#447
Pop-rocker Marshall Crenshaw's output--eight studio albums and a couple of collections of odds and ends over his nearly two-decade recording career--isn't the most prodigious in terms of size. But even the least ambitious of his records, such as#447, are suffused with a sweet puckishness that's never at odds with the resigned tone he often favors. Where 1996'sMiracle of Sciencemade up for a paucity of new songs with imaginatively chosen covers (Ray Price,Dobie Gray,Grant Hart),#447fills space with three smooth instrumentals that suggest some smart indie-film music supervisor should hire Crenshaw. (He supplied music for the short-lived sitcomMen Behaving Badlyand was seen inLa BambaandPeggy Sue Got Married.) Among the additions to his seemingly endless catalog of relationship-crisis numbers are "Dime a Dozen Guy" and "Glad Goodbye," while "T.M.D." (presumably titled "Truly, Madly, Deeply" beforeSavage Gardenbeat him to the punch) is a rarity on this record: a song about being happy in love. Go figure.--Rickey Wright