Hootie & the Blowfish album blows

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Morrison shines on ‘Three Chords’

Hootie & the Blowfish, “Imperfect Circle” (Capitol Nashville)

Come roll back the years with Hootie & the Blowfish. Their new 13-track offering will transport you to when Bill Clinton was in office and the Macarena took over America.

“Imperfect Circle”, their first studio album in almost 15 years, picks off right where they left off, with earnest and yet utterly forgettable songs. They’re nice when you play them but make no discernible impression.

For any younger readers, a refresher: Hootie & the Blowfish emerged from the University of South Carolina with a laid-back, post-grunge and cheerful mix of rootsy rock and country.

Saddled with a name that aged poorly – both parts are nicknames for guys not even in the band – Hootie & the Blowfish took the best new artist title at the 1996 Grammys thanks to such hits as “Hold My Hand”, “Let Her Cry” and “Only Wanna Be With You”, and then took their place with other inoffensive college bro-rockers like Blues Traveler and Counting Crows.

The intervening decades have done nothing to darken the Hootie vibe. In fact, lead singer Darius Rucker seems even more disengaged, writing love songs to his longtime wife and reminding listeners he’s a lucky, lucky man. “Why’s a beauty queen standing here with me?” he asks.

Rucker’s voice has a deeper baritone and a more pronounced twang, showing the influence of his years as a country chart-topper. But the songs are mushy. “Wildfire Love” featuring Lucie Silvas was co-written by Ed Sheeran but neither make it spark. “Hold On” is co-written by Chris Stapleton and wastes some funky guitar. The majority of the album was produced by Jeff Trott, who has – surprise, surprise – worked with Counting Crows. Though Rucker insists in “Change” that life is always altering, nothing on this album is fresh.

Most of the lyrics sound like what you’d find stitched onto the pillows of a hippie baby boomer – “Mondays are just Fridays in disguise”, “There ain’t nothing that a little love can’t get us through” and “Tell me to and I will shoot down the moon”.

Rucker is all about a can’t-we-just-get-along ethos. The closest he gets to socially conscious is the cheerful, Hawaiian-tinged “We Are One”, in which he blithely sings, “You and I, to the left or to the right/Meet you somewhere in between.”

That would be the middle – the mushy middle.

Van Morrison, “Three Chords and the Truth” (Exile/Caroline International)

Don’t judge a book by its cover, or, at least with Van Morrison, an album by its title.

Arriving on the heels of a successful series of records combining some of his own composition with plenty of R&B, blues and jazz numbers, you could expect a name like “Three Chords and the Truth” and the stylized lines of the cover art to point you toward a collection of country classics.

Instead, Van the Man’s sixth(!) album in four years gathers over 67 minutes of Morrison originals, its 14 tracks among the most easygoing-in-a-good-way he’s released in ages.

Morrison can be a wonderfully loose improviser and there are plenty of moments, some ephemeral, like the strums at the end of opening track “March Winds in February”, when the spontaneity of the poetic champion and his band survives intact.

Morrison, who also produced the album, brings “Astral Weeks” guitarist Jay Berliner back into the fold on six tracks to add some very fine acoustic guitar leads. On the soulful title track, as well as on the rollicking “Early Days” which features Morrison’s honking sax, he revisits career beginnings, a theme he’s tackled before which evidently continues to inspire him. “Bags Under My Eyes”, sounding like a Willie Nelson homage, has tongue softly in cheek as it mourns the consequences of life on the road again.

The unfortunate character in the R&B workout of “You Don’t Understand” is either suffering from a persecution complex or has really had it rough, a sentiment that also drifts over to “Read Between the Lines”.

Also:

LOS ANGELES: Days after releasing new song “Lose You to Love Me” comes the announcement that Selena Gomez will perform at the 2019 American Music Awards, her first live TV performance in two years. She last appeared on the AMAs stage in 2017 to perform the song “Wolves”.

“Lose You to Love Me” has already reached No. 1 on Spotify and Apple Music. It follows 2018’s smash “Taki Taki”, in which Gomez appeared alongside DJ Snake, Ozuna and Cardi B. Her previous five singles “It Ain’t Me” with Kygo, “Bad Liar”, “Fetish”, “Wolves” x Marshmello and “Back to You” all have been certified RIAA platinum or multi-platinum. (Agencies)

Post Malone, Billie Eilish and Ariana Grande lead in nominations for the 2019 American Music Awards. Post alone in nominated in seven categories including artist of the year, collaboration of the year and favorite male artist – pop/pock. Billie Eilish and Ariana Grande each received six nods; Lil Nas X and Taylor Swift, who has also been named artist of the decade, are tied with five nominations each; followed by Billy Ray Cyrus, Khalid and Ella Mai with four each.

The Dick Clark Productions Show airs live on ABC from the Microsoft Theater in downtown Los Angeles on Nov 24. (Agencies)

By Mark Kennedy

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