The Windsor Star from Windsor, Ontario, Canada • 45

TUNED IN 0 3 I INXS Elegantly Wasted (Mercury- Polygram) This is the Australian sextet's first album in four years, and the first consistent one in 10. A lot of people had probably written INXS off after 1993's flat Full Moon, Dirty Hearts. Singer Michael Hutchence's dalliances with a succession of famous girlfriends and the media seemed to suggest he didn't need the band, or they him. But, lo and behold, the lads head north from their adopted homes in LA, or wherever, take up residence in a Vancouver studio with Canadian producer Bruce Fairbairn, and proceed to churn out what could be the ultimate INXS album. INXS has survived for 20 years with the same lineup, something of a rarity in this rock era.

And Elegantly Wasted, with its sure grip on a variety of influences ranging from the Stones to funk, almost serves as the group's manifesto 20 years after the fact. The title song, riding a fat bass line, has the potential to be a party animal's anthem this summer of '97. The WHITE TOWN Women In Technology (ChrysalisBrilliant!) Popular culture survives in a large part by reclaiming ideas from the past, and it now appears that the '80s are coming back into vogue. The new wave of new wavers, such as White Town, rehash ideas from the days when Soft Cell and Thomas Dolby were offering tainted love or blinding us with science. British synth-wizard Jyoti Mishra is the creative force behind White Town, with occasional contributions from guitarist Robert Fleay and vocalist Ann Pearson.

Mishra has an affinity for pop arrangements and layers of synths. His pseudo-intellectual lyrics and gentlemanly vocal intonations invoke the early '80s. White Town's first domestic release, Women in Technology, is currently being bolstered by its leadoff single Your Woman. Bouncing along on a scratchy vaudeville music sample and a bubbly plastic groove, Your Woman is one of those gimmicky pop tunes in the same mold as Taco's 1983 hit, Puttin' On The Ritz. While Your Woman is a novelty, the remainder is decidedly more stylish and smooth.

Going Nowhere Somehow and Undressed cruise on urbane electronic grooves, while The Death of My Desire and Theme For An Early Evening American Sitcom boast melodically rich arrangements that are lost on many synth-dependent dance acts. Pearson comes off as a new wave diva with her melancholy vocal lines on Wanted; it's puzzling that she isn't involved more often. Fleay's gentle acoustic work on A Week Next June provides a distinct bossa nova feel, adding to the disc's diversity. People who love or dismiss White Town solely on the Your Woman single aren't giving Mishra and his cohorts a fair listen. Check out the rest of Women in Technology before passing judgment on this eclectic (albeit revisionist) act.

Rating: (Darrin Keene) (Provided by Sam The Record Man, HMVand Music World; 1- Splce Girls -Spice 2- 0ur Lady Peace Clumsy 3- various artists Space Jam soundtrack -Jewel- Pieces of You 6- Depeche Mode -Ultra B-Wallf lowers Bringing Down the Horse 7- Savage Garden Savage Garden thCellne Dion Falling Into You 9-Chemical Brothers Dig Your Own Hole W-Varlous artists Made In the '80s tl-INXS-FJegantly Wasted 12-Verve Pipe Villains U-Blur-Blur 14-U2 Pop 16- Backstreet Boys Backstreet Boys 18- Notorious B.I.G. Ufe After Death 17- varlous artists Dance Mix USA 18-Various artists Jerry Magulre 19- Dave Matthews Band Crash 20- Beck-Odelay AMaJ5TATIONS CBEF (540) -French (Relayed on 103.1 In Leamington) WLLZ (560) -Spanish CKWW (580) -big bandoldies CFCO (630) -oldies WNZK (690 day, 680 night) -ethnic WJR (760) popsportstalk CKLW (800) -talknewssports WWJ (950) -all news WWCM (990) -religious WUFl (1030) -religious CHOK (1070) -oldies WCAR (1090) -ethnic WDFN-AM (1130) -all sports WCHB (1200) -talk WXYT (1270) -newstalk WDOZ (1310) children's programming WEXL (1340) -religious WQBH (1400) black classics WMKM (1440) -gospel WLQV (1500) -religious CBE (1550) -talkInformation (Relayed on 88.1 FM-Chatham and 90.3 FM-Sarnla) CIMX-FM (88.7) -modern rock CBE-FM (89.9) -classical WDTR (90.9) -educational CJAM (91.5) ait music, talk, ethnic WUOM (91.7) -classical WMXD (92.3) urban adult contemp. WDRQ (93.1) rhythmic adult contemp. CIDR-FM (93.9) adult alternative WCSX (94.7) -classic rock CKSY-FM (95.1) easy listening WKQI (95.5) adult contemporary WHYT (96.3) -modern rock CHYR (96.7) -country WYST (97.1)- 70s hits WJLB (97.9) urban contemporary WVMV (98.7) -urban Jazz WYCD (99.5) -country WNIC (100.3) -soft rock WRIF (101.1) -rock WDET (101.9) Jazz, public WWBB (102.7) -heavy metal WMU2 (103.5) -religious WOMC (104.3) -oldies WQRS (105.1) -classical WCHB (105.9) urban contemporary WWWW-FM (106.7) -country WGPR (107.5) -new music Stones-like Don't Lose Your Head, complete with Hutchence's Mick Jagger impression and a Let It Bleed chorus, is a rip-snorter from start to finish. The lively presence of the album likely owes something to Fairbairn's proven credentials as a rock producer.

