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 The Dirty Tricks
Sauve qui peut! (Blue Skies Turn Black/Scratch)
If the debut from these Montrealers had them wearing their influences on their sleeve (Hot Snakes, for instance), this new one absolutely digs in right from the get-go with unbridled, balls-out punk rock with a great sense of melody. Long since one of Montreal’s criminally ignored bands, this is just too good for people to look down their nose at. Bringing a lot more swagger to their sound this time around, songs like “Rêve à ça” show these locals firmly looking into the future while never spinning their wheels with flavours of the day. Good on ya! 8.5/10 (Johnson Cummins)
 Devil Driver
The Last Kind Words (Roadrunner/Universal)
With all of the leaps and bounds metal has taken thanks to progressive labels like Hydra Head and Relapse, it’s still nice to slow down, take stock and get back to the roots. Devil Driver harken back to the days when Pantera set the metal world on fire, but as classic as they sound with Anselmo howls and twin harmonized guitar leads, they still manage to bludgeon and forge ahead on “Clouds Over California” and “Horn of Betrayal.” Fans of Lamb of God should be all over this one. 7.5/10 (Johnson Cummins)
 Within Temptation
At the Heart of Everything (Roadrunner)
After Evanescence, Dutch symphonic goth rockers Within Temptation could be the second choice when a song is needed for a goth-infused action flick à la Underworld. The orchestral backing adds an urgent “omigod, this is sooo important” feel to every song, but what mars them is predictability and cloned choruses. A neutered vocal contribution from ex-Life of Agony singer Keith Caputo makes “What Have You Done” close to pointless, and singer Sharon den Adel flickers into Tori Amos mode once in a while, particularly on “Final Destination.” To their credit, this would make a great live show, and Sharon’s operatic voice can lift even the heaviest of sulky heads. 6.5/10 (Lateef Martin)
 Tegan and Sara
The Con (MapleMusic/Universal)
The Calgary-born Quin twins, now split between Vancouver and Montreal (we got Sara), were impressive enough back when their palette was limited to roots music and Neil Young. But this is their fifth album, and the 26-year-olds have moved on to a melting pot of pop, rock and electronic sounds that’s happily hard to pin down. Produced by Death Cab for Cutie’s Chris Walla, there are ballads, ’80s anthems and a smidgeon of bubblegum rock, the latter leaving an unpleasant, Avril-ish after-taste. But the bulk of the record is powerful enough to draw a mainstream crowd, with enough of an edge to please indie-pop connoisseurs. 8/10 (Lorraine Carpenter)
Die Romantik
Narcissist’s Waltz (independent)
From New York by way of Paris, this trio deals in gothic romanticism and classic pop, a simultaneously upbeat and downcast concoction which sporadically bubbles up with antiquated European sounds—there are two waltzes here, so the album title isn’t merely aesthetic. Graceful arrangements of piano, svelte guitars (with a lap steel cameo) and fluid rhythm accentuate the positive, while lead vocals (alternating between all three band members) and a few dark rock riffs keep the airy melancholy afloat. 8/10 (Lorraine Carpenter)
 Shop Boyz
Rockstar Mentality (Universal)
For whatever reason, these three young men from Atlanta thought the Nelly/Tim McGraw collaboration “Over and Over” begged for the full-album treatment. The lyrics and subject matter are purposefully tame as to not offend the Wal-Mart country-rock types, but it’s hard to pinpoint a demographic that would enjoy a record of lame rap slogans shouted over a backdrop of equally lame guitar riffs (including a sample of the Fixx’s “One Thing Leads to Another”). If the phrase “totally, dude” figures prominently in your lexicon, perhaps you are said target audience. 2.5/10 (Erik Leijon)
 Raising the Fawn
Sleight of Hand (Sonic Unyon)
Produced by Ian Blurton, the sophomore record by this Toronto band, featuring Broken Social Scene’s John Crossingham, is, according to him, their pop album, at once more diverse and more accessible than its predecessors. It’s an accurate sales pitch, being as varied as Ontarian indie rock gets, while blandly echoing a range of commercial artists, from Tom Petty to, um, Extreme, an uneasy mix of pretension and pandering. Sure, it’s all too easy to be cynical about bands that seem to be followers rather than leaders, but this really is, stylistically, where indie rock ends and lowest-common-denominator territory begins. 4.5/10 (Lorraine Carpenter)
 To My Boy
Messages (Abeano/XL/Select)
An English duo with computer and guitar, To My Boy chart no new turf in the lo-fi electro-punk realm. And why bother when the old turf is so readily revisited and revamped? Sam White and Jack Snape take a formula that’s part OMD, part Suicide and part early Depeche Mode, juice it up with the brawny abrasion demanded in the days of DFA and Ed Bangers, and go nuts with the clipped, pompous vocals (technophilia is the topic of choice). The bottom line, though, is that the 11 tunes here are punchy, crunchy and unshakeably memorable. 8/10 (Rupert Bottenberg)
 Michael Fakesch
Dos (!K7)
On the tail end of a dozen years producing brooding glitch and remixing Wu-Tang, Björk and other unlikely candidates with his former group Funkstörung, Michael Fakesch is back on the solo front with this chin-scratcher. A few minutes of it are bound to have any listener wondering, among other things, what would happen if Prince had co-produced Purple Rain with Autechre, or if JT and Timbaland were pill-popping Bavarians. Aside from eliciting such confounded comparisons, Dos is a well-composed chorus of trilling synths, spanked-out bass lines, thudding beats and warbling R&B vocals worth the attention of any lover of leftfield pop. 8/10 (Jack Oatmon)
 Various
One (Rekids Ltd.)
