Am I Not Your Girl?* Sinéad O’Connor | (Capitol)

Amused to Death Roger Waters

(Sony)

Bone Machine Tom Waits (Island)

I Was Warned Robert Cray (Polygram)

fter I Do Not Want What I Haven’t Got and her heart- rending version of Elton John’s ‘“Sacrifice,’’ I was expecting a religious experience from Sin€ad O’Connor’s new album. However, Am I Not Your Girl? (5) turned out to be one of those albums where you skip from track to track saying to yourself, ‘‘Itcan’t all be like this.’’ For those of you who don’t already know, Sinéad’s new album is, yes, acollection of swing covers. First of all, at this point in my life I don’tlike jazz. I grew up onrock’n’roll; it’s in my heart. I can stand jazz as a pleasant, evocative wall paper, which is how I see Am I Not Your Girl. Incorporat- ing jazzinto your vision is one thing, but acomplete stylistic about face is schizo- phrenic behaviour. As an artistic move, the album is puzzling, if not pointless, if not self-indulgent. I also question Sinéad’s participation in creating this album. For awoman who wrote, produced and arranged her debut, she barely seems involved in the making of Am I Not Your Girl. By the by, ‘‘Bewitched, Bothered and Bewildered’’ gave me serious déja vu. Turns out it was the recurring melody in Hannah and Her Sisters. Trivia? I’m full of it. Am I Not Your Girl? is an incred- ibly depressing album because I had con- Sidered Sinéad the best, a second coming of Van Morrison, but here she chooses Frank Sinatra over Van. Unfortunately, Sinéad O’Connor might not be able to distinguish between following her heart

ROGER WATERS

AMUSED TO DEATH

by KIRBY FERGUSON

and following some base compulsion to shock and alienate her fans.

But if Sinéad wants that Pompous Rock Star title she’s gonna have to beat the bag along time before she can step in the ring with the all-time champ: ex-Pink Floyd dictator, Roger Waters. His lates Amused to Death (1), a stomach-turnifi bloated, mock-opera 4 la The Wa fiasco of epic proportions. The thing that kept Floyd from being completely un- bearable was the band’s performance, but Amused even fails on that level. Waters

hires super-hack Jeff Beck to fill David .

Gilmour’s shoes, but his string bending sounds cold and calculated. This is pon- derous, bathetic, aural cinema (shudder). And when Roger tries a ballad with ‘‘Too Much Rope’’ you’d better make sure the dog’s out, while lyrically, this is just more of Water’s cynical, sledgehammer social commentary. But this is art, goddammit, and Roger’s gonna smuck you upside the head with it until you believe him. Somebody make this guy listen to ‘*Wooly Bully’’ until his ears bleed. The pick of this very odd last cou- ple of weeks has to be Tom Waits’ Bone Machine (7), his first album since 1987’s Franks (sic) Wild Years. A traditional set of Waits’ herky-jerky ditties from the junkyard, hung-over ballads and weird r&b, it’s his extraordinary songwriting facility that keeps it all from degenerat- ing into annoying abrasiveness, while his beat-influenced lyrics feature many witty turns of phrase (‘‘I’d love to go drown- ing’’) and oddly affecting images (‘* And the earth died screaming/While I lay

‘Ss

dreaming of you’’). There’s filler here -- atmospheric numbers like ‘‘The Ocean Doesn’t Want Me’’ and ‘‘Murder in the Red Barn’’ -- but Waits’, er, tenderness and, uh, way with melody will keep you digging through: quely. deformed

“Ee wang SU stance of Boné Machine (I don’t know what the hell I’m talking about). Ulti- mately it’s all too strange to really take to heart, but in an age of vacuous slick- ness, Bone Machine is beautifully ugly.

Unlike Tom Waits, an American original Robert Cray ain’t, but immensely talented he certainly is. Cray’s last re- lease, the Stax-ish Midnight Stroll, con- tained some of his roughest singing yet and his best material since his 1986 break- through, Strong Persuader.I Was Warned (7) is exactly what you’d expect -- warm, soulful and’ sweet, yet utterly retro. As usual, it’s a superbly performed bit of nostalgia, but someone with these kind of chops should push himself a bit more.

Still Waiting

Supposedly new albums were to be released last week by Peter Gabriel, Prince and Extreme, but I haven’t seen ‘em. Anyway, expect Us, Symbols and

Three Sides to Every Story from those

respective artists in weeks, days or prob- ably now. Also expect newies from REM, Public Enemy and Talking Heads.

For a listen to any of the above albums, tune in to CIMN, 104.5 FM cable or 700 AM on campus.