J.D. Considine
J. D. Considine has written for many North American magazines and newspapers. From 1979 to 1996, he wrote for Rolling Stone and then wrote for Musician. He was on the staff of the Baltimore Sun from 1986 to the end of 2000, leaving to become managing editor of Revolver Magazine. He later became jazz critic at The Globe and Mail in Toronto.
Steven Ward's 2000 interview with Considine
101 articles
List of articles in the library
Judas Priest, The Scorpions: Judas Priest, Scorpions: Purity & Power
Interview by J.D. Considine, Musician, September 1984
Total, Unswerving Devotion to Heavy Metal Form: Judas Priest and the Scorpions ...
Ice Cube, Bill Laswell, N.W.A, Public Enemy: Fear of a Rap Planet
Report and Interview by J.D. Considine, Alan di Perna, Musician, February 1992
The biggest style of the last decade has a problem with attitudes. By J.D. Considine ...
Luther Vandross: Front Man: Luther Vandross
Interview by J.D. Considine, Musician, November 1991
MARCUS MILLER said it was amazing how clearly you conceive your recordings, that not only would you know how you'd want a harmony part voiced, ...
Report and Interview by J.D. Considine, Baltimore Sun, 22 November 1995
IF ALL YOU know about Phish is what you read in newspapers and magazines, odds are that you think this is the band that will ...
Sammy Hagar, David Lee Roth, Van Halen: Van Halen: All For One & Free For All
Interview by J.D. Considine, Musician, February 1986
Poolside mayhem with a reshuffled band of rock 'n' roll anarchists ...
Los Lobos: ...And A Time To Dance (Slash)
Review by J.D. Considine, Record, February 1984
VERY AMERICAN ...
George Russell Orchestra: The African Game (Manhattan)
Review by J.D. Considine, Musician, April 1985
THE REISSUE of Ezz-thetics last year marked the first time in years George Russell's name had appeared on an American new release; he'd become one ...
Culture Club: Colour By Numbers (Virgin/Epic)
Review by J.D. Considine, Record, January 1984
BOY GEORGE may be pop music's best argument against judgment on the basis of looks alone, but Culture Club's music makes a pretty strong case ...
The Chemical Brothers: Chemical Brothers: Surrender (Astralwerks 47610)
Review by J.D. Considine, Baltimore Sun, 22 June 1999
Surrender a heady mix Electronic music's Chemical Brothers simply dub over the torpedoes, go full speed ahead. ...
Ace Of Base: The Bridge (Arista)
Review by J.D. Considine, Spin, February 1996
IF EVER A group appeared to consist entirely of shiny, happy people, it's Ace of Base. Simply looking at them is enough to give most ...
Frankie Goes To Hollywood: Welcome To The Pleasure Dome (ZTT/Island)
Review by J.D. Considine, Record, January 1985
ACCORDING TO the press out of Britain, Frankie Goes To Hollywood is the hottest thing since Duran Duran discovered eye-liner. ...
The Cure, Dinosaur Jr.: What's The Big Idea? Robert Smith's Conception of the Cure
Interview by J.D. Considine, Musician, July 1989
ON THE whole, the average pop fan's image of the Cure is pretty close to the way the band appears in the video to 'Fascination ...
Prince: The Artist weaves a web
Interview by J.D. Considine, Baltimore Sun, 20 September 1997
BY RECORDING INDUSTRY STANDARDS, The Artist Formerly Known as Prince is turning into The Artist Who Formerly Had a Career. Once one of the biggest ...
John Medeski: Mad Skillet (Indirecto)
Review by J.D. Considine, Downbeat, March 2019
For John Medeski's Mad Skillet, it's all about the bass — or in this case, the sousaphone. Because in Medeski's New Orleans funk band, it's ...
Christian McBride & Inside Straight: Live At The Village Vanguard (Mack Avenue)
Review by J.D. Considine, Downbeat, January 2022
AT THE END of a brightly swinging run through 'Fair Hope Theme,' bassist and bandleader Christian McBride tells the Village Vanguard audience, "This band was ...
