‘The Magic’ Evokes Vivid Imaginings
Helium
“The Magic City” (Matador) ***-1/2
Mary Timony, lead singer of Boston-based Helium, has a voice that is ice-queen pristine and desperately fragile at the same time. It can evoke faraway shores or scorn unfaithful lovers, but is ideally suited to her vividly imagined, psychedelic lyrics.
On “The Magic City,” which is less ponderous than Helium’s previous works, she uses her active imagination to broker an understanding between image-rich ‘70s progressive rock and ‘90s alternative attitude. Against a backdrop of harpsichords, deftly plucked guitars and violins, she finds commonality between the two eras, then conjures a feeling of cautious optimism and possibility - in the hard-rocking code she describes as “Vibrations,” in the “Ocean of Wine,” in the wistful, translucent tone she uses to sketch “Lady of the Fire.”
- Tom Moon
Sara Evans
“Three Chords and the Truth” (RCA) ***
Pete Anderson produced one of the strongest country efforts of 1997 in Joy Lynn White’s “The Lucky Few.” With Sara Evans’ “Three Chords and the Truth,” he makes it a deuce.
Evans is a tradition-minded, honky-tonk torch singer who does wonderful stuff with Bill Anderson’s “Walk Out Backwards” and Buck Owens’ “I’ve Got a Tiger by the Tail.” Her able songwriting is generally restrained, though the fire-and-brimstone flood saga “The Week the River Raged” shows a taste for bombast. While Evans is singing with power and assurance - she wrings every ounce of emotion from Justin Tubb’s “Imagine That” - Anderson’s arrangements keep mainstream cheesiness at bay.
- Dan DeLuca
Martina McBride
“Evolution” (RCA) **-1/2
“Evolution” opens with Martina McBride as a 7-year-old belting out “I’m Little but I’m Loud,” and the album is dominated by songs such as “A Broken Wing” and “Whatever You Say” that effectively showcase her powerhouse vocals, but never reach the memorable peak of her smash “Independence Day.”
- Nick Cristiano
Loreena McKennitt
“The Book of Secrets” (Quinlan Road/Warner) ****
Great albums fully engage both the heart and mind, and that’s just what “The Book of Secrets” does. McKennitt traveled worldwide for two years, researching the Celtic diaspora, before hunkering down at Peter Gabriel’s Real World studios to write and produce her seventh album and best work yet.
Its music isn’t a significant change - multilayered gushes of sound still swirl around McKennitt’s haunting voice. What sets it apart is how thoroughly she changes mood and direction with each song, the multicultural instruments and polyrhythms included to evoke a sense of place, and the scholarship behind the songs (explained in copious liner notes). Much more than Celtic wallpaper, the CD is a cohesive, evocative gem.
- Faith Quintavell