Consumer Guide Album

Get Shorty [Antilles, 1995]
Two new compositions perform the postmodern miracle of updating the Booker T. template "Green Onions," which is included for comparison. Especially in the five-minute version featuring his happy vocal interjections, soundtrack designer John Lurie's "Stink" melds jumpy funk to Casio kalimba with fine postneoprimitivist brio. And Us3's "Chilli Hot" hot-wires both action and music with the drop-dead snap and self-referential sass they cry out for. Too bad so much of the rest merely does its job--by declining to develop snatches like the matched pair "Bo at Airport" and "Romantic Walk," Lurie aspires to atmosphere rather than the redefinition of r&b. Too bad--better him than such well-modulated helpmates as Morphine and Medeski Martin & Wood. B+