Brad Webber

Shona Laing Shona (TriStar) (STAR)(STAR)(STAR) New Zealand songstress Shona Laing's distinctive voice can hit an eerie pitch as she pokes around familiar themes: greed ("Kickback"), the apocalypse ("The Man With...

Pet Shop Boys Disco 2 (EMI) (STAR)(STAR) 1/2 With "Disco 2" the Pet Shop Boys follow the original "Disco" template, with studio remixes of songs from two previous full-length albums,...

Lightning Seeds Jollification (Trauma) (STAR)(STAR) Ian Broudie's Lightning Seeds project has lost a little steam after its superb first album ("Cloud Cuckooland") and a rollicking second "Sense." Coupled with his...

Love and Rockets Hot Trip to Heaven (American) (STAR)(STAR) 1/2 A five-year lapse that has seen the rise of dance and techno musical forms hasn't been especially kind to Love...

Queensryche Promised Land (EMI) (STAR)(STAR)(STAR) Queensryche's fifth album, "Promised Land," gropes all the cliches of the dreary gothic-metal genre, yet finds significance in crisp musicianship and heartfelt yearnings. "Damaged" lumbers...

The London Suede Dog Man Star (Columbia) (STAR)(STAR)(STAR) Imitation of David Bowie, Morrissey and Peter Murphy is the sincerest form of flattery. Brett Anderson's treatment on the London Suede's second...

Laurie Anderson Bright Red (Warner) (STAR)(STAR)(STAR) 1/2 Performance artist Laurie Anderson has never let a lack of visuals stand in the way of crafting stellar-indeed vivid-recordings that replicate the atmosphere...

Big Audio Higher Power (Columbia) (STAR)(STAR)(STAR) Neither Big Audio, nor its previous incarnations-Big Audio Dynamite/B.A.D. II-managed to detonate explosives as high-powered as the Clash. That band hot-wired anarchic fervor and...

Black 47 Home of the Brave (EMI) (STAR)(STAR)(STAR) Larry Kirwan's running commentaries on the Irish immigrant's adjustment to American life fare well from his playwright's sense of dialogue. The Manhattan...

George Winston Forest: Solo Piano (Windham Hill) (STAR)(STAR)(STAR) 1/2 It's been three years since George Winston graced the New Age scene with a solo piano album, and "Forest," his fifth...