CHRISTGAU CONSUMER GUIDE

CHRISTGAU CONSUMER GUIDE

by

Robert Christgau

CHANGE: "Miracles (Atlantic):: Where their debut took off from its moments of raunch, this is pure fantasy fare—the you-canwork-it-out advisories Hold Tight, Your Move, and Stop For Love never get down (to details), and On Top, Heaven Of My Life, Paradise, and Miracles arent what youd call realistic (note titles). But what a terrific fantasy—so bright and casual and full of life. The hip punch of Mauro Malavasis keyboards put the dream into motion, and Diva Grays lithe, modest vocals bring it to bed. B +

GUY CLARK: The South Coast Of Texas (Warner Bros.):: Clark is harcHy the last surviving singer-songwriter, but so much of the competition has gotten into rock auteurism or pop demos that those who miss the old ways pay him more mind than they used to. This is his best since 1975s aptly titled Old No. 1. The Rita Ballou remakes lets us know hes singing easier, and turns like her breaths as sweet as chewing gum and the road to good intentions/is paved with the fools that Ive been reminds us of his vernacular knack. But only on New Cut Road, real bluegrass canon-fodder, does the music add meaning as well as tangibility. Which is why the competition is into rock auteurism and pop demos. B

ELVIS COSTELLO & THE ATTRACTIONS: Almost Blue (Columbia):: Put this on the shelf behind Bowies Pin Ups and Lennons Rock W Roll, which also seemed important when they appeared. Take it from me, EC fans: start with the Flying Burrito Brothers Gilded Palace Of Sin, then try 24 of Hank Williams Greatest Hits, then George Jones All-Time Greatest Hits: Volume T and Merle Haggards Songs Ill Always Sing. And then start exploring. B-

RODNEY CROWELL (Warner Bros.) :: Speaking of pop demos, 1 remember when this boy came on like a rock auteur. Traded it all for a prime single, and got gypped. C +

THE DANCE: In Lust (Statik import):: Youd think a band obsessed with sex as both physical and meaningful would make records with more touch and depth (not to mention thrust). Instead theyre naggingly hypnotic at best and blandly tentative at worst. Must have somthing to do with their other obsession: survival. B-

ECHO AND THE BUNNYMEN: Heaven Up Here (Sire):: Word was these erstwhileand-futurist popsters, had transcended song form, so I gritted my teeth and tried to dig the texture .'flow, etc. Almost took the enamel clean off. 1 hold no brief against tuneless caterwaul, but tuneless psychedelic caterwaul has always been another matter. Ditto for existential sophomores. And Jim Morrison worship. C

JOE JACKSONS JUMPIN JIVE: (A&M) :: Put this one the shelf in front of Bowies Pin Ups, Lennons Rock n Roll, and Costellos Almost Blue. Granted, Jackson doesnt sing as well as any of them, not to mention Cab Calloway or Louis Jordan, who originated most of the 40s r&b novelties here revived. But he obviously gets a kick out of this stuff, and that counts for something. What ought to count for more is that MCA has slipped three budget compilations on Louis Jordan into better record stores. B

RONALD SHANNON JACKSON AND THE DECODING SOCIETY: Eye On You (About Time):: There may be drummers who can cut Jackson Jsut nobody else moves so fluidly from free time to on-the-one. 1 only wish hed indulge himself with a drummers record. The music is never less than dense and jumpy, and hes keeping things compact—11 cuts total. But handing your themes over to (guitarist) Bern Nix and (violinist) Billy Bang is no way to show off your composing. Stanley Crouch has a word for this kind of thing: eso, as in esoteric. Pretty good eso, sure. But even in my head I dont dance to it. Address: 207 W. 106th St., NYC 10025. B +

SHANNON JACKSON AND THE DECODING SOCIETY: Nasty (Moers Music import):: Small World, featuring the unison horns of Lee Rozie, Charles Brackeen, and Byard Lancaster, is the most fiercely swinging track in all avant-fusion. After that Jackson carries rhythm and melody on his kit for 10 minutes as the vibes swirl around him, and then theres a haunting harmolodic blues. But overdisc its back to eso. The title piece is OK is you can't get enough Ornette hommages, but When We Return, which takes up almost of third of the record, is your basic freebie-jeebie noisemaking session, more accomplished than Radio Ethiopia but less endearing conceptually. By now, Jacksons supposedto know better.