Gang Of Four: The Revolution Lightens Up
Interview by J.D. Considine, Musician, October 1982
While their political passion remains undimmed, these post-punk party comrades are now using heinous capitalist tactics like great melodies, gang vocals and good humor. ...
Roxette: Sweden's Roxette Is Making It Big Almost by Accident
Interview by J.D. Considine, Baltimore Sun, 23 September 1989
ALL AROUND THE WORLD, pop groups dream of making it big in America. Not only is the United States home to the biggest and most ...
Bananarama, Fun Boy Three: Fun Boy Three: Waiting (Chrysalis); Bananarama: Deep Sea Skiving (London)
Review by J.D. Considine, Musician, June 1983
ON THE surface, these two records seem to have a lot in common. Aside from the fact that the Funboys helped to get Bananarama together ...
Al Jarreau: Jarreau (Warner Bros.)
Review by J.D. Considine, Musician, July 1983
ALTHOUGH POP has always seemed Al Jarreau's destiny, his disposition toward jazz kept getting in the way. It wasn't so much that Jarreau bopped when ...
Angela Winbush's Old and New Style
Interview by J.D. Considine, Musician, March 1994
"NON-AESTHETIC records that sound like carbon copies of another." ...
Review by J.D. Considine, Musician, June 1983
R.E.M. HAS the most hypnotizing sound of any group playing rock today. That sounds like hyperbole, I know, but it's true. Thanks to their densely ...
Interview by J.D. Considine, Musician, March 1982
Seminal art-rockers in the '70s, Genesis takes off in an exciting new direction, leaner and more aggressively funky, yet moody and lyrical, led by Phil ...
Great Polysynths For Under $2,000
Overview by J.D. Considine, Musician, February 1984
Making Trickle-Down Economics Work for You ...
Charlie Parker: The Sound and Myth of Charlie Parker at 100
Report and Interview by J.D. Considine, Downbeat, 10 January 2020
TO SAY THAT Charlie "Yardbird" Parker was one of the greatest jazz musicians who ever lived is a bit like saying the Mona Lisa is ...
Dennis Chambers, The Police, Bruce Springsteen, Tony Williams: How To Think Like A Drummer
Interview by J.D. Considine, Musician, June 1988
Becoming a Drumhead in 6 Easy Lessons ...
The Human League, Japan, Orchestral Manoeuvres In The Dark, Soft Cell: Human League et al: Synth-Pop
Report and Interview by J.D. Considine, Musician, August 1982
Music Without Musicians...But Not Without Craftsmanship and Great Songs ...
Al Green: He Is The Light (A&M)
Review by J.D. Considine, Musician, January 1986
AL GREEN'S gospel recordings never really turned on his pop following, in part due to their uneven quality, but also because hosannas, no matter how ...
Interview by J.D. Considine, Spin, May 1996
Radiohead's The Bends reveals a band whose musical flights go far beyond 'Creep' — and, as J.D. Considine discovers, rely on none of the ususal ...
The Last Poets, Bill Laswell: The Last Poets: Bill Laswell on how to Produce A Holy Terror
Interview by J.D. Considine, Musician, September 1995
USUALLY, THE relationship between words and music on a recording puts the music first and the words second. But when Bill Laswell began work on ...
Santana: Paul Reed Smith's High-Class Hybrid
Interview by J.D. Considine, Musician, July 1984
Bridging the Age-old Gap Between Strat and Paul ...
Midnight Oil: The Only Band That Really Matters
Interview by J.D. Considine, Musician, September 1985
THERE'S A TV commercial running on television stations in Sydney that explains a lot about modern-day Australia. The ad is for McDonald's, and seeks to ...
Dr. Dre, Snoop (Doggy) Dogg: Dr. Dre On How To Make An Album Doggystyle
Interview by J.D. Considine, Musician, February 1994
DR. DRE ISN'T a good advertisement for music school. "With all these players out here, why should I waste this much time learning how to ...
