T A B L E__T A L K

Do threesomes make better rock bands than foursomes? Join the ménage à trois in Table Talk's Music section.

- - - - - - - -

R E C E N T L Y

Various Artists
Closed on Account of Rabies
Mouth Almighty/Mercury
(12/04/97)

Stephane Grappelli, 1908-1997
By Stacey Kors
(12/03/97)

Erykah Badu
Live
Kedar/Universal
(12/02/97)

Chumbawamba
Tubthumpers
Revolution Records
(12/01/97)

Simon & Garfunkel
Old Friends
Columbia/Legacy
(11/26/97)

BROWSE THE
MUSIC ARCHIVES

- - - - - - - -

V O W E L L

Sound Salvation
By Sarah Vowell
The presidential suite
(11/14/97)

- - - - - - - -

F E A T U R E

Paint it black
By Stanley Booth
A prayer for His Holy Hipness, Johnny Cash
(12/05/97)

- - - - - - - -

B O O K S

The Rolling Stone Book of Women in Rock
Essays on women's role in rock history, and on artists ranging from Tammy Wynette to Courtney Love
(11/18/97)

- - - - - - - -

___B A R B A R A__S T R E I S A N D
_______________________HIGHER GROUND --> [COLUMBIA]

BY JOHN MILWARD
- - - - - - - - - - - -

Rosie O'Donnell wept while introducing Barbra Streisand on her daytime talk show. Streisand smiled benevolently as she comforted the Queen of Nice, who'd made a joke out of begging for a visit from the superstar. Streisand took the bait to promote her new album. "I wanted to call the album 'Higher Ground,'" she writes in the accompanying liner notes, "because it's a road I want to take myself." Streisand also brought along her fiancé, James Brolin, who grasped her hand and cooed, "Thanks for giving me my life back."

Listen to popular music for three or four decades, and you're bound to change your mind about a thing or three. Back when the Beatles' "Revolver" was a new release, my teenage ears had no time for the more tradition-bound vocalists who've come to enrich my adult life, singers like Frank Sinatra, Ella Fitzgerald and Tony Bennett. But in my midrock years, hip acts and trendy styles are forced to compete within a sensibility that recognizes virtuosity as a tough act to beat.

So why have I never fully succumbed to the charms of Barbra Streisand? There's certainly no denying her extraordinary vocal gift, with bell-clear tones colored by a fluttery vibrato and a variety of subtle shadings. My problem is with a theatrical sensibility that's led her to be the jewel in lavish musical productions instead of a more intuitive, truly emotional singer. This explains the commercial and critical success of 1985's "The Broadway Album," which called for the ripened qualities that have at other times thwarted her attempts to make more personal pop music.

"Higher Ground," focusing on songs of spirituality and romance, aims to be most personal. It was "inspired by and dedicated to Virginia Clinton Kelley," the late mother of President Clinton, which makes one wonder when the Republican leadership is going to ask for a special prosecutor to investigate what Streisand's getting in return for her sentimental gesture. Then there's the question of whether a vacuum was created in the studio during the swelling crescendos of "Tell Him," Streisand's duet with the Queen of Overstatement, Celine Dion. Streisand sounds artfully restrained next to Dion, which wouldn't be hard, though I'd bet the mortgage that Dion's "Let's Talk About Love," which also includes "Tell Me," sells more copies than "Higher Ground."

"Higher Ground" is a sumptuous production that makes some odd choices; for instance, on the lavish medley of Frankie Laine's "I Believe" and Rodgers & Hammerstein's "You'll Never Walk Alone," a full orchestra takes its rhythmic cues from a cheesy synthesized drum. The album's most satisfying tracks are three produced by Streisand and Arif Mardin; others are nearly stifled by their synthesized sheens. Three songs include choirs, though Streisand ignores the communal nature of religious music by using the white-bread ensembles like she uses an orchestra, as plush accompaniment. Streisand, known for her New Age leanings, is most moving when she evokes her own background on the Jewish holy song "Avinu Melkeinu."

More often, though, Streisand's arch artistry ends up equating artifice with emotion. Maybe that's what happens when a powerful auteur wants to be seen as humble. In this regard, her liner notes are unintentionally revealing. She writes of one tune: "This song was a surprise! When my friends Marvin Hamlisch and Alan & Marilyn Bergman heard I was doing this album, they set out to write a song for it. They knew how much I loved Virginia Kelley, so they titled the song after her autobiography, 'Leading With My Heart.'"

Gag me with the guarantee of a lucrative publishing check. Still, the self-absorption of a show-business veteran should come as no surprise -- rock stars are often egomaniacs, but it's expected of divas.
SALON | Dec. 8, 1997