The Crit and Shap Poll

--Robert Wilonsky

Eagle-Eye Cherry, Desireless, Work
(15 points)
Given that Eagle-Eye's dad is indisputably great free-jazzer Don Cherry, the kid must have had to work extra hard to make an album this soulless. (At least you could dance to Neneh.) When he sings, Eagle-Eye shoots for bluesy grit but ends up with a watered down approximation that sounds mostly like Dave Matthews; his songs are equally mediocre, content to substitute melodic cliches for actual spark. And ditto his lyrics, which prefer tired poetics ("Far away the angel cries/How far away the angel sings/Don't sell your soul for a pack of lies") over wit, insight, or palpable emotion. The insipidly generic "Save Tonight" ("...And fight the break of dawn/Come tomorrow/Tomorrow I'll be gone") scored him a hit, which made Eagle-Eye harder to ignore and easier to dislike; as with the rest of the album, it suggests that by trying to be both urbane artiste and raw blues provider, Cherry ends up being nothing at all.

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