News-Pilot from San Pedro, California • 47

I RECORD REVIEWS ILafrsstt Ywaomi ds slngMy fff tilto mark COUNTRY Shania Twain Come On Over Rating: Mercury Shania Twain is a down-home country Cosmo Girl Shes got the looks (the best-known belly button in Nashville!) and a Gal Power message that on this new altfum exhorts women to take a break take control" and playfully cautions men that if you want to touch her ask!" Yup this is light years from "Stand By Your Man" territory Twain is a new breed of female country star one who appeals to teen-agers and their wannabe-hip moms who need some sassy music to pop in their tape decks on the way to the mall "Come On Over" should thrill them to pieces Thirteen of the albums 16 songs are rousing calls to arms with beats that marry country to rock in the same manner that helped Twains last album The Woman In Me" sell nine million copies Twain and producer (and husband) Mutt Lange seem to realize that her limited vocal range is more suited to playful uptempo numbers than to nu-anced ballads Lange who produced Def Leppard and Bryan Adams knows his rock riffs well and recycles a couple of classics here Rock This Country" steals the power chords from The Whos "Won't Get Fooled Again" while "Honey Im Home" sounds so much like Queens "We Will Rock You" that Freddy Mercury is probably phoning his lawyer from the Great Beyond as we speak Although the music sounds processed the lyrics are witty and often a lot of fun The song titles alone provide glimpses of whats in store: Man! I Feel Like a Woman!" "Don't Be Stupid (You Know I Love You)" and "Whatever You Do! Don't!" If that strikes you as felonious use of exclamation points (and there are more! Many more!) dont worry Lyrically Twain usually exhorts gently with a wink and a yelp Throughout it all there are so many i cries of woo-hoo!" and "lets go!" and "kick it!" that Twain comes off more like a cheerleader or aerobics leader than a singer And that could could well be the intention Twain leaves the heartbreak to Leann Rimes and that Judd woman This is a feisty feel-good album and no doubt once the sales are measured Twain will feel good all the way to the bank Woo-hoo! Glenn Whlpp Staff Writer ROCK The Replacements "All For NothingNothing For Ail" Rating: Reprise Don't listen to those Replacements fans who declare that nothing the brilliant Minneapolis band did after they signed to Sire in 1985 amounted to much They'll tell you the band's pre-major label 1980s days of on- and off-stage self-indulgence and self-destruction are what mattered most "All for NothingNothing For All" the new two-CD set that samples the band's Sire albums from 1985's "Tim" through its 1990 swan song All Shook Down" are willing to go to spoon feed reggae to unsuspecting pop listeners With his sing-rapping style Shaggy has a unique approach but this is lightweight stuff Michael Cote Scripps Howard News Service ECLECTIC Forest For the Trees Forest For the Trees" Rating: DreamWorks Behold an album without precedent a study in existentialism that radically challenges concepts of popular music Several years ago Carl Stephenson the groups mastermind co-produced Becks seminal Mellow Gold album and co-wrote the breakout single "Loser Stephenson also recorded the bold "Forest for the Trees several years ago but the project was shelved reportedly because record executives feared the fragile musician couldnt endure the stress involved in the albums release Eventually Stephensons mental illness landed him in the hospital Hes convalesced now and DreamWorks is going ahead with Forest for the Trees There's a hint of Beck's free-for-all style on the album though Stephensons approach is more methodical and unified bagpipes and a tabla glide along with a throbbing bass and the chants of the uplifting "Dream a stunning first single that contrasts with Becks contrived jumbles Meanwhile Stephenson plays violin sitar keyboards percussion etc and he programs reverberating drum loops There are other participants under his guidance including Beck himself on harmonica and backing vocals and Stephenson blends the thick mix into a surreal hodgepodge Bewitching as the music is it frames provocative lyrical commentary that is at once innocent and penetrating All that I know is what I observeAll the rest is created by mind You create the reason for your existence goes Stephenson's electronically processed vocals on "You Create the Reason" Theres another reality issue on "Dream which features a chorus of "When I am dreaming I don't know if Im truly asleep or if I'm awakeAnd when I get up I don't know if I'm truly awake or if I'm still dreaming It goes without saying there's only a select few who would indulge in Stephensons musical hypnosis contemplate what he's saying and try to understand him However those who get that far are apt to judge "Forest for the Trees" an unusually rewarding album Chick Campbell Scripps Howard News Service Comershop "When 1 Was Born