Talking Heads
Talking Heads 8-CD box set (4.5 stars)
Talking Heads' 2003 boxed set, the four-disc Once in a Lifetime, was an aesthetic wonder but offered little compelling aural incentive for anyone to take notice of its inventive packaging.
This time, Rhino's eponymous eight-disc box flips the script. The set presents the art punks' eight studio albums—1977's self-titled debut through 1988's swan song, Naked—each in remastered stereo on one side and Jerry Harrison-supervised DVD-Audio surround on the other. Bonus goodies abound, from an acoustic, surround mix of "Psycho Killer" to live video versions of "Cities" and "Crosseyed and Painless."
The collection's sleek, white casing actually serves as a detriment, however. Blank CD spines make it difficult to identify discs without removing them, and a lack of handy, back-of-jewel-case track listings compels liner-note consultation for the simple purpose of locating a favorite song.
Still, such mundane concerns pale in comparison to the grandeur of the Heads' musical haul, about which tomes have already been devoted. Now is the time for casual fans to delve deeper, and diehards to hear Remain in Light and Fear of Music for the first time, again, in dizzying DVD-Audio.
Susan Tedeschi
Hope and Desire (3 stars)
The third album from blues singer-guitarist Tedeschi removes the "guitarist" portion of her designation, leaving the axe-slinging in the able hands of Doyle Bramhall II and Derek Trucks (Tedeschi's husband). It also lacks Tedeschi's songwriting talents, instead focusing on 12 covers from various influences on her career. Like any good blues artist, Tedeschi is a master interpreter, as she's proven on covers of John Prine and Bob Dylan on her past records, and she does a fine job with the diverse material on Hope and Desire.
But there's still something missing that never lets this feel like more than a stopgap effort. Bramhall and Trucks are both talented guitarists, but this is Tedeschi's album, and her playing—equally as accomplished—is notable in its absence. Her voice is as strong as ever, though, and serves as an anchor, making the set of tunes by very different artists—from Dylan and the Stones to Aretha Franklin and Iris DeMent—sound like a cohesive album. It's all perfectly well-crafted, especially nasty done-me-wrong tunes "Tired of My Tears" and "Evidence," but it mostly just makes you hungry for Tedeschi's next proper album.
T. Rex
The Slider (4.5 stars)
T. Rex and leader Marc Bolan never really made it in this country compared to the phenomenonal status they briefly enjoyed in England. Still, the album Electric Warrior yielded a couple of classic-rock standards—"Jeepster" and "Bang a Gong" (Get It On)—that paved the way for this follow-up, originally released in 1972. Featuring "Metal Guru" and "Telegram Sam," The Slider represented the high-water mark of the glam movement. It has been argued for decades to what extent David Bowie built Ziggy Stardust out of Marc Bolan's sound and vision; the two were certainly drinking from the same well. The Slider was the album that hit the same year as Ziggy, its producer was frequent Bowie collaborator Tony Visconti and the influence of Bolan's guitar on Bowie sideman Mick Ronson's playing is incalculable. Yet The Slider retains a freshness and quirkiness that are all Bolan's. This expanded edition includes a fascinating bonus disc of demos and working takes that show the song structures before Bolan and Visconti added the glam.