CHRISTGAU CONSUMER GUIDE

CHRISTGAU CONSUMER GUIDE

by Robert Christgau

THE ALLMAN BROTHERS BAND: "Enlightened Rogues" (Capricorn):: The heartening sense of overall conviction here doesn't extend into many specifics, with the surprising exception of Gregg's roughly detailed vocals. But Ronnie Van Zant himself couldn't breathe life into these songs, most of which Dickey Betts was saving up for the third Great Southern album— now never to be heard, which is one good thing. B-

"THE BIZARROS" (Mercury):: This catches Nick Nicholis's vocals halfway down the road to a proper stylization, and his lyrics sound like he's been reading trash rather than talking it. But he also helps shape the music here, and the music is great. Few bands demonstrate more thorough command of basic hook-and-drone, especially Velvets-like because the tempos are never breakneck. Didn't take me long to gjet to like every tune on the record, as well as most of Jerry Parkins's guitar parts. B +

ORNETTE COLEMAN: "Body Meta" (Artists House):: Hidden in Coleman's dense electric music are angles deep enough to dive into and sharp enough to cut yPur throat. This isn't quite as dense or consistent as Dahcing In Your Head —"Fou Amour" does wander. But "Voice Poetry" is as funky as James Chance if not James Brown. And "Home Grown" is as funky as Robert Johnson. A-

CRAZY HORSE: "Full Moon" (RCA Victor)^: I know I'v£ called Neil Young's backup boys the greatest hard rock band in America except the Ramones, and I know Neil Young plays guitar on live cuts here. But I meant when Neil Young was singing. Singing Neil Young's songs. C +

JACK DeJOHNETTE: "New Directions" (ECM):: Because this date by the former Miles Davis drummer features the protean Lester Bowie in a relatively muted frame of mind, comparisons are made to In A Silent Way. But guitarist John^Abercrombie is more like an,antiintellectual Bill Evans (bassist Eddie Gomez's mentor, by the way) than like John McLaughlin. And DeJohnette's heads don't match Davis's and Zawinul's on Silent Way any more than DeJohnette himself matches Tony Williams. For all that, a lot warmer than most of what this label seems to think is jazz, especially on side two. B + DELLS: "New Beginnings" (ABC):: I've never been a big fan erf vocal groups as such—just can't get too interested in virtuoso harmonies

expended on mediocre sorigs. And like most vocal-group LPs, this is slow going at times. But it's quite impressive anyway. Instead of resigning themselves to the oldies circuit—four of tjre five Dells have been together for 25 years, so they definitely qualify—they've sought out new songs from a, variety of sources, including two George Clinton-produced Parliamerits classics. Wish they didn't figure it was modem to put only four on a side though. B

BOB DYLAN: "Bob Dylan At Budolum" (Columbia):: I believe this double-LP was made available so our hero could boast of being outclassed by Cheap Trick, who had the self-control to release but a single disc from this location. Although it's amazing how many of the 22 songs —12 also available on one of the other two live albunjs Dylan has released since 1974 —hold up under slipshod treatment. Lyrics ana poster included. C +

ROBERT GORDON: "Rock Billy Boogie" (RCA Victor):: Gordon's nouveau rockabilly has always been a mite slick and a mite fast, and this is his best album because he's no longer hiding it—his blown notes are just blown notes, not stigmata of authenticity. Credit Chris Spedding's unnaturally adaptable guitar, which drives the music more aptly than Link Wray's raw protohippie licks, authentic though they may have been. I mean, half the time Gordon actually sounds as though he belongs there. Blows some notes, though. B

HORSLIPS: "The Man Who Built Amer-

ica" (DJM)s: In the past these rock pros from tire Emerald Isle specialized in Gaelic folk motifs— pretty awful, but awful in their own way. This time they go for more generalized sham-rock: organ doodles and half-baked harmonies haunt a concept ahum about Irish (note roots) immigrants who think quite a lot about the colleens (not called that, of course) left behind. D +

"TRAKERE" (Columbia):: Latin jazz for real, from Cuba. They're hot, they have amazing chops, and they've absorbed four continents'

, worth of music—who else would back an African "mass'[ (explosive) with a Mozart adagio (unintegrated)? Next time I hope they getto record in a studio rather than a concert. A-

MADLEEN KANE: MCheri" (Warner Bros.):: .Hey, psst, wanna hare a disco singer? Got one for ya. This is a white American girl gone Yurrupean, and she doesn't end up like Donna Summer, believe me. Ex-model, blonde of course, comes on all dewy-eyed then sings these lies about her passions. You catch yourself dancing to it and you wanna puke. Plus on the other side you can't even dance to it— it's like if Cheryl Ladd recorded Edith Piaf tributes, which she rftight yet, all topped off with a paean to "retro," which iq case you didn't know means nostalgia with a will to power. C-

