CHRISTGAU CONSUMER GUIDE

CHRISTGAU CONSUMER GUIDE

DEPARTMENTS

by Robert Christgau

ASHFORD & SIMPSON: "Stay Free" (Warner Bros.):: Not only is this token of tribute to the great god Disco less intense than the nonpareil Is It Still Good to Ya, its notably less memorable than Send It, which offers three songs that beat anything here. Yet if salso the better record. How come? The great god Disco has bestowed upon them a groove.

B+

MOE BANDY & JOE STAMPLEY: "Just Good OF Boys Featuring “Holding the Bag* " (Columbia):: Bandy and Stampley, honchos of the hard-assed nouveau honky-tonk style that is Nashvilles answer to Texas outlawism, tend to sound pretty dolorous as solo artists. Bandy is obsessed with cheating as both doer a nd done; Stampleys more cheerful, but as an ass man of the sincere-if-bearded school he spends a lot of time singing persuasive ballads. Like most country albums, theirs are spotty; recent song titles include "To Cheat or Not To Cheat" and "I Dont Lie," and those are highlights. As a duo, though, they whoop and holler and get hairy, lie to each others wives and trade wedding rings for outboard motors. The material is still spotty, but since its always Friday night they can shout right through the spots. All of which goes to show that male bonding is more likely to pick up the tempo than love and marriage.

B

CHUCK BROWN AND THE SOUL SEARCHERS: "Bustin Loose" (Source):: About a year, ago these D.C. journeymen got lucky and hit the discos with the title track, which was very funk-soul for that disco moment. The album that resulted is almost like a field recording—a completely unpretentious document of what sort of originals a modestly gifted funk-soul dance band might be doing in 1978. Theres even a salsa. Very likable.

B+

DUKE STRAITS: "Communique" (Warner Bros.)::Boy, people are getting bored with these guys fast—if they dont watch out theyre gonna last about as long as Looking Glass or the Lemon Pipers. Just another case of "substance" as novelty, I guess—doesnt sound bad, but theyd better up those beats-per-minute.

B-

FASHION: "Product Perfect" (I.R.S.):: Order of topics on first side: consumerism, imperialism, racism, sociopathy, "rock culture," apathy (right-wing), apathy (left-wing). Sounds predictable, but it isn't—all of these songs are based on post-Marcusian cliches sophisticated enough to get the average rock fan thinking hard, and some of them are based on post-Marcusian ideas sophisticated enough to get the average post-Marcusian thinking hard. Sounds unmusical, but it isnt that, either—the singing is clever and impassioned, the punkish, futuristic reggaesynthesizer fusion often catchy and always apt. If only I were a post-Marcusian myself, Id be ip heaven. And a second side as good as the first might con vert me.

A-

MERLE HAGGARD:* Serving 190 Proof" (MCA):: The impeccable simplicity and sensitivity of its vocal and instrumental musicianship gives this album an autumnal feel reminiscent of recent comebacks by Chuck Berry and Jerry Lee Lewis. Granted, autumnal country music is easier to come by than autumnal rock and roll. What makes this special is that for Haggard, a mere 41 but feeling it, the effect is thematic—and that hes written a batch of wise songs to flesh it out.

B +

IJAHMAN: "Haile I Hymn (Chapter 1)" (Mango):: I like the sweet sobbing gasp of the singing, but as a sympathizer with the reggae-allsounds-the-same heresy 1 wish there were more than four tunes. Nor do I believe that Steve Winwood transforms the groove. In fact, his presence may indicate whats wrong.

B-

MICHAEL JACKSON: "Off the Watt" (Epic):: In which fast-stepping Michael J. and quick-witted Quincy J. fashion the dance groove of the year. Michaels vocabulary of grunts, squeals, hiccups, moans, and asides is a vivid reminder that he hasnt been an innocent boy for quite a while, and the title tune suggests that maybe what makes Stevie Wonder (who contributes a good ballad) such an oddball isnt his genius or even his blindness so much as the fact that since childhood his main contact with the real world has been on stage and in bed.

A*

MILLIE JACKSON & ISAAC HAYES: "Royal Rappina" (Polydor):: The title is misleading—this meeting qf the bullshitters is more groove than rap. Not that its devoid of .. spoken vamps or pointed byplay—the joyful havoc they wreak on "Do You Wanna. Make Love" transforms it from pap to aphrodisiac. But mostly it gives Millie a chance to get out of her bag and reaDy sing, with Isaac playing the likable foil and the Muscle Shoals boys making it sexy.

B 4*

ELTON JOHN: "Victim of Love" (MCA):: Whaf s most depressing about this incredibly drab disc is that Eltons flirtation with Eurodisco comes a year too late. Even at his smarmiest the man always used to be on top of the Zeitgeist.