GARLAND JEFFREYS: Rock & Roll Adult (Epic):: Jeffreys and his band (four cheers for the Rumour) are on top of this live material. But such concert faves as Matador and 35 Millimeter Dreams were too stagey on record to begin with, and now, returned to plastic, theyre even stagier—without the stage. Shticked to death: Cool Down Boy. B

KILLING JOKE: Whats THIS For...! (Editions EG):: Not so strange that these heavymetal mutants should turn up on the ambientmusic label. In fact, their all-over sound is a plus—better echoey vocals and flash-free guitar than the stupid doomsday strut of their forefathers. But I rarely crave ambient technohorror, even when it has lead drum parts—prefer my immolation with lines around it. Which is why 1 bought Change as a single, and hope to do the same with Tension. B

MEDIUM MEDIUM: The Glitterhouse (Cachalot):: Hungry So Angry is so much their greatest moment—the drop-dead riff thats their entree to the funk Club—that Im tempted to recommend the EP, which offers two versions of the thing. But in the context Hungry So Angry sets up, the more abstract music they prefer comes across not only raw and spatial but also danceable, and you hardly notice their arty vocal dementia. Which isnt to say you shouldnt got for the EP. B +

MOFUNGO: End Of The World (unlabeled cassette):: These young no wave stalwarts have outgrown the blinding headache approach without giving up their stubbornly untrendy belief that you play music for love (with some well-aimed hate thrown in). End Of The World could pass for early Television, and El Salvador—all of the title, half the lyric—is the political song of the year. Perhaps because the final 10 tracks werent mixed by Chris Stamey, this 14-song, 30-minute tapes does cry out for aspirin as it proceeds. But by the end Im still playing it for love. Available for $3 from Robert Sietsema, 630 East 14th Street, NYC 10009. A-

MEREDITH MONK: Dolmen Music (ECM):: Monk has classical voice training, but I expect it was her folk and rock experience that taught her how to make these almost wordless songs sound so demotic, so literally unrefined— they obviously dont merely express emotion, but they dont merely distill it either. On record, the ostinato structures mean that the four shorter pieces composed between 1972 and 1975 come across better than the title work, which lasts 23:69 and features six voices with intermittent accompaniment. But anybody who wants to go further than Lora Logic and Pere Ubu will listen to it all. APRINCE: Controversy (Warner Bros.)::

Maybe Dirty Mind wasnt a tour de force after all; maybe it was dumb luck. The socially conscious songs are catchy enough, but they spring from the mind of a rather confused young fellow, and while his politics get better when he sticks to his favorite subject, which is s-e-x, nothing here is as far out and on the money as Head or Sister of the magnificent When You Were Mine. In fact, for a while I thought the best new song was Jack U Off, an utter throwaway. But that was before the confused young fellow crawled onto . the sofa with me and my sweetie during Do Me, Baby. A-

SLAVE: Show Time (Cotillion):: For those as can take their funk straight, this is the brawny beast in all it callipygean glory, complete with jokes (could use more) and slow one (could use less). The Snap Shot/Funken Town 12-inch does boil it down conveniently to kickoff and touchdown, but the ball keep moving throughout. Leading group-gainer: Mark L. Adams, who in real life plays...(starts with B, end? with S, and aint bongos). ATHE TIME (Warner Bros.):: The Bugs-

Bunny-gets-down voice thats been a funk staple since the Ohio Players is death on ballads— cf. Slave, Rick James. These Princeoid punks are slyer—Oh Baby can pass as a mock seduction in the manner of Cool, which is a mock boast, though I 'wouldnt be sure about Big Stick (mock metaphor?). And thats only side two. But its also half the tracks, and while the Others are fun, 1 wouldnt call them funny—especially the ballad. B + UB40: Present Arms (DEP International

import):: These eight black-and-whites from Birmingham dont play no ska, but theyre not about to revolutionize JA, either—not by carpentering the bass lines, horn charts, and dub effects of the reggae of yesteryear (1975, say) into indigenous pop r&bAs I havent visited JA since 1973 myself, though. Im hooked. Relegating all but one of the instrumentals that dragged their debut to a bonus 12-inch, theyre songsmiths in a deep groove, and their conscience is catching—I know, because I fell for One In Ten on Radio Luxembourg despite my objections to its merely liberal message. Doubt itll break the DOR barrier here—what passes for mild protest in England these days might sound dangerous Stateside. Hell, it might even be dangerous. A THE UNDERTONES: Positive Touch

(Harvest):: Heres more songs about chocolate and girls/Its not so easy knowing theyll be heard? No, that was the last time. But heres still more, and its even harder—not being sure whether theyll be heard or not (at least in the land across the sea) is worst of all. Nevertheless, the boys are equal to the task-just about every one of the 14 is catchy and felt. Almost inevitably, though, the arrangements are a little fancier, to no special avail, and the same goes for the subjects. Good luck, lads. B + LUTHER VANDROSS: Never Too

Much (Epic):: In music as tactful as this, where so much of the meaning is carried on the skip and flow of rhythm and timbre, songwriting doesnt matter all that much. So Vandross can attach tropes like sugar and spice and shes a super lady to undistinguished melodies and make me like them. But when his touch is just a little off, the great hit single youve just heard (or at least the good one thats sure to follow) seems almost as forgettable as the loser hes singing.

B+