January 12 - January 18, 1995

YELLO

Zebra
Island Records
1 Star
BORIS BLANK'S COMPUTER-pulsations were the faux hormones that once made Yello's sexy roboto-disco stand up and throb, but partner Dieter Meier's lyrics whisper a dark, pathetic truth, "Screaming, shouting, love to be found...trying to remember desire."

1985's "Desire" took up about four minutes of their allotted 15 of fame; "Oh, Yeah" (at one time included on about a half-dozen film soundtracks) took up another four. It sounds like they're never going to get their last seven minutes. Too bad drum machines can't play "Taps."
--Michael Metzger

KING CURTIS

Instant Soul: The Legendary King Curtis
Razor and Tie
4 Stars
ROCK AND ROLL didn't just appear out of nowhere--it surfaced through the aggressive music of players like tenorman King Curtis, who in the late '50s honked so hard that the music couldn't be categorized rhythm and blues anymore.

Instant Soul is a wonderful collection of burning sax instrumentals stretching over three decades. Curtis growls and squeals with a passion that parallels the intensity of peer vocalists Wilson Pickett and Otis Redding. This is as gritty as music gets, and it's required listening for any disciple of soul music.
--Dave McElfresh

THE SOUND OF POVERTY

Anyway Records Singles '92-'93
Get Hip Records
2 Stars
SOME MIGHT BE surprised to hear something other than the Ohio State Marching Band coming out of Columbus, where Anyway Records has been busy slicing and dicing vinyl 45s of noise and abuse for the past few years. Gaunt and The New Bomb Turks are a couple of the locals who have gotten some national ink, but they sound like just about any other band from the past five years who've called themselves "punk." That's not bad, simply uninteresting. Log delivers the most engaging sound, kinda the Velvets meets the Rain Parade after a few dozen joints and beers. This isn't the Columbus, Ohio, I remember, but then what is?
--Timothy Gassen

DON COVAY

Mercy Mercy: The Definitive Don Covay
Razor and Tie
3 Stars
SINGER/WRITER DON Covay was a walking encyclopedia of R&B styles throughout the '50s and '60s, recording New York-style doo-wop tunes and Drifters-like black pop as well as Memphis soul. His eclecticism probably accounts for why he's known for the songs he farmed out rather than any of his own too-diverse albums. Listening to his '60s cuts shows how much the young Keith Richards and Bill Wyman mimicked his style on the Stones' albums up through Aftermath.

Mercy Mercy contains the original versions of songs covered last year by the likes of Iggy Pop and Todd Rundgren on the great disc Back To The Streets: Celebrating The Music of Don Covay, as well as a dozen equally great ones that weren't.
--Dave McElfresh

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