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Show Around with records The case of Melanie: curious and a little sad by John Rockwell New York Times Writer NEW YORK The case of Melanie known to her fans simply as Melanifl is curious and a little sad, too. Melanie emerged in the late 1960s as a vulnerable, mystical flower child, and although her music and that image won her some tangible success, most notably the single "Brand New Key" in 1971, it also limited her as the 1970s matured. Two years ago she released an Safka album on Atlantic called which was warmly "Photograph," greeted by a number of critics, this one among them. But the album wasn't v ery strenuously promoted, and it died commercially. Now, for all the maturity that album revealed, Melanie is very clearly still a person easily hurt, one who moves intuitively and moodily through a world full of tougher, more cynical people than she. "I was really crushed," she admitted the other day by telephone. "WE DIDN'T sign with anybody for a while, trying to figure out what to do. We tried cutting a few things in a studio in California. But I was in the wrong frame of mind a little desperate." Finally, while she was on a tour of Australia undertaken in large part, she implies, just to keep busy and to have the chance to play the "Photograph" songs for somebody her husband and producer, Peter Schekeryk, made a deal with the Midsong International label. 'Boe Rend of Midsong didn't have a company to distribute his label. Now he has MCA, so I'm on MCA. I can tell they're gonna' give me some support," she adds optimistically. The new Melanie album is called Not Just Another "Phonogenic Pretty Face." Melanie says that she made it feeling "a lot of pressure to be commercial and to keep within a budget." The result strikes this enthusiast as unfocused. First of all, there are only four Melanie songs on it, and six by others. The prevailing mood set by Hugh McCracken, the session guitarist who acted as music director is funky and soulful, but there are strong hints of d (the first single is a song by Peter Allen and Carole Bayer Sager) and country. Most of Melanie's songs are in an upbeat musical mood, even if some angst creeps into the lyrics. The new Melanie (Safka) album is called "Phongenic Not Just Another Pretty Face." Can Work It Out" and "California Dreamin" are both good. middle-of-the-roa- "I HAD a different perspective making this album. But it didn't offend I didn't feel bad. In fact, it felt me it felt better than it's felt in great years." Maybe, but Melanie also clearly feels doubt about how personally this album speaks for her and her present-da- y musical concerns. (Answer on Page high-anxie- ty "These aren't songs, they're recordings. You don't have to see the person behind them. The interpretations are " "I crossword puzzle personal, but the rest of it isn't as personal. This is different from 'Photograph,' and it will be different from what I'm gonna' do next." Melanie speaks of a tour in late April or May, and future projects that might involve more of the cabaret-theatric- s that distinguished "Photograph" including a possible concept album with a narrative theme that might be translated into a stage revue. "I wanted to go right into the studio and to the next album," Melanie said. "I was just warming up. I still have the songs I've written. I want to try more interludes and pauses in the music; this last album was just straight-ahea- d songs. "MAYBE IT was a reaction to what happened with 'Photograph.' This was a record, because of may failure to communicate in the last album. Whatever it is, it's not my last." (Copyright) Melanie claims she enjoyed the sessions. "It was going to be an album of my songs, but it turned out to be a totally different thing. I was afraid at first that Hugh was going to cut these terrific tracks and I would be kind of swept along by them. But I got fascinated by all the energy, and I wanted to be a part of it, and I was. THERE'S STILL a good deal to enjoy. Melanie's voice retains its rough urgency and emotionality, even if that roughness isn't always suited to the slicker style she sometimes attempts. In the funky material she doesn't always sound comfortable, the production seems occasionally cluttered and unsure, and the sentiment slips over into cloying sentimentality more than it did in "Photograph." Still, some of the songs are very nice her version of Jesse Winchester's "Yankee Lady" (retitled "Yankee Man") reveals a real gift for the country idiom, and her covers of "We 13) " i o 7 ja T" M"""MT 1)9 7 -- 3 14 '5 16 32 33 34 61 62 20 . 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