THE VIRGINIAN-PILOT
Copyright (c) 1994, Landmark Communications, Inc.
DATE: Saturday, October 29, 1994 TAG: 9410290419
SECTION: DAILY BREAK PAGE: E7 EDITION: FINAL
TYPE: Music Review
SOURCE: By RICKEY WRIGHT, STAFF WRITER
LENGTH: Long : 131 lines
Madonna, ``Bedtime Stories'' (Maverick/Sire). Were we interested in bad punning, it would be easy to dub the products of Madonna's last two years ``Erratica.'' Her ``Sex'' book and ``Erotica'' album drew plenty of comment but were essentially empty. Nobody saw ``Body of Evidence,'' and apparently no one should have.
When the diva appeared on ``Late Show With David Letterman'' earlier this year, the impression that she'd run into a terminal idea block was hard to shake. It was kind of sad watching Madonna try to appear outrageous and hipper-than-Dave by repeatedly using language she knew would be removed from the tape, handing him her panties and dropping slang terms.
She regained some ground with the sweet New Wave homage ``I'll Remember,'' which became her longest-running hit single in years. And although ``Bedtime Stories'' doesn't match her best albums, it's far from the strained, near-total washout of ``Erotica.''
Much of the record finds our heroine pondering the possibility of redemption. The darkness of ``Love Tried to Welcome Me'' yields to songs that celebrate the transcendent hope of romance. ``I'd Rather Be Your Lover'' features a guest rap by Madonna protege Me'Shell NdegeOcello.
A wide streak of self-justification leaves other cuts feeling more churlish. ``Human Nature'' seems largely a response to the Letterman debacle, with Madonna accusing the TV host (and, peripherally, everyone who didn't dig ``Sex'') of attempting to ``shove me back inside your narrow room/And silence me with bitterness and lies. . . . /Oops, I didn't know I couldn't talk about sex.'' Poor, oppressed superstar! And the opening track, ``Survival,'' lines up one bit of psychobabble after another.
So let's call it a draw. The heavily sampled, street-ready music shows that Madonna's as commercially savvy as ever, if a bit behind the trends. That this isn't as big a strikeout as her last long-player counts for something. She's obviously determined to squeeze out a second greatest-hits package. Some of these stories will be there when she does.
Nothing new from Boyz
Boyz II Men, ``II'' (Motown). David Lee Roth once explained why he climbed mountains - too many touring acts never escape the hotel-room routine, and this made for boring road song after boring road song.
It'd be nice if Boyz II Men had gone to a deeper well before completing this album. The kings of nouveau guy-group harmonizing - heck, the kings of Top 40 and R&B radio - drag out their usual themes to excruciating length on ``II.''
Romance, of course, is the record's linchpin. ``I'll Make Love to You'' is the politely steamy slow jam that's already clocked 10 weeks at No. 1 on Billboard's Hot 100. Its predictable seduction sentiments are somewhat challenged by a please-baby-baby-please begfest that for some strange reason is titled ``Jezzebel.'' (The nastiest the song's lyrics get is an inquiry as to what perfume the girl is wearing.)
Elsewhere, the Boyz consider the phenomenon that is them and find it good. The tuneless ``All Around the World'' is little more than a list of tour stops, while ``Vibin' '' is another I-love-music vocal showcase that begins, ``Coolin' in the studio, you know how the story goes.'' Actually, no, most of your non-superstar fans don't.
A couple of cuts do achieve something like the drama they aim for. ``U Know'' boasts a smart backing track co-produced by the group and based on a Five Stairsteps sample. ``Water Runs Dry'' is the latest of Babyface's acoustic guitar-laced ballads. But that the quartet can't see beyond its own somewhat brittle singing is proven by ``II's'' closing cut, yet another version of ``Yesterday'' that's here only to make some obscure point about the diversity of the fellas' taste. Wonder if they got the idea from En Vogue's cover two years ago.
Vandross suffers from material
Meanwhile, reigning solo R&B god Luther Vandross gives his latest the most accurate album title of the year. He manages this by calling it ``Songs'' (Epic/LV) rather than ``Good Songs,'' which would have been a bit off the mark.
Vandross' entry in the ``my favorite tunes'' CD sweepstakes is loaded down with cheesy overproduction and, worse, an often lousy choice of material. Why would anyone with this man's interpretive smarts take on waste product like ``Endless Love'' (a hit duet with guest Mariah Carey) and ``Evergreen,'' all the while insisting this is just what he's always wanted to do? Especially when his renditions of superior numbers like ``A House Is Not a Home'' are so rightfully well-remembered.
Lovett turns to early works
Lyle Lovett, ``I Love Everybody'' (Curb/MCA). You wait a long time for a Lyle Lovett album. This is only his fifth in eight years and the first since 1992's ``Joshua Judges Ruth.''
Lovett didn't spend the past 30 months writing this one, though; all the songs date back to before his debut disc. Still, it's easy to take the funny ``They Don't Like Me,'' a tune about a girlfriend's parents, as a retort to the gossips who indignantly cried, ``She married him?!''
There are other strong numbers among this stack of 18 early works, most of them of a novelty or satiric bent: ``Record Lady,'' ``Hello Grandma'' and ``Skinny Legs.''
Still, for all the admirably lean settings, at least half the record seems a serious misstep. The second half, that is, where only one cut, ``Goodbye to Carolina,'' displays any sort of personality on the order of what we've come to expect from Lovett.
``Penguins'' is so lame as to constitute an insult to the Texan's fans, and ``Old Friend'' and ``Just the Morning'' sound like the work of the sensitive-guy mooners Lovett no doubt despised in his club-gig days. She married him?!
Cranberries don't measure up
The Cranberries, ``No Need to Argue'' (Island). From its title down, this platinum-selling Irish band's second album is full of the same self-pitying sentiments that made last year's ``Everybody Else Is Doing It, So Why Can't We?'' such a chore to listen to. When not moodily examining the implications of turning ``Twenty One'' or issuing further dronings on the state of romance, singer Dolores O'Riordan overworks the native-mysticism angle while the wispy music drifts dreamily in the background.
The group occasionally attempts to toughen up its sound, most notably on the current single ``Zombie.'' Even there, though, they drag the song's groove out to the point of diminishing returns. In the end, ``No Need to Argue'' seems to be more proof that this outfit scored as much because of luck as any real merit. MEMO: To hear selections from these albums, call Infoline at 640-5555,
category 2468.
ILLUSTRATION: Photo by Andy Earl/Island
The Cranberries
Photo by Motown
Boyz II Men
Madonna
by CNB