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I listen to a lot of music, either in my car or at work (via the CD player in the computer). Because of this, I'm always looking for something new and/or interesting. I won't bother talking about records played on every radio station a thousand times a day. Chances are most of you already know enough about them (unless I deem it so exceptional or revolting I just have to talk about it). So here are some rare gems, or lesser-known musical endeavors I've come across lately....

Joe Jackson: Heaven and Hell, 1998

Ben Folds Five: Whatever and Ever Amen, 1997

Visions II: The Spirit of Rumi, 1998

Chumbawumba: Tubthumpers, 1997

Bjork: Homogenic, 1998

Joan Osborne: Relish, 1997

DC Talk: Jesus Freak, 1997

Enya: The Memory of Trees, 1997

Joe Jackson (and friends): Heaven and Hell. My rating: A-

One thing you can say about Joe Jackson, you never know what you're going to get when you peel the cellophane off one of his CDs. Heaven and Hell, his latest musical endeavor, is his take on the seven deadly sins. Of course, as you would expect, there are seven songs, with two "Fugues" thrown in, one before the first and the last numbers. The "...and friends" means that he collaborates with a whole range of artists. On "Angel (lust)," Suzanne Vega tries her best to be humorously seductive as she waxes (intentionally) bizarre come-ons throughout this song, now and again cutting into song, calling the 'sailor' from an imaginary lamp post. "Angel" is one of the best songs on the album. My description does not do it justice. On the other end of the octave scale, and just as good, my favorite baritone Brad Roberts (lead singer to the Canadian group "Crash Test Dummies"), pines away on his couch on the tune "A Bud and a Slice (Sloth)." Now, who better than Brad Roberts to sloowwlly sing a song symbolizing sloth. Joe Jackson, keep in mind, sings on every song, with the exception of the unexceptional "Bridge," which for some reason is supposed to be about envy. It's a loose connection. Not a bad, song, though, but kind of boring.

The collection starts out with Joe's first "fugue," synthesizers and violins replacing a full-blown orchestra. it's interesting, but a little long. "Gluttony" is the first sin to be covered after this, by way of the song "More is More". The lyrics, though hard to understand as Jackson does his best to squeeze out every long line in one breath (it works, though), are pretty funny. "Angel" is next, showing us the sin of "lust." Vega is very good with this one. Then comes an odd one, but very interesting. "Tuzla" uses he backdrop of the Serbian war to show us "Greed." How folks will put off revenge to make a buck (or a loaf of bread) off the enemy. It comes off as more of an anti-war song, but still, an interesting number. After a loong intro, which is NOT too long, it's prefect, we're graced with Brad Robert's slow, lazy couch potato (sloth) in "A Bud and a Slice", which is actually a duet with Jackson, who plays a slothful Brit to Robert's Canadian. Then, Boom! We're tossed into "Right" an barrage of swears and curses and extremely melodic verses demonstrating quite well the deadly sin "anger." Then crash, we're dropped into the slow poppy melody of "The Bridge," which unsuccessfully shows me the meaning of "Envy." One final "Fugue," a re-hash of the first, and we get the final sin, "Pride," in the short "Song of Daedalus."

Joe Jackson is brilliant, and it seems his label gives him free reign in his works. This album is a must have, but any standard. Experimental? Yes, but not so much that it limits his audience (like his earlier experiment "what ever it's called" which mixes tunes with lullaby quality orchestral pieces... some of the songs were good, but the overall affect was sleepy). I honestly think anyone listening to this will find something to grab onto. For me, it was everything.

Technical warning: this is one of those interactive CDs, with video and music. If you load this into your computer, a menu comes up and if you want to see the making of the album along with the music you load some graphics software supplied on the disc and then whoola, multi-media. You are supposed to have the option of just playing the music through your PC's CD player, but this feature does not work, regardless of what their tech support people told me. If you just want music on your computer without the visuals, when the CD is loaded and the menu comes up, click the 'X' and get out. Then manually start your CD player and it'll recognize the disc. The CD works find on regular CD players, though. Not to worry.