for the 7th Time Rating: Luaka BopWamer Bros From the opening Bombay-meets-the-Bayou squeeze box sounds of "Sleep on the Left Side" the lead track here its evident that the musical melange hinted at by Cornershop's previous release 1995s "Womans Gotta Have It" has RECOROSK26 RAVE! Friday' November' 7 1997' K25 background Also the sense of wonder that made the groups debut so intoxicating seems to have gone missing over the years The single Summertime sounds shallow and calculated for airplay rather than heartfelt and overproduction sinks otherwise-promising efforts such as Cry" and I Cant Wait" Frustratingly tracks featuring a more spirited instrumental approach Another Flavour and So Much come up short in the melody department The end result: an album thats pleas- ant and listenable but not much more The band will be appearing Nov 19 at the Mayan Theatre in downtown Los Angeles SG REQQAE Steel Pulse Rage and Fury Rating MesaBlue Moon Shaggy Midnite Lover" Rating Virgin Reggae pop acts like UB40 can be credited or bfomed for the emergence of reggae as a formidable force on the pop charts albeit a watered-down pop version of the Jamaican sound You can hear it on best-selling newcomers like Shaggy and reggae veterans like Steel Pulse The latest releases by these two acts both previous Grammy winners share concessions to dance hall pop reggae but display a striking contrast in approach Steel Pulse a British band that a few years ago celebrated its 20th anniversary still embraces the social protest pioneered by Bob Marley and Peter Tosh On "Rage and Fury Steel Pulses first new release in several years and the first for MesaBlue Moon guitar-istsinger David Hinds recaptures the anger that fueled the band's landmark albums True Democracy "Earth Crisis and "Babylon the Bandit in the early '80s But Hinds grafts his lyrics about racism political indifference and ghetto crime (on songs like Black and Proud" Settle the Score" and "Emotional Prisoner) to an overly synthetic sound that favors drum programming over the real thing In the attempt to sound contemporary to mainstream audiences the band mutes the power of the songs Hinds' singing and songwriting is as powerful as ever but its time for the remaining three members of Steel Pulse to recruit a couple of new members and become a band again The cover of Van Morrisons "Brown Eyed Girl" the album's first single also sounds out of place in an album built entirely on protest songs Blame that on record company pressure Shaggy doesn't share that problem: Nearly every song on "Midnite Lover his sequel to platinum-selling "Boom-bastic goes for the pop approach favoring love songs and sexual swagger over social protest But like Steel Pulses latest Shaggys first single off the album is a cover song rather than one of the originals he co-wrote His duet with Marsha on the Janis Joplin standard "Piece of My Heart" shows just how far record companies DaiV'8-eertNewi-Plic i is a feisty feel-good album soundly refutes that claim Disc one All For Nothing" offers a representative group of songs from the studio albums including lesser-heard tracks such as the forlornly beautiful Skyway" and The Ledge" a scorching track that places the listener right atop the building with its suicidal narrator Disc two Nothing For All" collects 17 unreleased and promotional-only tracks Some Beer for Breakfast" All He Wants to Do Is Fish" are predictably jokey fare and some a colorless cover of Hank Mizells "Jungle Rock" are just subpar But lurking among the odds and ends are more than enough gems to compensate Namely a crackling rough-edged Can't Hardly Wait" that outshines the later horn-laden version a snarling live cover of the Only Ones' Another Girl Another Planet" and Portland" as winning a song as anything the band ever released officially If you dont own anything by the Replacements All For NothingNothing For All" makes a fine starting point But be forewarned: You'll want all the complete individual albums before long Sam Guerre Staff Writer The Sundays Static and Silence" Rating: DGC The Sundays show the difficulty of succeeding too well with one's first album: following it up can be treacherous Reading Writing and Arithmetic? (DGC 1990) captivated listeners with melodies propelled by David Cavurin's sparkling guitar and Harriet Wheeler's warm vocals Since then the pair have released an inferior follow-up got married and generally disappeared from sight for four years until "Static 8i Silence" While by no means a disaster the new album falls short of recapturing the magic the duo once had The changes over the years have been subtle but unmistakable Wheeler still has one of pop's most entrancing voices sounding like a more accessible Liz Fraser (Cocteau Twins) on the album's airier ballads such as Leave This City" and "Folk Song" Cavurin's guitar has lost its prominence in the mix however Instead strings and the occasional horn section push his warm jangle well into the.