Gordon Lightfoot Book, Music and More!

What is it about the short, balding former Genesis drummer that makes him so utterly hateful? Is it his insipid songs, his nasally voice, or is it his workman-like (and very uncool) approach to rock ’n’ roll, which has made him one of the most successful “adult contemporary” singers of all time, with global sales of more than 100 million albums? This dreary, predictable album, his first in six years, adds nothing to Phil’s Phormula, despite the fact that it was supposedly inspired by his new wife and child. Sad, really.

Advance news about Twain’s latest feel-good project has been treated like precious state secrets. Although her record publicist admitted to having heard it, he was immediately subjected to complete memory erasure in the interests of security. As of press time, only “I’m Gonna Getcha Good,” the first single, had been made public. Judging from that and the video, in which new mother Shania zooms about on a motorcycle looking like Batgirl, the album promises more slick country-pop with her now patented, feminist-lite message.

he Quiet One was also the Spiritual Beatle. So it’s not surprising that this posthumous, rootsy album—his first collection of new material since 1987’s Cloud Nine —offers cautionary tales about moral decay and technological idiocy. Before he died last November, George toyed with the idea of calling the album Your Planet is Doomed, Vol. 1 and the actual title track finds him pleading, “God, god, god, won’t you lead us through this mess.” Completed by Harrison’s son Dhani and ex-ELO and Wilbury Jeff Lynne.