European Stars and Stripes (Newspaper) - July 8, 1994, Darmstadt, Hesse On disc former Model Eleanor Mcevoy turns despair into Hope with her music. Eleanor Mcevoy in by Deedee Arrington Doke Leanor Mcevoy writes and sings the kind of a songs one wants to hear just before or after a Good cry. The kind of cry you be had when you re miserable but reveling in the sad Beauty of it All a Quot the tears that drip from my bewildered eyes taste of bittersweet Romance. My heart is so Low As Only a woman s heart can be Quot the Irish Singer songwriter croons in her Best known song Only a woman s heart. Quot you re remembering emotions sometime you d rather forget Quot an upbeat Mcevoy conceded cheerfully in a Telephone interview. Quot some songs Are very difficult to write. I always write about things that Are going on in my life at the time. I could t write about an abstract Mcevoy is a classically trained musician a those Only a woman s hear became the Central song of an album called a woman s heart that featured performances by six Irish women. Sometimes the project is incorrectly identified As a group performance. Most of the women Quot never even met until after the album Quot Mcevoy laughed. Mcevoy travels with a three Man band and her shows she said Are Quot very much a Rock however on her second album she s including parts for a string quartet. A dose listen to her album reveals shades of influence that run the Gamut from Edith i a f to Richard Wagner. Quot i love the whole wagnerian idea of shifting harmonies Quot Mcayoy said. A More obvious contemporary influence is France s Jacques Brel from whom Mcevoy borrows a. Conversational but brooding lyrical style and Melody flow that starts out almost in Monotone then blossoms into a sweeping full blown Bridge 1 Quot i love his kind of cynicism Quot Mcevoy enthused. Quot he s a very honest her first a and so far Only a Complete album of her own features the first song she Ever wrote for you. Quot it was the first serious song i Ever wrote. J wrote silly songs As a child Quot she kicking off her tradition of writing Only about her life circumstances and thoughts at a Given Point for you reflected her main preoccupation at the time an unrequited love. She described the period As one in which Quot the. One thing t was sure of in my life was my love for this she finally got Over him she said Quot after about six years. It took me about three years to in spite of Mcevoy s determinedly feminine Point of View men also respond to the vulnerabilities she bares in her music and her warmth turning up in Large numbers at her concerts. ,. Quot in Spain it s 90 percent men Quot she said. She a spending a Good bit of time on the Road in Europe As Well As in the United states and a new album will be out sometime in the next although the Point of View will retain her decided femininity Mcevoy hinted that the tone will be altered somewhat. In the course of maturing she said some things Quot Are. Not As vital to your life so you write about them in a different afe encamp b dance naked a. A John Mellencamp Mercury it Hough John Mellencamp made a big Deal a few albums ago about not wanting to be a a pop Singer Quot the truth is that most of his albums in recent years have been too Slick for their own Good. Not dance naked though. Blessed with a sound that s lean arid feisty the album boasts the same sort of raw Charm that animated Mellencamp a Early work. Granted that stripped Down approach also tends to make the singers failings More apparent from the obvious musical debts Lou Reed Keith Richards to his occasional caddis Ness just try using the title tune As a pick up line sometime. But when his strategy succeeds a As it does with his remake of Van Morrison a wild night or on the hard rocking the big Jack the results rank. Among his Best work in Ages. Age Ain t nothing but a number Aaliyah Jive to a easy to understand what made Aaliyah a debut single Back and Forth such a smash a not Only was it powered by a sinuous and insinuating rhythm Loop but Aaliyah a Silky smooth delivery gave a convincing sensual undercurrent to. . Unfortunately neither she nor producer r. Kelly Are Able to sustain that kind of chemistry for the duration of age ainu to nothing but a number. Aaliyah s singing is stunning when she has something of substance to work with As her cover of the Isley Brothers Oldie at your Best you Are love makes Plain. Too often though the Obj a she a Given offer Only the sketch est of Melodie something that makes the album seem overlong and monotonous. And though the title tune s intentions Are no doubt Well meaning and romantic its hard not to feel at least a Little uneasy with its so what if Lam jail bait sentiment. Automatic Channel Light vessel Gyroscope Etc a be honest a super group is Only As super As the music it makes. So even though Channel Light vessel draws on such name Talent As Roger Eno Bill Nelson bebop deluxe and Kate St. John dream Aca Emythe music it produces for automatic is Bland enough to have been the work of rank unknowns. Instead of generating the sort of Low key intensity that makes ambient music such a pleasure what we hear has All the textural complexity of Art Rock with none of its dynamism. Worse when the band goes from the vaguely edgy testify or Bally boots to the quietly tuneful train travelling North or bubbling blues Validity sets in that leaves the album sounding like Little More than background music with pretensions and there a nothing super about that. A . Considine Baltimore Sun album Rock tracks rap singles 1. Fund fled a brat 2. Regulate Warren g. And Nate Dogg 3. Back in the Day Ahmad 4. Ease my mind arrested development 5. Got me waiting heavy d amp the Boyz. 6. Sweet potato pie Domino 7. Pumps and a bump Hammer 8. Brooklyn the Brooklyn dodgers 9. Player s Ball outcast 10. Fantastic voyage coolie 1. Fall Down Toad the wet sprocket 2. Came out and play offspring 3. Black Hole Sun. Sound Garden 4. Shine collective soul. 5. Girls amp boys blur 6. Selling the drama live 7. Longview Green Day 6. Vasol lne Stone Temple pilots 9. Big empty Stone Temple pills 10. Prayer for the dying sea jazz albums 1. Breathless Kenny g 2. Tenderness Al Jarreau 3. After the storm Norman Brown 4. Backbone Boney James 5. Sax by the fire John Tesh project 6. Hard Castle. Paul Hardcastle 7. Poltl Volty incognito a. Smooth Gerald Albright 9. Love Nancy Nancy Wilson 10. Heart to heart Diane Schuur . Kinga complied by billboard focus a entertainment editor. Dee Doe Arrington Doke . Sand co Jones listing contributors staff writers Marian Hamilton sue Palumbo Nancy l, Ferenc Pajtas Joe Olano. Send entertainment news t is Story Reaa. And listings to the stars and strip pc entertain men unit 29480, Apo a 0921 o civilian 11 14 37, 6.4278 Pam .St.idt. Germany. A. A Telephone Dan 343 8359, a v of 193 201 3 0 a Tei Elax. 06155 601416. Outside Germany the country no a 44 drop the 0 from the july 8, 1994 the stars and stripes 25
