THE CONCRETES WYWH [Friendly Fire] The Concretes used to be a band Camera Obscura fans could listen to when they tired of Scottish indie-pop and wanted to sample the Swedish equivalent. But that was before singer Victoria Bergsman went solo, leaving drummer Lisa Milberg to make that long walk from behind the kit to center stage. The new lineup makes its American debut with WYWH—a collection billed as their disco departure, although it turns out... 

LORETTA LYNN AND FRIENDS Coal Miner’s Daughter: A Tribute to Loretta Lynn [Columbia Nashville] This all-star salute commemorates the 50th anniversary of Loretta Lynn’s debut single, “I’m a Honky Tonk Girl,” along with the 30th anniversary of her biopic Coal Miner’s Daughter. Top female country singers—Carrie Underwood, Gretchen Wilson, Lee Ann Womack, Faith Hill—offer up their heartfelt and mostly faithful covers of Lynn classics alongside... 

BRYAN FERRY Olympia [Astralwerks] The guest list for Bryan Ferry’s first batch of (mostly) original material in eight years is star-studded to the point of practically begging for attention. There’s Chic’s Nile Rodgers, Pink Floyd’s David Gilmour, Radiohead’s Jonny Greenwood—and those are just the guitarists. But if you don’t have the liner notes handy, the sidemen won’t matter, and your mind will stay focused on a single thought:... 

NORAH JONES …Featuring [Blue Note/EMI] For an artist with such a distinctive style of her own, Norah Jones is quite an adaptable character. …Featuring collects 18 tracks she has recorded with other artists over the last nine years, and her roster of musical partners has been remarkably diverse. Here we find Jones teaming with acts ranging from Foo Fighters and Willie Nelson to Outkast and Herbie Hancock, and sounding perfectly at home alongside... 

NEIL DIAMOND Dreams [Columbia] Neil Diamond has made a remarkable resurgence as a songwriter during the past decade, but this album of covers finds him paying tribute to material that helped shape that songwriting brilliance in the first place. Diamond instills these classic tunes from the ’60s and ’70s with an after-hours ambiance that spotlights their melodic strength and lyrical power. High points include an Americana-tinged take on the Beatles’... 

TAYLOR SWIFT Speak Now [Big Machine] “There is nothing I do better than revenge,” warns Taylor Swift on Speak Now, in one of many observations that demonstrate she’s still fond of wielding her smartly crafted pop-country songs as weapons against those who have wronged her. But her third and darkest album yet scales up the drama, her oversize emotions matched by full-bodied arrangements. During her teen years Swift took aim at classmates who... 

DVD REVIEW RUSH Classic Albums: 2112/Moving Pictures [Eagle Vision] Most editions of the sterling Classic Albums series examine in detail the creation of a—you guessed it—classic album with the help of the musicians, producers and engineers who made it. So why does Rush’s first entry in the series cover two albums? Certainly, both 1976’s 2112 and 1981’s Moving Pictures represent turning points in the band’s career—but so do several... 

TROY TURNER Whole Lotta Blues [Evidence] Troy Turner has been putting out records since 1990, but this is only his fourth in those 20 years. His latest is a collaborative effort with producer Jon Tiven, who had a hand in writing 13 of the album’s 14 tracks and plays a variety of instruments throughout. Tiven in turn called on the likes of legendary Howlin’ Wolf sideman Hubert Sumlin as a partner in writing several of the songs, and supplemented... 

BOBBY BARE JR. A Storm, A Tree, My Mother’s Head [Thirty Tigers] Four years after his last studio album, Bobby Bare Jr. returns with his wry wit and droll eye for detail splendidly intact. Bare has never fit squarely into the country-singer mold of his father, but there’s subtle twang here, along with a gentle throwback-soul sensibility on tunes that would make you cry if you weren’t laughing. “One of Us Has Got to Go” is one of those, with... 

THE BAD PLUS Never Stop [E1 Entertainment] On its first album of all original material, the Bad Plus—bassist Reid Anderson, pianist Ethan Iverson, and drummer David King—makes the transition from gimmicky hipster jazz act to legitimate contenders. The trio lets it fly right from the get-go: Opening track “The Radio Tower Has a Beating Heart” is a shimmering, explosive number. For the most part, the songs aspire to an almost epic sound. (We... 

