Consumer Guide Album

Marti Jones: Unsophisticated Time [A&M, 1985]
Suggesting both Dusty Springfield's breathy yearning and Karen Carpenter's AM plainstyle, Jones is a Bonnie Ronstadt for the local-band era--a nonwriter ready to raid the enormous store of good songs only pop cultists have ever heard. Of course, in the CHR era her audience may never get beyond pop cultists, which would be doubly unjust: it's bad enough when a dB's album leads off with two Peter Holsapple sure shots and stiffs, but this record leads off with two Peter Holsapple sure shots and then goes on to mine Richard Barone, Elvis Costello, even producer-svengali Don Dixon. And topping them all is a loony vow of romantic devotion called "Follow You All Over the World," by one B. Simpson. Wonder how many more B. Simpsons have hidden such stuff away on their demo cassettes. (Please do not mail tapes to The Voice; Donald Dixon c/o A&M Records, 595 Madison Avenue, will do fine.) A-