LYLE LOVETT 

Release Me

[Lost Highway/Curb]

Release Me marks the end of Lyle Lovett’s career-long run with Curb Records—he first signed with the label in 1985, at age 28. While its hodgepodge of holiday songs, covers, duets, ballads, rockers, swing, bluegrass and even an instrumental initially smacks of randomness, it also points toward the open-minded eclecticism that has sustained Lovett throughout his career. He has never been a conventional country singer, nor has he fit comfortably with his fellow Texan singer-songwriters—weather-beaten troubadours like Guy Clark and the late Townes Van Zandt (even though he’s often recorded their songs). His unpredictability and willingness to extend his reach has kept Lovett’s material fresh, and this new collection works precisely because of its willy-nilly nature.

The two holiday tracks–the standard “Baby, It’s Cold Outside” (a duet with Austin vocalist Kat Edmonson) and the Lovett original “The Girl With the Holiday Smile”–were released separately as part of an EP prior to the 2011 holiday season, and their inclusion here is somewhat superfluous. But the album’s other dozen tracks, from the opening fiddle tune “Garfield’s Blackberry Blossom” to the slowed-down, acoustic take on Chuck Berry’s “Brown Eyed Handsome Man” and the soul-rocking closer “Isn’t That So” shape Release Me into something of a guided tour of Lovett’s diverse tastes. The title track—a ballad hit for Ray Price, Kitty Wells and crooner Engelbert Humperdinck—is played straight, while the breakneck “White Freightliner Blues” and the tender “Dress of Laces” (previously cut by Lovett and Nanci Griffith), flesh out the album’s something-for-everyone approach. –Jeff Tamarkin

GUIDED BY VOICES

Let’s Go Eat the Factory

[Guided by Voices]

LEONARD COHEN

Old Ideas

[Columbia]

INGRID MICHAELSON

Human Again

[Mom+Pop]

JOE COCKER

Hard Knocks

[429 Records]

HUGH MASEKELA

Jabulani

[Razor & Tie]

As far as most Americans are concerned, Hugh Masekela was a one-hit wonder who scored a fluke pop chart-topper in 1968 with his jazzy take on the grooving “Grazing in the Grass,” and hasn’t done much since. In truth, the South African trumpeter, flugelhornist and vocalist has been recording and performing steadily for some five decades now—and if his public profile isn’t as high as it once was, his music is no less stirring. For Jabulani, Masekela revisits the South African township wedding songs of his youth, music that heralded happy times ahead and ultimately influenced his buoyant style. While the words may not register with Westerners, the jubilation suggested in the album’s title shines through. In recent years Masekela has reclaimed the African rhythms he at times abandoned in favor of a more pop-oriented direction, and his skills as a jazz improviser remain strong, even if his emphasis now is more concentrated on his gruff vocals than his horn. –J. Tamarkin

DIERKS BENTLEY

Home

[Capitol Nashville]

SHARON VAN ETTEN

Tramp

[Jagjaguwar]

It’s not like she carried her stuff around in a bindle, but Sharon Van Etten did do some couch surfing while recording her third album. Fortunately, the fluctuations of her life outside the studio only seemed to underpin her consistency inside it. Tramp is a masterful collection that broadens the gripping sound of Van Etten’s understated 2010 album Epic. Produced by the National’s Aaron Dessner, these songs are often bigger, with knots of electric guitar and a steady drumbeat on opener “Warsaw” and lilting accompaniment in 3/4 time framing breathy vocals on “Leonard.” There are more subdued songs, too—electric guitar meanders behind her singing on “I’m Wrong,” while “Kevin’s” is a meditative sigh. The capper is “All I Can,” a riveting showcase for Van Etten’s voice; she climbs from quietly sorrowful to huge and enveloping, joined along the way by drums, guitars and horns that fall in behind her and help push the song to a shattering climax. –ED

THE DOORS 

L.A. Woman: 40th Anniversary Edition 

[Elektra/Rhino]

Doors keyboardist Ray Manzarek idly runs through the chords of his band’s evocative new number, “Riders on the Storm,” a brooding meditation on the inherent madness of humanity, as drummer John Densmore quietly gets a feel for the groove. As Jim Morrison steps up to the mic to prepare for a take, Manzarek’s pattern triggers an unexpected synapse in the young singer and poet’s mind. “Riding down the trail to Albuquerque, saddlebags all filled with beans and jerky,” Morrison jauntily croons. “Headed for K-circle-B, the TV ranch for you and me! K-circle-B in Albuquerque!” Clearly local New Mexico TV personality Dick Bills’ KOB theme song was drilled into Morrison’s head as a boy, and the joyful way it comes springing out of him indicates the easy rapport the Doors shared by the time of the sessions for their sixth studio album.

