Disc of the week

Wolf Parade
At Mount Zoomer (Sub Pop/Outside)
Yeah, that’s the shit. This self-produced and self-assured record practically puts Apologies to the Queen Mary to shame. It’s only rock (albeit of the kraut, indie and regular varieties), little more than straight-up, accessible tunes, but tunes with the kind of artful songcraft, sonic depth and stark lyricism that shows up most truly popular bands for the hacks they are. When Wolf Parade moves past the five-minute mark, as they often do on this record, it’s for a reason, because they’ve got places to go, people to see. The places are often miserable, the people frequently suspect, but it’s all pop and poetry in their hands. 9/10 (Lorraine Carpenter)

Coldplay
Viva la Vida (Pome/Fusion III)
Coldplay’s fourth album is a pleasant surprise, meeting mainstream expectations without invading the brain with cloying choruses (ah, “Yellow”) or instantly fading from memory (remember the last album? Thought not). Chris Martin’s celebrity malaise yields despairing lyrics that stand in contrast to Brian Eno’s grandiose production and the band’s matching mammoth tunes. But their anaemic, pretentious tendencies are never far afield, finally coalescing on the closer, “Death and All His Friends,” an attempt at a life-and-death rallying epic that leaves the listener in limbo. Nice uniforms though. 6/10 (Lorraine Carpenter)

Katy Perry
One of the Boys (Capitol/EMI)
Back in 1996, unknown singer-songwriter Jill Sobule suckerpunched the FCC by releasing the unlikely radio hit “I Kissed a Girl.” It was cute, harmless and an easy attempt at courting controversy. In 2008, Californian pin-up (based purely on her album cover) Katy Perry has a song bearing the same name. It’s a horrible slice of modern pop rock, and the production is so loud and busy it can’t even be considered catchy. Her other single is metrosexual-bashing “UR so Gay,” suggesting this isn’t exactly a highbrow affair. Intentionally provocative chick rock devised by guys in suits. 1/10 (Erik Leijon)

King Khan & the Shrines
The Supreme Genius of… (Vice/Outside)
As you might guess from the title, modesty was never a strong suit for former Montrealer and Berlin-based Shrines howler King Khan, aka the Blacksnake. Nor were decorum, public decency or many basic ethical principles. But damn, the dude’s got soul. Deep, dank, dirty-minded soul, dredged from some primordial, miasmic swamp thick with hexes and hoodoo. The latest album from Khan and his crew of krauts ladles out some badass boogaloo with whip-crack grooves, walloping horns and hopping-mad keys and guitar, a shrieking Khan astride it all like some dragon-riding sorcerer of yore. The done-me-wrong/me-done-wrong ballads hold their own and when jet-fuel jams like “Land of the Freak” and “Sweet Tooth” come tearing though, best give ’em room. 9/10 (Rupert Bottenberg)

Nachtmystium
Assassins: Black Meddle Pt. 1 (Century Media)
This Chicago outfit may dabble in the black arts but their thinking man’s black metal gets rid of the amateurish production and predictable blast beats usually associated with the genre while adding a psychedelic aspect to their onslaught, thanks to sweeping moog synths. As spacey as things get here, though, the band does manage to harness their brutality on the stellar “Ghosts of Grace” and “Your True Enemy.” If you ever wondered what Hawkwind mixed with Darkthrone would sound like, this would be it. 8/10 (Johnson Cummins)

The War on Drugs
Wagonwheel Blues (Secretly Canadian)
Refusing to be just another band doin’ the Americana twang thang, the War on Drugs are musically ambitious throughout this record, with glistening and razor-sharp electric guitars hovering over the gentle strum of an acoustic. Aging hipsters will recognize the countrified Television or the hugely underrated Swell sound but the true lineage of principal songwriter Adam Granduciel’s lyrical pearls and sense of urgency would be from a young Bruce Springsteen, minus the Boss’s tone and timbre. 7/10 (Johnson Cummins)

Various
You Don’t Know: Ninja Cuts (Ninja Tune/Outside)
This isn’t the first time in its nearly two decades that Ninja Tune has rolled out an extensive overview of where they’re at, and with a couple of neat exceptions (Coldcut’s classic “Atomic Moog 2000,” freshly pumped up by the Qemists), the focus on these three CDs is largely the last five years. Mapping the Ninja-verse is still no small task, what with its two sub-labels Counter and Big Dada, a proliferation of notable talent on the team (Diplo, Spank Rock, Kid Koala, Amon Tobin, the Herbaliser, TTC etc.), and wicked work from their second-tier troops. They pull it off, though, delivering street heat, fleet beats and neat feats in abundance. 7.5/10 (Rupert Bottenberg)

Justis
Just Is (Do Right/Outside)
MC/producer Justis arrives from Kitchener-Waterloo with quiet confidence and ample skills, urging his contemporaries to “Get It Right” when it comes to the music they’ve been longing to hear. This is a solid intro, with Justis working hard to make the listener feel like they’ve dug into something special, complete with modest odes to perseverance like “Power of One” and proud declarations like “I Am Hip Hop.” Justis may chastise short-sighted MCs on “Only for the Money,” but his self-assured swagger is anything but forced. Tunes like “Jazz Music” and “Let It Ride” show a versatility that will hopefully pay off in the future. 7.5/10 (Scott C)

