CHRISTGAU CONSUMER GUIDE
JOAN ARMATRADING: "The Key" (A&M):: Folkies manque to the contrary, its not hard rock shes unsuited for, a point she drives home on the side-openers, which are as nasty as this album gets both musically and emotionally, and also as rousing.
CHRISTGAU CONSUMER GUIDE
DEPARTMRNTS
Robert Christgau
by
JOAN ARMATRADING: "The Key" (A&M):: Folkies manque to the contrary, its not hard rock shes unsuited for, a point she drives home on the side-openers, which are as nasty as this album gets both musically and emotionally, and also as rousing. What shes unsuited for is pop—the way Steve Lillywhites hooks lockstep with her alto singsong on The Key," Drop The Pilot," and The Game Of Love" makes the friendly sentiments expressed therein seem quite mechanical. And since shes always been a tough broad, that may well be the case.B
THE B-52S: Whammy!" (Warner Bros.):: Though they still pick up some great ideas at interplanetary garage sales, their celebration of the pop mess-around is getting earthier. Whammy Kiss" and Butterbean" do actually concern sex and food, respectively, while Legal Tender" and Queen Of Las Vegas" show off a healthy respect for money—that is, a disrespectful attraction to its alluring usefulness. Song For A Future Generation" is a completely affectionate, completely undeluded look at the doomed, hopeful, cheerfully insincere dreams and schemes of the kids who dance to B-52s songs. And the Yoko Ono tribute is for real. A-