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SCMP Reporter

THE long-awaited Madonna album hit the streets of Hong Kong this week with less fanfare than probably any of her more recent offerings.

  Called Bed Time Stories, it appears that at the age of 36 Ms Cicconne is still feeling the sting of the complete lashing, if you'll pardon the expression, she has received from the press over the last two years and has gone back to her pop roots.

   Bed Time Stories has no accompanying coffee-table soft porn book as Sex was for Erotica.

  According to some of the Western press Madonna is a washed up no-hoper since her 'Girlie' tour who can't keep men in her bed or her records in the charts. Well, Bed Time Stories has a few things to say about that in the lyrics, but not much ammunition to back it up in terms of hits.

  Looking for a mellower rhythm and blues groove and dance-floor success Madonna has turned to hip-hop producer Babyface and Dallas Austin, known for his work with TLC and Boys II Men.

   She is of course credited on all tracks and her presence is most felt on the witty rebuke to her critics in Human Nature, 'you punished me for telling you my fantasies . . . did I say something wrong, oops I didn't know I couldn't talk about sex . . . I didn't know I couldn't talk about you'.

  Bed Time Stories is definitely the Madonna of old, romantic pop abounds on tracks such as Survival and Forbidden Love and the first single, Secret, is a kind of updated classic ballad with a sultry swing beat - sadly it's one of the strongest tracks on the album.

  Nelle Hooper, who has produced and written with Massive Attack and more recently Bjork, was called in to add some ambience to the affair. He turned up with lots of ideas and a track he wrote with Bjork, which inspired Madonna so much that she named the album after it and got Hooper to rework much of the remainder to fit around it.

   It seems she was too late; the title track is a soft multi-layered techno-groove which shows the direction she should be taking.

  All in all, Bed Time Stories, is a mish-mash of an album that makes Kylie Minogue look very good indeed. - JO   Smash hits  BREAK out the peroxide and Vaseline, punk's back. Actually it never really went away - ever since Johnny Rotten sneered 'no future' there have been punk bands, and at the moment the genre seems to be enjoying a new lease of life, particularly on the west coast of the United States, where a new breed of young punks are pogoing like it was still 1977.

  The leader of the pack is currently San Francisco's Green Day, with the hit album Dookie, but not far behind comes The Offspring with Smash, which has already sold more than a million copies and made the top 10 of the Billboard charts - quite an achievement for a punk band on an independent label.

   But why has punk returned to the fore? Well, Smash will remind listeners of what punk was, and is, all about - high-speed, electrified energy, with some good no-nonsense lyrics thrown in.

  Singer Dexter Holland's high, but tuneful voice carries the band effortlessly through some classic punk power chords, reminiscent more of the hardcore bands of the late-70s and early-80s than the early punk pioneers.

  But it's infectious stuff, the highlight of the album being Come Out And Play, a pragmatic condemnation of the increasing gun culture in American high schools, while What Happened To You? switches genres for a playful ska outing.

   The album is perhaps played and recorded a bit too proficiently for some punk purists, but is a refreshing change from the angst of grunge. - SD   Jam on a roll THE band that pulled off the best-selling debut of 1993 in Britain, Jamiroquai brought out its second album a few days ago and if things go according to plan the chirpy west Londoners should have another million-seller on their hands.

   Led by Jay Kay, Jamiroquai caused a stir last year when Sony raided its purse to give the group an eight-album record deal and a huge wodge of cash to go with it. The music industry was, you might say, a tad jealous especially when the acid jazz proteges effortlessly sold a heap.

   The second album has been eagerly awaited, with many people having their knives drawn. Sorry chaps, this is not the best album to emerge this year by any means, but it's tight, competent and the little man with the funny hat has drawn back from the brink of naive self-indulgence to provide a really kicking sound on all but a few of the 11 tracks.

  The much maligned Stevie Wonder voice is still there but more concentrated and at ease - a hard thing to accomplish with a few million bitter and twisted music critics breathing down your neck.

  Tracks to watch for are Out of Kids, an instrumental with a didjeridoo that is a classic in the making - it rips along, while doffing its hat to Gil Scott Heron.

   The title track, Space Cowboy, is an ode to the inspired levels of consciousness acquired with the help of marijuana and is the first single - one of about four the band could plunder from a fine album. - JO   Hybrid gloom THE camera pans away from the singer, who stands alone with hands thrust deep into the pockets of his long black coat, windswept hair stark against the bare trees and the barren winter sky. He sings his woeful ballad to the ravens, the black and white film vividly capturing his frozen breath as it billows into the chilled air.

  I have not seen any videos made by Stiltskin, but I would put money on them being of this variety. These four lads from Britain seem to think it is still the mid-80s. As a result, almost every track on their debut, The Mind's Eye, sounds like a hybrid of Bryan Adams' Run to You and U2's With or Without You, with Peter Gabriel on vocals crooning Red Rain (lead singer Ray Wilson does sound remarkably like him).

  Tragically crashing minor chord progressions and morose melodies dominate almost every song, while lyrics are peppered with words such as 'dust', 'moon', 'grave' and 'stone'.

   The only respite from all this atmospheric gloom is Rest in Peace, which has a more acoustic sound and a pretty melody. The cover (perhaps the best thing about this album) proudly claims to feature 'the UK No 1 hit Inside ' but this CD is not recommended if you need cheering up. - SD    Miles of covers D OES the world really need another cover of Born Under a Bad Sign, or for that matter All Along the Watchtower ? Buddy Miles seems to think so, for versions of both appear on Hell and Back. And in a way, the inclusion of such tired covers sets the tone for what is a rather lacklustre blues, soul and funk album.

  Though singer-drummer Miles has a pedigree which has included a stint with Santana and being a member of Jimi Hendrix's post-Experience combo Band of Gypsys, he seems to have been unable to put together an outfit which is outstanding in any area. None of the band members displays any real virtuosity, while the music is lacking either muscle or charisma - all essential elements when crossing such well-travelled musical ground. And while other tracks on the album (Be Kind to Your Girlfriend, Come Back Home) are original numbers, there is no passion to be felt.

  All in all the impression is one of a self-financed record, and indeed parts of the album sound like it could have been recorded on a four-track in someone's living room. All rather average. - SD   Madonna, Bed Time Stories (Warner Music); The Offspring, Smash, (Epitaph); Jamiroquai, The Return Of The Space Cowboy (Sony); Stiltskin, The Mind's Eye (Form); Buddy Miles Express, Hell And Back (Rykodisc); CDs supplied by Tower Records, Times Square 



Stories from Madonna