Foxy Brown
Brooklyn’s Don Diva (Black Roses/Koch)
Recorded before Foxy Brown’s one-year prison sentence (she has since been released), Brooklyn’s Don Diva sounds like it was recorded under severe time constraints. Before being sent to the slammer, Brown also suffered from near deafness, so even hasty, one-note material from the fiery rapper can be considered a welcome surprise. The diverse arrangements of 2001’s Broken Silence exemplified both her Caribbean and African roots, setting Brown apart from her peers. The beats here are less adventurous, mostly repetitive synths. Since her lyrics were written before going to jail, we’re not getting the full Foxy Brown story just yet. 6/10 (Erik Leijon)

Ashanti
The Declaration (Motown/Universal)
Ashanti’s first two albums were surprisingly good, thanks to some hot beats and the musical drama that her producers brought to tracks like “Foolish” and “Scared.” Those are important elements for a singer who doesn’t have the pipes to carry mediocre songs. Unfortunately, her last album, 2004’s Concrete Rose, and her latest have largely lost the hooks that kept her out of the generic diva dump. The songs here aren’t bad, but there are few standouts. And even a solid track like the catchy, Jermaine Dupri-produced “Good Good” sounds like it could have been on either of Mariah’s last two sets. In the end, Ashanti’s declaration isn’t that much of an announcement. 6.5/10 (Gerard Dee)

Vox Sambou
Lakay (Public Transit Recordings)
Local MC and Nomadic Massive member Vox Sambou embraces both the love of his Haitian homeland and the desire to see things change on his debut full-length, Lakay. Complete with live instrumentation, sample-based production and Vox’s native Creole, he delivers his message with both bellowing command and in hushed tones. “Bato” explores the story of a young Haitian man who decides to illegally cross the treacherous waters between Haiti and the U.S., only to find that his new life is more perilous than the crossing. Vox has lots of help bringing this vision to light, with Nomadic Massive and Kalmunity members factoring heavily in the production. This is essential Montreal listening. 8/10 (Scott C) CD launch at MAI, Sat., June 21, 10 p.m., $10

NOMO
Ghost Rock (Ubiquity)
With their 2006 effort New Tones, Michigan nine-piece NOMO ably displayed a bold and original spin on the Afrobeat revival of the day. Their follow-up, Ghost Rock, doesn’t just push that future-primitive envelope further, it punches holes right through it. Matching the nimble polyrhythms and beast-on-the-loose brass of 1970s African funk with punk-rock junkyard engineering (it’s not for nothing that they’ve played with both Dan Deacon and Konono No.1), NOMO conjures up sonic cyclones of unprecedented beat equations, rich in tones and timbres heretofore unheard. Guerrilla groove merchants, third-ear fakirs, lo-fi sci-fi square-root-of-pi pipers—call ’em whatcha want, this Ghost Rock shit fucking rocks. 9/10 (Rupert Bottenberg)

Enrico Pieranunzi
As Never Before (Cam Jazz)
Kenny Wheeler
Other People (Cam Jazz)
Both releases feature the important, Canadian-born Wheeler, a player (trumpet and flugelhorn) and composer of the first rank. On the former, he guests with the pianist’s trio, Marc Johnson and Joey Baron, in a nine-track set of material for the most part from the pen of Enrico. The other disc is a first, some wonderful writing for strings by Kenny played by the Hugo Wolf String Quartet and another superb pianist in England’s John Taylor—try “String Quartet no. 1.” Both sessions are beauties. Both 10/10 (Len Dobbin)

Mini CD Reviews

Various 25th Anniversary Collection (Justin Time/Fusion III) It’s hard to believe that it’s been a quarter-century since Jim West created this local label to spotlight Oliver Jones, who’s here along with Ranee Lee, Billy Bang, Paul Bley, Pepper Adams and a host of others on 27 impressive tracks. 9 (LD)

The Baseball Project Volume 1: Frozen Ropes and Dying Quails (Yep Roc/Outside) A bunch of old rockers (including R.E.M.’s Peter Buck) singing about baseball. Great for fans, likely too boring for everyone else. 8 (EL)

Ocote Soul Sounds and Adrian Quesada The Alchemist Manifesto (ESL/Select) Martin Perna of Antibalas detours into some silken, psychedelic Latino jazz-funk—todos pachecos ahora! Dig the Andean riffs on “El Pescador.” 8 (RB)

Shearwater Rook (Matador) From an obscure corner of the musical cosmos (Austin), comes a graceful collision of strings, piano, guitars and fragile falsetto, raining debris imbued with old English magic. Classy. 8 (LC) With Frog Eyes, the Evangelicals at Club Lambi, Sun., June 22, 9 p.m., $12

Adam and the Amethysts The Amethyst Amulet (Pome/Fusion III) Members of Miracle Fortress and Telefauna miss but mostly hit with rough-hewn, homespun pop. 7 (LC) At Parc des Amériques (Rachel/St-Laurent), Sun., June 22, 8 p.m., free

The Whip X Marks Destination (Southern Fried/Fusion III) Dubious vocals (says the bio: “grunge rasp”), blatant thievery (New Order, mainly) and ham-fisted production make this a one-off dancefloor lark, at best. Manchester, turn down the suck. 5 (LC)

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