Culture Club: Waking Up With The House On Fire (Epic)
Review by J.D. Considine, Musician, January 1985
NOBODY HAS ever accused Culture Club of having too much depth. For them, frivolity is its own reward, and there's more than enough meaning in ...
Review by J.D. Considine, Musician, February 1982
LIKE ALL good Irishmen, I enjoy nothing better than a good talker. At the same time, I share the instinctive Irish mistrust of anyone for ...
Review by J.D. Considine, Musician, July 1985
NOW THAT Bob Dylan is establishing himself as a born-again rocker, why shouldn't the new wave stage a folk revival? But listening to Radio Tokyo ...
Herbie Hancock: Sound-System (Columbia)
Review by J.D. Considine, Musician, November 1984
DON'T MAKE the mistake of turning up your nose at this because it's "another goddamn rock record." Don't even fall for the line that Sound-System ...
Wall of Voodoo: Oddballs Amok in the Melting Pot
Interview by J.D. Considine, Musician, July 1983
MARTY ROBBINS has just ridden back into El Paso to see his beloved Felina, and is met instead by a vengeful posse. The lights go ...
R.E.M.: Subverting Small Town Boredom
Interview by J.D. Considine, Musician, August 1983
ALMOST EVERYBODY else at the Athens, Georgia, Holiday Inn was there for some convention being held at the University of Georgia — seminars in bovine ...
Sam Phillips: The Heretic Finds Some Happiness
Interview by J.D. Considine, Musician, November 1988
SAM PHILLIPS is sitting in a New York office, looking remarkably unwilted in the sultry August heat and listening to me complain about having been ...
Philip Bailey, Phil Collins: The Second Coming of Phil Collins
Interview by J.D. Considine, Musician, June 1985
A SEASONED PLAYER ENJOYS CHARTBUSTING NEW LIFE AS A SOLO STAR ...
Blondie: Eat To The Beat (Chrysalis)
Review by J.D. Considine, New York Rocker, December 1979
AMERICA, AS you might expect of any pop-oriented, media-saturated culture, has a disturbing tendency to take its sexual images literally. Lauren Hutton and Cheryl Tiegs ...
Bobby Womack: The Poet II (Beverly Glen)
Review by J.D. Considine, Record, July 1984
NOMINALLY A sequel to 1981's The Poet, this is less a second helping of that album's personal expressiveness than a second side of Bobby Womack. ...
Girlschool: Coast to Coast, Baltimore MD
Live Review by J.D. Considine, Musician, August 1982
FROM A DISTANCE, Girlschool looks pretty much like any other heavy rock group — long hair, Marshall stacks, denim and leathers. But it doesn't take ...
Review by J.D. Considine, Musician, October 1987
TIME WAS when any R&B act of consequence bore the imprimatur of Prince or one of his aliases. These days, the big buzz is from ...
Smokey Robinson: Painters Mill Star Theater, Baltimore
Live Review by J.D. Considine, Musician, November 1981
IT'S HARD TO imagine that a Smokey Robinson concert could hold much in the way of surprises. Celebrating his 25th year in the business, Robinson ...
Review by J.D. Considine, Musician, September 1985
GREAT SINGING is its own reward, and that's particularly true of the Womacks, Bobby, Cecil and Linda. Their voices carry not only the experience of ...
Miles Davis, Marcus Miller, Luther Vandross: Marcus Miller Gets Around
Interview by J.D. Considine, Musician, May 1984
THE FUNKY THROUGH-LINE BEHIND LUTHER VANDROSS & ARETHA; THE JAZZY AGITATOR BEHIND MILES, GROVER & SANBORN ...
Interview by J.D. Considine, Musician, May 1984
CECIL AND Linda Womack are sitting on a couch in their home near Philadelphia while Micah, their youngest, plays with a pull-toy on the floor. ...
George Clinton: Computer Games (Capitol)
Review by J.D. Considine, Musician, March 1983
THERE ARE times when I think George Clinton puts out uneven albums just to piss the rest of the world off. I mean, there are ...
