True hip-hop heads, get happy. Public Enemy, with Flav, Griff and the Bomb Squad, are back. The seminal group's first album in four years serves double duty as the soundtrack for Spike Lee's wack-ass He Got Game, and as you'd figure from the film's B-ball theme, many of the rhymes are directed at the world of sports. Numerous tracks contain direct barbs at NBA commissioner David Stern, ...
Barrington Pheloung's stroke of brilliance in embedding the name of each episode's killer into Morse Code at the start never distracts from his wonderful "Main Theme". Of course the guitar leads, because that is the composer's instrument of choice. On this first volume it should be noted that there is only the original short version of said theme. The original pieces include an ambiguity for ...
As the liner notes remark, there's a terrific "sense of love and inspiration" in this utterly ripping collection of all-star renditions of Elvis standards. Cuts from Dwight Yoakam, Travis Tritt, Amy Grant, a fired-up Billy Joel, and a killer "Burning Love" from country outlaw Travis Tritt are highlights. --Jeff Bateman