The London-based Rekids label’s first compilation unites a well-respected crew of longtime house and techno personalities, along with a few new faces, for what will surely tattoo the young label’s name in countless heads. The first disc covers an enormous amount of ground, from Radioslave’s eerie, anthemic singles, “My Bleeps” and “Secret Base,” to Mr. G’s groovy robo-funk jam, “E.C.G.’ed,” and Toby Tobias’ chilled-out electro styles on “A Close Shave” and “Dave’s Sex Bits.” The shit really hits the fan on the second disc, where they’re remixing each other. 8.5/10 (Jack Oatmon)
Lil Wayne
None Higher (Benzi/Fusion III)
Lil Wayne made his initial mark through his many cameos and collaborations rather than through his respectable solo output, so it’s appropriate that one of hip-hop’s current reigning kings triumphantly returns with an immaculately prepared mixtape. It starts with the best remix of the year, Ghislain Poirier’s “Dopeman,” and rest sees the likes of Diplo, A-Trak and the Neptunes having serious fun messing around with Wayne’s best verses, all under the supervision of DJ Benzi. It’s diverse and consistent enough to be played front to back at your fun summer party. 8/10 (Erik Leijon)
Grand Analog
Calligraffiti (Urbnet)
Detouring momentarily from his group Mood Ruff, Winnipeg’s Odario Williams steps out with the open-minded hip hop of Grand Analog. With a sound that pulls from many different influences, sprinkled with live musicianship and wrapped in the rap template, GA owes a lot of its conceptual genre-jumping to the genius and foresight of Outkast. Calligraffiti bravely grows in every which way with hip hop, rock and reggae leanings, but lacks the unifying force needed to benefit from all its ambition. This is a great new group, one that will probably change its stripes a few times before finding its stride. 7/10 (Scott C) With Planet Asia, Mugz, Clermont, Dialekt and more at Saints Showbar, Fri., July 27, 10 p.m., $14
 Corneille
The Birth of Cornelius (Warner)
Even before his 2003 debut Parce qu’on vient de loin, Rwandan singer Corneille had been a fixture on the Quebec music scene. This is his first English disc, though his seamless vocal delivery throughout this convincing, self-penned, self-produced set would have you thinking otherwise. His suave musical persona is turned upside down here by love’s tangled web, which has him thanking a lover for bringing him “Back to Life,” then being completely overwhelmed because she’s “Too Much of Everything.” He breaks love’s hold to take an honest look at his roots on the brilliant “A Man of this World,” a song as universal and unique as the artist himself. 8.5/10 (Gerard Dee)
 Mel Martin –
Benny Carter Quintet
Just Friends (Jazzed Media)
Art Farmer Quintet
The Time and the Place (Mosaic)
A pair of memorable fivesomes—Carter, know best for his alto playing and composing and arranging, was a multi-instrumentalist. In this live session from Yoshi’s, he is joined by co-leader Martin, a tenorman who doubles on flute here. Roger Kellaway, Jeff Chambers and Harold Jones offer excellent support and solos. Carter’s “People Time” is here along with the title tune and “Perdido.” The latter is also live, recorded in 1966 at MOMA in NYC with a top-notch group consisting of Jimmy Heath, Albert Dailey, Walter Booker and Mickey Roker. Over a half-hour of music, including Heath’s “Far Away Lands,” is released here for the first time. Both 9.5/10 (Len Dobbin)
Mini CD Reviews
Alvin Queen I Ain’t Looking At You (Justin Time/Enja/Fusion III) Drummer Queen, a former Montrealer and one important to the city’s jazz history, is joined here by a first-rate band of Mike LeDonne, Peter Bernstein and the horns of Terell Stafford and Jesse Davis. 8.5 (LD)
Frank Black 93–03 (Cooking Vinyl) A look back at the solo career of the other man in black. 7.5 (LC)
IllScarlett All Day With It (Sony BMG) A Jekyll-and-Hyde of crap: every song is either sped-up garage punk or mellow, harmless white-boy reggae. 4.5 (EL)
Yellowcard Paper Walls (Capitol/EMI) For a sunny pop-punk band from Florida with a fiddle player, they sure are a depressingly serious bunch. 3 (EL)
Various Mashed! (EMI) A half-decade late, a major-label leap into the mash-up game, falling flat with such genius calls as Bowie’s lousy “Let’s Dance” fused with Liberty X (uh, who?). 2 (RB)
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