home
***
CD-ROM
|
disk
|
FTP
|
other
***
search
/
Time - Man of the Year
/
Time_Man_of_the_Year_Compact_Publishing_3YX-Disc-1_Compact_Publishing_1993.iso
/
moy
/
092192
/
0921990.000
< prev
next >
Wrap
Text File
|
1993-04-08
|
4KB
|
101 lines
REVIEWS, Page 69SHORT TAKES
MUSIC: Disappointingly Small Step
It's been four years since Bobby Brown's album Don't Be
Cruel marked "new jack swing" as a creative hotbed of black pop.
The fresh mix of funky, hiphop beats and bright, soulful
melodies set a widely influential musical style, fitting
perfectly around Brown's slim vocal talents. Naturally,
expectations were out of sight for Brown's latest solo outing,
Bobby, which assembles the same pro ducers as Cruel. The album,
however, doesn't pack the wallop to distinguish it from other
slick R. & B. records on the charts these days. Something in
Common, a ballad Brown shares with his wife Whitney Houston is
typical of the problem: short on juice but heavy on sap. New
jack may not be exhausted, but right now Bobby is fresh out of
new ideas.
MUSIC: Religious Roots
Even Geffen Records believes in family values these days.
Yes, the outfit that gave us the devilish Guns N' Roses is now
pushing MICHAEL W. SMITH, a contemporary Christian star. Last
year Smith's Place in This World was a No. 6 pop single. With
his new album, Change Your World, Smith aims for the loftier
success of Amy Grant, who blazed the Christian-to-pop crossover.
But while the secular songs Geffen will promote to radio are
pleasant (the syrupy duet with Grant, Somewhere Somehow, could
be a smash), the album's better cuts reflect Smith's religious
roots. A standout: Cross of Gold, which challenges people who
wear holy symbols around their necks but lack saintliness in
their souls.
BOOKS: Many a Slip . . .
About 40% of Americans drink wine at least occasionally.
Any of them who latch onto WINE SNOBBERY (Simon & Schuster;
$20) will have their eyebrows raised by this self-styled expose
of what's behind -- and what sometimes goes into -- the noble
beverage. In remorseless detail, British oenophile Andrew Barr
explains how France's supposedly rigid appellation laws protect
mediocrity more than excellence, why cheap champagne is often
better than top brands costing upwards of $40, and how producers
have got away with murder -- literally -- by dosing their wines
with dangerous additives. Like most Savonarolas, Barr could
lighten up a little, but there's no question that he knows which
clos have skeletons in them.
TELEVISION: Women's Wear Weekly
Leave it to CNN, the world's back fence, to make the
ephemeral universal. Each weekend, CNN airs STYLE WITH ELSA
KLENSCH, a brisk survey of how rich people live, dress and
accessorize. The show offers runway reports of next season's
couture (for the women) with more cleavage than anywhere this
side of pay cable (for men), plus grooming tips and a visit to
some fashion pooh-bah's aerie. Hovering above the glitz, as
stately and nurturing as the Queen Mum, is the Australian-born
Klensch. For Elsa, shoddy clothes and naughty tattle simply
n'existent pas. "Karl Lagerfeld could kill his mother," she told
HG, "and I'd just ask him about the design of his clothes." Who
else could merge Diana Vreeland and Diane Sawyer? No one Elsa.
CINEMA: Retro Preppies
Snooty school, snotty preppies, the socially unenlightened
1950s. Sound retrograde enough for you? Wait until you see
SCHOOL TIES. It even looks like the 1956 movie version of Tea
and Sympathy and shares with it and other prep-school dramas a
certain earnest didacticism. This time the sensitive schoolboy
is not sexually suspect. He is a poor Jewish lad from Scranton,
Pennsylvania, recruited to lead dear old St. Matthews to
gridiron glory. David Greene (Brendan Fraser) does so, but when
his religious affiliation is discovered, anti-Semitism, followed
predictably by soul-searching, breaks out. The film is well
meant and, in its old-fashioned way, well made and well acted.
But one is always about two moves ahead of the plot, which is
not exactly rich in new news.