Mercury
Pop Rock, 2003

What do Texas and Belinda Carlisle have in common? Nothing other than they sing music with choruses that embed themselves into one’s brain and refuse to let go no matter what. Texas’s latest CD, Careful What You Wish for, has this group continuing to make music that can come out of the glorious 1960s pop/rock sounds, only this time they also experiment with blues, Motown, and reggae.

The first single Carnival Girl is collaboration with Kardinal Offishall and the result is a gorgeous hybrid of reggae and old-fashioned soft rock that Sugar Ray tried to replicate in several CDs but never gotten exactly right. Telephone X is a catchy fusion of modern electronica with what could have been a good Billy Idol song. There’s also a heavenly tribute to Blondie in what I find the best track on the CD, And I Dream – the chorus to this one is just superb.

And throughout every track, Sharleen Spiteri’s haunting and gorgeous voice always manages to deliver. Ms Spiteri is a charismatic vocalist. She has been accused of being a better homage singer than a vocalist, and sometimes, these critics may be right, since Texas’s brand of music continues to blend 1960s/1970s pop-rock sounds with a fidelity that can make critics uneasy. Nonetheless, on this CD, Ms Spiteri performs with bouncy energy that makes each song a joy to listen to: if Ms Spiteri cares to sound so passionate in the tracks, it’s very easy for me to party along.

On Careful What You Wish for, Texas experiments with combination of several genres of music and it is to their credit that this CD sounds beautifully coherent. It’s a musical feast on the ears. Fans of the old Texas sound may balk at what they perceive as the bastardization of this group’s White on Blonde days, but me, I think that this CD is a natural evolution for this always-listenable group. In this case, this CD is all I can wish for and more.