Solo modes don’t swing far from Depeche Mode

Editor’s Note: In Sound Advice, the first Saturday of every month, veteran NEWS entertainment writer Dale McGarrigle, former British music-press writer Adam Corrigan and a revolving stable of NEWS writers review new albums from across the musical spectrum.

“Paper Monsters” (Warner Bros.) – Dave Gahan

“Counterfeit?” (Warner Bros.) – Martin L. Gore

I don’t even care to really think about how long Depeche Mode have been a fixture in the music business. I have seen them go from looking roughly 13 years old and wielding cricket bats, to leather-skinned junkies and biographers of excess.

After so long in the company of one another, it’s no surprise that main DM songwriter Martin Gore and main DM voice Dave Gahan would each have a burning need for a night out on their own – a chance to express all that cannot be said in the confines of their relationship.

So it’s somewhat interesting that both have released albums that sound like Depeche Mode.

Surprisingly, Gore is not the prime offender here. Having already said volumes wearing his DM cap, he uses his first full-length solo effort as a chance to showcase his effective and evocative voice. This is not new territory for Gore, who did exactly the same with 1989’s “Counterfeit” EP.

Again he covers a spectrum of artists from the unsurprising (Brian Eno) to the more eyebrow raising (anybody up for a David Essex revival?) While there are few genuinely inspiring moments on “Counterfeit?,” Gore shows himself to have a keen interpretive ear and a voice melancholy enough to carry off what could have been simply a conceit.

Dave Gahan’s effort is slightly more difficult to explain. Having spent 20 years singing Gore’s songs, one might think “Paper Monsters” was the album that had been raging inside him. Having now torn itself out into the open, it shows itself to be a competent but unstartling meander around familiar DM themes of love, loss and self-destruction. In fact, much of “Paper Monsters” would not turn heads if it turned up on the next DM release. Few tracks, however, would be offered as a single. Few who are not already Depeche Mode fans will be converted by this. – Adam Corrigan

“The Trouble With Being Myself” (Epic) – Macy Gray

It didn’t take a long time for Macy Gray to go from being a hot new artist to a caricature. Maybe it’s the offspring-of-Alfalfa look, the crazy-old-lady voice, an occasionally incoherent appearance. Gray even makes a tongue-in-cheek reference to her reputation in the title of her latest release.

But image aside, damn, the woman can make some great music. And there’s no mistaking those distinctive vocals.

Gray’s new self-produced album is packed with tales of love, and hate, but never indifference. Her passion radiates through on the 12 tracks, all written and inhabited by the singer, who shows there’s nothing neo about soul.

Best of all, she doesn’t feel the need to include a multitude of guest musicians (using only one guest rapper) or bow to the latest musical trends, choosing instead to nestle her vocals in a funky, rich instrumental bed.

With its energizing blend of hip-hop, jazz, R&B and rock, “The Trouble With Being Myself” should put the focus back where it belongs – on Gray the singer, instead of Gray the character. That way, she may gain the respect she deserves sooner. – Dale McGarrigle

“In Love in Vain” (Simba) – Frank Stallone

What do you get when you combine 12 classics from the Great American Songbook and Frank Stallone, singer-songwriter, actor and younger brother of Sylvester?

One of the best big-band albums to come swinging along since, oh, perhaps the big-band era.

“In Love in Vain” pairs Stallone’s rich vocals with the Grammy Award-winning Sammy Nestico Orchestra, a one-two punch that proves there occasionally rises a modern singer who can hold his own with Frank Sinatra, Nat King Cole, Bobby Darin and Tony Bennett.

Sounding more like Darin than Sinatra, Stallone breaks out with finger-snapping renditions of Johnny Mercer’s “Day In Day Out” and two Sinatra standards, “Witchcraft” and “I Wish I Were in Love Again.”

He sounds less like Darin by the fourth track, “Beyond the Sea (La Mer),” a signature Darin tune that is surprisingly dreamy when Stallone sings it.

If Stallone hasn’t won you over by the end of that song, then consider his take on “One for My Baby.” No one sings it like Sinatra; no one ever will. But Stallone pulls up a barstool and then paints us his picture of love lost.

While Stallone is good on the up-tempo numbers, he is even better on the ballads. The lesser-known title track, “In Love in Vain” by Jerome Kern, and “Spring is Here” by Rogers and Hart resonate with yearning.

The best song on the album is the Jimmy Van Heusen tune “But Beautiful.” Nestico, Count Basie’s arranger for more than two decades, creates a smooth backdrop filled with strings, horns and piano. Stallone does the rest and will have you savoring every note. – Janine Pineo