The fall guys - fall music preview

Interview, Sept, 1999 by Ray Rogers, David Sprague, Julia Chaplin, Ernesto Lechner, Ted Panken, Henry Cabot Beck

It's make-or-break time for the music biz - fall, when heavily hyped debut artists attempt liftoff and old-timers find out if their fans will still go along for the ride. Autumn sales affect not only the labels, but the radio stations that play the records and the bands, young and old, who make the music. Some discs will be ripe for the picking and others will die on the vine. We inspected the crop to provide you with Interview's own fall preview

Rock and Pop

A fall bounty of sophomore albums from some of the late '90s' more explosive pop and rock newcomers is on the way. Stay tuned to see if Flona Apple can make the same kind of waves this year as she did with her 1996 Tidal debut (she's currently in the studio with Jon Brion for a tentative November release on Work). Other two-timers this season include post-grunge poster boys Bush (Nov., Trauma); novelty-hit "Bitch" Meredith Brooks (Sept., Capitol); So-Cal ska-lite band No Doubt, who are releasing their first album since 1994's blockbuster Tragic Kingdom (Nov., Interscope); and San Fran's hookiest rockers Third Eye Blind (Nov., Elektra), who have been recording at The Plant in Sausalito, soaking up the vibes that inspired such iconic rock albums as Stevie Nicks's 1990 Bella Donna.

On the comeback kick, Michael Jackson will try to resuscitate his flagging career with a very hush-hush new album (tent. Nov., Epic), his first since 1995's overhyped and underwhelming HIStory. Sting's Brand New Day (Sept., A&M) sounds like the kind of uplifting pop that should give his chart profile a much-needed boost. Meanwhile, expect Paula Cole to dominate the airwaves this season. "I Believe in Love," from her terrific new Amen (Sept., Warner Bros.), is disco of the Barry White variety: lustrous strings and sumptuous soul flavor.

Don't hold Geri Halliwell's disappointing solo debut as any indicator of how the next Spice to step off the rack will fare: The advance tracks from "Sporty Spice" Mel C's solo bow, Northern Star (Oct., Virgin), sound like the stuff of pop stardom - unexpectedly experimental full-tilt fun. (For the skinny on pop's new spice boys, see our boy band feature on pages 168-169.) And anyone who thinks rock is a dead medium need only listen to the music of Toshi Reagon and her almighty band Big Lovely. On Reagon's first album for Razor & Tie, The Righteous Ones (Sept.), the Brooklyn singer infuses her rock 'n' roll with earthy folk and sexy funk; her voice will give you, in the words of Maxwell, "church chills."

Trent Reznor works with a different kind of chill factor. He cornered the market on teenage angst with Nine Inch Nails' 1994 industrial-rock hybrid, The Downward Spiral. If the new single, "The Day the World Went Away," from his first full-length work since then, the ambitious double disc The Fragile (tent. Sept., nothing/Interscope), is any indication, he's still a master of alienation. Speaking of which, over the past two decades, goth granddaddy Robert Smith and the Cure have spread enough gloom to inspire legions of black-clad soldiers. They've never sounded darker than on what is said to be their swan song, Blood Rowers (Sept., Elektra), which caps their two-decade career.

Rock's great chameleon David Bowie, however, keeps on ticking, with his new CD, hours . . . (Oct., Virgin). Other blasts from the past: Bryan Ferry's As Time Goes By (Oct., Point Blank/Virgin), a swoon-and-croon collection of 1930s standards; an eight-CD Neil Young box set (Oct., Warner Bros.) chronicling Young's early career; and the Doors' Complete Studio Recordings (Oct., Elektra).

And for rock radio purists: Former Soundgarden vocalist Chris Cornell turns down the volume a few notches with his first solo album, Euphoria Morning (Sept., A&M), a more meditative, moody affair from the grunge years' best belter. Then, the mighty power chords, the hefty, grainy voice, the big heart, the big cliches - yes, Melissa Etheridge, master of the heartfelt and ham-fisted, is back with her first album in more than three years, Breakdown (Oct., Island). And classic rock lives on with LIVE, who return with The Distance to Here (Oct., Radioactive/MCA), produced by Jerry Harrison. Break out your lighters.

RAY ROGERS

Alternative

Cynics may insist there's nothing new under the sun, but the coming season's crop of alt-rock's roads-less-traveled proves there are still plenty of ways to infuse new life into time-tested forms, Take, for instance, the gaggle of acts who pay a decidedly modern homage to Frank Sinatra on Hangin' With the Chairman (tent. Sept., Reprise), including Smash Mouth and Big Bad Voodoo Daddy.

The often-derided singer-songwriter genre gets far darker and more compelling at its fringes - as evidenced by Johnny Dowd, a fiftyish blue-collar worker whose extraordinarily ravaged howl on Pictures From Life's Other Side (Aug., Koch) suggests a jam session between Tom Waits and Captain Beefheart's Magic Band. Another face of outsider folk is visible on Candy & Dirt (Sept., Impossible), the long*overdue second release from Heather Eatman, whose alternately literate and giddy tales offer plenty of whiplash-inducing moments. And Interview's longtime contributing music editor Dimitri Ehrlich releases his second album, As Nervous As You (Sept., Tainted Records), another intelligent batch of soulful, confessional songs. Using folk guitars, hip-hop beats, and mood-setting atmospherics, Ehrlich's compositions are as assured in their craft as they are vulnerable in their emotion.