Eleanor McEvoy: "What's Following Me?"
Columbia 484233 2 (64 mins)
Dial-A-Track Code: 1531
On her second long player, Eleanor McEvoy displays her virtuosity to its fullest, wrapping her husky, breathy voice around languid love songs, spiky pop tunes and hard edged rock n roll, and playing acoustic and electric guitars, organ and violin with skill and smoothness. Her considerable talent, however, does not prevent What's Following Me from sounding fairly unremarkable, and although every song (she writes em too, by the way) is delivered with grace, none of them seems to really stand out.
There are moments, however, when Eleanor gives us glimpses into what she could sound like if she just took a few more risks. The album opens with two fairly standard, country flavoured rockers, A Glass Unkissed and Where Is The Healing, before dealing the first passionate kiss with Don't Ask Me Why, a Beatlesque ballad complete with soaring strings and gently picked chord scales. Other noteworthy tracks include the single, Precious Little, with its well crafted chorus and plaintive trumpet break (courtesy of Mark Isham), Trapped Inside, a Cranberries anthem minus the overkill, and My Own Sweet Bed Tonight, a restrained, relaxed ballad.
Sebadoh: "Harmacy"
Domino WIGCD26 (50 mins)
Dial-A-Track Code: 1641
US slacker gods Lou Barlow, Jason Loewenstein and Bob Fay have turned lo fi into high art, and with their sixth album, the three have refined their underwhelmed sound into something approaching awesome. The cover of Harmacy features a snapshot of an Irish pharmacy with the `p' missing from its sign, and it sums up the intriguing incompleteness which is Sebadoh's truncated trademark. Listening to the 19 songs on Harmacy is like going through a rummage sale of ideas and influences, and songs like On Fire, Prince-S and Beauty of The Ride are well worth digging out and haggling over.
Nothing Like You is Nirvana with a box shaped heart, while Mindreader is what Talking Heads might have sounded like it they'd gone even further down the road to nowhere. There's also, inevitably, come stuff here you wouldn't shell out a wooden nickel for, like Hillbilly JJ and, Zone Doubt, but with all the bargains on offer, you won't carp at a few duds.
Various Artists: "Sweet Relief II - Gravity Of The Situation"
Columbia 484137 2 (60 mins)
Dial-A-Track Code: 1751
In 1993, some of America's top artists paid tribute to the music of Victoria Williams, raising funds to pay for her medical bills in the process. The success of Sweet Relief led to the setting up of a non profit musicians fund, and Sweet Relief II features the likes of R.E.M., Soul Asylum, Garbage, Smashing Pumpkins and Indigo Girls, each interpreting the uniquely, stilted songs of Athens, Georgia artist, Vic Chesnutt.
It can't be easy to cover Chesnutt's quirky, close to the bone style of songwriting, but the likes of Michael Stipe, Cracker and Kristin Hersh seem to have an innate understanding of Vic's battered, bruising vision. The trashy, direct Kick My Ass suits Garbage's glam grunge style down to the ground, while, Sad Peter Panis the perfect metaphor for Billy Corgan's lonely, sky gliding persona.
Fool's Garden: "Dish Of The Day"
EMI 8 37761 2 (46 mins)
Dial-A-Track Code: 1861
When the sickly, twee tones of Lemon Tree first started to waft along the Irish airwaves, some of us felt the urge to head for the hills and wait for the sugary taste to wear off. Now the German band with the big Irish hit have released their debut album, and even the most bitter and twisted among us won't be able to stop the oncoming barrage of citrus.
Fool's Garden is led by singer Peter Freudenthaler, and he's responsible for most of the catchy, poptastic, and bloody irritating tunes on this album. Freudenthaler is obviously a fan of Strawberry Fields-era Beatles, but songs like Ordinary Man and Wild Days are more ELO than Oasis. The guitar led grandeur of Take Me, The Seal and The Tocsin echo Pink Floyd's Division Bell, but also call to mind the lesser epics of Chris De Burgh. At least this dish is a bit more palatable than EMI's other German success story, The Kelly Family.
