RSSBilled as a simple follow-up,Come On Over is in fact a farperkier and jokier album, a full hour of uptempo tunes, many withhighly uncountry keyboard hooks. Authentic it ain't; enticing itis. Feisty and ready for fun, Twain occasionally sounds willing toseparate sex from romance, which is always a good way for a womanto gain male admirers. Yet she never seems like a pushover--anessential touch if she wants to keep them.
Out of the depths of a classily packaged but mostly redundantreisses series comesEssential Blondie: Picture This Live(EMI/Capitol), the first live album in the classic new wavers'catalogue, and proof that they were nowhere near as slick as theirhandlers wanted everyone to think.
It's sort of amazing that there aren't more down-to-earth hip hopalbums like Common's sane but hardly complacentOne Day It'll AllMake Sense (Relativity). Then again, given the crassness of themarket, maybe it's amazing that there's even one--and that it willactually move some units. Jaw-dropper:Retrospect for Life, anexploration of abortion in all its emotional complexity featuringFugee Lauryn Hill.
Playboy, Jan. 1998
 | Dec. 1997 | Feb. 1998 |  |