Posted 7/7/2003 10:51 PM

Terence Trent D'Arby, Wildcard (***) D'Arby, or Sananda Maitreya, as he now calls himself, has been fairly quiet for the past eight years, but he's lost none of his penchant for dealing funk, jazz, pop, R&B and rock into a winning hand. And while some of his past work has bordered on esoteric, this one is trumped up with decidedly inventive grooves. His elastic voice swings from high-pitched screams to gravelly growls, but most often he seduces with a sweet tenor that conveys a broad range of emotions. The only drawback: D'Arby's/Maitreya's usually clever lyrics, which sometimes cross the line from quirky to corny. That said, this is still a highly playable Wildcard. —
Steve Jones