Music zone

Sliding Doors — Original Soundtrack
(Sony Music)

THIS soundtrack is a prince among soundtracks with dint of reputable sources. Take Blair’s Have Fun, Go Mad, written, arranged and remixed by McKichan offering a carnival spirit. Space Monkey’s Drug Soup and Thank You by Dido edgily swoons in tandem with the film’s story. Aqua (surprisingly doing svelte ballad with Turn Back Time, Jamiroquai (goth-hoppy Use The Force), Dodgy (in inventive bossa-nova form with Good Enough), Olive (subtle and dreamy on Miracle) and Abra Moore (typically snappy with Don’t Feel Like Cryin’) are worth listening to. Of the rest, Honky Cat by Elton John, Call Me A Fool by Those Magnificent Men and On My Own by Peach Union help lend the soundtrack a widscreen emotional spread that’s anything but ordinary.

B*witched — B*witched (Sony Music)

This foursome of young Irish women — cooler, raunchier, more fun-oriented and less instantly catchy than Spice Girls is already huge in the international music scene. As for the music, the girls mean real fun. Edele, Keavy, Sinead and Lindsay seem intent on forming their reputation as teeny-bop voluptuaries. Doubts about whether they have any real talent are due to the overwhelming marketing blitz that has accompanied their rambunctious arrival. The chart topper C’est La Vie displays a bright flizzy pop. The pleasant ballad Oh Mr Postman and Blame It On The Weatherman are the most melodically interesting songs on the album. Well, ironically, B*witched members are at their best when they stop sounding like teenagers and concentrate on playing to their two considerable strengths. The first is a kind of experimentalism that lifts tracks like Rev It Up and Freak Out way above the swingbeat norm. The second is a grip on those catchy pop hooks that infuse the mega hit single Rollercoaster. The second half of the album appears to consist of a glorified version of someone playing about with the rhythms on their Bontempi keyboard. Only instead of bimbosa and swing, they randomly hit the buttons marked Swingbeat, Groove and Jive Bunny. But like all teen acts, whether B*witched members have what it takes to make it beyond on hit-wonder-land will depend on their next album.

TLC — Fan Mail (BMG Crescendo)

It has been quite some time since Waterfall. But Fan Mail is well worth the wait.

Fan Mail is an engagingly natural and gloriously creative musical mix of hip hop beats and rap, sampled vocal conversations, snatches of haunting melody and great pop chorus. The album has a high-tech feel to it. It offers digital sounds fused with what we call cyber technology. As befits one of our most together stars, the lyrics offer astute observations and the kind of non-ranking, blunt philosophy that’s actually worth hearing on topics that include racism, hypocrisy, love and money. With many producers like Jam and Lewis, LA Reid and Babyface, it’s surprising to hear TLC still doing their own stuff. And believe us they haven’t changed their attitude even a bit. They still sound as funky, flirtatious and blunt as ever and that is what we love them for and that’s what has helped Crazy Sexy Cool/sell 10 million copies. In 1992 T-Boyz, Left Eye and Chili managed to find a place on to Babyface and LA Reid’s Atlantic Record Label and gave a definitive shape to Female hip-hop. Some of the tracks worth checking out are Silly Ho, I’m Good At Being Bad, I Miss You So Much, Come On Down, Automatic and of course the title track Fan Mail. In short, it’s that kind of vivid, powerful experience that makes you wonder if every body shouldn’t take a few years break between albums.

Graff Sisters — Graaf (BMG Crescendo)

Once the choice of cliquey, pop is currently suffering from a terminal case of ubiquity. A glut of close harmony combos and sloppy swingbeats makes it impossible to sort on pop band from the other. What a relief, then, to come accross the joyous funk of the female due, Graff Sisters. After capturing the modelling world with a bang, Hannah and Megdalena Graff are now all set to take the music industry by storm. Should we say, this music is a treat to the ears as well as the eyes? No joking here. The duo certainly deserve more than the passing interest. This is a supreme example of their talent; within minutes, tracks like Hold On (What I Want), I Wish, Good Good Doodie Goodbye, Close To You (featuring D-Flex), Never Never and Heartbreaker are slapping down the bass. Infectious, innocent, inventive and peppy — in small doses.

Album of the month

Duran Duran — Greatest Hits (Milestone)

What Boyzone and Backstreet Boys are doing today, Duran Duran already did that in ‘80s. The bunch of five hunks rocked with one eye on the disco in a way rarely achieved. In 1982 Simon Le Bon, Nick Rhodes and three men named Taylor straddled the teen and adult markets, producing a sound which was accepted at once. Girls On Film (their first Top 10 hit with a racy video banned by BBC), Planet Earth and 1985’s Bond Theme, A View To A Kill are the best examples of 1980’s grooves. In 1986 drummer Roger Taylor and guitarist Andy Taylor quit the band. The band’s Rio contained splendid singles like Is There Something I Should Know and Save A Prayer which were promoted by videos each absorbing larger budget than that of the entire British film industry. Time-to-time, the band kept shifting towards more synthesized hooks, like All She Wants Is and I Don’t Want Your Love. Their first greatest hits, 1989’s Decade could not help Duran Duran recapture the music market, but 1993’s Ordinary World and Come Undone were an unexpected brief return to past glories. The much-maligned album Thank You followed. Now there is this back catalogue to remind us that, Duran Duran still remain very much at large.

— Saurabh & Gaurav