‘Big Picture’ Lacks Character Of Earlier Work

Elton John

“The Big Picture” (Rocket/A&M) **

Elton John and Bernie Taupin, the Rodgers and Hammerstein of rock ‘n’ roll, are in the unusual position of competing with themselves this month. Composer-singer John and lyricist Taupin took the world stage Sept. 6 in Westminster Abbey, having reworked “Candle in the Wind” into a eulogy to Princess Diana. That song, already released as a single in England, hit U.S. stores Tuesday (with proceeds to the Diana, Princess of Wales, Memorial Fund).

Also on Tuesday, John released his latest album, which doesn’t contain the single. The collection is brightened by “Something About the Way You Feel,” an elegantly crafted pop song, and “Love’s Got a Lot to Answer For,” which has a sweetly melancholy edge reminiscent of “Sorry Seems to Be the Hardest Word.”

Ultimately, however, the album lacks the character, the freshness and the moody theatricality that you find in the songwriting team’s classic early work. Instead of stretching its creative vision, this once dynamic duo seems to have consigned itself to the middle of the road.

- Elysa Gardner

Bjork

“Homogenic” (Elektra) ***-1/2

Bjork recorded her third solo album in Spain, but the Icelander didn’t let anything Mediterranean leak in. “Homogenic” is a pure issue of Nordic nature - an imperative she acknowledges in the opening “Hunter,” singing, “I thought I could organize freedom/How Scandinavian of me.”

The way she shapes that couplet, extending the syllables of the second line without losing momentum or power, demonstrates Bjork’s ability to hit emotional targets with eccentric instinctiveness. But “Homogenic” has none of the self-conscious quirkiness she’s been prey to in the past. It represents a fulfilled form of idiosyncrasy.

The album has the familiar Bjork signatures - electronic arrangements from the English dance-music scene, blending and contrasting with string orchestrations. But on her first self-produced collection, she advances the elements into a refined vision.

The result is a more austere, demanding and rewarding experience, marked by shifting textures and a crystalline purity.

Bjork delivers her terse accusations and promises of comfort and guidance with pliant expressiveness. It’s an enigmatic but resonant album that affirms her stature as one of pop music’s most uncompromising adventurers.

- Richard Cromelin

Portishead

“Portishead” (Go! Beat/London) ****

“Dummy,” this English band’s 1994 debut album, was a landmark ear-opener. Beth Gibbon’s often astounding vocals - full of heartrending longing and pain - intertwined with programmer Geoff Barrow’s smoky sonic concoctions and guitarist Adrian Utley’s spy-movie twang to set the standard for such ice-cool cousins as Sneaker Pimps and Lamb.

No dummies themselves, the team has no interest in being stuck in a genre and has raised the bar with this follow-up to a level that’s going to be hard to match. Gibbons takes her place alongside Sinead O’Connor and Bjork as one of pop’s premiere female singers, as well as providing herself gripping lyrics detailing desire’s transformation into obsession and mania. On the opening “Cowboys” she’s a razor-tongued Billie Holiday; on “Undenied” she’s Shirley Bassey via Anais Nin. Even when her vocal affectations border on grating, her air of despair and desperation is all too real.

Meanwhile, Barrow, Utley and engineer Dave McDonald craft compelling tracks conveying the depth of emotions as much as the vocals and words. Too colorful to be written off as noir, sounds both created and sampled (with such touches as Barrow’s hip-hop scratching and distinctive strings and horns) portray a tortured mental landscape in vivid dimension.

- Steve Hochman

Jen Trynin

“Gun Shy Trigger Happy” (Squint/Warner Bros.) ***

On the follow-up to “Cockamamie,” Trynin thrashes through themes of love, betrayal, guilt and loss, somehow squeezing true novelty out of ancient obsessions. From the cool pulse of “Writing Notes” to the guitar sass of “Love Letter,” the music sashays through soft electronics, rowdy pop and scrappy rock. The center of gravity, however, is Trynin’s voice, with a blend of cozy warmth and arm’s-length stubbornness that might be emotionally addicting.

- Sara Scribner

Tanya Donelly

“Lovesongs for Underdogs” (Reprise)**-1/2

The former Belly, Breeders and Throwing Muses singer-guitarist kicks off her aptly named solo debut with a lush jangle of pop aggression called “Pretty Deep.” Except for the college-radio-perfect lullaby “Mysteries of the Unexplained,” Donelly’s initially alluring lyrics disappoint on closer inspection. Musically, the punky parts lack the required punch and the sweet jags eventually turn saccharine.

- SS

Carly Simon

“Film Noir” (Arista)*

Surely no one would mistake Simon’s whiny, overwrought delivery for that of a chanteuse - no one, that is, except Simon herself, whose third misguided collection of standards includes songs taken from and evocative of film noir. The orchestrations are tastefully lush, but hearing Simon rip into such torchy classics as “Ev’ry Time We Say Goodbye” and “Don’t Smoke in Bed” is like watching a great old movie colorized with crayons.

- EG

Goldfinger

“Hang-Ups” (Mojo) *-1/2

Impossible as it might seem, the follow-up to Goldfinger’s smash debut is an even perkier collection of scruffy, ska-powered ruminations on various adolescent anxieties: girl trouble, money problems, general cluelessness. Hence the title. Unfortunately the songwriting isn’t any more substantial than before, which means all the pop vim ultimately rings hollow-a fatal flaw only amplified by the group’s sharp playing and improvements in production.

- SH