This exchange is just one of the freewheeling insights into the group’s recording process featured on the second disc of this 40th-anniversary reissue of L.A. Woman. The first disc is the album as we know it, familiar from the already numerous repackagings of the Doors’ slim catalog through the decades. But the previously unreleased alternate takes that make up the bonus material here shows us the Doors at play, free of the self-serious façade they willingly showed the world. The only unfamiliar songs here are an agreeably hazy stroll through the blues standard “Rock Me” and the unheard original “She Smells So Nice,” a charming if unremarkable number marred by subpar sound. –Chris Neal

CRAIG FINN

Clear Heart Full Eyes

[Vagrant]

SNOW PATROL

Fallen Empires

[Interscope]

CANDI STATON

Who’s Hurting Now?

[Honest Jon’s]

TODD RUNDGREN

Todd

[S’More Entertainment]

Last year Todd Rundgren delighted fans by performing a series of shows featuring three of his most beloved albums—1973’s A Wizard, A True Star, 1974’s Todd and 1981’s Healing—in their entirety. This DVD captures a run-through of Todd staged in September at the historic Keswick Theater in Rundgren’s hometown of Philadelphia, and it sizzles with the same progressive spirit the original double-LP had nearly three decades ago. By 1974, Rundgren was fitting his pop tunes with enchanting, Disney-esque sonic enhancements of the sort that might spring from a child’s imagination. As performed here, such beautifully melodic pop constructs as “A Dream Goes on Forever,” “I Think You Know” and “Sidewalk Café” drive home his artful way with a synthesizer.

At the other end of the spectrum are the prog-metal guitar excursions. Rundgren’s six-string work on the thunderous “Everybody’s Going to Heaven/King Kong Reggae” and the punning “No. 1 Lowest Common Denominator” evidence a deep love of Hendrix. Between the sprightly pop and the heavy rockers lies a middle ground that includes such songs as “The Last Ride,” which still sounds like a great lost Philly-soul classic, and the playful, near-novelty ditty “An Elpee’s Worth of Toons.” Backing Rundgren is a stellar band that includes the Cars’ Greg Hawkes, the Tubes’ Prairie Prince, Utopia’s Kasim Sulton, saxophonist Bobby Strickland and Strat-player extraordinaire Jesse Gress, each of whom brings a joyous spirit to the proceedings. The fact that they—and Rundgren—make this adventurous and eclectic material sound of a piece is some sort of wizardry, indeed. –RH

RHETT MILLER

The Interpreter: Live at Largo

[Maximum Sunshine]

MITCH RYDER

The Promise

[Michigan Broadcasting Corporation]

THE BIG PINK

Future This

[4AD]

Hyping this follow-up to their stunner of a debut, A Brief History of Love, U.K. duo Robbie Furze and Milo Cordell have talked a lot about the influence of pop and hip-hop. Indeed, synths and samples here fill space once reserved for fuzz guitar and live drums, but the Big Pink was never a traditional rock band. Like its predecessor, Future This points back to 1991, when groups like EMF, Jesus Jones and most notably U2 began experimenting with electronic dance music, creating a new kind of stadium rock. What’s different this time is the overall tone. The Big Pink’s breakout 2009 single “Dominos” presented frontman Furze as something of a playboy, and although he often conveyed a brooding sincerity, this disc’s standout tracks—“Stay Gold,” “Hit the Ground (Superman),” and “Lose Your Mind”—feel more earnest and exuberant. When things get bombastic, the band isn’t just showing off—it’s uplifting the masses. –KP

MESHELL NDEGEOCELLO

Weather

[Naïve]

Meshell Ndegeocello has been pushing the limits of her genre-bending ambition for 20 years, and in the process the agile bassist has gained a reputation as a must-have session player and a solo artist whose skills are matched only by her daring. Produced by the ever-eclectic Joe Henry, Ndegeocello’s ninth album (and first since 2009’s Devil’s Halo) blends pulsating rhythms, atmospheric arrangements and dense, dark undercurrents to meld a most seductive set of songs. At once intimidating and inviting, Weather finds Ndegeocello and guest stars Chris Connelly, Benji Hughes and Henry himself emphasizing ambiance over melody and ambiguity over specifics. Nevertheless, a steady stomp and Ndegeocello’s soulful, subdued vocals make the title track, “Rapid Fire” and a cover of Leonard Cohen’s “Chelsea Hotel” essential. –LZ

VARIOUS ARTISTS

Chimes of Freedom: The Songs of Bob Dylan Honoring 50 Years of Amnesty International

[Shangri-La]

Featuring 76 Bob Dylan covers from more than 80 artists to celebrate Amnesty International’s 50th anniversary, the four-disc Chimes of Freedom is a compilation whose intimidating breadth manages to bring unexpected acts like Ke$ha (“Don’t Think Twice, It’s All Right”) and Miley Cyrus (“You’re Gonna Make Me Lonesome When You Go”) into the already vast company of singers who have made Dylan’s songs their own. But what’s most striking about this set is the wide range of Dylan music; there are gems here from all eras of his long and unpredictable career. Many tribute albums are content to focus on the obvious, but the artists on Chimes of Freedom reach deep into the catalog for tunes like “License to Kill” (Elvis Costello), “Property of Jesus” (Sinéad O’Connor), “Political World” (Carolina Chocolate Drops) and “Blind Willie McTell” (Tom Morello, in his folk-singer guise as the Nightwatchman). –Steve Matteo

