Special Coverage The Photo IssueThe Must List2008 Fall TV2008 Fall Movies2008 Fall Music

*Babes in Toyland

Spanking Machine (Twin/Tone; all formats) Women's hardcore band from Minneapolis: brats with sharp teeth. B- (Greg Sandow)

*Laura Branigan Laura Branigan (Atlantic; all formats) Passionate-if none too original-pop. B- (GS)

*Consolidated

The Myth of Rock (Nettwerk/I.R.S.; all formats) Rap album that almost belongs in a bookstore because it sets forth a detailed Marxist critique of rock. Too much jargon, but a recorded Ku Klux Klan song (included as aural illustration) sounds pretty arresting. C+ (GS)

*Lacy J. Dalton

Lacy J. (Capitol; CD, T) Relaxed, cohesive collection of ballads and country- rock, displaying Dalton's strong-but-sensitive persona. B+ (Alanna Nash)

*Marianne Faithfull

Blazing Away (Island; all formats) One new studio track, plus live recordings of various songs from her repertoire performed at St. Ann's Church in Brooklyn, N.Y. Searing, but so brutally monochromatic that the impact weakens as the album proceeds. Maybe you had to be there. B- (GS)

*Fleetwood Mac

Behind the Mask (Warner Bros.; all formats) More an anthology of solo projects than a coherent album. And it's bland. C (GS)

*Jon Hassel

City: Works of Fiction (Opal/Warner; all formats) These nine musical constructions-tinged with a pop beat and echoes of big-band jazz-sound alike, but flow very differently. B- (GS)

*Tubby Hayes

With Clark Terry The New York Sessions (Columbia; CD, T) The 1962 American debut of a gifted British saxophonist. B+ (Gary Giddins)

*The Jamaica Boys

J-Boys (Reprise; all formats) Queens, N.Y., street funk-rhythmic and sweet. B+ (GS)

*Kid Creole and the Coconuts

Private Waters in the Great Divide (Columbia; CD, T) Dance music never gets more lighthearted than this-or more brainless. C+ (GS)

*Kid 'N Play

Kid 'N Play's Funhouse (Select; all formats) Playful rap, from the stars of the movie House Party. B- (GS)

*Little Feat

Representing the Mambo (Warner Bros.; all formats) Deft, rousing trip to Texas-and beyond. B+ (GS)

*Miracle Room

Miracle Room (Bar/None; EP; all formats) With its big, big beat, this New York band smashes all barriers between challenging new classical music and exhilarating rock & roll. B+ (GS)

*Robert Plant

Manic Nirvana (Atlantic; all formats) Gritty, fascinating-and, just as he says, manic. B+ (GS)

*Kimm Rogers

Soundtrack of My Life (Island; CT, T) Another wide-eyed, folkish singer- songwriter with a little-girl voice. More naive than most. C+ (GS)

*Salt-N-Pepa

Blacks' Magic (Next Plateau; all formats) Sassy women rappers deftly skewer racism and men. B+ (GS)

*Sleeze Beez

Screwed Blued 'N Tattooed (Atlantic, all formats) A band with an incomparable name releases the strongest hard-rock album in months. It's big, rawboned, and sleazily cheerful, with hardly one weak track. A- (GS)

*Doug Stone

Doug Stone (Epic; CD, T) Romantic hard-country singer whose style falls between Randy Travis and Ricky Van Shelton. B+ (AN)

*Cecil Taylor In Florescence

(A&M; all formats) Pianistic pyrotechnics and vocal asides by an avant-garde virtuoso. A- (GG)

*Wilson Phillips

Wilson Phillips (SBK; all formats) First pop baby steps by trio with famous parents. C- (GS)


Posted Apr 20, 1990 | Published in issue #10 Apr 20, 1990 | Order Article Reprints