But it also comes as a result of the band's recording approach demos were done on studio equipment, so they had the option of using first takes on several tracks. And it adds to the immediacy of the album. Jon Farriss' drums and Gary Beers' bass lines, particularly, mark this INXS release as one of the most hard-driving of its career. Rating: A (Ted Shaw) she's recorded since Money Changes Everything. Also, Lauper complements the soft jazz of Say a Prayer with a mellow rap.

Although the singer has more on her mind than relationships, her introspective moments are sterling. Singing in a gravely voice, Lauper shuffles through the sad waltz of Unhook the Stars with touching grace. And her moving battle with insecurities turns Fearless into aheartbreaker. No wonder she's giving a lover a wait-and-see attitude on the bittersweet Hot Gets a Little Cold while yearning for an end to loneliness on Searching, a marriage of adult contemporary music to exoticism. Then there's the springy surprise ending, Brimstone and Fire, where Lauper lightheart-edly grapples with a budding lesbian relationship this a sign? From above or Lauper deserves a chance.

After all, Madonna's home with that baby, and Toni Braxton and Celine Dion have sapped the life out of radio for long enough. Rating: A (Express News Services) CYNDI LAUPER Sisters of Avalon (Epic) She's so unusual. Again. Here she is in a decade-long downward spiral, releasing an album much better than it has any right to be. Singing in a more mature, lower register, Lauper is still lovably quirky on Sisters of Avalon.

And she has worked hard on every track, co-writing dynamite material with Jan Pulsford and crafting an ambitiously complex sound. There are drum machines, violins, accordions, mandolins, wah wah guitar, and Lauper herself plays dulcimer and zither, among other things. OK, so the title track only manages a low-grade fever with its sisterhood anthem, and You Don't Know cloys with its righteous stand against conformity. Otherwise, there isn't much to complain about. Lauper's earnest portrayal of a working-class transvestite (Ballad of Cleo and Joe) is an adventure in world music set to a propulsive beat, and Love To Hate is the grittiest rock song WARREN Take a Look Over Your Shoulder: Reality (Def dam) Warren is sure to build on the dizzying success of his 1994 debut, Regulate G-Funk Era, with this savvy sophomore effort.

The well-connected Long Beach, rapper (Dr. Dre is his brother and Snoop Doggy Dogg is one of his best friends) managed quadruple-platinum sales with that debut album and two hit singles, Regulate and ThisDJ. To assure an appropriate follow-up, Warren re-enlisted guest crooner Nate Dogg to lay down some soul on the less-is-more opener Annie Mae. And Ronald Isley delivers a scintillating blast of '70s soul on Smokin' Me Out (which features an "interpolation" of the Isley Brothers' Cooling Me Out). Both of the otherwise basic tracks needed input from the singers because as a rapper, Warren is flavorless.

But he's a smart producer, and that takes Take a Look a long way. His cover of Bob Marley's I Shot the Sheriff was a brilliant move why not reinterpret a classic rather than go out on your own (a la Cop Killer)? What's more, Warren immediately follows his version with a remix featuring some serious bass. The album bulges with filler experiments and lazy castoffs featuring a bewildering array of androgynous-sounding guest rappers. If nothing else, these upstarts inject energy. Then there are a host of less-developed tracks, subliminal exercises in tedium such as Relax Ya Mind and Transformers.

Of course, these weren't the cuts Warren designed to be remembered. Rating: B- (Express News Services) Express Magazine 21 April 24, 1997.