JULY 1999

REVIEWS OF NEW MUSIC

P.J. HARVEY - Is this Desire?

P.J. redeems herself for the musically smoother but emotionally adrift yet critically adored "To Bring you my Love" with this interesting blend of eery moonlit melodic pathos and techno-beats that thump against the walls like a drunken lover finding their way to your bed down a dark hallway. Grade: A+

BOMBAY THE HARD WAY - Guns, Cars & Sitars

Hands down, the best collection yet of 'Bollywood" music, that hilarious and exciting Indain version of seventies blaxploitation/spy soundtracks. "I'm from Bali," an English-dubbed voice states. "Are you our Bali friend?" the seemingly "tonto" young Indian asks. All the music's been "beat-a-fied" by the genius Dan "the Automator" for smooth listening. The cover art is grainy images from old videos. How can you go wrong? GRADE: A

ELLIOT SMITH - XO
Perpetually depressed slacker Elliot Smith makes his most studio-crafted work yet, which means he sounds a little less like Paul Simon without prozac and more like Art Gafunkel singing "Penny Lane" without prozac. Smith's local fan base will delight in the song title "Amity" since they all know her. And since this work rides in the wake of Smith's hilariously brave white-tux performance of the song from "Good Will Hunting" between Celine Dion and Bette Midler at the '97 Academy Awards, you know it represents his first big shot at a "commercial breakthrough" something that will either save him or kill him. Let's hope it does well, but not well enough to shatter his place on the perfect see-saw between beauty and barbitol. GRADE: B

HALF OF LED ZEPPELIN - Walking into Clarksdale
Jimmy Page and Robert Plant continue their bitchy "No John Paul Jones" stance with this surprising return to form. Apparently following Bob Dylan's latest, redeeming masterpiece, "Time Out of Mind", they no longer attempt to ape the antics of those who got started by aping them and now, under the guding hand of Steve Albini, merely sort of continue where they left off from "In through the Out Door," the same fat, confident operatic mood-rock, but a little older and less sexually over-bearing. That's a good thing, by the way, and so is this record - Grade: B

HOLE - Celebrity Skin
Did Kurt Cobain really write the amazing "Live Through This"? Courtenay's 1995 masterwork? All signs would point to yes, since she had to call in Billy Corgan to help her write this album. At least she has good taste. In my opinion, Billy and Kurt are the two songwriting giants of my generation, and she slept with them both, and now they have each written her an album (NOTE: THIS IS PURELY SPECULATION). While "Live" was a blistering "I am Woman Hear me Roar" sort of feministic howl, "Skin" is more like a "I bought into the tawdry myth of LA high-speed glamour, and look at me now" sort of I love trashing the glitter that I love sort of cake-and-eat-it-twosome, with all the moaning Eagles-esque hooks in place. Perfect for the young single women with celualr phones grafted to their ears to sing along to at the top of their lungs to in their dad-paid-for convertibles as they roar down the sunset strip from Hollywood to Malibu in search of cocaine and A&R single guys. That's not a good thing, by the way, though the record has its moments. - GRADE: B