Tracy Chapman Telling Stories (Elektra, 2000)
By Micah Holmquist
March 10, 2000

Like New Beginning, Tracy Chapman’s newest disc Telling Stories is a couple of outstanding songs and a lot of just decent stuff. (1)

Just about every other reviewer feels compelled to say that Chapman’s music is the perfect tool to make a person feel worse about themselves. There is definitely sadness, longing, and anger in Chapman’s music. This is also true for a lot of lauded releases and critics usually do not feel the same need to make this point. The difference lies in how Chapman makes quite soothing music. Despite both the moniker of folk and definite folk influences, Chapman’s music is basically pop and has increasingly become so after Crossroads. But it is also about real emotions and Chapman makes no effort to pretend that it is about anything else.

This is her strength and it shows up on the title cut which opens the disc. "There is fiction in the space between you and me" goes the hook to this song about how a person can create all sorts of illusions to bolster their self-image. The lyrical images show brilliance when Chapman later calls the fiction, "science fiction" and then narrates how the other person sees her -or whoever voice is singing the song- as a monster. "Unsung Psalm" is another fine song that expresses that has Chapman imagining what she wants her death, and consequently life, to be about while a personal faith while "Deliver Me" is a plea for hope and help.

Other tracks falter, however. On "Paper and Ink, " Chapman gets to being political but it basically amounts to saying that money is only paper and ink and "We’ll destroy ourselves if we can’t agree." "Speak the Word" is about saying the word "love" and is hardly worth listening to.

The saving grace of Telling Stories turns out to be the music. Even the cuts with the weakest lyrics have enough musical punch to keep it interesting. And when the lyrics are good, then you have some really good stuff. The previously mentioned title cut, feature some cool electric guitar parts (2) that set the tone from the beginning and express the lyrical images. The percussion background changes "Nothing Yet" from a song with mildly interesting lyrics which are highly reminiscent of stuff we have heard previously from Chapman into something quite enjoyable and powerful.

The surest way to judge any artist who, like Chapman, was at one point lauded as the (next) new Bob Dylan is whether or not they become their own performer with their own distinct style. Tracy Chapman hasn’t quite created that niche but she doesn’t seem all that worried about it. As she says in the final three verses of "Unsung Psalm":

Do you live by the book do you play by the rules?
Do you care what is thought by others about you?
If this day is all that is promised to you
Do you live for the future the present the past?

If there is one thing I know I know I will die
If anyone cares some stranger may critique my life
I may be revered or defamed and decried
But I tried to live right

There would psalms sung by a choir
I would have a white robe a halo newly acquired
I’d be at peace and I’d have no desire
If I’d lived right.

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