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... 

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...