Comets on Fire
Avatar (Sub Pop)
2004’s Blue Cathedral was a definite mind-blower, but on this follow-up, Comets actually turn down the echo-laden oscillations in favour of melody and arranging, while going after a ’70s Laurel Canyon sound and leaving their previous sonic blast behind. With tons of bands dipping their digits in psychedelic waters, Comets go against the grain and clean up the guitars, deliver amazing vocal harmonies and manage to write their greatest songs, like “Dogwood Rust” and “Sour Smoke.” The only shadow of their former selves shows up in the amazing psych-punker “Holy Teeth,” but even then you can hear them restraining from the comfort of former glories. Noiseniks may be all up in arms over this one, but most fans should find this to be the shining moment of their career thus far. 9/10 (Johnson Cummins)

Vulgaires Machins
Compter les corps (Indica/Outside)
After a fairly lengthy hiatus, these locals are back, and the obvious growth and depth of their songwriting prove that no time was lost. The pop punk is tucked back a little bit as they deliver their “mature” record, which proves to be equal parts light and dark. Expertly helmed by producer Gus Van Go (the Stills, Priestess), the mix is dense but never crushes the songs, with catchy melodies always left holding the leash. With 16 songs here, they manage to vary in style quite a bit, but it’s songs like “Aneantier le dogme” and “Dans le vide” that elbow out the pop-punkers like “Legaliser l’heroïne” and “Etre un comme.” As mature as they have become, songs like “Soleil” and “Mer de fumistes” prove that they can still rage with the best of them while “Jamais assez” demands gig space on your iPod. 7/10 (Johnson Cummins)

Oneida
Happy New Year (Jagjaguwar/Outside)
Defining the music of Brooklyn’s Oneida has always been an exasperating objective, and despite Happy New Year consolidating the disparate and even conflicting elements into the most unified whole yet, the job’s still no easier. Vocal patterns informed by medieval motets collide with black-and-silver, bathtub-brewed psych jams, plugged-in experimentalism and splashes of chamber-pop charm and punk-rock attack. Just as the bumblebee shouldn’t be able to fly but does, tracks like the ferocious “Up With People” and the spare, spacious “History’s Great Navigators” shouldn’t jive, especially not together, but I’ll be damned if they don’t do just that. 8/10 (Rupert Bottenberg) With Danielson at la Sala Rossa, Sat. Aug. 5, 9 p.m., $12

Tapes ’n’ Tapes
The Loon (XL/Select)
Word of mouth was key for these Minneapolis-based indie rockers, who sold over 10,000 copies of this CD after its independent release last November. Then came a record deal, then came critical acclaim, then came tours from Las Vegas to Glasgow. It’s easy to see why they generated such a buzz—their album has barbed personality to spare, even if it sometimes sounds borrowed. But they’re not shy about their Pavement/ Pixies heritage, openly calling themselves “the illegitimate red-headed stepchild of Frank Black and Stephen Malkmus,” and, from lush waltzes like “Manitoba” to maniacal knees-up numbers like “Insistor,” they prove themselves to be more than nimrods’ grandsons. 8/10 (Lorraine Carpenter)

White Whale
WWI (Merge)
From the red state of Kansas, the land of the duped (and of Dorothy, legend has it), comes a band with the courage to supersize their elegant indie rock, and litter their bio with quotes from Herman Melville and John Milton. They aspire to Big Star, Black Sabbath and Badfinger grandeur, and challenge the likes of Decemberists, Arcade Fire and Okkervil River to an epic-off. There are shades of all these bands in White Whale’s debut album (minus Sabbath, though), a colonial adventure at sea as imagined by a few landlocked, corn-fed guys with guitars, drums and a piano. Ahoy! 8/10 (Lorraine Carpenter)

The Divine Comedy
Victory for the Comic Muse (Parlophone/EMI)
The title, a bookend to the act’s 1990 debut, is a tricky one given that every record from England’s Neil Hannon and his Divine Comedy project is a little win for wordy, worldly wit, wisely deployed (like Wilde and Coward and Crisp, Hannon personifies the term “mordant”). Lyrically, the hymns to heartache and hopelessness here show that Hannon’s further tightened the fine line between black chuckles and bitter tears. The snarky playfulness of earlier efforts has been muted, most notably in his compositions. While his orch-pop arrangements are as grand and elegant as ever, the impish spark once found in tunes like “Generation Sex” and “Becoming More Like Alfie” has dimmed. Careful, Mr. Hannon, don’t snatch defeat from the jaws of the titular victory. 7/10 (Rupert Bottenberg)

Scritti Politti
White Bread Black Beer (Nonesuch/Warner)
This album’s title makes me crave black bread and white beer, and if the name Scritti Politti triggers a hunger for something sharp and piquant, you may be equally off base. This is Green Gartside’s first album in seven years, a resurrection of Scritti Politti’s most popular phase, their mid-’80s blue-eyed soul. Let there be no confusion with the Welsh singer-songwriter’s late-’70s Marxist punk band of the same name—this album sticks Gartside’s honeydew voice at the centre, backed by thin, lukewarm strips of synths, beats and a little guitar. It’s not filling or particularly flavourful, but it’s good eatin’ if your ears are on a diet. 6.5/10 (Lorraine Carpenter)