LOST IN THE TREES All Alone in an Empty House [Anti-/Epitaph] Highbrow and lowbrow find a happy medium on Lost in the Trees’ third album. Intricate classical arrangements effortlessly weave around accordion and guitar, creating an amalgam that band founder Ari Picker calls “orchestral folk.” Picker’s rich, evocative sounds lend further gravity to intensely personal lyrics about sexual abuse, dying infants and depression, sung in a boyish tenor... 

THE BLACK ANGELS Phosphene Dream [Blue Horizon Ventures] On “Sunday Afternoon,” the fourth song on their third album, the Black Angels prove just how far they’ll follow their cult-like obsession with the ’60s. Having already unleashed its usual barrage of fuzz-and-buzz guitars and organs, the sextet goes all in and recreates the wobbly electric-jug sound of the 13th Floor Elevators, a fellow Austin band that invented psychedelic punk some... 

LIZA MINNELLI Confessions [Decca Records] When Liza Minnelli covered Beyoncé’s “Single Ladies” in this summer’s Sex and the City 2, it was one of the uneven sequel’s few high points. Likewise, Confessions, her first album in eight years, shines brightest when she’s at her most lighthearted, reveling in the tricky rhythms of “You Fascinate Me So” and the subtle sauciness of the Disney classic “He’s a Tramp.” Unfortunately,... 

ISOBEL CAMPBELL & MARK LANEGAN Hawk [Vanguard] The third album from ex-Belle & Sebastian chamber folk-popper Isobel Campbell and former Screaming Trees grunge growler Mark Lanegan offers something old and something new. “We Die and See Beauty Reign” and “Time of the Season” definitely maintain the duo’s prior modus operandi–dark, languid duets that balance Lanegan’s whiskey-and-gravel vocals with Campbell’s more gossamer tones.... 

BEN FOLDS/NICK HORNBY Lonely Avenue [Nonesuch] Fittingly, Lonely Avenue, a joint project from singer-songwriter Ben Folds and British novelist Nick Hornby, is bookended by modern-day artist’s laments. In the first, “A Working Day,” a writer battles expectations and internet criticism; in the last, “Belinda,” a musician relives the pain of a lost love affair again and again via his only hit. Here and elsewhere, Hornby’s lyrics paint darkly... 

JIMMY EAT WORLD Invented [Interscope] Since settling on its sound—the widescreen arena-emo of 2001’s Bleed American, one of the decade’s defining albums—Jimmy Eat World has been in a holding pattern. It can’t make music that’s bigger or more earnest without becoming U2, but pulling back would be a retreat. With its seventh full-length album, the Arizona quartet finds a subtle way to push things forward. Instead of churning out another... 

BOOK REVIEW HERB WISE People You’d Like to Know [Omnibus Press] Photographer Herb Wise has a knack for capturing his subjects in the middle of a moment. In People You’d Like to Know, a compilation of his work from the 1960s through the 1980s, we see many faces of famous and not-so-famous musicians seemingly in the process of breaking into a smile—as if suddenly seeing a familiar friend. Wise was a mainstay on the festival circuit in the ’70s,... 

NEIL YOUNG Le Noise [Reprise Records] If nothing else, Le Noise is proof that Neil Young doesn’t need a band to raise a ruckus. The elements are simple: Young’s voice and guitar, treated with the aggressive sonic manipulation of producer Daniel Lanois. The title is a pun on Lanois’ name, but it’s perfectly apt nonetheless—Young’s electric guitar rumbles and roars, and his producer’s eerie soundscapes are dissonant and dark. The sonic... 

GIN BLOSSOMS No Chocolate Cake (429 Records) It’s been 17 years since the Gin Blossoms broke through with their post-grunge power-pop hits “Hey Jealousy” and “Found Out About You.” The band forged on following the tragic suicide of main songwriter Doug Hopkins in late 1993, and even managed to retain its trademark summery style. The latest disc from the on-again, off-again group holds true to that same vibe. Strewn with jangly guitars, hook-laden... 

RAY LAMONTAGNE AND THE PARIAH DOGS God Willin’ & the Creek Don’t Rise [RCA] With three albums to his credit, Ray LaMontagne’s soulful, rough-edged voice doesn’t startle the way it did when it seemed to come fully formed out of nowhere on his 2004 debut, Trouble. That’s not to say he sounds any less compelling on his fourth album, the first to also credit his band. It’s a stirring collection of folky songs built around LaMontagne’s... 

