EVER CHANGING TIMES
Steve Lukather
(Ride Records)

MY first reaction when I got this album was to burst out in laughter. Lukather, sitting, legs crossed with his dark shades and darker mustache, looked uncannily like Tamil movie icon Rajinikanth.
His music, on the other hand, is nothing to be laughed at. The Toto lead guitarist, at the ripe old age of 51, is still rocking hard enough to put many of his younger counterparts to shame.
The album has production values that are just about perfect, coupled with intelligent and poetic lyrics.
Yet, the highlight is still very much the superb guitar skills of the man who still is one of the most in-demand sessions musicians in the world.
His wailing solos and power-packed riffs are edgy but melodic and intense yet accessible even to the untrained ear - no mean feat indeed. He manages to uninhibitedly release his creative juices without getting to the point where he indulges in musical self-love.
Those who are more than just casual listeners will also appreciate the little flourishes he inserts to give the songs that little extra zing.
Selected tracks: Ever Changing Times, Tell Me What You Want From Me, The Truth

NEW AMERYKAH PART ONE (FOURTH WORLD WAR)
Erykah Badu
(Universal Motown Records)

THIS album is everything Erykah Badu herself is — weird, unique, arresting and largely unfathomable.
The first clue you get as to how odd this work actually is, is when you flip through the liner notes, which are filled with intense, trippy and sometimes gruesome, images.
A red-eyed, skeletal Uncle Sam brandishes a gun straight at you. A suited skeleton with a dollar sign tattooed on its head addresses a legion of headless drones from a pulpit bearing the creepy pyramid with the All-Seeing Eye and the Latin translation of New World Order below (which can be found on the dollar note). A robotic mother and child water a flower which is also a gramophone.
All interesting and disturbing images which very much reflects the theme of the music inside — which is, by and large, a no-holds barred indictment of modern-day America and its effect on the country’s black community.
Whether her broaching of such issues is an indication of a creeping cynicism or whether it is her attempt at awakening social consciousness, I wouldn’t dare to guess.
Her choice of music reflects the overall tone of the album because though she has retained her original soul sensibilities, the overpowering feel is one of grimy street hip-hop more than anything else.
Selected tracks: Amerykahn Promise, The Soldier, Twinkle

ESSENTIAL REGGAE
Various
(Universal Music)

IT’S pretty pointless to point out the obvious but I’ll do it anyway. Most compilations that are labelled “greatest”, “classic” or, as in this case, “essential” are anything but that due to the fact that record labels can only include artistes in their stable.
This is why Essential Reggae has a clown like Shaggy rubbing shoulders with reggae giants like Bob Marley, Desmond Dekker and Toots & The Maytals while other acts like Peter Tosh and UB40 are conspicuously missing.
What gets me though is why there was a need to have two Shaggy numbers on this double-disc set and only one Bob Marley tune (and not even one of his best ones at that!).
That being said, there are some verrrrry interesting additions here, including reggae versions of two golden oldies - Killing Me Softly and Help Me Make It Through The Night, both of which are performed by John Holt and both of which aren’t half bad.
All in all though, there’s an awful lot of filler material among the 40 tracks in this album, which is sad, considering how it could have been so much more.
Selected tracks: Kingston Town (Lord Creator), Red Red Wine (Tony Tribe), Boom Shack-A-Lak (Apache Indian), Israelites (Desmond Dekker & The Aces)

BREAKOUT
Miley Cyrus
(Universal Music)

I’VE got the good news and the bad news. The good news is that she didn’t sing Achy Breaky Heart. The bad news is that she did sing Girls Just Wanna Have Fun.
But then again, did you really expect more from Billy Ray’s little girl considering she’s all of 16 years old and that she’s, well, Billy Ray’s little girl? The raw material is definitely there, as Cyrus — or Hannah Montana as the tweens among us know her as — does have a pretty good set of pipes.
The problem is that she seems to be offering us mostly fluff and dustballs and even when she tries to sing about “serious” issues like environmental conservation in Wake Up America, she comes across as being too manufactured and unconvincing.
The title track, clearly intended to pander to her legions of adoring teenage fans, is so vacuous it makes you want to smash your head against a wall just to stop listening to it. Similarly, her annoying cover of Girls Just Wanna Have Fun has none of the charm of Cyndi Lauper’s original.
Yet, there are a couple of tracks, notably These Four Walls and Fly On The Wall, that redeem her and engender the hope that she might after all mature into a half-decent pop artiste.
At the moment though, she looks closer to having a breakout of zits on her porcelain skin than she does a musical breakout as a serious performer.
Selected tracks: These Four Walls, Fly On The Wall.