"McFADDEN & WHITEHEAD" (Philadelphia International):: The anthemic power of "Ain't No Stopping Us Now" made me think these guys were ready to take over, but ail it meant was that every year or two they write a great song. The disco disc has gone gold, and is recommended. B-

TOM PAXTON: "Heroes" (Vanguard):: As dinky musically as any other electric folk session, but most of the songs escape the sentimental self-righteousness you expect from this old-timer. They're funny when they mean to be, which is often. And two very impressive farewells, to Phil Ochs and Stephen Biko, aren't funny at all. B PEACHES & HERB: "2 Hot!" (Polydor):: Anyone who believes all black pop is disco, nothing more and nothing less, should npte the outfront vocals and submerged grooves of this Freddie Perren trifle, which broke because disco deejays are willing to program whatever's danceable, not because AM deejays are willing to program whatever's listenable. And it is very listenable—though unfortunately never anything more exciting. j ' B

PERE UBU: "Dub Housing" (Chrysalis):: Because I trust the way Ubu's visionary humor and crackpot commitment rocks out and/or hooks in for the sheer pleasure of it, I've always been willing to go with their excursions into musique concrete, and on this record they get me somewhere. The death of Peter Laughner m4y well have deprived America of its greatest punk band, but the subsequent'ascendancy of synth wizard Allen Ravenstine has defined a survivalprone community of musicians capable of bridging the 60's and the 80's without acting as if the 70's never happened. Their form is eccentric yet highly compelling, their freedom informed by necessity. Weirdness as a way of life. - ' A SNEAKERS: "In The Red" (Car):: This specially-priced 33-rpm 12-incher contains six songs and three fragments totalling 19 minutes. So it's not an album, exactly. Might be if mastermind Chris Stamey (Alex Chilton vet whose group is now called the db's) would add the best songs from his various seven-inchers (including the six-song 33-rpm one)—my faves are "The Summer Sun" and "If And When." On the other hand, "What I Dig" and "Decline And Fall," which lead off the two sides here, would make terrific singles. Sprung harmony fans, Big Star cultists, and other 60's revisionists who don't know about this stuff can make further inquiries at 89 Bleecker Street, NYC 10012. B-

GINO SOCCIO: "Outline" (Warner Bros./ RFC):: The record of the year on the disco circuit earns its title by rejecting the washes of strings and brass outsiders associated with the form for a consciously minimalist exploration of mechanical dance rhythm, devoid of even the appearance of melody or meaningfulness. This is great in theory, and maybe on the circuit, but it comes out of my speakers dry and cold. B-

DONNA SUMMER: "Bad Girls" (Casablanca):: You tend to suspect anyone who releases three double-LPs in 18 months of delusions of Chicago, but Donna is here to stay and this is her best album. The first two sides, four songs per, never let up—the voice breaks and the guitars moan over a bass-drum thump in what amounts to empty-headed girl-group rock 'n' roll brought cannily up-to-date. Moroder makes his Europercussion play cm side four, which is nice too, but side three drags embarrassingly—as always when Summer Slows It Down a Little, she exposes her ambition to telescope Diana Ross's two decades into five years. In other words, the rock 'n' roll that surfaces here is just a stop along the way to a totally blah total performance. But me, I still have a lot of fun with my Supremes records. . A-

"WITCH QUEEN" (Roadshow):: Here Gino Soccio's disco goes pop, with the help of the Muscle Shoals boys and three jumpy, skillfully extended blasts from the riff-song past—Redbone's "Witch Queen," Free's "All Right Now," and T. Rex's "Bang A Gong." I hear complaints, but this isn't anywhere near Muzaky enough to desecrate material so unpretentious. On the other hand, it does run on, and except for Barry Beckett's chunky piano break on "Bang A Gong" adds little to the originals. B

RON WOOD: "Gimme Some Neck" (Columbia):: Ron sounds more Dylany on his new Dylan ditty than Dylan has in a while, and he sounds even better on a song about getting saved (which Dylan didn't write, praise the Lord). He's also induced Roy Thomas Baker to let him and the boys off with a mix as dirty as their rock 'n' roll. But this is a man who should never singtwo songs in a row. And he should stay away from lyrics about the perfidy of woman. ), , B-

Reprint courtesy of Village Voice.