"GETTIN' IN OVER MY HEAD"

"GETTIN' IN OVER MY HEAD"
Brian Wilson
(Brimel/Rhino)
s After many years in the wilderness, it's a joy that Brian Wilson has found love and security and is making music again. His magical work with the Beach Boys in the 1960s insured his legend even if he never sang a note again.
This new disc, Wilson's first in six years, is a patchwork effort that's sometimes painful to listen to.
Many of the compositions date back to Wilson's songwriting collaboration with Andy Paley in the early 1990s, and it's interesting that the best of them, "Soul Searchin'," features Brian in a duet with his brother, Carl, who died in 1998.
Superstars pay homage with cameos. Elton John makes a rollicking effort on a slight song, "How Could We Still Be Dancin'." Eric Clapton seems as out of place on a Wilson disc as Eminem would. And the duet with Paul McCartney on "A Friend Like You," will make music fans with a long memory cry -- and not for good reasons.
With the exception of "Soul Searchin'," songwriting partner Paley is glibly nostalgic and, on a song like "Saturday Morning in the City," makes Wilson sound like his own tribute band. Considering Wilson's own lyrical efforts tend to be lost in a simpler time, it's a lethal combination.
How odd in this era of first impressions that Wilson saves his best for the last two songs. "Don't Let Her Know She's an Angel" is an achingly halting love song, the kind that reminds you this was the man who found refuge "In My Room." "The Waltz," which brings back old partner Van Dyke Parks, is a charmer with a twist -- and not coincidentally the one song where it's clear it's not the 1960s anymore.
"A GHOST IS BORN"
Wilco
(Nonesuch)
ss Wilco's "A Ghost Is Born" is not a requiem, but in its loaded melodies and lyrics that carry layers of meaning, the album is definitely haunted.
Two years ago the band released "Yankee Hotel Foxtrot," which became the critics' darling with an unusual mix of electronica and new folk. It also represented an apex for a band that left alternative country for commercial success long ago (though they have yet to achieve it).
Now the faces are different. Keyboardist Jay Bennett, who some consider responsible for priming singer Jeff Tweedy to stretch in broad strokes, is gone. While the eclectic nature of Wilco's sound remains in tact, it sounds flat in Bennett's absence.
Take "Less Than You Think" as an example. "There's so much less to this than you think," Tweedy whispers before the song falls into nearly 12 minutes of riffraff electronica, howling feedback and muffled base beats.
It's reminiscent of "Yankee Hotel Foxtrot," but the aesthetic, this time, is elusive. You want to think it's beautiful. But it isn't.
The band tries to capture past glories again on "Spiders (Kidsmoke)," which opens with nearly two minutes of pulsing guitar, thick with multitiered harmonics. The song is good, but again it's missing something.
Tweedy, who is often compared to Bob Dylan, is capable of capturing poignant emotions and putting them somewhere between subtlety and overkill. But even that is largely missing on "A Ghost Is Born."
It may be Bennett's absence that marks the change. But it has always been hard to understand Tweedy and his baby Wilco. You never know what comes next.
"RENEE OLSTEAD"
Renee Olstead
(143/Warner Bros.)
sss Producer David Foster adds to his stable of preternaturally talented youngsters who tap into adult music by fostering the career of 14-year-old Renee Olstead (her name should be familiar to viewers of CBS' "Still Standing").
Like Foster's other clients, Josh Groban and Michael Buble, Olstead sounds way beyond her years singing music of another generation. Foster's production is improved here; though still slick, it's tempered a bit and conjures an appropriately jazzy feel as Olstead sings standards such as "Summertime," "Someone to Watch Over Me" and "On a Slow Boat to China."
If there are any problems they are simply that Olstead is too young to embody the lyrics of a sexy song like Maria Muldaur's provocative "Midnight at the Oasis" and the selections are also overwhelmingly familiar. ("Summertime," again? "Someone to Watch Over Me"? Let's give these war horses a rest, please).
That said, Olstead's voice is so rich and true it's easy to overlook the flaws. She's also well paired with another talented youngster, jazz singer-pianist Peter Cincotti, on a playful cover of Neil Sedaka's "Breaking Up Is Hard to Do."
In many ways, this is Foster's finest production in some time.
"BLUES TO THE BONE"
Etta James
(RCA Victor)
ssss Legendary blues artist Etta James pays homage to blues pioneers as she puts her own stamp on some of their classic tracks. She growls, moans and rocks her way through a dozen numbers first done by Robert Johnson, Howlin' Wolf, Willie Dixon, John Lee Hooker and others.
James says she wanted to present their male takes on life from a woman's point of view, and she dusts off these gems about life and death, joy and sorrow, and polishes them to a high gloss.
Her versions of "I Got My Mojo Working," "Hush Hush," "Lil' Red Rooster," "Crawlin' King Snake" and "Dust My Broom" are pure excitement.
James remains in as fine voice as ever, and the small, tight band that makes a perfect accompaniment to her music is fronted by her sons, Donto and Sametto.
Although James passed up an invitation to perform in Martin Scorsese's PBS series, "The Blues," she says the series reminded her of her musical roots and was the inspiration for this album -- for which Scorsese wrote the liner notes.
Compiled from wire dispatches