Have you heard?

Aug 20 18:09 UTC 1994

        This is the album that asks someone to review an album you haven't
heard.  I'll start the item. Has anyone heard the new Jane Siberry album
that is produced by Brian Eno?  Enter your own albums you haven't heard,
and wait for someone to respond.

response 2 of 54:

Aug 21 01:51 UTC 1994

Sorry, have not heard Siberry's. Has anyone heard of the english band "Hothouse
Flowers"? If so, what is their best recording in your opinion? I have only
heard their "People" release.

response 4 of 54:

Aug 21 18:50 UTC 1994

I remember hearing about Hothouse Flowers back in 89 or 90.   I think they got
some press back then because Bono was suppposedly a fan.  The guy next door
got the album -- it's alright, kinda alterna-rock lite.  But it has been a long
time -- I could be misremembering! ; )

response 6 of 54:

Aug 22 05:06 UTC 1994

Funny.  I liked Dream and thought Hell was monotonous and tedious.

response 8 of 54:

Aug 23 16:26 UTC 1994

        Has anyone heard the new Neil Young? Also does anyone know when the
new breeders and Belley albums are supposed to come out?
        Alas I haven't heard any of the cds others have requested be reviewed.

response 10 of 54:

Aug 24 04:20 UTC 1994

I have some Hothouse Flowers stuff from about 1990 or so...I LOVE their
version of the song "I Can See Clearly Now"!  I have a video their label sent
me when I was a DJ...never watched it though...hmmm, it's around here somewhere
I suppose?

response 12 of 54:

Aug 25 00:11 UTC 1994

I asked about Hawkins, but bought it anyway, so if anybody else is
interested, let me know.  :-)
(Haven't played it yet; been listening to Stone Temple Pilots)

response 14 of 54:

Aug 25 20:22 UTC 1994

(Sadie Hawkins, as I remember, was a drummer from NYC who scored
big with "Damn! I Wish I Was Your Lover" a couple of years ago. The
tune was rather percussion oriented, but not overly so. The album
had several good reviews, but I don't remember it doing very well
commercially, or at least not anything extraordinary.)

(I wouldn't mind seeing a review of her first album. brighn?)

response 16 of 54:

Aug 25 22:49 UTC 1994

Correction:  It's Sophie, not Sadie, Hawkins.  My mistake.  Her first album
was "Tongues and Tails", and included "Damn! I wish I was your lover".  Her
new album is "Whaler."  Her first album was characterized by a very openly
sexual sound, but a very positive sound (in juxtaposition to the deep cynicism 
of Liz Phair).  Whaler, on the other hand, is much more demure, with a  few
songs even bordering on torch song melodies.  Reviewing them both: T&T:  Few of
the songs are cleanly developed, and this begs comparison (as I already have
done) to Liz Phair's Exile in Guyville.  However, Hawkins' melodies are more
complex, and the lyrics deeper. What Hawkins has failed to  do, simply, is to
pull already complex songs into a cohesive whole.  This  lack of cohesion works
for the songs which deserve to stand out, and on the whole for most of the
songs, but it makes a few of the less-developed  songs seem even more contrived
than they already are.  Also, like Phair, Hawkins manages to cover familiar
ground (love and sex) in somewhat novel ways.  But unlike Phair, Hawkins'
approach is positive.  Cf. Phair:" I'll suck you 'til your dick is blue... I
want to be your blowjob queen" (chanted in Johnny Sunshine), "I swore this
would never happen again, fu** and run, ever since I was twelve..." (fu** and
run); Hawkins:" We are one body/We are one spirit/One breath/One dream of life
and  death/One God/One sex" (We are one body); "Love and let love be our 
desire/Live and let life be our fire" (Live and let love); "Don't  stop
swaying, baby, you soothe my soul and I stop searching when I  get lost in the
rhythm everything stops hurting" (Don't stop swaying). Hawkins has a
bluesy-jazzy background support which suits her voice well.  when I first got
the album it spent an inordinate amount of  time on the CD player.  One warning
though (and I wish I didn't have to make this warning):  my mother-in-law 
bought a tape copy blindly because of the cover art and the song titles, and
was instantly repulsed by the "lesbian music".  The album doesn't strike me
that way at  all, but it has struck others that way, too. Whaler:  Whaler is
significantly toned-down from T&T, and from a first listen this is a bit of a
disappointment.  In comparison to T&T,  Hawkins sounds like just another female
singer on Whaler, although I'm sure part of that stems from an unfamiliarity
with the album (I don't like reviewing an album before I've heard it at least
three times; first impressions have failed me so many times it's not funny.  My
first impression of NIN's Downward Spiral, for instance, was one of sheer
horror and disappointment.)  At any rate, the ground is safer in that it is the
road more travelled.  The final track, for instance,  Mr. Tugboat Hello, is an
incredibly safe cabaret song.  Whaler has  more commercial potential because of
this, but less critical appeal.

response 18 of 54:

Aug 31 17:59 UTC 1994

        Has anyone jeard Dee-Lite's new CD "Dewdrop Garden?" I heard parts of a
couple cuts off the CD in Tower records and it didn't grab me like their
first one "Woerld Clique" did.  Anyone but the tape/cd have a different
opinion?                                      buy

response 20 of 54:

Sep 2 22:39 UTC 1994

Anybody have anything on The Young Dubliners?

response 22 of 54:

Sep 5 16:12 UTC 1994

I don't have any other KC to recommend.  I do know that the three albums
you have are from the 80's incarnation of the band, which seems to share little
 except the name and Robert Fripp with the 70's version.

response 24 of 54:

Sep 8 01:59 UTC 1994

q