20 - Friday, July 29, 1988 - North Shore News oWeril OR AN OCEAN OF ORIGINAL AND CLASSIC SUSHIS LOVINGLY PREPARED SM Try our rainbow roll — a deliciously colourful roll of sea-eel, cucumber, salmon, snapper and egg y and spinach, or mushroom sushi with shitake mushrooms. | TAKE-OUT and CATERING AVAILABLE 980-1510 180 East 2nd, North Van. phote by Carol Fledman WOMACK & WOMACK pose with a pack of Womacks during the photo session for the cover of their new LP, Conscience. The album is soul with substance. WOMACK & WOMACK THE COME-back artists just keep on coming, gearing up the mass culture for the 1990s nostalgia revival of the 1970s. Ace songwriters Womack & Womack come up with a fine release; Paul Anka comes up still looking young but ar- tistically spent; Deep Purple comes up looking older and artistically spent; Elton John and writer Bernie Taupin summon the artistic spirit of days gone by. Womack & Womack — Con- science, Island Records 1988 Smcooth! Separately, Cecil and Linda Womack have been respon- sible for countless hits over the de- cades. Cecil Womack penned the Stones’ first hit, it’s All Over, when he was a teenager. He’s played with Hendrix, Mary Wells and The O’ Jays. His wife has writ- ten gold for James Taylor, Wilson Pickett and Aretha Franklin. Together on this soul LP, the duo strikes creative gold. The in- spiration comes from time spent recording in the Virginia coal country. The message is universal, expressed in the terms of a discourse on relationships with ourselves, the opposite sex and the world at large. Cecil Womack’s voice is simul- taneously raw and refined. Linda Womack’s vocals counter with a pure, soulful simplicity. The har- monies are seamless and the in- strumentation is sparse. The result — a satisfying set of well-polished gems. Pauj Anka — Freedom, A&M 1988 The left side of the face stares, smouldering out at you from the cover. A musky manliness oozes from larger-than-life facial pores. He is in on a longevity secret shared by fellow worldly travellers Dick Clark, Ronald Reagan and Pat Boone. Time has been kind. Alas, time has also left Paul Anka without inspiration. And when you resort to pumping out an LP rehashing the dubious likes of Having My Baby, revamped with a fully automated marimba beat, or the immortal cornball sentimen- tality of a song like My Way, you MICHAEL BECKER music reviewer have to come up empty handed. The baby face is intact, The voice is the same. The songs have changed little, Well perhaps a little —- a bit more modern to hook the young ones who might enjoy the songs of smouldering men with sincerely sensitive eyes. Reassur- ing? Maybe. Dull? Positively. Deep Purple -—— Nobody’s Perfect, Polygram Records 1988 This LP replaces my copy of the 1972 Made [n Japan album that melted on the back seat of my parents’ car while I spent a scor- ching summer’s day at the PNE filling my face with Tom Thumb donuts and adjusting my body type in the House of Mirrors. When I returned to the turn- table, I attempted to salvage what I could on tape, but Space Truck- ing never did sound the same in 3-D. The years have left this band sapped of creative drive as well, but given that heavy metal has never reaily left us since Deep Duo strikes creative gold Purple’s peak years in the early *70s, the sound on this live album is sure to please those with a taste for forged iron. The 1969 band lineup of lan Gillan, Ritchie Blackmore, Jon Lord, Ian Paice and Roger Glover is captured phoenix-like, playing 1987 live sessions in the USA, Norway and Italy. It’s the same sonic sludge you might remember from the heyday Machine Head period, when the band made the Guinness Book of World Records as the loudest rock band in the world. The ear-blister- ing goods are delivered, including groin-wrenching favorites like Highway Star and Child In Time. Elton John — Reg Strikes Back, MCA 1988 The album would have more aptly been titled Captain Fantastic Strikes Back. The feel of the LP harkens back to the mid-’70s period of John’s career. Much has been made of John discarding his stage alter-ego to unleash the Reg persona sublimated for all these years. The issue is a red herring, Listen to the album and you'll hear the best and the worst of the durable music mega-star we have come to know as Elton John. The LP finds him writing again with fellow hit fac- tory partner Bernie Taupin. The true schlock, of which John has produced his fair share, is rep- resented this time out by the vomitive filler closing the LP, Since God Invented Girls, a patronizing homage to ‘‘girls.”’ The best pop on the LP is revealed in songs like Town of Plenty, Poor Cowand I Don’t Wanna Go On With You Like That, a tune propped up by what sounds like a well-timed submarine depth sounder.