MUSIC REVIEWS

Wynonna, Sing: Chapter 1
BY JONATHAN KEEFE, SLANT

Having cemented her status as a country music icon as half of legendary duo the Judds, and with a couple of phenomenal, adventurous solo albums in the early '90s, Wynonna hasn't done much to enhance her legacy of late. In fact, much of her output over the last decade—from uneven, strident studio albums that included dead-serious Foreigner covers and collaborations with the useless John Rich to countless televised live performances punctuated with spoken-word platitudes dedicated to all her "sisterfriends"—has been so affected that it's easy to forget the true extent of her talent. Despite a handful of moments that suggest she's still taking performance cues from drag queens, Sing: Chapter 1, her seventh proper solo album, goes quite a long way toward reversing that trend. >>MORE

Bruce Springsteen, Working on a Dream
BY THE MASKED MOVIE SNOBS/GENERAL JABBO, BC BLOGCRITICS MAGAZINE

While on tour for his excellent 2007 album Magic, Bruce Springsteen quickly realized the fabled E Street Band was playing some of the best shows of its career. Wanting to catch lightning in a bottle, he gathered the band together during breaks on the tour to record his next batch of songs. Those songs became Working on a Dream.

The album opens with “Outlaw Pete,” a sprawling eight-minute epic with western overtones, classic Springsteen harmonica, and a big, layered sound not unlike many of the songs on Magic. It’s classic Bruce and as good as anything he’s written. >>MORE

Kanye West, 808s & Heartbreak
BY WILSON MCBEE, SLANT

There must have been a moment when Kanye West was actually content with being the most potent and essential personality in hip-hop. Date it early (the out-of-nowhere ubiquity of The College Dropout) or late (Graduation's dominance of 50 Cent's Curtis during the first-week sales showdown of last fall); at some point West has to have rested on his Luis Vuitton-labeled laurels for at least a millisecond and savored the fact that his singular styles of production and emceeing, not to mention dressing, have left irreplaceable impressions on hip-hop as well as the culture at large. >>MORE