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About The Battalion. (College Station, Tex.) 1893-current | View Entire Issue (Nov. 8, 1999)
reading and n;| Ml said thereisalg 1 'hool officials acil I hether all depai l,. v . ?lp students dev;I ig and writingsL| 5 are issues as to®,, Aggielife Page 3 • Monday, November 8, 1999 ication skills she ince of English i d speech depart® ^ it isn't something! 1 take responsib! il p m Bush The Science of Things CD courtesy of Trauma Records ell said while hedt place the blame! 1, some high schi the resources to] students who are s learning to res an adequate level rly, in many case have been ovenv nts who have pre ■ can't address ths for budget or or litchell said, ter said the besi s problem is for#; i writing and re. B|ish has delivered an album in a positive m, wing with energy and feeling fiHT/m Science of Things. ■He group has grown and ex- M Cj Dpf'nd. d both emotionally and mu- ^ ^ since the release of Razor- Suitcase. With tracks such N \' “T te Chemicals Between Us,” dindchanger” and “Jesus On- ie,r the album offers powerful unds and insightful lyrics. I Trough a few of the tracks are acironically altered, making adjsinger Gavin Rossdale’s voice utid like something from a sci- ice fiction movie, the album res not suffer because of it. Tire charging bass lines of Thb Disease of the Dancing Ms and euphoric chords in .etting the Cables Sleep,” make 6 album a dynamic and stimu- 51 C&MCtmg piece of work. (Grade: B] um -Amanda Palm Janice Robinson The Color Within Me CD courtesy of Warner Bros. Janice Robinson has released an album that is almost an open book to her past. All of the songs, how ever, are universal, so any person can listen and understand them. In “Nothing I Would Change,” Robinson sings about historical dates, with an explanation of the significance of the time. This high ly repetitive method actually man ages to sound engaging. There is a truth throughout the album. Robinson apparently want ed to produce something that hon estly portrayed peoples’ everyday life occurrences. Robinson harmonizes on many of the tracks. This works, but it al most happens too often, which in evitably makes some of the songs sound repetitious. The instruments on the album aid in diminishing the signs of sim ilarity between the tracks. In one of the most thought provoking songs. “Gracefully Gliding,” the sound of the piano is heard. The lyrics of this song are melancholy, explaining racial ha tred and the detriment it puts peo ple through. Robinson finishes the song, saying she will never be hurt again by the words of others. The Color Within Me is a posi tive album for the most part, gear ing toward racial harmony and growing up. (Grade: B) —Jeff Wolfshohl Mariah Carey Rainbow Columbia Records People either love her or hate her, but one thing can not be de nied from this diva — she actually has talent. As the highest-selling and most productive artist of the ’90s, Mariah continues her quest to please fans with Rainbow. Rainbow, Mariah’s attempt to further explore R&B/Hip-Hop, proves to be successful. While it is not her best album, it is definitely filled with infectious tunes des tined to hit the charts and air waves. After abandoning her signa ture glass-shattering notes on But terfly, she decided to bring them back, and did so dramatically on the track “Bliss.” Her enormous range is show cased heavily on this album. Mariah transforms from light and airy to bold and jazzy — a true vocal genius. Mariah whips out the song writing thesaurus and uses words like: incessantly, enamored and rhapsodize to convey her mes sages. She has already propelled the first single off the album, “Heartbreaker,” to number one status with the help of featured rapper Jay-Z. “Heartbreaker” has a feel similar to that of 1995’s “Fantasy,” but this track gives un fortunate girls a theme for the men who won’t take them back, while Jay-Z humorously describes the antics of typical boyfriend-de pendent women. Rainbow has many singing col laborations and guests from Snoop Dogg to 98 degrees and writing col laborations from the ballad queen Dianne Warren (“How Do I Live”) to the deceased Tupac Shakur (his sampled lyrics are included). With so much diversity and ah bums to her credit, the question is: what is left for Miss Carey? Well after writing the sound track for the ’90s, she is pursuing acting. But all she needs to do is continue creating fun, hip records for the world to jam to. And the only problem with this album was its length — too short. (Grade: B +) —JeffKempf Ash Nu-Clear Sounds CD courtesy of Dreamworks The youthful UKers, Ash, are slowly chiseling an American niche, and its latest album, Nu- Clear Sounds, brings the sopho more rockers even closer to Ap ple Pie hearts. Forming the band at only 12 years of age, the initial trio (now foursome) were heavy metal al- ternateens when they first hit the UK charts. Since then, Ash has traded in its head banging roots for a blended indie, punk and pop-beat, which started in the early ’90s once the Nirvana- nihilism trend became the ulti mate flavor. Nu-Clear Sounds is the result of the Pixie-Nirvana influence, with heavy guitar riffs and fe male background vocals in “Wild Song” and “Numbskull.” Both are tracks which could eas ily be mistaken for Pixie tributes. However, the slower melancholic songs, sweetly tap into the Lou Reed portion of the brain, espe cially the semi-catchy “Folk Song” and “Aphrodite.” Unfortunately, there are times when the band seems to lose it. Listeners have to wonder if there isn’t a black sheep in the band insisting on some of his personal favorites in return for instrumen tal talent. “Death Trip 21” and “Fortune Teller” are just two ex amples of such unpleasant musi cal jolts. Overall, the bad and the good blend to equilibrate the CD, re sulting in an album on its way to the American Dream but falling just two stars below the semicon scious. (Grade: C) — Heather Brandy AR/ 1 #'- r ie Turner, Editor um Mohiuddin, Mam ie Bennett, City Editor y R. Snooks, Campus8 art Hynecek, Graphics Lizarns, Sports Editor g Shilling, Sports Editor then Wells, Aggielife B tt Harris, Aggielife Edito' :b McDaniel, Opinion £* Rogers, Photo Editor mica Serrano, Night Nf'' Whitacre, Radio Prodif my Brown, Web Mastd, e Battalion news department Is iwiajtt" verslty in the Division ol Student mt of Journalism. News offices are in Newsroom phone: SdS-SSniFaxiMS-# com; Website: http://battallon.tama,e*i ng: Publication of advertising does Kf' ‘ lent by The Battalion. For campus, Wd * g, call 845-2696. For classified ai# ig offices are in 015 Reed McDonald, a^ Monday through Frtday l ax: 845 2618 ■ i tioni: A part of the Student Services Fe«^ v-neck out our a pick up a single copy of TheflaBata^ It. Mail subscriptions are $60 per sdoi ,F mester and $17.50 for the summer.Totl^ or Amedcan Express, call 845-2611. (lion (ISSN #1055-4726) is publisIkC iring the fall and spring semesteis and W' e summer session (except UniveisityM* 1 A8iM University. Periodicals Postage P^ 1 . ’OSTMASTER: Send address chan^sl» p ' Id Building,Texas A&M Univeisity, College networks at www.snowball.com 'if(nrbaf/.cjH We are i The snowball.com networks, where it's at for the Internet Generation. © 1999 snowball.com. Inc. All rights reserved.