Be Careful What You Wish for

It's taken Texas 14 years and six albums, but in Be Careful What You Wish For they've finally made a record that sounds like Texas. From doomed early attempts to revive the blues, to the Motown soul and Phil Spector-pop of the multi-million selling White on Blonde and The Hush, they've always been obsessed with the past. And while they've delivered some great songs in the process, the retro styling always made it feel like they were running through someone else's long lost hits. For Be Careful What You Wish For, frontwoman Sharleen Spiteri and co have blurred the vintage soul references with a deluge of other sounds, old and new. "Telephone X" writhes to a spiky, new-wave stomp, "Place in My World" brims with breathless synths and the sauntering "Carnival Girl" pairs a dusty old groove with Kardinal Offishall's ragga rapping.

Without the slavish devotion to the 1960s, the focus has shifted, pushing the real Texas—Spiteri's gorgeously understated vocals and beautiful sun bleached melodies--to the fore. The songs themselves might not be quite the instant radio hits that "Say What You Want" and "Black Eyed Boy" were, but like the purring title track, they shimmer with the subtle pop sophistication needed to make Be Careful What You Wish For an enduring classic. --Dan Gennoe

Label: Unknown
Studio: Mercury
Released: 2003-10-20
Format: Audio CD

Extras/Features:
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