KT TUNSTALL Tiger Suit [Virgin] When KT Tunstall burst into the limelight with 2006’s beatbox-driven hit “Black Horse and the Cherry Tree,” it was clear the Scottish singer-songwriter had a firm grounding in songcraft. On her third album, Tunstall leans toward a more adventurous set of electronic textures. Happily, instead of burying her songwriting under sheets of production, the broadened soundscape enhances and enriches her compositions.... 

ELVIS COSTELLO National Ransom [Hear Music] Elvis Costello has touched on a wide variety of genres during his career, but he usually sticks with one style at a time. On National Ransom, he finally blends two of his distinct artistic modes into one. Last year’s Secret, Profane & Sugarcane featured a band of Nashville acoustic-music ringers, who here are joined by Costello’s longtime rock outfit, the Imposters. The combination is a versatile... 

INTERPOL Interpol [Matador] Interpol’s songs aren’t set in the real world—where people smile and go grocery shopping and wear colors other than black—but rather a swank, anxious underworld, where singer Paul Banks dresses to the nines and sips drinks with spooky lovers and personal demons. The New York City foursome recorded its fourth album just before parting ways with Capitol Records and bassist Carlos D. Those changes will register later,... 

ELTON JOHN/LEON RUSSELL The Union [Decca Records] This much-anticipated collaboration between Elton John and Leon Russell had all the ingredients for greatness—two brilliant singers and pianists, an extraordinary producer in T Bone Burnett, and a profound mutual admiration between the artists involved. It turns out that “greatness” is too strong a word, but the album does have its rewards. As you might expect, The Union mixes Russell’s bluesy,... 

ERIC CLAPTON Clapton [Reprise Records] Eric Clapton has always been willing to shrug off his audience’s expectations and even its desires. Fans might prefer that he crank out one guitar-heroic solo after another, but his tendency toward taste and understatement just won’t let him do it. He abandoned the Yardbirds when they went too pop, Cream when the trio got too self-indulgent and Blind Faith when the supergroup got too popular too quickly.... 

BOX SET REVIEW DELANEY & BONNIE & FRIENDS On Tour With Eric Clapton (Deluxe Edition) [Rhino Handmade] When the American rock and R&B outfit led by husband-and-wife team Delaney and Bonnie Bramlett snagged a slot as opening act on supergroup Blind Faith’s 1969 tour, little did they know they’d also be luring away the headliner’s guitarist. Eric Clapton was so taken with the fun of Delaney & Bonnie’s shows that he tagged along... 

REISSUE REVIEW STEVIE RAY VAUGHAN AND DOUBLE TROUBLE Couldn’t Stand the Weather (Legacy Edition) [Sony Legacy] The first album by Stevie Ray Vaughan and Double Trouble, 1983’s Texas Flood, was recorded on the fly using borrowed studio time. The follow-up was a very different story—the group headed for New York City to record for six weeks at the Power Station, where Vaughan had laid down his stinging guitar solos on David Bowie’s Let’s... 

BOOK REVIEW ROSANNE CASH Composed: A Memoir [Viking Press] First and foremost, Rosanne Cash wanted to write. It wasn’t a call to the stage that inspired the eldest daughter of Johnny Cash to make her first record in the late 1970s at age 23. Performing was simply a medium for songwriting, a craft that fascinated Cash and that she pursued with a fierce intellectualism. Her third book and first memoir, Composed is long on such procedural details about... 

DEAD CONFEDERATE Sugar [Tao Recordings/Old Flame] All the unflattering Nirvana-meets-My Morning Jacket comparisons heaped upon its 2008 debut didn’t do Dead Confederate any favors. Fortunately, the Athens, Ga., quintet doesn’t sound much like either band on its sophomore album, Sugar. Recorded in New Jersey with producer John Agnello, the record has a tough sound built around muscular guitarscapes and terse, stripped-down songs. On “Run From... 

MICKI FREE American Horse [Native Music Rocks/Mighty Loud] Past stints have found guitarist Micki Free tearing it up with such diverse entities as ZZ Top, Shalamar, Janet Jackson and punk icon Wendy O. Williams. Nevertheless, Free’s own efforts leave no doubt as to his direction. He carries the frenzied, heavy-handed blues that initially inspired him into hard rock realms previously trod by Jimi Hendrix, Cream and Robin Trower. His visceral take... 

