record, it tries too hard to be eclectic and lacks the cohesion needed to make for a satisfying aural experience...
Still, the strong first half of "Red Dirt Girl" makes a legitimate case for Harris' transition from gifted vocalist to artistic voice. Her yearning, lonesome essence has been further distilled in these ineffably sad songs of lost opportunities and broken dreams, especially in the title track, about a woman whose pluck and resilience are not enough to break the vise of bad luck and bad choices. Harris' geographic specificity in telling the story (variations on the refrain "just across the line and a little southeast of Meridian") only intensifies the sense of isolation and loneliness, and in moments such...
...give Gwyneth Paltrow credit, she's not a terrible vocalist. Pretty much all the major characters in this movie warble a song onstage at some point or another - Lewis sings "Lonely Teardrops," Bello takes on "Sweet Dreams (Are Made of This)." Because Braugher's character is supposed to be a great vocalist, his singing is mostly overdubbed by professional belter Arnold McCuller. But Paltrow sings her own material with a sweet blandness; her voice is like a dab of grape jelly on white bread. Paltrow's rendition of "Crusin'" isn't going to replace Smokey Robinson's or D'Angelo...
...Hendrix was a terrific vocalist, with a gift for phrasing and interpolation. But he was above all a guitarist who created a new vocabulary of noise. Hendrix in his day was sometimes criticized for making music that was too "white" (i.e., too rock- infused), when in reality he was reaching past the pop-soul styles of his time and drawing on African-American blues traditions. The new boxed set features a blues rocker called "It's Too Bad" that touches on the subject. "They say until you come back completely black," Hendrix sings, "go back where you came from...