LITTLE ROCK — Patsy Cline
On the Air:Her Greatest TV Performances
Hip-O
B
Before American Idol, et al, there was Arthur Godfrey’s Talent Scouts. Just as Kelly Clarkson and Carrie Underwood became huge stars after their triumphs, Patsy Cline exploded in popularity after winning on Godfrey’s show in 1957 with her performance of “Walkin’ After Midnight.”
Cline’s astonishing, emotional voice captured pop and country fans with songs such as “I Fall to Pieces,” “She’s Got You” and “Crazy.” This collection of live TV performances, mostly from the Grand Ole Opry in 1962, has variable sound quality. But Cline’s voice - one of American music’s greatest - never fails to move the listener. Her rich, expressive voice encapsulates the range of emotions.
It is a voice that continues to move music fans 50 years after her death in a plane crash. Cline’s 12 Greatest Hits has sold more than 10 million copies, a total exceeded only by Shania Twain, who sold 12 million of The Woman in Me.
Hot tracks: “Crazy,” “She’s Got You,” “Why Can’t He Be You,” “Walkin’ After Midnight.”
- ELLIS WIDNER
Aaron Lewis
The Road
Blaster/Warner Bros.
B-
The leader of rock band Staind makes his first full length country album and, just going on the surface details, it’s a fine transition. Aaron Lewis has a deep but pliable voice that comes across as authoritative and commanding in front of these mostly catchy, midtempo acoustic songs.
But listen to the details of Lewis’ compositions (he wrote all but one) and you see that the rock singer thinks that country music means depressing songs about depressing subjects (the exception is “Grandaddy’s Gun,” which is more about the history of a family than a weapon). For Lewis, that means too many opportunities to complain about how he’s on the road being a rock star. Groan. Also, Lewis makes the mistake (and he’s hardly alone) in thinking that there’s no need for humor in this kind of music.
Hot track: “Grandaddy’s Gun.”
- WERNER TRIESCHMANN
Paul Kelly
Spring and Fall
Cen
B+
Singer-songwriter Paul Kelly, a beloved institution in his home of Australia, releases his first full album in five years. The songs detail the beginning and end of a relationship and are done up in a wry, spare and sometimes disconcertingly detached style. The melodies are as strong as the instrumentation is spare.
Just when you think it’s all too samey-same, there’s a wonderfully out-of-tune piano walking through the door. Kelly, who sounds a lot like Bob Dylan here, shows off accrued wisdom and common sense that shine through on this generally fetching record.
Hot tracks: “Little Aches and Pains,” “Someone New.”
- WERNER TRIESCHMANN
Broadway Cast Recording
Chaplin: The Musical
Sony Masterworks C
A musical about one of the greatest silent film icons sounds like a contradiction. In a way it is, though Charlie Chaplin was no stranger to the art of music. He wrote “Smile,” after all. Too bad this show couldn’t come up with a song to match it.
On a project like this, the music and lyrics have to be fantastic to make up for the absence of the visual element and Chaplin falls pretty far short.
The show seeks to tell the story of Chaplin’s life, mostly through flashbacks and pop psychology. More often than not, it sinks into sappy, trite goo with contrived lyrics that hit emotional beats like a sledgehammer.
The album is at its best when taking cynical stabs at Hollywood, as in “Sennett Song,” or when giving the floor to a villainous Hedda Hopper in “All Falls Down.” The show may be better than the album indicates, but on its own, it’s pretty banal.
Hot tracks: “Sennett Song,” “All Falls Down.”
- JENNIFER NIXON
Hollywood Undead
Notes From the Underground
Octone/A&M
C
Fondly looking back to the era of Limp Bizkit and Linkin Park, Hollywood Undead combines aggressive, Eminem-style hip-hop with shrieking choruses and loud guitars in a more sonically sophisticated way than any of those late-’90s superstars did.
The band’s third studio album consistently sounds great, effectively using pianos, spookily lush synthesizers and crooned harmonies for the soft bits and drum loops and power chords (and, yes, raps) for the loud ones. Unfortunately, the band has less than nothing to say, resorting to empty rebellion (expressed through expletives) in “From the Ground” and crude references in “One More Bottle.”
Hot tracks: none.
- STEVE KNOPPER, McCLATCHY NEWS SERVICE
Style, Pages 27 on 01/15/2013