ORGONE Cali Fever [Ubiquity] Guitars blasting and horns punctuating, West Coast funk and soul outfit Orgone roars out of the gate on its latest release with “The Last Fool,” a shuffling, syncopated piece. Cali Fever never lets up, trading off a succession of ferocious instrumental jams with vocal numbers that showcase the raw, piercing power of singer Fanny Franklin. Orgone’s building block is a species of hard-nosed funk, but the band mixes... 

VARIOUS ARTISTS Sweet Home Alabama: The Country Music Tribute to Lynyrd Skynyrd [Hip-O Records/UMe] Lynyrd Skynyrd’s iconic Southern rock songs fall victim to haphazard production and self-indulgent performances on this eight-song tribute disc released exclusively through Walmart. Produced by Jay Joyce, the album features Universal Music Group’s roster of country young guns (along with Uncle Kracker) on a series of aesthetically unconnected recordings.... 

ANDY BELL Non-Stop [Mute] After 25 years as half of the English synth-pop duo Erasure, it’s hard to imagine where singer Andy Bell finds the time for outside projects. And yet here he is with his second solo album, a three-suite affair aimed more at dance clubs than the airwaves. Working with Belgian producer Pascal Gabriel, Bell delivers 10 songs packed with relentless beats and dizzying electronic accompaniment. Deep, pulsing bass twists through... 

THE READY SET I’m Alive, I’m Dreaming [Sire/Decaydance] One-man band albums have been around forever, with folks like Paul McCartney, Dave Edmunds, John Fogerty, Emitt Rhodes and many others concocting some pretty great stuff while holed up alone in the studio. The latest addition to the club is Fort Wayne’s Jordan Witzigreuter. His debut as The Ready Set is an often infectious pop collection that, even though it clocks in at only 26 minutes,... 

MAPS & ATLASES Perch Patchwork [Barsuk] Their band’s name to the contrary, the members of Maps & Atlases don’t always indicate in which direction they’re headed. As the follow-up to their 2006 EP Tree, Swallows, Houses and last year’s You & Me & the Mountain, Perch Patchwork finds this unusual quartet dabbling in eclectic styles. In doing so, they clutter their arrangements with odd effects and skittish tempos, making it clear... 

MYSTERY JETS Serotonin [Rough Trade] Mystery Jets singer Blaine Harrison learned about music through his father, Henry, who founded the group, spent years as a touring member and still helps the English quintet with songwriting. The elder Harrison is responsible for—or perhaps to blame for—his son’s love of freaky, frilly progressive rock, an influence the Jets mostly avoid on their third album. On highlights “Too Late to Talk” and “Flash... 

LEE RITENOUR 6 String Theory [Concord] The album is credited to Lee Ritenour, but the real star of 6 String Theory is the guitar itself. To celebrate his 50th anniversary as a picker, Ritenour invited a true who’s who of axemen to jam. The list includes fellow jazzers, of course—John Scofield burns on “Lay it Down,” Pat Martino shares a virtuosic tribute to a fallen legend in “L.P. (For Les Paul)” and Mike Stern kills on the Jeff Beck-associated... 

BLUE GIANT Blue Giant [Vanguard] In their day job as the indie duo Viva Voce, Kevin and Anita Robinson make dreamy records that let Anita handle the greater portion of the singing chores. Blue Giant moves the spotlight toward Kevin, and turns the husband-and-wife team into something resembling alt-country’s answer to the White Stripes. Anita’s “Lonely Girl” brings to mind a shyer Neko Case, and the love-on-a-tightrope “Gone for Good” could’ve... 

TRACY BONHAM Masts of Manhatta [Engine Room Recordings] Tracy Bonham’s brand of alternative pop-rock has often been compared to Liz Phair and PJ Harvey, but on Masts of Manhatta she edges closer to the sophisticated pop of Sam Phillips and Patty Larkin. Bonham gives her new songs a solid melodic foundation and applies adventurous arrangements to bring those tunes color and life. High points include “Josephine,” a cabaret song fitted with sputtering... 

PETER CASE Wig! [Yep Roc] To paraphrase 19th-century German philosopher Friedrich Nietzsche, Peter Case has learned that what doesn’t kill you makes you rock harder. The Grammy-nominated singer-songwriter survived a near-fatal heart attack last year to create his liveliest album in years. “Banks of the River” kicks with a jolt of bluesy rock ‘n’ roll, and the roadhouse ride continues from there. Teaming up with longtime X drummer DJ Bonebrake... 

