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Breathy sensuality and yowling passion: Aretha Franklin
A Roundup
of Hot LP’s
It’s beginning to look a lot like
Christmas in record stores—with a
flood of new releases in time for
holiday giving. There’s a lot of quality
in me Darrage.
Here’s a sample j
of what’s new
and good
Exprasshrr The songs in
Chrissie Hynde’s album,
with the new Pretenders,
fit her range like a glove
88 SKWSWKKK ON CAMI'I'S
Aretha Arista>. Aretha
Franklin In a career
that already spans 25
years and countless artistic
triumphs, it may seem pre
maturetosay that "Aretha"
will rank as one of Are
tha Franklin’s best albums.
But these songs, in their
strength and variety, allow
Franklin to astonish us with
the power and glory of her
voice. "Jimmy Lee" is one
of her strongest songs in
Fresh reggae: Marley quartet
years—she sings her way from breathy sensuality to unleashed,
yowling passion. "Jumpin’Jack Flash." with production by Keith
Richards, kicks butt in a straight-rock mode. And there's plenty of
Franklin's trademark soulful pop. including duets with ex-Slv &
the Family Stone bassist Larry Graham and Wham! vocalist
George Michael. This woman has got spunk in her funk. Steam in
her scream. Charisma in her melisma. "Aretha" is a classic. No
home should be without it.
London 0 Hull * (Eleklra), The Housemartins. Imagine the dia
tribes of the New Testament prophets set to a Merseybeat, if you
can, and you’ll have a good idea of how The Housemartins make
music The springy melody of "Happy Hour,” for example, gets
vour toe tapping, and then you realize that singer P d. Heaton is
ripping the superficiality of the bar scene, "Where they open all
their wallets i And they close all their minds.” On the rest of the
album, The Housemartins take on a whole raft of social ills, from
apathy to discrimination against the working class. All of the
moralizing on this album might be obnoxious if guitarist Stan
Cuilimore, bassist Norman Cook and drummer Hugh Whitaker
didn’t keep the music light and snappy. "London 0 Hull 4” is a very
subversive, clever record.
TMs Father's Day /Island), Peter Himmelman Independent re
cording artists, take heart. You can succeed on your own terms.
This solo-album debut by folk-oriented Peter Himmelman was
released last spring on Orange Records in New Jersey, and prob
ably would have vanished immediately if Himmelman hadn’t,
miraculously, gotten a self-produced video onto MTV But he did,
and now this winning slice of pop romanticism is being distributed
by a major label Himmelman sings about love with unrestrained
and unabashed feeling, even when it’s bad. ”11:30 Pacific Time” is
as mushy as they come: "I want to kiss your faceso bad. I'm crying.”
And on "This Father's Day," he gasps, "If I could, I’d run out
into the world and tell every boy and girl / To love before love
r ADIW .'HWM II Uil
T
takes itseii away, rorreter
Himmelman, love is the an
swer, no matter what the
question.
Gat Clou (SireK The Pre
tenders. Chrissie Hynde is
the only Pretender left
from the original quartet,
and this album sounds like
a solo record masquerading
as a group effort. Even
though Hynde always has
been the major creative
force in the band, "Get
Close" sounds even more
like a showcase than earlier
NOVEMBER 1SH6