Records

Rip It Up, Issue 116, 1 March 1987, Page 30

Records

Rosie Vela Zazu (A&M) This one arrives with certain expectations. Ex-fashion model Rosie has attracted the support of Steely Dan’s producer and yep, that’s also Messrs Becker and Fagen helping lay down the instrumental groove. So it’s not surprising that each track has a promising instrumental intro. Trouble is Ms Vela’s tunes are totally forgettable and her bland vocalising substitutes affectation for lack of character. PT Lone Justice Shelter (Geffen) These days — a full decade after punk — simply having a dynamite band is not enough reason to keep purveying mainstream American hard rock. You also need a decidedly distinctive vocalist and powerfully original songwriting (and even Bob Seger is finding the latter difficult to maintain). Lone Justice’s major pitch is the big bawling voice of Maria McKee. It so impressed the likes of Tom Petty and Steve Van Zandt that

they’ve each worked with her. And make no mistake, McKee pretty much is Lone Justice. Only one band member remains from the first album and McKee wrote or co-wrote every song. However, competent as the writing is, none of it is distinctive enough to survive the overbearing delivery of vocalist and production. Rather than an expected female challenge to Bruce Springsteen, what we’re getting is closer to some unfortunate hybrid of Stevie Nicks and Janis Joplin. PT Queen Live Magic (EMI) Having remained a big crowd pleaser for so many years, it’s not surprising that Queen have released their second live album. Musically they cut it well live and Freddie is in his element. They have to flash through some songs to be able to fit them on to the one record, butthen Queen have had a whole lot of hit singles. GD Madness

Utter Madness (Zarjazz) This compilation is both a collection of singles from the second half of Madness’s career and a farewell gesture. Most of the material is post-Barston and most of it, with the exception of their last single, ‘Waiting for the Ghost

Train’ and a previously unreleased single version of Victoria Gardens,’ has already been well assessed. Still, with songs like ‘Michael Caine,’ ‘Yesterday’s Men’ and ‘Uncle Sam,’ Litter Madness is another reminder of the sober and quite important band Madness had become. GK Temptations To Be Continued (Motown) The title refers to the fact that this album marks the Tempts’ 25th anniversary. In terms of consistent quality I’d prefer the celebration were marked by either of their two most recent albums: 'Bs’s magnificent Touch Me or ’B4’s Truly for You. This time out the slop factor gets a little high at times. (Good grief, the gutsiest track on side two was co-written by Henry Mancini.) Nonetheless, with these magnificent voices always on form, any strong and funky tracks are well worth owning, and 7b Be Continued delivers the goods about half the time. PT Heaven 17 Pleasure One (Virgin) Five years on from the hip entrepreneurial electronic protest funk of Penthouse and Pavement, Heaven 17 sound like well-heeled yuppies too comfortable to again make the grade. Pleasure One is

a reliable enough piece of funk conscience well drilled with disciplined songs like ‘Contenders’ and ‘Trouble’ but there’s no spark. The whole process has the feel of a band doing something out of duty and not out of need. GK Various Artists Classic Soul (K-Tel) Incredibly enough K-Tel (the first record company to use TV to sell their records) have compiled the odd decent long player, and this is one of them. Mind you picking 15 decent songs from the massive soul catalogue can’t be hard and so Gaye’s ‘Grapevine’ and Cooke’s ‘You Send Me’ are pretty predictable picks amongst the less expected presence of the under-rated Bobby Bland, Gladys Knight’s Tve Got to Use My Imagaination’ (a change from ‘Midnight Train to Georgia’) and the Four Tops’ mighty ‘Bernadette.’ Hearty stuff but where’s James Brown? GK Bonnie Raitt Nine Lives (Warner Bros) It’s sad that a talent of such taste and integrity as Bonnie Raitt’s should succumb to this. After eight albums ranging from very good to great, she’s allowed herself to be El Layed out by a bunch of studio smoothies and the sort of predictable material she’d al-

ways shunned in the past. Even when on a few tracks she’s rejoined by three members of the Bump Band things aren't much improved. Go back to Green Light (1982) to hear how wonderfully rambunctious Bonnie and the Bump boys could sound together. The Police PT Every Breath You Take — The Singles (A&M) Well it’s got to be good, right? All those ultra-infectious melodies we adored despite ourselves. (What’s more, as an album it’s mercifully free of those obligatory “we’re a democratic band” tracks courtesy of Copeland and Summers.) Hearing these singles again back to back underlines a few things about Sting. Firstly, he’s got an awesome talent for musical simplicity — ‘Roxanne’ remains a paradigm of the pop sublime. Secondly, he undermines this talent when he gets pretentious — witness the ponderous ‘lnvisible Sun.’ And thirdly, he’s still not sure when he’s overdoing it — fancy reworking the glorious ‘Don’t Stand So Close to Me’ into this maudlin 1986 version. PT The Models

Media (Mushroom) A new offering from a bunch of Ocker pretty boys. A bit mild and

a touch stale but that’s excusable from a self-confessed pop band. But has the battle cry of the commercial artist been taken too much to heart? Sean the singer describes engineer Julian (Frankie Goes to Hollywood) Mendelsohn as a guy who’s into exploiting "sounds" and producer Mark Opitz as a great capturer of "feels.” Here it’s a very safe collection of "sounds” and "feels” rolled into a slick continuum. Gone is the variety that trademarked their previous success. As a result there are no stand out tracks, but in the end if you like one you'll like them all. Their last two albums had staying power and have aged well, but this isn’t going to be the golden oldie of your record collection’s future. Dragon LM Dreams of Ordinary Men (Rolydor) This is beautifully pitched FM/ZM designer music flawlessly tailored by producer Todd Rundgren. The title track has already registered as a passable holiday radio soundwave and add to that the balance of sun-drugged ballads with LA aggression typified by the Eagles and you've got the picture. Dragon are anonymous survivors and this album proves that, as usual, their market research is on target. GK