E.E.R.
Hue & Cry, Jazznotjazz (59:49); Linn Records AKD 057, 1996
Skyscraper Management
P.O. Box 216
Boston, MA 02117
Phone: 781-788-9906
Cyberhome: www.skyscraperusa.com
Hue & Cry is an 80s pop duo that hit the charts repeatedly in Britain
but didn't make a dent in the States. Pat and Greg Kane have taken
the act through various incarnations, the latest being this
disastrous foray into poppy jazz/fusion. Pat sings and Greg plays
acoustic piano, and they're joined by Ewen Vernal on electric and
upright bass and Sandro Cianncio on drums. To lend the project jazz
credibility, the brothers Kane packed the session with celebrity
cameos, managing to pull in Mike Stern, Michael and Randy Brecker,
Danny Gottlieb, and two excellent Scottish jazzers - tenorist Tommy
Smith and pianist Brian Kellock. They could have communed with
Coltrane's ghost and this material would still be dreadful.
Pat and Greg Kane have been compared to Steely Dan's Walter
Becker and Donald Fagen for their melding of pop and jazz. But Steely
Dan had melody and hooks, two things this record utterly lacks.
Steely Dan also had a distinctive touch when it came to lyrics. Hue &
Cry's lyrics are distinctively horrible. Here's a line from "Free
Like You": "Don't call me ungrateful/ just call me Tuesday nights."
If you think that's bad, "Remember Me" will have you running for the
sick bucket: "To call it sex would be understatement/ we're just a
power-generation/ big fall into diamond darkness/ I pull on my
clothes and I see her/ awake and not crying and eager."
If I were forced to pick the most tolerable music on the
disc, it would be "I'll Be There for You" and "Austere and
Beautiful." But I won't be returning even to these anytime soon.
~David R. Adler, 12/8/99
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