The Lemon Table, by Julian Barnes. Alfred A. Knopf, 241 pages, $22.95.
"Novelists either go in for padding or else philosophizing, what we were told to regard as 'generalizations,'chez Balzac." These are the words of an 81-year-old deafspinsternamed Sylvia Winstanley, a recent resident of an "Old Folkery," as she calls her rest home. Winstanley's letters Read MoreIt's not everyday you run across fun party music made by a couple of French psychologists. But that's Installation Sonore (V2), an album of imaginative, razor-sharp dance tunes done by Jean-Philippe and Patou, two ex-indie rockers based in Montpellier, France.
Jean-Philippe and Patou came up with the name Rinôçérôse–which has expanded on stage at home to Read MoreA quiet string of guitar eighth-notes rises and falls as drums brush along, and "Smoke Rings in the Dark," a tune by Nashville singer Gary Allan, takes off in its starlit way. The guy's romance-he understands it's past denying-has collapsed. "Eye-ah-eye-ah-ah-eye," as Mr. Allan phrases it, "know I must be going/ 'Cause love's already gone." Read More
A supernatural-looking CD entitled Playing by Heart is billed to John Barry, Chris Botti and, weirdly enough, Chet Baker. On the black-and-white CD cover, in fact, Mr. Barry-the peerless English inventor of James Bond music, as well the scorer of films like Body Heat , Out of Africa , Dances With Wolves and many others-sits Read More
Crossover tenors are full-grown men in good clothes who often behave like naughty students. They do the things conventional instructors forbid high-minded tenors to do, like making decisions regarding repertoire and presentation that place them off the radar of stern commentators. Yet, by operating in the world of the middlebrow, the crossover tenors march on, Read More
Ben Harper, The Surfers' Choice
Ben Harper, the superbly moody 30-year-old singer-songwriter-guitarist, was on the phone from Raleigh, N.C. "I'm not going to stay one Ben Harper," he said. And indeed, his new album, Burn to Shine , explores rhythm-driven mid-tempos, Delta jaunts and harder guitar sounds that expand the folk and blues and rock Read MoreFiona Apple Blossoms
In 1996, amid talk of girl power and waifdom, a tiny 18-year-oldsinger-songwriter-pianist named Fiona Apple made her debut with an album called Tidal . Although at first taken as a marketing team's capitalization on the Kate Moss moment, Ms. Apple soon revealed herself as a top-drawer popster; hit singles like "Criminal," which gave Read MoreThe Magnetic Fields, 69 Love Songs (Merge).
Stephin Merritt, a 30-ish Yonkers-born resident of the East Village, pals around with a close-knit group of followers and collaborators, always carrying with him, these days, a Chihuahua named Irving, as in Berlin. Right now, his work inspires sane pop insiders to make enormous claims for him as being Read MoreTrue at First Light , by Ernest Hemingway. Scribner, 320 pages, $26.
"Honey, you are a little lion-wacky," the narrator tells his wife. She answers: "Who has more right to be? Of course I am. But I take lions seriously." This exchange of Tracy-and-Hepburn banter occurs roughly a third of the way through the new Hemingway Read MoreFor the last 10 years, David Byrne has run Luaka Bop, the Manhattan-based record label that specializes in international pop, with Yale Evelev, formerly of the Icon world music imprint, which is now defunct. The label, a Warner Brothers affiliate, has felt some buzz and heat, as with the 1989 release of Brazil Classics 1: Read More
Just as publications everywhere are doing their damnedest to grasp the suddenly galloping sensibility of America's teenagers, massive quantities of a CD titled Millennium (Jive) are plastering the walls of record stores. It's the follow-up to an infrequently analyzed, freely sobbed-about music release from 1997 entitled Backstreet Boys , an album by five Lexington, Ky.-via-Florida Read More
There's always been something different about Underworld, the three cunning Englishmen who in the 90's have had their way with U.K. beat culture, recasting it as their own aloof, sexy playground. In public and the press, they've done a good impersonation of casually acquainted chaps who only happen to work together as celebrated bandmates and Read More
13 (Virgin), the new album from England's Blur, opens with a little country music. "Tender is my heart, you know, it's screwing up my life," croons Damon Albarn, Blur's lead singer, cross-genre adventurer and unassumingly starry blond face. The tune, Blur's current and best single, is entitled "Tender," and Mr. Albarn and his three bandmates–guitarist Read More
A while back, Beth Orton, the winningly gloomy 28-year-old English folkie, managed the odd trick of somehow impressing ravers. "Once Beth Orton was indie strummer, chemical sister and- yawn -The Comedown Queen," The Face recently explained in its February issue, referring to Ms. Orton's calming appearances on the Chemical Brothers' manic Exit Planet Dust and Read More
Singles 90/98 (Virgin), the Lamborghini of boxed sets, is a collection of 63 tracks by the Bristol, England, sound consortium Massive Attack. The set consists of 11 disks, each named for the single it presents, with up to five remixes. Some of the disks also contain slightly altered 7-inch versions of the original album versions Read More
