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 Talib Kweli
Eardrum (Blacksmith/Warner)
Once again, seasoned master of ceremonies Talib Kweli explores the beautiful struggle between underground credibility and commercial appeal, balancing out the key ingredients, Brooklyn style. Let me say now that the lyrics you crave are here, and Kweli rides the delicate dichotomy between raw insight and infectious poetry like a champ. Showing real diversity that pays off, Kweli teams up with a long list, trading bars with Justin Timberlake, Sizzla, KRS-ONE, Roy Ayers, UGK and even Norah Jones. Beats are locked down tight with a superstar production roster including Madlib, Just Blaze, Will.I.Am, Kanye West, Pete Rock, and Hi-Tek to start. Listen closely. 8.5/10 (Scott C)
 Ween
The Friends EP (Chocodog/Fusion III)
Gene and Dean Ween intended this five-pack as a tide-’em-over prelude to the forthcoming LP La Cucaracha, but have split their admittedly zealous fans with this detour from their spectacular weirdo rock. Five flavours of synthetic cheese are served here. The titular amity jam is hyperstimulated Euro-disco, and from there we’re treated to rude electro-funk, ridiculous reggae (complete with elaborately faked patois and farting brass), bombastic Latin rock and ’80s-styled blue-eyed soul schmaltz—all very accurately aped, hence the disgust among some. Like the music, the lyrics come from somewhere between irony, honesty and idiocy. 7.5/10 (Rupert Bottenberg)
 Heaven and Hell
Live at Radio City Music Hall (Rhino/Warner)
Black Sabbath’s Tony Iommi and Geezer Butler reunite with their mid-period singer Ronnie James Dio and drummer Vinny Appice, under a new non-infringing moniker. Though it was arguably not Sab’s best era, these songs from the early ’80s have actually translated well over time, but what really impresses here is that, at 65 years old, Dio’s pipes aren’t rusty at all. He gives songs like “Children of the Sea” and “Neon Knights” a new coat while actually improving the tired “The Mob Rules.” Hardly a shining moment here, but a nice souvenir for people who actually followed the band in the non-Ozzy/Bill Ward years. 7/10 (Johnson Cummins)
 Bill Callahan
Woke on a Whaleheart (Drag City)
Callahan finally gets rid of the Smog moniker and sings under his own name, with glorious results. Callahan’s baritone, Lee Hazlewood-style singing borders on narration which can get a bit narcoleptic and, deceptively, seem emotionally detached from the music, but his matter-of-fact tone only elevates his lyrical pearls. Although Callahan more than impresses here, extra points must go to his producer, Royal Trux’s Neil Michael Haggerty, who fleshes the songs out perfectly with inventive string arrangements, picked guitars and lap steel. 7.5/10 (Johnson Cummins) With Sir Richard Bishop at la Sala Rossa, Sun., Sept. 9, 9 p.m., $15
Kinski
Down Below It’s Chaos (Sub Pop)
From Seattle, this quartet distinguished itself in the late ’90s by merging indie-, space- and drone-rock, lined with electronic and motorik flourishes, arriving at what they call “avant-rock.” We’ve all been there and done that now, and while Kinski can still deliver an engaging album, their sonic components sound simplified, and they tend to stand alone rather than fall together: there’s the stoner metal sludge, the creeping drones and arpeggios, the wailing indie outro, blunt rawk that may as well be sold to Budweiser, and three tracks with vocals by guitarist Chris Martin, who we’ve heard before, but not this often. So why don’t we drop the pretense and just call it rock? 6/10 (Lorraine Carpenter)
 Monster Bobby
Gaps (Hypnote/Fusion III)
The U.K.’s Robert Barry has said that John Lennon, Liam Gallagher and Ian Brown couldn’t write a song if their lives depended on it. Noel Gallagher is the songwriter in Oasis, so I’ll concede on Liam, and Lennon’s life hasn’t depended on anything since 1980, but really now, don’t diss the Stone Roses when your debut album is this weak. Realized on the strength of having recently helped fabricate U.K. girl group the Pipettes, Monster Bobby’s LP is strong on production, with deftly manipulated (but poorly sung) vocals, adventurous arrangements, IDM-derived beats and textural trickery. The lyrics and melodies, however, are clichéd and pedestrian, disrespectively. 6.5/10 (Lorraine Carpenter)
Manu Chao
La Radiolina (Because/Warner)
Franco-Spaniard Manu Chao has made a scrappy superstar of himself with his multilingual rum-punch rebel rock, flavoured with world-music touches and loose leftist lore. Much of what’s on this admittedly diverse new album harkens back to his ’98 breakthrough Clandestino, while the first single, the propulsive “Rainin in Paradize” (potentially a hit to match “Bongo Bong”), owes a strong debt to French new wavers Indochine and les Rita Mitsouko. The English-language “Bleedin Clown,” on the other hand, sounds like fucking Platinum Blonde or something. Yuck. 8/10 (Rupert Bottenberg)
 Ben Harper & the Innocent Criminals
Lifeline (Virgin/EMI)
