ShareThisBy CHUCK CAMPBELL
Scripps Howard News Service
Monday, May 21, 2007
"VOLTA, Bjork (Elektra/Atlantic)
Bjork states the obvious on her new release "Volta" when she sings, "I feel at home whenever the unknown surrounds me." Of course, in trademark Bjork fashion, the full context of this observation offered on the track "Wanderlust" is that the Icelandic performer has divorced herself from humanity and exiled herself to the sea to be "held by ocean's paws." But the basic sentiment rings true that she loves embracing unprecedented adventure.
"Volta" is Bjork's most accessibly weird journey since she first embarked on a solo career away from the Sugarcubes more than a decade ago. Beatmaster/producer Timabaland (Justin Timberlake, Nelly Furtado, Missy Elliott) and the Congolese act Konono No. 1 set her up properly on first single "Earth Intruders," underscoring her anti-war message with a rush of marching beats as her arching wails proclaim, "Metallic! Carnage! Ferocity! ... Necessary voodoo!" It's a primal/futuristic, full-tilt free-for-all.
Timbaland returns for the electronic blowout "Innocence," where she gets a charge from her newfound feelings of fear: "Neurosis only attaches itself to fertile ground where it can flourish." The producer also offers her a more tender flutter on "Hope," where she sings about a suicide bomber who is made to look pregnant.
Bjork doesn't need Timbaland to make her shine, however. She and her longtime collaborator Mark Bell craft a demanding piece of electro-punk in "Declare Independence" as shocks and jolts agitate her escalating exhortations to, "Declare independence! Don't let them do that to you! Raise the flag!"
The most unexpected successful partnership comes with her duet with Antony Hegarty on "The Dull Flame of Desire," her preternatural-child rasps contrasting so sharply with his ridiculously florid delivery that it actually works, the two layering on the melodrama in an arrangement keyed to building tension.
A few of "Volta's" tracks are overlong, and there's a quasi-comatose stretch midway that could use more life, but Bjork's in her element here, whether she's buffeted by dueling ship horns, snaking along hissing hydraulic rhythms or sprawling in the expanse of her own overdubbed vocals.
She clearly feels at home.
Rating (five possible): 4
"GREATEST HITS -- STRAIGHT UP!" Paula Abdul (Virgin/EMI)
In defense of Paula Abdul ...
She may not have the pipes of the contestants she sits in judgment of on "American Idol," but she has the hits and sales that perhaps none of them will ever achieve.
It's easy to forget how gaudy Abdul's resume got in the late 1980s and early 1990s because she racked up her numbers with mostly forgettable songs. Yet at her peak, Abdul was a powerhouse, a point borne out with "Greatest Hits -- Straight Up!"
Her 1988 debut "Forever Your Girl" and 1991 follow-up "Spellbound" both went to No. 1 in the United States, combining to send six singles to No. 1 on the pop charts and a handful of others into the Top 40. She won a Grammy, MTV Awards and sold some 30 million albums worldwide.
But just like that, there was no love for her 1995 release, "Head Over Heels," and she was finished, doomed to be remembered as little more than the woman who sang with a cartoon cat on "Opposites Attract."
That is, until 2002, when "American Idol" came calling ...
Abdul would never have made the cut as a contestant -- not even the Abdul of 1988, when she was poised to storm the charts the way no "Idol" contestant has. But success for non-"Idol" singers is about more than being a great vocalist covering the songs of others, and Abdul had a perfect pop storm in her day.
"Greatest Hits -- Straight Up!" is loaded with the chunky beats, synthetic dance rhythms and happy hooks of the pre-grunge era. No. 1 songs from "Forever Your Girl" -- the title track, "Straight Up," "Cold Hearted" and "Opposites Attract" -- sound practically interchangeable in 2007; they're all joyous, if a little dated. And over the top of every arrangement is Abdul's Minnie Mouse voice, processed to palatability.
The cuts from "Spellbound" stand up better: "Rush, Rush" shows a singer doesn't have to have a booming voice to deliver a sweet ballad, and "The Promise of a New Day" is uplifting in its wide-eye perspective. Plus the underappreciated "Vibeology" is thick with bass and Cyndi-Lauper-like kitsch.
"Greatest Hits -- Straight Up!" fizzles as it wears on, disintegrating in the generic fluff of latter-career songs that never charted.
Still, Abdul's run of hits was phenomenal. So don't judge her.
Rating: 3
"VOICES HAVE EYES," Eccodek (White Swan)
A great thing about global dub music like that on Eccodek's "Voices Have Eyes" is that there's no template for the sound. Songs can follow any form, key to any type of instrumentation and feature any kind of vocalist singing in any language, or offer no vocals at all.
Of course that's exactly the problem many have with the genre. There's no conditioned response to originality, so imagine the boredom faced by those who prefer structured music as they listen to "Voices Have Eyes," waiting for emotional prompts like a chorus that never comes.
The Toronto act led by Andrew McPherson follows a couple of the genre's loose guidelines -- emphasizing percussion and coating everything with electronic sheen -- and then branches out on "Voices Have Eyes."
In addition to doing the treatments, setting up loops and laying down the bass and keyboards, McPherson plays sax and flute, the latter with particular zest on "Fan the Flames Dub." Beats are fleshed out with djembe and darbuka drums by Jason Shute and Alan Davis, respectively, plus Mali's Mansa Sissoko evocatively plays the kora, a stringed instrument, on "Spacehall Dub," "Words With the Griot" and "Juju in Those Strings."
Downtempo grooves thicken the resonance as "Voices Have Eyes" takes on jazz and occasionally reggae inflections, and the songs flow like random punctuation -- metaphorical question marks, exclamation points, ellipses -- yet rarely come to a period.
Striking voices add worldly textures, ranging from the Barry White-like huskiness of Fiji's Akuila Qumi on "Bula Akuila" to the Middle-eastern tones of Turkish-Canadian singer Meral Mert Bakar on the title track to the ephemeral swirls of Indian-Canadian vocalist Kiran Ahluwalia on "Heart's Desire Dub."
Too fast to be meditative and too slow to be dance music, "Voices Have Eyes" is nonetheless potentially mesmerizing to those open to it.
Yet to be fair, about everyone will feel their focus blur when confronted by the trio of "ambient" remixes strung together to end "Voices Have Eyes." The final 18 minutes of the release float off into spacious nothingness, not only inviting distraction, but demanding it.
The ending is about like putting on pajamas when guests are lingering at a party, thus dropping the hint: We're finished here, so stop hanging around.
Rating: 3-1/2
