THE VIRGINIAN-PILOT
Copyright (c) 1994, Landmark Communications, Inc.
DATE: Saturday, October 1, 1994 TAG: 9409300091
SECTION: DAILY BREAK PAGE: E3 EDITION: FINAL
TYPE: MUSIC REVIEWS
LENGTH: Medium: 66 lines
R.E.M., ``MONSTER'' (Warner Bros.). After the massive successes of ``Out of Time'' and ``Automatic for the People,'' the idea of R.E.M. playing music centered around the electric guitar seemed foreign. But where Peter Buck used the instrument mostly to color those muted records, he's grabbed it with a vengeance on the group's ninth long-player.
With the exception of ``King of Comedy,'' the results aren't quite as noisily avant-garde as pre-release word had it. Neither is the disc laid back. Both instantly recognizable as the work of America's best-loved band and a reach beyond its established habits, ``Monster'' rocks as thoughtfully and determinedly as ``Time'' and ``Automatic'' quietly simmered.
Buck drenches the dozen songs in rough-hewn textures ranging from ``Life's Rich Pageant''-style strum (``Star 69'') to garage-classic (``Circus Envy'') and the beyond-metallic (``Let Me In''). This is an even more emotionally open set of songs than ``Automatic's'' reflections on life and death, with singer Michael Stipe giving it up for love. Aptly, the music flashes glints of turmoil and beauty.
Is there a surefire classic on the order of ``Everybody Hurts''? Yes: ``Strange Currencies.'' Over a gracefully simple guitar figure, Stipe gives his most impassioned performance of the album (unless it's ``Let Me In's'' cries to friend Kurt Cobain), declaring, ``I wanna turn you on, turn you up, figure you out, I wanna take you on.''
In other songs, Stipe wrestles with that decision. ``Bang and Blame'' leaps from atmospheric verses to power-chord choruses while he discovers betrayal and jealousy. ``I Took Your Name'' is a disorienting shove into (not so) mundane precincts of intimacy: ``I signed your living will.''
As did ``Murmur'' and ``Out of Time,'' ``Monster'' reveals more as it's played more. R.E.M. has given us a record for a promising fall.
- Rickey Wright VARIED BUT LITTLE ELSE
ANITA BAKER, ``RHYTHM OF LOVE'' (Elektra). Anita Baker's first album in four years is perhaps the singer's most musically varied yet. Recorded in her Grosse Pointe, Mich., home while she was pregnant, the album is a skillful melding of R&B, jazz, pop, and blues, all highlighting Baker's incredibly sensuous voice.
So why can't I get really excited about ``Rhythm of Love''? It's the material, I suspect. It's less distinctive than some of her earlier work, especially ``Rapture,'' her 1986 breakthrough. The 12 tunes here get Baker's patented jazzy, smokey treatment, making them enjoyable outings, just not necessarily memorable.
The Bacharach/David classic, ``The Love of Love,'' resurfaces as a languid pop-jazz excursion, probably because Baker took as her vocal model a rendition by Isaac Hayes. But despite some mellow piano work by Joe Sample, it actually suffers in comparison to Dionne Warwick's more poppish version. Likewise, Baker's take on the Carly Simon/Michael McDonald tune, ``You Belong to Me,''sounds nice. She is oh so seductive, but little more.
There are several bright moments. The title track, slightly more hard-edged than Baker's usual fare, begins with a spoken intro. And ``Body and Soul'' gets a classy, gospel-flavored treatment and a surprisingly subdued ending.
- M.L. Lake MEMO: To hear music from this week's releases, dial 640-5555. Press 2468.
by CNB