April 19–26, 2001

cd reviews|rock/pop

Nikka Costa

Everybody Got Their Something

(Virgin)

Backward swipes. Crunchy unctuous guitars. Unfettered funk tinged with Fender Rhodes and strings. Sound familiar? At first, this Mediterranean goddess (and daughter of legendary producer Don Costa) seems to flow in the same psycho-delic soul vein as Macy Gray. "Like A Feather" and "Hope It Felt Good" (like most of the CD) are lined with purple satin prose, flickering Family Stone funk, layered wine-bar keyboards and winding melodies that never lose pop structure. Perhaps it comes from a lifetime of making platinum sugar-pop for foreign markets. And this is perhaps a calculated effort — a big label turning a pop heroine into a dirty-minded R&B goddess. But even so, it’s a bold molding effort indeed. I defy you to listen to "Some Kind Of Beautiful"’s chattering layered vocals and disco guitars and stay still. Or to hear simple but subversive ballads like "Just Because" and not find your head tilted dreamily. It’s the way she wraps her gritty but graceful growl around busy production tricks — knowing full well where to place the purr, the groan, the yipe, the yearn. And it’s only right that "Push & Pull" is on the Blow soundtrack. Nikka’s slow addled funk is all druggy — one chemical dependency you never wanna be weaned from.

—a.d. amorosi

Nikka Costa and her nine-piece band will perform on Fri., April 20, 8 p.m., $8 ($10 day of show), at the Five Spot, 5 S. Bank St., 215- 336-2000.