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 Oumou Sangare
Seya (World Circuit)
Sangare is a national treasure in music-rich Mali, performing the music of Wassoulou and presenting social commentary in the context of music that blends traditional sounds and pop sensiblity. A huge range of acoustic instruments and textures feature in Sangare’s music, but it is her voice that dominates. The word “seya” translates as “joy,” and it’s hard to think of a better word to describe this incredible album. 10/10 Trial Track: “Mogo Kele” (Erin MacLeod)
 Future of the Left
Travels With Myself and Another (4AD/Select)
If these downright pissed-off Welsh rockers represent the future of the left, then Hope will come in the form of a broken bottle to the skull and Change will be running over someone with your car. Travels is the angriest, most caustic and vocally blood-curdling record in a year begging for a real Howard Beale to rally the dejected troops. 9/10 Trial Track: “I Am Civil Service” (Erik Leijon)
 Sunset Rubdown
Dragonslayer (Jagjaguwar/Sonic Unyon)
More simple in its production and raw in its finished form than last year’s stellar Random Spirit Lover, the latest record by Spencer Krug and company—equally accessible and alienating, as usual—sounds like a long-lost, late-’70s creation at the crossroads of hard rock, post-punk and the weirder end of prog, complete with mythical yarns about love, beasts and antiheroes. 8/10 Trial Track: “Idiot Heart” (Lorraine Carpenter) With Elfin Saddle, the Witchies at Il Motore, Sun., July 12, 9 p.m., $15
Moby
Wait for Me (Little Idiot)
After club yawner Last Night, Moby’s latest is another type of sleep induction, reverting to the schmaltzy strings, plinky-plonky piano, urgent breakbeats and looped bluesy samples that vaulted him to ubiquity in ’99. Replace the backward violins in “Porcelain” with the backwards guitar of “Shot...” or the Alan Lomax vocal samples of “Find My Baby” with those of “Study War” and you get the picture. Try as he might, this is not Play. 5.5/10 Trial Track: “Shot in the Back of the Head” (Jack Oatmon)
 Bowerbirds
Upper Air (Dead Oceans/Sonic Unyon)
Don’t mistake these North Carolina folks for mere folk revivalists, despite their somewhat conservative arrangements. Singers Phil Moore and Beth Tacular converse and harmonize over subtly mixed acoustic guitars, violin, organ, autoharp and drums, straddling roots and pop music with their delightful melodies and progressions, and sophisticated poetic depictions of complex interior worlds. 8/10 Trial Track: “Crooked Lust” (Lorraine Carpenter) With Megafaun, Vicious/Delicious at la Sala Rossa, Mon., July 13, 9 p.m., $12
Broken Records
Until the Earth Begins to Part (4AD/Select)
With vocals recalling Bono and the Boss, wounded chamber-pop exultations à la Arcade Fire and the occasional Post-Pogues reel of rapturous wretchedness, this Scottish outfit’s déja-vu factor is borrowed wholesale. Not to say they don’t have their moments, but any momentum halts with a thud when one of too many sad-sack ballads begins. 5/10 Trial Track: “If the News Makes You Sad, Don’t Watch It” (Rupert Bottenerg)
 Sing It Loud
Come Around (Epitaph)
One night in 2006 at the Warped Tour plant in Weehawken, NJ, some lazy intern messed with the new band-generating unit and ever since, they’ve been coming out effeminate, keyboard-heavy, belting hip hop catchphrases and looking like H&M employees. It was too expensive to fix the machine, so they packed each band with Ableton and v-neck t-shirts and shipped them to the Midwest. 0.5/10 Trial Track: “Mpls” (Erik Leijon) At Warped Tour at Parc Jean-Drapeau, Sat., July 11, 10 a.m., $39.75, all ages
 Brutal Truth
Evolution Through Revolution (Relapse)
