Consumer Guide Album

Kid Creole and the Coconuts: You Shoulda Told Me You Were . . . [Columbia, 1991]
Although he claims he's set "to leave his beloved Isle of York once and for all," Manhattan toned up the Kid's politics. The Cory Daye feature "Consequently," which starts with Columbus sailing the ocean blue, is as cold-eyed as the Mekons' Sally Timms feature "Brutal," and "Oh Marie" and "Madison Avenue" are more realistic about crime in the streets and crisis in the schools than most rap or any Lou Reed. As for the love songs, they're fine when love has nothing to do with it--when he's hot for a party girl, or insisting a sex object meet his plastic surgeon. A-