On his latest set, Harper offers a short but sweet lesson in folk rock. Recorded in just seven days in a Paris studio, and relying solely on a 16-track analog tape machine, Harper and his band aim for an organic musical experience and hit the mark. He may or may not have been consciously channelling the spirit of ’70s rock, but listening to tracks like “Fool for a Lonesome Train” and the slap-happy “Put It on Me” puts groups like the Eagles and Fleetwood Mac squarely in mind. Nevertheless, Harper’s increasingly sharp songwriting skills continue to distinguish him as an original in an industry desperately in need of a lifeline. 8/10 (Gerard Dee)
 Yung Joc
Hustlenomics (Bad Boy/Warner)
This well-produced album is a waste because Yung Joc has zero rapping skills. His painfully slow delivery only magnifies his unimaginative lyrics (“hustlenomics,” to Joc, literally means explaining hustling as a class lecture). It’s even worse when he tries to emulate T.I.’s drawl and beats—“Play Your Cards” lifts the keyboard line from “What You Know.” On “Bottle Poppin’” he completely apes T.I.’s rapping, and namedrops rubberbands and Chevy Impalas with little sense of irony. The Neptunes and Don Vito inexplicably gave up some quality beats for this terrible rapper. 5/10 (Erik Leijon)
Big Pun
The Nicest (BMF/Fusion III)
Nice of the Bash Bros. to open the casket on Big Pun, revisiting some of the finer moments and rare cuts of this literally larger than life MC who passed away in 2000. While Pun was a serious MC in his own right, and cats still try to copy his flow and cadence today, there really hasn’t been anybody that did it quite like he did. Unfortunately, this release is a disguised mixtape, riddled with Bash Bros. bumpers and plugs, and not nearly enough new material to really get excited about. I miss Pun’s sense of humour most, but the big guy does give new meaning to the concept of breath control. 7/10 (Scott C)
 Swayzak
Some Other Country (!K7)
Some other country, indeed. The very fact that music so mechanical, alienating and understated can feel as accessible as this album does is a testament to just how far down the industrial rabbit-hole our culture has ventured. Or maybe it’s an indication that a sense of humanity is injected into anything humans create, no matter how synthetic. Such appears to be the thematic centrifuge of this cleverly composed machine, the cogs of which are head-bobbing beats, morose vocals, dubwise production and countless references to the dusty corners of electronic music’s tripped-out history. 7/10 (Jack Oatmon)
 Gusgus
Forever (Pineapple)
A wacky blend of diva R&B, crunchy electro, post-rave anthem production and even a shade of rockabilly, as heard on the syncopated title track, Forever is a smirk-jerking oddity, the sixth from this Reykjavik-based outfit. The instrumentation and songwriting shouts out to their 1995 formation quite clearly, but they’ve modernized and modified their sound enough to keep up with the pack. Their sense of humour and mild cheesiness make the disc an entertaining listen, well thought-out without feeling too cocky, befitting such Icelandic art collectives. 8/10 (Jack Oatmon)
Roberta Gambarini & Hank Jones
You Are There (EmArcy/Universal)
Bud Shank & Bill Mays
Beyond the Red Door (Jazzed Media)
Two quite superb duo outings here. After Sheila Jordan, Ms. Gambarini is without a doubt the great living jazz singer, joined here by one of the great living jazz musicians, pianist Hank Jones. Recorded in NYC in 2005, they are heard over 14 tracks doing superior songs by the likes of Ellington, Strayhorn, Benny Carter and Burton Lane. The Shank & Mays disc is an alto sax and piano outing by a pair who are quite comfortable and inventive in this setting. The title piece is by Zoot Sims and Gerry Mulligan, and music by Russ Freeman (“The Wind”) and Jimmy Rowles (“The Peacocks”), Porter’s “Everything I Love” and Rodgers and Hart’s “Where or When” are among the nine tracks here, recorded in 2006. Both 10/10 (Len Dobbin)
Mini CD Reviews
Diana Panton If the Moon Turns Green (independent) A wonderful second outing from this superb Hamilton-based jazz singer, again accompanied (quite simply) by just Don Thompson and Reg Schwager. 9 (LD)
Various Bloodfire Boots (independent) Gil Scott-Heron, Jay-Z, Busta Rhymes and Syl Johnson all get the Bloodfire rinse on this collection of edits from Peruvian goat-herder Pedro. 9 (SC)
Loreena McKennitt Nights From the Alhambra (Quinlan Road) For connoisseurs of Celtic white witchery, this one-DVD, two-CD set documents concerts performed by McKennitt and co. in a 16th century Spanish palace. 8 (LC) At Place des Arts, Fri.–Sat., Sept. 7–8, 8 p.m., $39.50–$79.50
Whiskey Trench The Good Sun EP (Dead Broke) This local band hits the vinyl realm here with four songs squeezed onto a seven-inch, all bursting with punk rock glee. 8 (JC)
Lee Mellor Ghost Town Heart (independent) Local roots rocker sings about girls, gravediggers, killers, rivers, tumbleweed and the open road. Sounds like a great concoction but, as he says, it “ain’t no whiskey.” 7 (LC) CD launch at Casa del Popolo, Fri., Sept. 7, 10 p.m.
Sights and Sounds self-titled EP (Smallman/Warner) A Canadian emo-punk supergroup that sounds a lot like Mew. 6.5/10 (Erik Leijon)
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