LADYSMITH BLACK MAMBAZO

Ladysmith Black Mambazo & Friends

[Razor & Tie]

THE WHITE BUFFALO

Once Upon a Time
in the West

[Unison Music Group]

JUSTIN ROBINSON &
THE MARY ANNETTES

Bones for Tinder

justinrobinsonandthemaryannettes.com

From the Carter Family to Outkast, Robert Johnson to R.E.M., there’s a long, proud tradition of weirdness in Southern music. A key feature has always been contradiction—joy and pain, humor and dread, God and Satan—and there’s plenty to be found on Justin Robinson’s debut album with backing band the Mary Annettes. Previously known for his work with the Grammy-winning stringband Carolina Chocolate Drops, the singer and multi-instrumentalist covers roughly a century of music on Bones for Tinder, presenting old-timey folk and bluegrass in ways that rap and indie-rock fans might understand. On “Ships and Verses,” a sparse tune built from banjo and schoolyard handclaps, Robinson name-checks Janet Jackson and references Shakira, singing, “We don’t care if your hips lie/We’re not here for truth, just want to catch your eye.” The band gets a bigger sound on “Vultures” and “The Phil Spectors,” both of which pair Robinson’s magical-realist lyrics with hip-hop beats and the pluck and drone of acoustic instruments. It all comes together on “Bright Diamonds,” a surreal mash-up of past and present—”petticoats and crinolines, Theremins and violins”—that hint at what “Hey Ya” might have sounded like in 1927.

BR’ER

City of Ice

fullgrownman.com

By the fourth track of this harrowing collection, it’s high time for some sunlight—the tune in question is called “Hope,” but even that title turns out to be misleading. “Now there’s no hope for one,” sings Benjamin Schurr, the Philly auteur behind Br’er. “He lives in songs that are sung of pity and empathy and all in between.” That’s putting it lightly. Schurr funnels heartbreak, resentment, dark fantasies and grotesque fascinations into these 11 industrial-folk screeds, augmenting a traditional singer-songwriter vocabulary—guitar, ukulele, strings—with synth squeaks, ambient drones and fits of electronic percussion. On one song he credits a bandmate with playing a washing machine, but there’s no getting through this stunningly bleak set without feeling a little dirty.

DARRELL SCOTT

Long Ride Home

darrellscott.com

For decades Darrell Scott’s father, recently deceased, played roadhouse bars, singing country hits while squirreling away his own material. That explains Darrell’s fondness for classic country and fascination with the musician’s lifestyle, both of which are celebrated on this disc—a literally down-home collection he cut in his house with a team of Nashville aces. Scott is a respected Music City songwriter, and while his tunes have been covered by some of today’s biggest acts, these 16 tracks are no glossy pop crossovers. Not that he’s a stick-in-the-mud purist, either. There’s looseness and warmth in these recordings, and as he sings about loving, drinking, working and fishing, all are welcome to raise a Mason jar and party on his front porch.

THE MARSHMALLOW GHOSTS

The Marshmallow Ghosts

myspace.com/themarshmallowghosts

On their third straight Halloween-inspired release, the Marshmallow Ghosts move beyond singles and stretch their spookadelic aesthetic across an entire album. The band includes members of Dreamend, Hospital Ships and Black Moth Super Rainbow—bizarro pop acts from the aptly named Graveface label—but the men and women behind the instruments might as well be swirly-eyed cult members or Scooby-Doo villains. With its cheesy-creepy keyboard, “The White Satin Gown” is a make-out jam for haunted roller rinks, while “The Hearse Song” turns a classic schoolyard chant into a cool Goth-garage tune. On “The Attic,” the Ghosts crawl through the cobwebs on the uppermost floor of “The House of the Rising Sun,” putting Animals-style organ to supremely eerie use.

GLOSSARY

Long Live All of Us

glossary.us

After a month holed up in a rural Tennessee house, this veteran quintet emerged with an album’s worth of revelatory self-help
rock ’n’ roll. Singer Joey Kneiser comes on like a Springsteenian Southern preacher man, piling positive exhortations and affirmations (”Crawl with me out of the dark,” “You don’t have to know what got you here to be happy you’re alive”) atop Stones-via-Skynyrd guitar licks, soulful Memphis horns and power-pop hooks. Glossary casts its redemptive message in a more traditional light on “Under a Barking Moon,” a gospel tune about finding salvation on the “dark part of the street.” Kneiser and company have caught some kind of spirit—and luckily for us, they’re looking to share.