• ROCK
JANE'S ADDICTION
• Strays (Capitol)
***
From Perry Farrell's familiar opening yelp ''Here we go!'' in True Nature, it's clear Jane's Addiction is hell-bent on recapturing its past glory. Thirteen years after the group crashed and burned after releasing its masterful swan song, Ritual de lo Habitual, Jane's is back with Strays, its first studio album since (1997's Kettle Whistle was an odds-and-sods collection with only two new tracks).
Only bassist Eric Avery is missing from the original lineup that soared out of the late-'80s L.A. hair-metal scene, and Chris Chaney does more than an adequate job replacing his riffs. Jane's is once again headlining the resurrected Lollapalooza, the traveling alt-rock circus founded by Farrell in 1991, on Tuesday at West Palm Beach's Sound Advice Amphitheatre.
Miraculously, the group is largely triumphant, though despite breathless raves about a return to form, it'd be wise to temper your expectations a bit. The band is as tight and powerful as ever -- Farrell's otherworldly howl is nothing short of shocking at age 44, and Dave Navarro's guitar is still all over the place, bright and possessed -- but it doesn't quite live up to the past.
The first five songs are a joyous kick in the teeth, highlighted by the title track's gentle guitar waves crashing into a soaring chorus and the radio-ready, free-falling spirit of Just Because. But Superhero is a lackluster rocker that quickly becomes annoying, while Wrong Girl mines Stevie Ray Vaughn territory with limp results. The mellow sing-along Everybody's Friend offers relief, but Suffersome and Hypersonic are unmemorable at best, and To Match the Sun falls short of the closing epic Perry and Co. were reaching for.
As solid a collective effort as Strays might be, it lacks the melodic, magical fairy dust sprinkled throughout Jane's breakthrough album Nothing's Shocking and Ritual. There are few true missteps here, but there are also no tunes that can stand up to the fractured poignancy of Classic Girl and Jane Says, the majestic transcendence of Three Days and Ocean Size, and the boogie-down immediacy of Been Caught Stealing.
Jane's Addiction can still swagger with fierce beauty, but the overall effect of Strays is to make one wonder -- what if they hadn't taken 13 years off?
-- MICHAEL HAMERSLY
mhamersly@herald.com
EVE 6
• It's All in Your Head
(RCA)
** ½
Eve 6 has created a popping, leaping work rich with sharp musical hooks and lyrics almost as witty as they are weary.
The band's ever-theatrical writer/singer is Max Collins. He has more on his mind than the ladies that plague his long days (the downer Without You Here) and longer, caffeinated nights (the pounding Still Here Waiting), what with copping to two counts of disorderly conduct after walking around a Pittsburgh-area hotel lobby naked in May. Girl trouble and police blotters aside, the baritone cleverly ruminates on inner demons during the slow Good Lives and the Norwegian Wood-ish Hey Montana.
Though heavy-handed at times, Eve 6 and Collins -- like the Kinks and Ray Davies, without the laughs -- paint detailed portraits of limp existences, backed by sometimes-buoyant music.
-- A.D. AMOROSI
Knight-Ridder News Service
HIP-HOP
VARIOUS ARTISTS
Bad Boys II:
The Soundtrack
(Bad Boy/Universal)
** ½
With P. Diddy at the helm, working with his usual playmates and labelmates, you'd expect this soundtrack to be as bang-pow as the film.
Yes, we get dour, fast-driven necessities of the marketplace (by Beyoncé) and flaming crashes (Mario Winans and Foxy Brown). Plus Diddy's stock obsession with his late pal Notorious B.I.G., who's miraculously paired with 50 Cent on a rump-shaking duet. But unlike with Diddy's usual co-productions, an air of sexy fun pervades BBII, even when its tracks are at their steeliest.
The jungle funk of Show Me Your Soul (Diddy, Pharrell Williams and Lenny Kravitz), the rubbery bump of Shake Ya Tailfeather (Diddy and Nelly), and the fiery La La (Jay-Z, produced by the Neptunes) actually sound as if the stars were partying in the same studio. Though it never takes much to loosen Snoop Dogg (and Loon), even Justin Timberlake sounds as if he's having more fun than usual on his unrecognizable Love Don't Love Me.
-- A.D.A.
Knight-Ridder News Service
JAZZ
FRANK SINATRA
The Voice of
Frank Sinatra
(Columbia/Legacy)
***
Sings Cole Porter (Columbia/Legacy)
***
Sings Gershwin
(Columbia/Legacy)
***
Sinatra's tenure at Columbia, where pipes that had not yet matured were often smothered in over-arranged piles of strings and sickly sweet vocal accompaniment, will forever be the subject of debate. And although much of what was recorded in his pre-Capitol years is woefully underrated, it's not where a novice goes to learn why Sinatra was the greatest vocal song stylist in history.
But for dedicated fans and collectors, these three collections will be must-owns because each contains music previously unissued, at least officially. The Voice of replicates the eight-song 78-r.p.m. set from 1945 that is often cited as the first album.
A romantic program that included a gorgeous first read of Someone to Watch Over Me is complemented with 10 associated songs, including outtakes of Mam'Selle and If I Had You and alternates of It Never Entered My Mind and (I Don't Stand) a Ghost of Chance.
The newly compiled Porter and Gershwin collections are supplemented primarily with radio and TV performances, the oddest of which may be an Embraceable You sung for a 1943 program sponsored by the U.S. Treasury Department. Sinatra is accompanied -- ably -- by a band identified as David Broekman and the U.S. Treasury Ensemble.
-- TERRY LAWSON
Knight-Ridder News Service
