Sony Urban Soulful vocalist and ubiquitous music-video fixture John Legend follows his acclaimed debut “Get Lifted” with “Once Again,” an equally mellow sophomore album and one which doesn’t alter his proven formula so much as stretch it in subtle new directions. Legend is understandably more visible this time around and his terrific first single, […]
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My Chemical Romance-The Black Parade
Reprise Taking a page from the Green Day playbook in a transparent bid for critical and commercial validation, New Jersey-based punk-poppers My Chemical Romance have unleashed the ambitious, somber “The Black Parade.” Overdosed on Pink Floyd and Queen to a spectacular degree, My Chemical Romance spend much of their third full-length album providing a nation […]
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Crackjaw-Giants From the Stereo
I Scream Records Michigan’s Crackjaw is making pop-punk with metal sprinkled on top. This particular style is a big cash cow and Crackjaw could be the next Fall Out Boy’ if you dig those guys, run with the speed of a bullet to the local CD shop and get Crackjaw to go. “Giants from […]
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John Ellis-By a Thread
Hyena Records This is some solid jazz. When he’s not been collaborating with guitar maestro Charlie Hunter, saxophonist John Ellis has found time to start recording albums with his own quintet, lately for Hyena Records. On “By a Thread,” his second album for the New York label, Ellis and his crew weave elements of […]
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Jay Bennett-The Magnificent Defeat
Rykodisc Jay Bennett is best known as that dude that got kicked out of Wilco in that film about Wilco. One could get booted from worse bands, but the whole debacle has haunted Bennett, who has released three albums that hint at his gifts but mainly underscore why he was an excellent sideman. Perhaps […]
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Beck-The Information
Interscope Beck’s ridden his muse like a teeter-totter for the last decade’ raunchy and raw, introspective and subdued’ yet the slacker musical fusionary rarely has allowed the two distinct sides of his outsized musical personality to meet until now. “The Information,” assembled piecemeal over the last three years with help from Radiohead producer Nigel Godrich, […]
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The Baldwin Brother-Return of the Golden Rhodes
TVT Some will never give The Baldwin Brothers a chance on name alone. It’s their loss, for these Baldwins are not preening, fatuous members of the Hollywood acting dynasty, but a snappy, headstrong Chicago-based duo with a diabolical bent for heady brews of electronic-based jazz-funk. Like their 2002 debut, the long-in-development follow-up “Return of […]
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The Decemberists-The Crane Wife
Capitol There’s always an underlying current of anxiety when a beloved indie band makes the leap to the majors, particularly one with as precious and precise an aesthetic as practiced by The Decemberists. Rambling, fey epics about forbidden love in the 18th century, Colin Meloy’s bracingly literate pop songs are an anomaly on the modern […]
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Bob Dylan-Modern Times
Columbia The resurrection of Bob Dylan, which began with 1997’s “Time Out of Mind,” continues with the equally masterful “Modern Times.” In true Dylanesque fashion, the album’s title is a bit ironic; its sonicscape of blues, rockabilly and country waltzes isn’t exactly contemporary, but it is timeless. Sounding raspier than ever, the 65″?year”?old Mr. Zimmerman […]
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Alan Jackson-Like Red on a Rose
Arista Nashville So melancholy and introspective as to be almost emotionally monochromatic, Alan Jackson’s brooding “Like Red on a Rose” is an impressive left turn for the neo-traditionalist Nashville veteran, dialing down the sunshine streaking hits like “Chattahoochee” and infusing his evocative baritone with an almost palpable sense of pain. Jackson’s secret weapon? Placing himself […]