Ben Folds Five: Whatever and Ever Amen. My rating: B-

I had higher hopes for this one, though still it's not bad. The only single from Mr. Folds' threesome I'd heard was the melancholy ballad 'Brick.' A good song, unique and wistful. And there are a couple of other good ones along the same line, such as "Smoke" and "Cigarette" and "Missing the war", not to mention a couple of snappy clever tunes, ("Steven's last night in town" and "Selfless, Cold and composed") though still mellower than other songs. Still others totally bite, such as "Song for the dumped". I don't know, what is it? As individual singles these songs could have done well, but that's not what I'm reviewing. It's the album, itself. Ben Folds Five is a threesome. Ben Folds is the lead singer, and he sounds a lot like a young Joe Jackson (ironically enough, JJ's new album is going to be reviewed next). Here's the first thing. Why "Five?" To be cool, I'm sure. But it's pretentious. That's the word, I think. I listen to this album and I think two things: 1) BF5 is three twenty-something guys who are not cool, but think they are, and as such they throw in a 'fucking' or 'bullshit' just because they think that'll make them sound hip, at the cost of the song, and 2) they have lots and lots of talent, but don't quite know how to use it yet. I listen to this album and can sense a brilliance which will shine through once Folds is done loving his incorrect self-image (it doesn't help that they put their pictures on the cover and all three look like pencil nerds from the 1970's.... they look like me in high school, in other words), he could put together a remarkable piece of work. Again, individually the songs work, most of the time. As a collective "Whatever and Ever, Amen" is worth a hear (order from a record club, though, pay less / enjoy more), as long as now and then you don't mind having your irritation strings pulled.

Visions II: The Spirit of Rumi. My rating: A

The spirit of what? Hey, I told you I'd introduce you to some new stuff. Rumi is a 15th century "prophet" (read that as "Poet"), who was famous for his long diatribes on the condition of the human being, and of love in all its aspects. Basically a romance writer who was taken real seriously in his time. His haunt: Turkey. He had a following, his writings inspiring a near-religious fervor, not to mention a lot of sweaty bodies rolling in the hay. It was the man Rumi who invented the whirling dervish, that Turkish dance where they wear Fezzes and spin around... anyway:

Visions II: The Spirit of Rumi, is an attempt to capture Rumi's poetry and music, with a slightly modern sound (some synthesizer's, more modern instruments). Overall, though, what you have is the sounds and sensations of the alien world of fifteenth century Turkey, with the same basic instruments and vocal arrangements. Different artists from across the globe contributed their voices to the making of this album. Some from South America, Africa, the U.S., Europe, and of course Turkey (or whatever it's called now... Serbia?). Because of this, the music brings in a blend of cultures, a blend of histories. Over all of this, a woman reads some of the words from Rumi's poetry in an extremely seductive, sultry voice. The poetry is about loving, letting go, seduction, no Venus and Mars stuff here. And the music is alive with history and wonderful newness, not to mention a lot of nasally voices now and then.

Pick this up. If you light Chant, or different sounds from around the world, packaged in a good sounding CD, you'll really like this one

Chumbawumba: Tubthumpers. My rating: A+

For the last two years, the music industry has rolled out the same cookie cutter sounds, much like the bubble-gum phase of the sixties and flash/pan decade of the eighties. Not to mention my favorite radio station WBOS was invaded by the Infinity Broadcasting horde and turned into yet another purveyor of crap to protect its other, faltering stations (This has been corrected, see 'Musical Notes' section somewhere around here). Then, one magical day, my niece Holly loaned me her Chumbawumba tape for a ride to Wright's Chicken Farm (am I being too detailed here?). The skies opened up and the rays of a glorious album shone down on me! Amen! Finally I was pulled from the fire of... I really liked the tape.

Chumbawuma is a band from Ireland... or England, can't be too sure (anyone know?). That's about all I know about them. There appears to be two female and two male lead singers plus about three other guys, and like Fleetwood Mac (the one WITH Buckinham, Nicks and McVie-squared) they exchange turns writing, composing and singing on the album. Unlike FM, every song is a rocker. The only way to describe Chumbawumba is as a mix of FM, the B52s, maybe some English Beat, and a LOT of original beats and sounds that make this a pretty unique listen. Every song, even if starting out slow which some do, kicks in to some of the richest rock and roll/new wave/alternative music I've heard in ages (With exception of "Good Ship lifestyle"). Now this is more a rock album than anything else, and the comparison to FM is no accident. If the latter band was born in Northen Ireland/Southern England and had a much nastier attitude and an even sharper sense of humor (oh, and a much bigger brass section), you'd have Chumbawumba. Buy this CD, buy this CD. Reward their label and distributors for bringing them to America.

...all right, all right. They're the band that sings 'Tubthumping', as in "I get knocked down, but I get up again, no one;s ever gonna keep me down..." And though that's a great song to open with, the rest of the CD will just blow you away.

Bjork: Homogenic, 1998. I have to give this one a C-. Sorry, Bjork.

When I got this CD I really didn't know anything about the artist except she's a smash International pop singer who's making it big in the Big World. I liked the cover and wanted to expand my horizons. She's all the rave in her home country of Iceland, and I can believe that. She can speak Icelandic. Unfortunately, she can't speak English. Listening to each song I think two things: this would sound pretty cool in her native tongue, and it sounds pretty bad in English. Don't get me wrong, the music is very intriguing: a mix of technopop and orchestra (real strings, I think), interesting rhythms, not sticking to the same old verse/refrain/verse/refrain/bridge/verse/refrain format of most songs. But I just can't STAND listening to this woman sing. Now maybe if I was ten years younger I'd think, 'Hey, this is cool. Some chick's spitting into the mike because she can't make 'CH' sounds.' But really, it's tough to hear. Now maybe the Beatles spoke German, at least a little, but I can't get it out of my head that poor Bjork just practiced the jerky, nonsensical sounds that make up English and spat them out to the tune of her songs. Maybe I'm just too impatient. Maybe she should learn better English and how it relates to music. Maybe I should learn Icelandic and listen to this CD as I'm sure it should be listened to.