Chic, Led Zeppelin, The Power Station: Tony Thompson: It Ain't The Meat, It's The Emotion
Interview by J.D. Considine, Musician, March 1986
The Power, the Glory, and the Groove: Our Man from Chic Hits Hard and Hits Big, from Zep to Power Station to Madonna ...
Elvis Costello: Constitution Hall, Washington D.C.
Live Review by J.D. Considine, Musician, July 1984
"I'M GOING TO do something you've never seen me do before," Elvis Costello told the audience at Washington, D.C.'s Constitution Hall as he unstrapped his ...
Stevie Wonder: Selections From The Original Motion Picture Soundtrack: The Woman In Red (Motown)
Review by J.D. Considine, Musician, January 1985
THE NEW Stevie Wonder album has this problem: It thinks it's a soundtrack. It doesn't get violent about it, true. In fact, except for the ...
LL Cool J: L.L. Cool J: Bigger And Deffer (Def Jam)
Review by J.D. Considine, Musician, August 1987
THE INEVITABLE challenge of a great debut: what to do for an encore. For James Todd Smith — a.k.a. Cool James, a.k.a. L.L. Cool J ...
Jermaine Jackson: Jermaine Jackson (Arista)
Review by J.D. Considine, Musician, July 1984
IF MICHAEL Jackson's public persona makes him out as a bit of a dreamer, there's always enough fire in his work to add an edge ...
Everclear, Kid Rock, Limp Bizkit: Big Shots: Fred Durst, Kid Rock and Art Alexakis
Report and Interview by J.D. Considine, Revolver, Spring 2000
NO ONE EVER mistook Fred Durst for a suit. in fact, he looks more like a bicycle messenger than a corporate personage. "I wear shitty ...
Stevie Ray Vaughan & Double Trouble: SRV
Review by J.D. Considine, Revolver, Winter 2000
CARLOS SANTANA was on British TV the other night, talking about those wondrous moments in a musician's life when conscious control dissolves and something just ...
Sheila E.: Romance 1600 (I.R.S.)
Review by J.D. Considine, Musician, November 1985
ARTISTS USUALLY sound more distinctive and less derivative over time. Sheila E. seems to be moving in the opposite direction. The Glamorous Life, her solo ...
The Cars, Elliott Easton: Elliot Easton, Closet Traditionalist
Interview by J.D. Considine, Musician, September 1986
THE CARS' GUITAR SPARKPLUG ON BEING APPROPRIATE ...
Aretha Franklin: Who's Zoomin' Who? (Arista)
Review by J.D. Considine, Musician, September 1985
ARETHA FRANKLIN has never made a bad record. When her records lacked the fire that ignited her greatest singles, that voice has been enough to ...
Various Artists: Ken Burns Jazz - The Story of American Music/The Best of Ken Burns Jazz
Review by J.D. Considine, Revolver, Winter 2000
ANYONE FAMILIAR with the acclaimed documentary filmmaker Ken Burns (Baseball, The Civil War, et al) knows that this man is unafraid of tackling the most ...
U2: The Unforgettable Fire (Island)
Review by J.D. Considine, Musician, November 1984
Turning Point: U2 mixes textural growth with thematic ambiguity in a view of Mythical America. ...
Review by J.D. Considine, Musician, September 1989
Batty Prince, Torn Between Good and Evil ...
Holly & The Italians: Warner Theatre, Washington DC
Live Review by J.D. Considine, Musician, May 1983
UNDER NORMAL circumstances, Holly Beth Vincent would be the perfect punk debutante. Between the seedy elegance of her second-hand black evening dress and the rakish ...
Joan Jett and the Blackhearts: Glorious Results of a Misspent Youth (Blackheart/MCA)
Review by J.D. Considine, Record, December 1984
IN SOME WAYS, the worst mistake Joan Jett ever made was recording 'I Love Rock 'n' Roll'. Sure, it was a great record, an instant ...
Cyndi Lauper: She's So Unusual (Portrait)
Review by J.D. Considine, Record, March 1984
IF GOOD SINGING were its own reward, then She's So Unusual, the solo debut of former Blue Angel singer Cyndi Lauper, would be one hell ...