D

GEORGE JONES: "My Very Special Guests" (Epic):: This collection of 10 collaborations with outlaw oldtimers, country-rock phenoms, Staples, Tammy, and someone named Elvis is uneven, as you might expect. But its quality has more to do with whats being sung than whos singing it where. James Taylor, harmonizing from New York on his neo-classic "Bartenders Blues," sounds fine; Emmylou Harris, chiming in from El Lay on the lame "Here We Are," fares only slightly worse than Johnny Paycheck does on poor old "Proud Mary," which comes complete with made-in-NashviUe interaction. Must-hears: "I Gotta Get Drunk," with WiDie Nelson, and the amazing "Stranger in the House," which gives an unexpected clue about who taught Mr. CosteDo to sing.

A*

LATIMORE: "Dig a Little Deeper" (Glades):: In seven solid, funk-rooted.tunes this obdurate soul holdout portrays, in order, a long-suffering on-the-road monogamist, a stud on the prowl, a reluctant lay ("We got to hit it off before we get it on," he teUs a "liberated woman"), a sentimental monogamist, a sex slave, a good lover (title cut), and a seducer of virgins (courtesy Rod Stewart). And convinces in aD seven roles. Very impressive. But 1 dont beBeve IU introduce him to my wife.

B +

MOLLY HATCHET: "Flirtin With Disaster" (Epic):: Some doctrinaire new wavers see the rapid success of this JacksonviUe sextet as a reactionary portent, but as an old Skynyrd fan I cant get upset. They do boogie better than, lets see here, Missouri, Bama, Crimson Tide, .38 Special, Wet Willie, or (mercy sakes) the Charlie Daniels Band. Really, they sound pretty good. Only one thing missing: ideas.

C +

RANDY NEWMAN: "Born Again" (Warner Bros.):: This has more content and feeling than Littlei Criminals. But as with Little Criminals its highlight is a (great) joke—"The Story of a Rock and RoD Band," which ought to be called "E.L.O." and isnt,, for the ..same reason radio supergroupies have shied away from it. Hence, the content comprises ever more intricate convolutions of irony and bad taste; rather than making you think about homophobes and heavy-metal toughs and me-decade assholes the way he once made you think about rednecks and slave traders and high school belles, he makes you think about how he feels about them. Which just isnt as interesting.

' B +

GARY NUMAN & TUBEWAY ARMY: "Replicas" (Atco):: Resistant as 1 am to the new strain of synthesizer punk now reaching us from 1 England, I didnt connect to this for months—not until I listened to the singing. Numans lyrics abound with aliens and policemen and pickups in what sounds at first like the worst sort of received decadence, but his monotone is too sweet and vulnerable for that impression to stick. To you it may be sordid sex and middlebrow sci-fi; to him its romance and horror. The debut (Tubeway Army, Beggers Banquet import) is faster, more pointed, and includes no instrumentals. This is catchier, more haunted, and includes twos

A-

THE ALAN PARSONS PROJECT: "Eve" (Arista):: Musically, this is a step toward schlock that knows its name—a few smarmy melodies mixed in with the production values and synthesizer furbelows. ThematicaDy, its both sophomoric and disgusting—programmatic mysogyny rooted in sexual rejections that were clearly deserved. Visually, its sadistic—the three women on the Hipgnosis cover wear black veils that only partly conceal their scars, blotches, and wen. WhatTs it they stencil on street comers? Castrate art-rockers?

D

BONNIE RA1TT: "The Glow" (Warner Bros.):: I suppose I should blame Peter Asher for how flat a few of these songs sound, but in fact I blame him only for pianist Don Groin ick, who single-handedly (well, actually I guess he used two) transforms the title cut from a cry of alcoholic despair to a self-pitying piece of hightone lounge schlock. Shes never sounded better on the slow ones—Hayes-Porter's "Your Good Thing" is the killer—and her own "Standing by the Same Old Love" adds significantly to the pitiful store of songs about long-term sexual relationships. But I could stand some more rock and roll.

B +

BOBBY RUSH: "Rawh Hour" (Philadelphia International):: A lot of this is fun—Im delighted to find Leon Huff collaborating with somebody with funk in his soul, and heartened to hear a protest song about the problem of lost keys. But a lot of it—the witless "Evil Is," the characterless "Hey, Western Union Man"—is dumber than .Kenny Gamble.

B-

GARY STEWART: "Gary" (RCA Victor):: The good sound is still there—those Jerry Lee vocals, that spare Nashville backup—but the good songs arent. Jack Tempchin and Leroy Preston and Bill Payne try their hand, but the best one here is by Dickey Betts, and Tanya Tucker has just covered it better.

C +

"YELLOW MAGIC ORCHESTRA" (Horizon):: Yeah yeah, I know, synthesizers are the electric guitars of the future—theyre "progressive," just like aD the Europop here. But what about all the corny swing melodies? I mean, in between sound effects these guys sound the way Walter Carlos might if he worked a lot of interfaith weddings.

C +

Reprint courtesy The Village Voice.