BUY ME!

BUY ME!

MARSHALL CRENSHAW Mary Jean And 9 Others (Warner Bros.)

Can you beat it? Marshall Crenshaw makes impassioned rock ’n’ roll, is a wizard with pop dynamics, and remains well aware of the fact that the magic’s in the music. Yet he’s a virtual stranger to the airwaves and at this writing, Critical Acclaim is on its fifth lap while Commercial Success hangs back at the starting gate.

I don’t know if the release of his fourth album will inspire mass cries of "Giddyup”; I do know that Crenshaw is one of the best we have, and it’s a real shame that more people haven’t had a chance to realize that. In a better world, cuts like “Someday, Someway,” “For Her Love,” and “The Distance Between” would’ve been blasting out of car radios everywhere on hot, sunny days waiting to reappear as part of some future greatest hits collection. But that didn’t happen, did it? Still, Crenshaw strikes me as a never-say-die kind of person and on Mary Jean And 9 Others he sounds better than ever, as glad to be alive as he was on his debut five years ago.

With the exception of one out-andout clinker (Peter Case’s meandering “Steel Strings”), every song is a winner. And whereas past albums sometimes sounded overor underproduced, this one has a full, buoyant feel to it; the drums hit hard, the guitars are everywhere at once, and the vocals are upfront riding over a strong sonic thrust (thank you, Don Dixon). It’s a big sound for such a little band; Crenshaw on guitar; his brother Robert on drums; Graham Maby on bass, and a very small assortment of guest “homeboys” and “artistes.”

It took about three plays for the whole thing to kick in and turn my head around; it’s one of those records where each play reveals a new level of pleasure. Two things in particular stand out over and over—the strategic attack of those ebullient guitars and superb use of bright, powerful harmonies to highlight key moments in a song. (It gets downright Beatlesque at times.) A perfect example is the opener, “This Is Easy.” On every third, line, Marshall's voice gets really urgent and before you know it a swirling, accelerated guitar solo sends you reeling into banks of swelling harmonies that just keep on building.

“Wild Abandon” lives up to its name and the singer goes crazy all because somebody had the good sense to play a Jerry Lee song on the jukebox. (Helping out with the anthem is Marti Jones, who did a loving version of M.C.’s “Whenever You’re On My Mind” on her last LP.) Get outta that guitar’s way! Same goes for “ 'Til That Moment” where all the stops get pulled out and crashing waves of “Hold me darlin’/Hold me baby” engulf you and take it to the fade.

Then there’s “Somebody Crying” with its great, sobbing “Boo-hoo” hook just as the drums start slamming away. In the world according to Crenshaw a broken heart means the need is near with dark clouds overhead. (You all know the feeling.) On “They Never Will Know,” the mood is beautifully sad but hopeful: "Don’t let ’em tear your heart in two. The world is yours, it’s true.” “This Street” is another gorgeous stunner with jetpropelled vocals and serious longing.

And last but far from least is “Mary Jean,” the current candidate for Top of the Pops. This girl of a million dreams “walked cool with her head always held high” and later became “the cause of my downfall.” This stormy romance is what Nick Lowe used to call pure pop for now people. Trust me. Crenshaw’s got what it takes. The album’s one of the year’s best, it’ll spawn three or four hits, and “Mary Jean” will break a few million hearts. In a better world...

Craig Zeller