NEW RELEASES : Fourplay: So Easy to Listen to, So Hard to Remember
FOURPLAY “Fourplay”
Warner Bros.
* * 1/2
This best-selling album is designed for people who don’t like their music demanding or complicated. It’s tastefully performed but essentially uninvolving. The quartet--keyboardist Bob James, guitarist Lee Ritenour, bassist Nathan East and drummer Harvey Mason--has given us a collection so mellow and relaxed that it could lull you to sleep in the daytime.
James is his usual spare self, playing as few notes as possible and using silence as a statement. Ritenour is sometimes flashy but mostly more modest, letting his pretty sound take precedence over speedy runs. East and Mason support the project ably.
The songs--all but one written or co-written by band members--range from the perky “Bali Run” to the turn-the-lights-down-low title track but mostly emphasize medium to medium-slow tempos. The only vocal, contributed by El DeBarge, is on a version of Marvin Gaye’s “After the Dance.” Classy in its way but uncomfortably close to background music.
New albums are rated on a scale o one star (poor) to four (excellent). A rating of five stars is reserved for classic reissues or retrospectives.
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