Can't Wynonna Judd and Scott Weiland afford to hire drivers? OK, probably Glen Campbell can't, yet, surely there must be cab fare left from "Wichita Lineman." Yet, all these folks have managed to rack up an arrest for DUI even before the holiday season got underway.
Wynonna (2 stars)
What the World Needs Now is Love
Photoshop is an amazing thing. Compare the cover shot of Wynonna on What the World Needs Now is Love to the mug shot from her arrest last month as seen on thesmokinggun.com. Of course, Ms. Judd probably wasn't at her best after having tested at twice the legal driving limit for Tennessee just before the latter photo was taken. Still, Photoshop is an amazing thing, and you can't blame a girl for wanting to look her best. But the problem here is that on What the World Needs Now, Wynonna's music relies on every studio artifice to create a sound as pleasant on the surface as her image is on that cover. Wynonna may not be one of the great beauties of our time, yet her strength as a singer is the power of her naked voice: effortless range, clear dynamics, subtle phrasing yet always dense with drama in the delivery. How depressing then that these tracks utilize dozens of session musicians, background vocalists and ProTools (the aural Photoshop) to create a thoroughly airless sound. Still, the collaboration between her and guitar legend Jeff Beck on Foreigner's "I Want to Know What Love Is" is so over the top that the horrendousness of it becomes almost beside the point.
Glen Campbell (3 stars)
The Legacy (1961-2002)
Glen Campbell made such an ass of himself after getting busted that the press reports made his profile higher than it's been since "Rhinestone Cowboy" in 1975. Yeah, he should have stuck to walking the streets and dirty sidewalks of Branson. Still, this isn't a bad time for Campbell to put his name in circulation again as Glen Campbell's first box set, The Legacy (1961-2002) has recently been released. The live final disc is disposable—except for the Beach Boys medley, a reminder of Campbell's time as a member of the band—and, the Milquetoast adult contemporary music of almost everything after the '70s won't win him any new fans. But particularly in his cover versions, the first couple discs show why Campbell was one of the great session musicians of his era, working for everyone from Elvis to Sinatra: As a player and performer, Campbell is remarkable at bringing out the musical qualities in a song. Yet, if the title Legacy implies that Campbell is a significant artist—well, that sure is a stretch.
Stone Temple Pilots (2.5 stars)
Thank You
Thanks to substance-abuse problems, Stone Temple Pilots vocalist Scott Weiland has been arrested so many times that his recent bust hardly made news. Thank You collects the hits between the busts. Listening to them, I realized this is the band that did all the dull songs on the radio that I always thought were Pearl Jam. A perfect Christmas package for those who don't know how to download.
R. Kelly (4 stars)
The R. in R & B Collection Volume 1
Of course, two other greatest-hits packages for the holidays come from Michael Jackson and R.Kelly, who are both facing legal problems involving sex acts with minors that could result in career-ending jail sentences.
Kelly was back in court last week, fighting the charges relating to the sex video that purportedly shows him engaging in sex acts with a 14-year-old girl. Though Kelly's past includes settled civil suits and an annulled marriage to a 15-year-old, Kelly's career has never been doing better. He will be in town this week as a nominee for The Billboard Awards. The R. In R&B Collection: Volume 1 traces Kelly's evolution from a high-end Bobby Brown to a performer, writer and producer who garners comparisons to Marvin Gaye. That is a stretch, but the quality and inventiveness of R. Kelly's music overall is well-demonstrated, from the feisty "Thoia Thoing" to the buoyant "I Wish." Yet, overwhelmingly this music is so blunt and obsessively sexual ("Bump N Grind," "Sex Me (Part 1)" and "Ignition"), that it is impossible to enjoy for even a moment if your mind wanders to the charges against him.
Michael Jackson (3 stars)
Number Ones
Jackson's Number Ones attempts to place Jackson's music on par with The Beatles and Elvis, who hit jackpot with similarly titled collections. But the Beatles and Elvis have hits spread over vast catalogues, and while there is no argument that Jackson, too, has hits aplenty, they are mostly clustered on the three discs he made with Quincy Jones: Off the Wall, Thriller and Bad. (Six songs here come from Bad alone.) So, while those earlier collections offered a fresh view of legends, Jackson's release feels more like the stale contract ending repackaging that it is. Interestingly, the one new track, "One More Chance," was written and produced by none other than R. Kelly.