AMERICAN HI-FI Fight the Frequency [Hi-Fi Killers/The Ascot Club] Backing Miley Cyrus, as three-quarters of the band has done for the last few years, American Hi-Fi doesn’t get to play many songs like “Bullet.” “I killed myself last night and you were what I used,” leader Stacy Jones sings, wallowing in the heartbreak that inspires much of his band’s fourth album. “Bullet” is typical of Fight the Frequency, which hits a bull’s-eye... 

EILEN JEWELL Butcher Holler [Signature Sounds] In assembling this tribute to Loretta Lynn, Eilen Jewell says she chose songs that spotlight the legendary country singer and songwriter’s personal strength. No surprise, then, that the record kicks off with “Fist City,” that most famous of take-no-crap Lynn songs. And no surprise that songs like “You Ain’t Woman Enough (To Take My Man),” “Don’t Come Home a Drinkin’ (With Lovin’ on... 

SUN KIL MOON Admiral Fell Promises [Caldo Verde] This fourth offering by Sun Kil Moon, the pseudonym for former Red House Painters leader Mark Kozelek, is a more subdued affair than previous efforts. The opener, “Alesund,” begins with a meticulously arpeggiated guitar underpinning a wistful vocal about an earthly muse. Similarly, the atmospheric “Half Moon Bay” conjures a bleak coastal landscape before winding its way to a long rubato guitar... 

JANE KRAKOWSKI The Laziest Gal in Town [DRG Records] “I hate to use the C word this early in the evening … but welcome to my debut in cabaret,” says Jane Krakowski on the live recording of her 2009 run at Feinstein’s at Loews Regency in New York City. The Broadway and TV actress knows full well the pitfalls of the format, and sprinkles her show with inspired reinventions, like “Diamonds Are a Girl’s Best Friend” as a funk jam/rap and... 

DR. JOHN AND THE LOWER 911 Tribal [429] The advance hype on Tribal posited it as Dr. John’s funkiest and earthiest in years, as if anything Mac Rebennack touches could possibly not be funky and earthy. But there is something to be said for the rest of the hype. The album more than vaguely recalls those early records when he was still billed as “Dr. John the Night Tripper”—a time when his mesh of otherworldly, slinky voodoo and the deepest... 

KELIS Flesh Tone [Interscope] In this post-Black Eyed Peas world, it’s not enough for R&B singers to make genre records. The key, as Rihanna and Christina Aguilera can attest, is to move the masses with futuristic dance pop. This is fine by Kelis, an artist who has long dabbled in hip-hop and minimalist funk, showing a willingness to color outside the lines. On her fifth album, the Harlem-born singer does the dance-makeover thing on her own... 

LOS LOBOS Tin Can Trust [Shout Factory!] The news that Los Lobos has canceled an Arizona concert in protest of the state’s immigration laws makes the group’s first album of new material in four years seem frustratingly minor. Our most prominent Mexican-American band presumably has some thoughts about how matters are being handled near the Southern border, yet the recording of Tin Can Trust wrapped up before those feelings could be put to music.... 

STING Symphonicities [Deutsche Grammophon] The last several years have seen Sting giving fans exactly what they wanted—a reunion tour from his former group, the Police. But in the studio, he’s given fans a few things they didn’t ask for—namely, one album of 16th-century lute-based songs and another of winter-themed madrigals. Now he splits the difference with Symphonicities, which presents selections from his considerable songbook—including... 

BOX SET REVIEW John Mellencamp On the Rural Route 7609 [Mercury/Island/UMe] When it comes time for the box-set treatment, most artists are content to line up a few discs’ worth of hits and rarities and let ’em fly. John Mellencamp is not like most artists. On the Rural Route 7609 is a four-CD collection that sets out to tell a story all its own, tracing connections among its songs and emphasizing its author’s current attitudes and concerns... 

REISSUE REVIEW Duran Duran Duran Duran [Capitol] As the 1980s dawned over England, both punk and disco seemed to be in decline. Bands like Birmingham’s Duran Duran began weaving strands of both styles together into a form that came to be known as “New Romantic”—a danceable, synthesizer-driven style that placed a premium on cutting-edge fashion and cutting-edge hooks alike. The band’s self-titled debut served as a template for a sound it...