Stan & Judy's Kid
Is Adam Sandler maturing? First there wasThe Wedding Singer, now there's the ambition he displays on his fourth album,Stan and Judy's Kid. The bittersweet character sketch "Whitey" is the best example of Sandler's stretching here; most surprising is that the 16-minute piece never gets boring. Another lengthy track, "The Psychotic Legend of Uncle Donnie," is more akin to the '90s'Saturday Night Live's endless bits, though it's impressive to hear such a grisly conceit on a comedy disc. Sandler succeeds with pure absurdity on the opening "Hot Water Burn Baby" and five brief "Cool Guy" vignettes. Still the finest thing here is a sequel to Sandler's classic "Chanukah Song," which reminds us that "Lenny Kravitz is half-Jewish / Courtney Love is half, too / Put them together / What a funky, bad-ass Jew."--Rickey Wright