James Brown: Calling Mr. Dynamite
Overview by J.D. Considine, Record, November 1984
WHEN JAMES Brown first took to being called The Godfather of Soul, it was more to play upon the faddish success of Francis Ford Coppola's ...
Review by J.D. Considine, Record, June 1984
RAP RECORDS had messages before 'The Message' exploded across the airwaves in 1982, but it remains extremely tempting to argue that it was Grandmaster Flash ...
Interview by J.D. Considine, New York Rocker, March 1980
TELEPHONE INTERVIEWS are not my favorite means of communication, but in the case of Wire (to be specific, bassist Graham Lewis), it's either that or ...
Heart: Ann & Nancy Wilson Get Hot Again
Interview by J.D. Considine, Record, November 1985
FOR A WHILE, it looked as if Heart was going to end up as another group filed under "What ever happened to?" Although the band ...
Review by J.D. Considine, Musician, April 1989
TECHNIQUE IS not something most listeners associate with New Order. Sure, the band has made significant strides over the years, developing a sound far more ...
The Psychedelic Furs: Psychedelic Furs: The Ritz, New York NY
Live Review by J.D. Considine, Musician, March 1983
RICHARD BUTLER stalks to his microphone, a vision in beige. While the other six Psychedelic Furs take their places decked out in the standard postpunk ...
Review by J.D. Considine, Musician, April 1984
IT WASN'T too long ago that new wave partisans like myself (and most likely you, too) were sneering at mainstream rock for being predictable, un-threatening ...
De La Soul: De La Soul Is Dead (Tommy Boy)
Review by J.D. Considine, Musician, July 1991
De La Soul's Serious Fun ...
Van Halen: Fair Warning (Warner Brothers)
Review by J.D. Considine, Musician, October 1981
THE GENERALLY accepted notion of guitar heroics holds that heavy metal is a lead guitarist's forum. Practice and history, however, suggest another conclusion. Despite the preponderance of ...
The Beat: The English Beat: Special Beat Service (IRS)
Review by J.D. Considine, Musician, February 1983
UNLIKE WH'APPEN, Special Beat Service successfully manages the transition from 2-tone to full color, giving the English Beat a sound that is at once more ...
Culture Club: Kissing To Be Clever (Epic/Virgin)
Review by J.D. Considine, Musician, February 1983
JUST WHEN you thought the last thing you needed was another washed-out attempt at dance music, along comes Culture Club to smash all your preconceptions ...
Paul McCartney: Pipes Of Peace (Columbia)
Review by J.D. Considine, Musician, January 1984
JUST WHEN you thought it was safe to like Paul McCartney again, along comes an album that makes Ram look like Abbey Road. It isn't ...
Review by J.D. Considine, Musician, January 1984
ALTHOUGH IT'S doubtful Nancy Reagan listens to either rap or reggae records (or anything more soulful than Ray Anthony, for that matter), she ought to ...
Review by J.D. Considine, Musician, April 1984
AS HIP-HOP, the rapping and scratching music of the break dancers, bounces out of the urban subculture and into the mainstream, it's reasonable enough to ...
The Dirty Dozen Brass Band: Mardi Gras In Montreux (Rounder)
Review by J.D. Considine, Musician, October 1986
IF DECADES of drab Dixieland combos have left you thinking that the New Orleans notion of collective improvisation is mere fabrication, prepare to be converted. ...
The Human League, Japan: Human League: Dare (A&M); Japan: Japan (Virgin/Epic)
Review by J.D. Considine, Musician, June 1982
CONTRARY TO popular belief, all synthesizer bands are not unlistenable. True, many do sound rather like the result of an infinite number of silicon chips ...
Interview by J.D. Considine, Musician, December 1981
Between the pleasant song hooks and facile photogenia of the Police there lies a sophistication and urgency that has justly brought Andy Summers, Sting and Stewart Copeland to the ...
Review by J.D. Considine, Vibe, September 1996
BEATS AREN'T the only things that change as dance pop evolves. When Madonna first made club music safe for the masses, she did it with ...
Simple Minds: Ontario Theater, Washington D.C.
