Soul singer Adams / TUE 9-9-25 / Narco nabber / Crack expert? / Cheese town in northern Holland / Some "Beowulf" characters / What might precede Phone, commercially?

Constructor: Marshal Herrmann

Relative difficulty: Easy

THEME: VOWEL (35A: Purchase on "Wheel of Fortune" ... or every other letter of this puzzle's grid) — all answers alternate between vowels and consonants

Theme answers:

• all of them

Word of the Day: OLETA Adams (47D: Soul singer Adams) —

Oleta Angela Adams (born May 4, 1953) is an American singer, pianist, and songwriter. She found limited success during the early 1980s, before gaining fame via her contributions to Tears for Fears' international chart-topping album The Seeds of Love (1989). Her albums Circle of One (1991) and Evolution (1993) were top 10 hits in the UK; the former yielded a Grammy-nominated cover of Brenda Russell's "Get Here", which was a top 5 hit in both the UK and the U.S. Adams has been nominated for four Grammy Awards, as well as two Soul Train Music Awards. [...] In June 1985, while performing at the Peppercorn Duck Club in the Hyatt Hotel in Kansas City, Adams was heard by Ian Stanley (keyboardist of the British band Tears for Fears) while they were on a two-night stopover in Kansas City midway through their "Big Chair Tour". The next night Stanley, Curt Smith and Roland Orzabal had dinner at the club where Adams was again performing, and they collectively decided that they would approach her with an offer for her to work on their next album, The Seeds of Love. Adams accepted the offer, and two years later Orzabal and Smith got in contact with her again to invite her to join the band as a singer and pianist. // In 1989, the album was released and the single "Woman in Chains", sung as a duet by Adams and Orzabal and with Manu Katche & Phil Collins on drums, became her first hit.^[2] Adams embarked on a world tour with Tears for Fears in 1990, performing by herself as the supporting artist at the start of each show, and remaining onstage throughout the Tears for Fears set where she would provide piano and vocals. [...] Following her work with Tears for Fears, Adams was offered a recording contract by their label, Fontana Records, and restarted her solo career in 1990.^[5] After meeting a number of producers, she worked with Roland Orzabal, who co-produced her new album, Circle of One. The album received acclaim, and eventually peaked at No. 1 in the UK Albums Chart in 1991, after she scored her biggest hit to date with a Grammy-nominated cover of Brenda Russell's "Get Here". The song reached the UK and U.S. top 5 and became popular during the 1991 Gulf War conflict, as families of deployed troops in the region embraced the tune as a theme song.

• • •

This was a breezy, easy themeless. I genuinely believed, toward the end of the solve, that the NYTXW had decided to experiment with early-week themelesses, and this was their first effort. I missed the revealer because all I read was [Purchase on "Wheel of Fortune"...]—that's all I needed. I read as much of the clue as I need to get the answer, and if the first few words give it to me, then that's all I'll read. And that's how I finished the puzzle—believing there to be no theme. I was honestly ... I wouldn't say "happy," but "content." Maybe "reconciled" is the better answer. I don't particularly want there to be early-week themelesses (I'm fine with the current set-up, where such puzzles appear only on Fri and Sat). But today's puzzle felt smooth, if not particularly exciting. Could've used some more marquee fill, but overall it was pleasant enough. I've had worse Tuesday experiences, but that's because there's always a theme to botch on Tuesdays. Can't botch what you don't even attempt. So when I was done I felt this sense that the Future was upon me—that the puzzle wasn't just getting easier overall, eliminating most real challenge in favor of a kind of bland doability, all in the name of commerce (i.e. making it more appealing to a whole class of people who want their games light-hearted and bite-sized). The old-school crossword is probably not long for this world. Instead of the backbone of the "Games" section (the original "game," in fact), it will become increasingly marginal. Maybe they'll test Games subscriptions without the traditional crossword, and when that goes well, phase that crossword out entirely. Not soon, but someday. Probably makes sense, capitalism-wise. Anyway, we aren't there yet. I scanned the clues looking for something that seemed like a revealer and there it was: VOWEL. That's it: VOWEL. No snappy phrase, no aha, wow, surprise. Just ... VOWEL. And what is VOWEL doing? Appearing! In every other square! I'm using exclamation points! Facetiously! Enjoy!

See the thing is, this is what I imagine puzzles will look like when they are entirely written by A.I. All you gotta do here is write some code that winnows your massive wordlist down to Only Words That Alternative Vowel/Consonant. Then feed *that* wordlist to your construction software and basically make an easy themeless. The theme "trick" isn't one. It's just a matter of hiding answers that don't fit the pattern from your construction software. I'm sure it's harder to build a puzzle that way than to build one with your full wordlist in play.  But with a simple grid like this, not much harder. You've got the 15s up top and below, which is probably where you'd start. But the puzzle is otherwise mostly loaded with 3-4-5s. A couple longer Downs, a couple 6s and 7s, but ... meh. In the end, it's really just a lackluster themeless. If the revealer had been at all clever or interesting, if there had been more to VOWEL than just ... existing, maybe this puzzle could've been something. As is the revealer could just as easily have been CONSONANT ... I mean, it couldn't, because CONSONANT doesn't alternate consonant/vowel all the way through ... but in spirit, it could have. The "gimmick" is purely structural, which is the kind of thing that computers can handle real well. So welcome to a vision of your A.I.-authored future. It's very so-so.

Nothing to say about this one, from a fill perspective. It's fine. It's passable. It's wallpaper. MORE TO COME LATER feels forced. Redundant, to be specific. When else is "MORE" supposed to "COME"? Earlier? ON A SEPARATE NOTE also feels a little wobbly, although I acknowledge it's a thing people sometimes say. There are just so many "On a ___ note"s that this one didn't particularly leap to mind. I thought maybe DIFFERENT or ANOTHER. But there's nothing *wrong* with the phrase. It's fine. The grid is fine. Wearyingly fine. Moving on.

Bullets:

• 18A: Chicago's ___ B. Wells Drive (IDA) — One of several IDAs for whom my cat was named. I still call her "IDA B." from time to time. And "IDA MAE." And "Missy" and "Missus" and "Miss IDA" and "Miss Priss" and "Baby" and "Get out of the kitchen I'm cooking here you're going to kill me!"
• 58A: First, second or third (BASE) — I wanted RATE at first. A truly boring error. But there were hardly any errors or near-errors to come by today, so you get whatever you get, sorry.

• 1D: Crack expert? (COMIC) — probably the hardest clue in the puzzle, right up front. [Crack expert] is redundant as a surface-level phrase. "Crack" means "expert." So I thought "oh, the puzzle is referring to crack cocaine, maybe the answer is ... NARCO?" But no, a "crack" is a "joke" and the joke expert would (presumably) be the COMIC.
• 5D: Who rapped "I've created a monster, 'cause nobody wants to see Marshall no more" (EMINEM) — This is not a "monster," Marshal. It's an easy themeless. Not sure the winky little self-reference here is earned. 
• 35D: Narco nabber (VICE COP) — ah, there's "Narco." Not the [Crack expert?], but the dude being nabbed by the VICE COP. I'm not a big fan of the police state we've increasingly got going in this country, but I do like VICE COP as an answer. It's got a sizzle that the rest of the grid mostly lacks.

That's all. See you next time.

Signed, Rex Parker, King of CrossWorld

[Follow Rex Parker on BlueSky and Facebook and Letterboxd]
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