The Corrs

In Blue (Atlantic/Lava)

Ireland (and, since I am of Irish extraction, I know whereof I speak) is not a country known for producing pretty people. Enter the Corrs. The four siblings (Andrea, Sharon, Caroline and, least excitingly, Jim) decided to form a band in 1991 based on their musical influences, which they claimed to be pop and traditional Celtic music. To be honest, their Celtic streak was never very strong, and their pop was mediocre to say the least, but the international community embraced them, catapulting them to giant stardom. Americans, while buying the album enough to make it successful, didn't quite embrace them in the all-senses media-assault way that is the top of the pyramid in modern musical success. Perhaps the American audience was leery of a band that even had pretensions at involving folk music in their sound.

Luckily for the Corrs and their producers, identity, the bane of large-scale success, has been surgically removed from the Corrs in time for their third album, In Blue. Already, the Corrs have begun to construct an international cult of fantastically loyal adolescent males and pre-adolescent girls, who will no doubt flood from such competitors as Britney Spears to send them up the charts. The promo literature on the Corrs still makes much of the Celtic streak in their tunes, but that has been steamrolled over by a synthetic, processed sound. And, believe me, this is pop with two capital Ps, and a capital O thrown in for good measure. In Blue is to music what Last Action Hero was to cinema: the apotheosis of a certain kind of mindless cookie-cutter workmanship, like Warhol without the ironic distance. The only track on the album that doesn't just shriek with brain-bursting insignificance is the instrumental last track, "Rebel Heart." The fiddle from previous Corr albums is back, albeit surrounded by the same MIDI-file accompaniment that infests the rest of this God-forsaken album. "Rebel Heart" is worse than, say, the least interesting track on the Braveheart soundtrack, but at least it's not an embarrassment before God and Nature.

The reason for the Corrs' large-scale success to date (as well as in the foreseeable future) is that the three sisters are, to put it simply, gorgeous. Movie-star gorgeous. Stab-your-friend-in-the-back-for-their-smile gorgeous. And, yes, buy-their-assembly-line-trash-music gorgeous. Fight the impulse; if you must gaze at the Corrs, buy a poster, not their album. It's easier to stare at them when that bad pop music isn't distracting you anyhow.

C

-Matt Callahan

Mark Knopfler

Sailing to Philadelphia (Warner)

Mark Knopfler, former lead singer of Dire Straits, is not scared to blaze a new trail. In Sailing to Philadelphia, the indignant, muted, yet invitingly incomprehensible lyrics of "Sultans of Swing" are absent. Most of the songs are fairly transparent paeans to episodes of America's folk past, never mind Knopfler's British extraction. The title track features Knopfler and guest James Taylor in a mock-up of a very awkward conversation between Mason and Dixon of Mason-Dixon line fame, but the song holds together if you don't pay attention to the lyrics. Unfortunately, Knopfler seems to have lost the ability to choose exactly the right words for a situation that he displayed so brilliantly in that other Straits staple "Romeo and Juliet." "Who's Your Baby Now" hints at the zydeco-tinged strains of Straits standards like "Walk of Life" without any of the latter's grip. The album benefits from Knopfler's breezy guitar licks, especially in "What It Is," but the whole effect comes across as something better suited to a National Public Radio road show than to MTV or any other non-niche venue.

As if the record needed any more validation as a piece of Americana, Van Morrison appears on "The Last Laugh," with saxophones on hand to cue him in. It doesn't help the Pollyanna feel of a record that loses itself somewhere between Johnny Appleseed and Randy Newman.

B+

-Richard Worf

Young Dubliners

Red (Higher Octave)

They once owned a pub in Santa Monica, they're exclusively sponsored by Murphy's Irish Stout, their self-proclaimed "rabid" fan base includes the likes of Rosie O'Donnell, Michael Keaton and Dan Akroyd, but Bernie Taupin (Elton John's lyricist) nailed the coolest thing about the Young Dubliners when he said simply, "They kick ass!"

Mixing classic rock sounds with an ever-present Celtic hook, the Young Dub's fourth album, Red, does kick some serious booty. In a music industry where the word "eclectic" is becoming re-defined as the alternate use of the words "baby" and "ain't," the Young Dubs not only (gasp!) play their own instruments, but prove just what it should mean to be eclectic as they alternate from laid-back chill rock like the title track to the get-down-in-the-"jig pit" (the Dubs' version of a mosh pit) of "What Do You Want From Me?"

Originally hailing from Dublin, these boys even throw in an impressive cover of the Waterboys classic "Fisherman's Blues." Watch out, though-if you're looking forward to the familiar struggle to understand the Waterboys' lyrics, you'll be disappointed. Songs such as "Bodhran" (named for a traditional Celtic drum and pronounced "bo-ran") hint at just how amazing and fun a live band the Young Dubs must be. Baby, the Young Dubs ain't no Britney, but, then again, that's a good thing.

A

-Nell Hanlon

Francine

Forty on a Fall Day (Q Division)

Francine's debut album Forty on a Fall Day is sadly just another indie album, falling into the typical pattern of pop-melody followed by loud verse-chorus-verse. But at least it's a good indie album. Guitarist/lead singer Clayton Scoble, once an Aimee Mann backup, fills the sarcastic but softly melodic lead singer role quite pleasantly. In "Jet to Norway," one of the album's best tracks, Scoble manages to induce head-bopping, with a silly tune complemented by Albert Gualtieri's peppy guitar chords and Sean Connelly's nearly silent bass.

Unfortunately, the creative lyrics are masked by the band's unwillingness to relax and let their instruments fit the lyrics. This makes many of the songs blend together. "Want Ad King" may wax philosophic ("If life was Equus I'd be Burton/Philosophically uncertain/Not the screw-up kid with the religious mom") but the lead guitar sounds exactly the same as on "East Hampton," the next track. As the sequence of 16 songs progresses, some of the stronger tunes, such as the catchy "So Eureka," end up being overlooked.

While the album isn't a breakout masterpiece, Francine is a band that knows what its listeners want-quirky background songs that sound happy but have morbid depressing lyrics. Forty on a Fall Day would be a better album if it were shorter and more inventive, but count Francine as one more contribution to the seemingly endless supply of indie-pop.

B

-Nikki Usher

Submarine

SkinDiving (Reprise)

Daring to trip down into the sweet sea of shivers that's shielded by your skin, Submarine submerges, dives deep into those secret spots behind your consciousness that only glow with the lights out. In their debut album SkinDiving, south London trio Al Boyd, Richard Jeffrey and Adaesi Ukairo have oozed out a unique and seductive blend of aquamarine electronic pulse. Lyrically intriguing, although sometime tempted to too-easy rhymes, SkinDiving strikes a perfect balance between vocal and vibration.

The album starts sinister and subtle with guilty tracks like "Sunbeam," suspending Ukairo's sultry British voice, vaguely reminiscent of Portishead's Beth Gibbons, over relaxed jazz grooves that fuse high-pitched rhythms with smooth bass. But as Submarine dives deeper into the skin it somehow finds its innocence in the lighter, airier texture of songs like "Out to Lunch" that replace much of the bass with the softer aura of strings.

Though the beginning of the album is more successful than the end, the shift is skillful and it remains cohesive, revealing a versatility in the trio that should keep them around for at least a little while. Boyd's musical direction and Jeffrey's lyrics should serve as backbones to the band in future endeavors, but more than anything it is Ukairo's voice that makes Submarine sparkle in the dark.

A-

- Matt Rozen