Joan Osborne: Relish, 1997 Rating: A

Unfortunately, the record company only released 1.5 singles from this album (1 hit song and a follow-up single which was never supported and thus died... sounds like a Geffen maneuver, I'll go check the CD case... nope. Mercury) so the world never really got to know Joan Osborne. The hit from this album is entitled 'One of Us' (as in 'What if God was one of us?'). It made a great splash (and for some reason made Boston DJ Charles Laquadeira gibber like an idiot...), but since it was released along with three thousand other solo female singers in the Spring/Summer of 1997, Osborne was lost in the mix. That's too bad, since the rest of the album is a highly original, gritty bag of bluesy rock filled with soul, sweat and pheromones. OK, so I sounded like a record club catalog just then. Sorry. The funny thing about this CD is that 'One of Us', though I like it very much, is the worst song on the album. Songs like 'Spider Web' combine some interesting percussion and even interesting-er lyrics (i.e. Ray Charles getting his sight back and not wanting to write songs anymore), or 'Let's Just Get Naked' the title of which is pretty self-explanatory. This is not a Janet Jackson sexpot album, don't let the latter song title fool you. It's pretty straight forward blues, modernized, feminine in a rough and tumble sort of way, plugged in. Every song stands on its own and it meets my #1 rule for a solo performer: do you notice the same artist is singing every song on the album (a positive answer is bad)? Nope. Good.

DC Talk: Jesus Freak, 1998 Rating: A+

Contemporary Christian music is a big, big business, but mostly down South (for those of you new to me, in case you haven't noticed elsewhere, I'm from New England). Around here you don't find much (one AM Radio station, and even that has mostly preaching). Amy Grant is one of the few played around here in any regularity (though she does mostly Pop these days anyway). Whenever I've listened to Christian 'rock', it's usually been a nice try, but almost always its been pretty lame, adolescent. Now there's DC Talk. And I'll say this next thing with all honesty, not biased by any religious fervor: they're one of the best all around rock bands I've heard... ever. Now those who know me know I had 400+ albums (down to one crate these days) and well over 300+ CDs, from Beethoven to Beatles to Black Sabbath, Larry Norman to Marc Cohn to, well, Bjork (see abovtthhh). And I have to say DC Talk's "Jesus Freak" is one of my all time favorites. For sure, every song is laden with the spiritual message of Christianity that drove them to make the album in the first place (I'm sure the love of music and raw talent had LOTS to do with it as well). The opening, "So Help Me God" is a so-so song compared to the rest of the collection, but it's a good intro to "Colored People" a song about prejudice, and the title-anthem "Jesus Freak." The latter combines rap, heavy rocking and a lot of bass, and some awfully original and kick-ass lyrics. DC Talk's sound is a mix of Collective Soul, and perhaps Lenny Kravitz. But better. A lot better. If you like rock 'n roll, great song writing, then even if you worship the devil and kill small woodland creatures on a full moon, you'll still love DC Talk.

Enya: The Memory of Trees. My rating: A+

I first heard Enya in a quaint gift shop in New Hampshire in 1989, and since then have been a major fan. Enya is an Irish soloist, mostly categorized as 'New Age,' which is a fair category. Her songs are ethereal, haunting, honestly very beautiful. It's not music to do aerobics by, but pretty much anything else is fine. Enya (I have no idea what her real name is) used to front the popular Irish band Clannad (her sister has the honors now). She's made four albums (not counting the Greatest Hits which has just come out): The Celts, Waternark, Shepherd Moons and The Memory of Trees. Of these four, all but Shepherd Moons (it seemed too much a forced album) are tremendous. She's fluent in Gaelic, the native language of Ireland, and a number of songs (usually about half) are written in that oddly-haunting tongue. Enya writes her own lyrics, music and usually plays all instruments. Pretty respectable. The music is heavy on synthesizers, even her voice is digitized and over-dubbed on some songs, acting as the major instrumental sound. Now, not all her stuff is synthed vocals. She does a number with her voice au-natural, and it's beautiful. A number of instrumentals tops off the album(s). The Memory of Trees won the Grammy for Best New Age album, and it should. From the gorgeous piano opening number, "The Memory of Trees", to the happy, and at the same time introspective, "On My Way Home," this fourth offering from the beautiful Druid from Ireland is an utter pleasure.

Musical Notes:

Haven't had a chance to get to this yet....stay tuned.