Rhymefest
Blue Collar (All I Do/J Records)
While a well-known MC in his hometown of Chicago for years, Rhymefest only gained wider notoriety after Kanye West signed him on as a ghostwriter, later winning that all-important Grammy for co-writing “Jesus Walks.” Here, on his debut solo album, he shows why he gets the respect he does, even if the flow of the album is a little inconsistent. Blue Collar seems like a handful of unrelated pieces, showing that RF has the ability to build strong singles, but as an album representative of the future possibilities of this hungry Chicagoan, it never completely comes together. Check “Dynomite” and “Sister” for two sides of this versatile MC. 7.5/10 (Scott C)

Jacksoul
My Soul (Sony BMG)
Jacksoul pays tribute to an eclectic list of soul inspirations on the band’s fourth set. Some choices are obvious—Sam Cooke’s “A Change is Gonna Come” and Curtis Mayfield’s “Superfly” are simply soul classics. But other selections, like Ashlee Simpson’s “Pieces of Me,” are downright bizarre. Nevertheless, lead vocalist and producer Neale Haydain and co. elicit strains of soul from a variety of interesting sources, and successfully turn out convincing renditions of songs ranging from Blue Rodeo’s “Try” to Jane’s Addiction’s “Been Caught Stealing.” The one original Jacksoul composition here, “One Song,” is a solid addition to the Canadian band’s own soul catalogue. 7.5/10 (Gerard Dee)

Various
Re-Bop: The Savoy Remixes (Savoy Jazz/Koch)
With the release of Savoy’s Re-Bop remixes, we open yet another chapter of classic jazz tunes getting the rinse from contemporary producers. It’s not that it’s a bad idea, linking modern-day beat programming, legendary jazz luminaries and their standards, but it’s been done badly so many times that I wonder if labels even care about the problems involved. This particular comp suffers from a sorry batch of re-works, led by DJ Spooky, DJ Smash, DJ Logic and Large Professor. Remixing Dizzy Gillespie, Cannonball Adderly, Charlie Parker and Cal Tjader is a tall order, and save for contributions from Ali Shaheed Muhammed and the Basement Boys, this is a slew of loopy, simplistic rubs, the wrong way. 6.5/10 (Scott C)

Groove Collective
People People Music Music (Savoy Jazz/Koch)
Once synonymous with the acid jazz phenomenon of the early ’90s, New York-based Groove Collective has always maintained an incredible level of musicianship and versatility. Downsizing from their frequent 10-piece line-up to a sextet, notably missing percussionist Gordon “Nappy G” Clay, they’ve opted to have some heavy guests sit in on the project instead. Eddie Bobe steals the track with his lead vocal on “Tito,” an obvious nod to Tito Puente’s Latin jazz genius, while other guns like Fred Wesley on “DFU,” and Victor Axelrod’s Rhodes on “What If,” add to an already skilled and talented group of musicians. This is a solid return of largely dancefloor arrangements that nimbly evade the dreaded acid-jazz reflux. 8/10 (Scott C)

Serge Chaloff
Boston Blow-Up! (Capitol/EMI)
Chico Hamilton
Man From Two Worlds (Impulse/Universal)
The Chaloff CD is a long-awaited reissue of a session that’s worth owning, if only for the heartfelt version of “Body and Soul,” but there’s more to be enjoyed here, including Jaki Byard’s brief “Diane’s Melody” and Boots Mussulli’s “Kip.” Besides Mussulli, the musicians include Herb Pomeroy and Ray Santisi. The Hamilton disc’s 11 tracks are all compositions by Charles Lloyd, who’s heard here along with Gabor Szabo and the influential bassist Albert Stinson. Four bonus tracks add trombonist George Bohanon. By early ’60s standards, this was startling music. Both 9/10 (Len Dobbin)

Mini CD Reviews

Charlie Parker At Birdland Vols. 1 & 2 (Ember) A four-CD set of Bird and a number of jazz giants including Fats Navarro, Bud Powell and Dizzy Gillespie. A must for Parker collectors. 10 (LD)

Kelly Joe Phelps Tunesmith Retrofit (Rounder) Phelps may be the best finger-picking guitarist ever, but his talent for composition will always outshine his fretboard prowess. 9 (JC)

Barbara Carlotti Les Lys Brisés (4AD/Dep) Lovelorn and a little despondent (Françoise Hardy and a little Nico), this French singer-songwriter’s classic sound is like dry ice, slow motion and tall grass. 8.5 (LC)

De La Soul The Impossible Mission Mixtape (AOI) De La comes back with 16 unreleased tracks spanning four albums, and while these cuts didn’t make the cut, there is some fire here. Check the commentary. 8 (SC)

Graham Coxon Love Travels at Illegal Speeds (Parlophone/EMI) Snot-nosed degenerate rock care of this former Blur guitarist’s relentlessly disappointing solo career. 3 (LC)

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