12/1/09

DID THE NAVY CHANGE THE DRESS CODE?


The NCIS team can solve all mysteries except why Joss Stone is famous.
VARIOUS ARTISTS
NCIS-Vol. 2: The Official TV Soundtrack

CBS Records 029

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You can count on the fingers of a mitten the number of times my TV set is on in a given month; hence I had no idea that there’s been a show called “NCIS” on the air since 2003. According to the Web it has something to do with a U.S. Navy crime-investigation unit. That surprised me since the soundtrack CD has a cover that’s more kinky Yuppie than sailor serious, but I have to say that the music has me intrigued. The promo material claims that the show has pioneered in integrating music with the story narrative. Okay, I can see how Sheryl Crow’s “Murder in My Heart” or Keaton Simons’ “Grim Reaper” might fit into a crime show, but Tom Lehrer’s “The Elements?” I suppose it might fit a lab sequence, but that seems quite a stretch. I give the producers credit for eclecticism, though. The artists on the CD run the gamut from Norah Jones to Sick Puppies and there’s a previously unreleased Bob Dylan song, “California,” which never made it onto his Bringing It All Back Home album. My personal favorite was John Mellencamp’s “Someday the Rains Will Fall,” but all the tracks are good, with the exception of Joss Stone’s “Every Time I Turn Around.” Why Stone is hot is a complete mystery to me. She’s just another white girl trying to sound like the interchangeable black gals who’ve sung the same old histrionic (and generic) power pop that’s bored me since the 1980s. Maybe Stone’s fame should be investigated by the NCIS.

1 comment:

Anonymous said...

It's almost impossible to believe but Joss Stone did a duet with James Brown on the BBC in 2001. It was painful to watch and listen to a fake American accent. Stone was just as bad!