The masters of grind are back and they’re, ahem, more brutal than ever. Now into their second decade, these musical miscreants are still pushing the extreme envelope with 20 blasters that go for the throat and don’t let go. The crust beat of “Fist ’n Mouth” and their amazing take on Minutemen’s “Bob Dylan Wrote Propaganda Songs” should be considered career highlights. 8/10 Trial Track: “Bob Dylan Wrote Propaganda Songs” (Johnson Cummins)
 Crescent Shield
The Stars of Never Seen (Cruz Del Sur/Sonic Unyon)
Crescent Shield are riding the crest of epic power metal but where the band fails (like most power metallists) is with their overreaching, operatic vocals and embarrassingly over-baked sweep-picked lead guitar. If you can actually keep a straight face during Dragonforce’s dazzled-to-death “songs,” buckle up and give the aptly titled “The Endurance” a try. I dare ya. 5.5/10 Trial Track: “The Grand Horizon” (Johnson Cummins)
 I Set My Friends On Fire
You Can’t Spell Slaughter Without Laughter (Epitaph)
This doofus duo from Miami proffered their cover of Soulja Boy’s “Crank That” as a calling card for their basement-brewed blend of digital grindcore and eyeliner emo, fortified with reckless vocoder usage and verbose drollery. It’s an elaborately articulated joke that doesn’t quite stretch from a single MySpace novelty track to a full album. 6.5/10 Trial Track: “Beauty Is in the Eye of the Beerholder” (Rupert Bottenberg) At Warped Tour at Parc Jean-Drapeau, Sat., July 11, 10 a.m., $39.75, all ages
Vision
Lovechild (NDNS)
Seventeen tracks that each bring something original and deeply soulful to a complete work, a rarity in hip hop these days. From the bleeding sax on “Just Want You to Know” to the infectious breakbeat that carries “High Stakes,” the instrumentation of this album, coupled with the honest and soul-bearing lyricism, is taking hip hop to a new plateau. 9/10 Trial Track: “Always on Time” (Morgan Steiker)
 Ginuwine
A Man’s Thoughts (Warner)
Ever since Ginuwine’s 1996 debut, which produced the massive funk hit “Pony,” he’s been trying to repeat that success. Six albums later, he’s still attempting to shake his one-hit-wonder status. Here, “Get Involved,” featuring Missy and Timbaland, comes close to replicating his funky heyday, but it’ll take more than one track to prove he’s not a one-trick pony. 7/10 Trial Track: “Get Involved” (Gerard Dee)
 Dutch Jazz Orchestra
Moon Dreams (Challenge)
Another great outing by this fine European orchestra. This time, the focus is on lesser-known arrangements by Gil Evans and Gerry Mulligan. Included are Gil’s “Spanish Dance,” “The Happy Stranger (by John Benson Brooks), “Lover Man” and “Yardbird Suite,” and Gerry’s “Rose of the Rio Grande,” “Poor Little Rich Girl,” “Broadway” and “Brew’s Tune,” originally written for tenorman Brew Moore. A must for big-band collectors! 10/10 Trial Track: “Easy Living Medley” (Len Dobbin)
Mini CD Reviews
JaLaLa That Old Black Magic (Dare) The music of Johnny Mercer by a great vocal trio of Janis Siegel, Laurel Masse and Lauren Kinhan. Not to be missed! 9.5 (LD)
Drake So Far Gone (October’s Very Own) Heaven help us, this Degrassi kid’s Lil Wayne-backed, Kanye’s-808-aping free mixtape demonstrates potential. 8 (EL)
Attack of the Microphone/Dutch Oven A Mirage of Flesh (Very Cochon) Amazingly packaged split EP, a great taste of two of Quebec’s most unsung heavy hitters. 7.5 (JC)
Westbound Train Come and Get It (Hellcat) A Warped Tour tradition—the requisite Massachusetts ska kids. A Motown, retro-sounding twist. 6.5 (EL) At Warped Tour at Parc Jean-Drapeau, Sat., July 11, 10 a.m., $39.75, all ages
Regina Spektor Far (Sire/Warner) Piano woman pablum. 5 (LC)
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