Live Review by J.D. Considine, Musician, August 1983
A THIN SLIVER OF STYLE ...
Live Review by J.D. Considine, Musician, June 1982
APPEARANCES CAN be deceiving. As the rest of Chic pumped out the urgent, staccato vamp to 'Stage Fright', Nile Rodgers, Alfa Anderson, Luci Martin and ...
Carlos Alomar, David Bowie: Who The Hell Is Carlos Alomar?
Interview by J.D. Considine, Musician, March 1984
The Guitar Power Behind Bowie's Thin White Throne ...
Divinyls: The Divinyls: Painters Mill Star Theater, Baltimore
Live Review by J.D. Considine, Musician, July 1983
CHRISTINA AMPHLETT looks like Lily Tomlin's Edith Ann doing Patti Smith. She's standing at the microphone at Baltimore's Painters Mill Star Theater, wearing an amazingly ...
Was (Not Was): Born To Laugh At Tornadoes (Ze/Geffen)
Review by J.D. Considine, Musician, November 1983
FOR AN ALBUM that boasts such a pointedly diverse array of vocalists — would you believe Mitch Ryder, Mel Tormé, Doug Feiger and Ozzy Osbourne, ...
Fabulous Thunderbirds: The Fabulous Thunderbirds
Interview by J.D. Considine, Musician, June 1986
FROM RIB JOINTS TO MOVIES, THE T-BIRDS MAKE IT TOUGH ENOUGH ...
Dr. John: Dr. John Plays Mac Rebennack (Clean Cuts)
Review by J.D. Considine, Musician, March 1982
AS THE TITLE implies, this is Dr. John being himself, stretching out on the piano and doing what comes naturally. At the same time, there's ...
Report by J.D. Considine, Musician, October 1981
Band like REO, Styx and Journey have taken the details of the rock sound and made the medium the whole message, capitalizing on the rock ...
Exposé: Greatest Hits (Arista)
Review by J.D. Considine, Vibe, March 1996
THESE DAYS, most people think Gloria Estefan was queen of the pre-bass Miami dance music scene. But the real rulers were Exposé, three women who ...
Phil Collins, Genesis: Front Man: Phil Collins
Interview by J.D. Considine, Musician, July 1990
IN A REVIEW of Phil Collins' latest album, ...But Seriously, J.D. Considine wrote that Phil was more fun when he was frivolous. That's where Phil ...
Living Colour, The Scorpions: Scorpions: Savage Amusement (Mercury); Living Colour: Vivid (Epic)
Review by J.D. Considine, Musician, July 1988
ADMIT IT — most of you would no sooner listen to metal than volunteer for root canal work. Metal is nasty, noisy, brutish, the kind ...
Review by J.D. Considine, Baltimore Sun, 8 January 1998
Sublime's Second-hand shows the promise that went up in smoke ...
Interview by J.D. Considine, Musician, June 1992
VISITING REHEARSALS FOR A STADIUM TOUR ...
Elvis Costello & The Attractions: Imperial Bedroom
Review by J.D. Considine, Musician, August 1982
THIS IS ELVIS Costello's best yet. I know you've heard that before, and probably about a couple of his albums, but I can't help it ...
Rush: Screwing Up Pop — On Purpose
Interview by J.D. Considine, Musician, April 1990
RUSH MAY BE the only band on earth to have made "fear of boredom" a primary musical motivation. Needless to say, they don't put it ...
Megadeth: So Far, So Good...So What! (Capitol)
Review by J.D. Considine, Spin, March 1988
MATURITY IS not a concept commonly associated with heavy metal (unless you're using it as a euphemism for "old and decrepit" in which case it ...
Dr. John: Dr John: On Becoming Mac Rebennack
Interview by J.D. Considine, Musician, June 1982
The legend of Dr. John and his gumbo ragtime voodoo funk medicine, as told by the man who invented him, lived him and let him ...
Interview by J.D. Considine, Musician, July 1981
Unable to slake his thirst for new music, Santana swings from jazzy solo outings to rock-based group projects. ...
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