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 Maxwell
BLACKsummers’ Night
(Columbia/Sony BMG)
After eight long years, the Max is back with a full-bodied, soulful set that has a more organic, live feel than his previous releases. His voice has lost none of its subtle timbre and he uses it to utmost effect whether he’s espousing social responsibility (“Help Somebody”) or mourning a lost love (lead single “Pretty Wings”). Summer nights just got hotter. 9/10 Trial Track: “Stop the World” (Gerard Dee)
 The Dead Weather
Horehound (Third Man/Warner)
Jack White’s latest distraction is his most jumbled, erratic mess yet. You get the feeling White wanted this project to delve deeper into more earthy, sparse, bluesy territory, but his crude, pounding drumming style and excessive studio manipulations harpoon his best intentions—not unlike that terrible Bond song he wrote. The Kills’ Alison Mosshart inexplicably imitates White’s shrillness on vocals. 2/10 Trial Track: “60 Feet Tall” (Erik Leijon) With Screaming Females at l’Olympia, Tues., July 21, 8 p.m., $35
 Wilco
(The Album) (Nonesuch/Warner)
Head Wilco honcho Jeff Tweedy’s true mark as a solid songwriter has always been his insistence on surrounding himself with people like Jim O’Rourke and, most recently, guitar wunderkind Nels Cline to provide the wind under his wings. Cline still plays the perfect second banana to Tweedy’s neurosis and when the band and Cline really stretch out on “Bull Black Nova,” they’re unstoppable. Sadly, though, Cline has been relegated to a supporting player here and (The Album) gets pretty damn boring quickly. 6.5/10 Trial Track: “Bull Black Nova” (Johnson Cummins)
Ohbijou
Beacons (Last Gang)
Crafted with sophistication and skill, the sophomore LP by this Toronto septet achieves an orchestral pop finesse that, at its best, measures up to today’s top practitioners of the style. Ohbijou draws from folk and pop ballads, and while the resulting subtlety isn’t a flaw in itself, the record suffers from melodic stagnation, too often treading water when it should be forging ahead with bold strokes. 6/10 Trial Track: “New Years” (Lorraine Carpenter)
Rome Romeo
self-titled (Machette)
A strong letter of introduction from this Montreal supergroup featuring members of les Marmottes Aplaties, le Nombre and Fifth Hour Hero. Things are rocking on this debut E.P., but with a refined approach that will recall the Gun Club and early PJ Harvey. 7/10 Trial Track: “Lose Your Head” (Johnson Cummins) With Obits, Red Mass at Il Motore, Wed., July 22, 9 p.m., $12
 Billy Talent
III (Warner)
Once central to the rock star mythology, the story of the blue-collar band bleeding, sweating and tearing from obscurity has become usurped by kids with laptops. Hard work isn’t valued as highly as it used to be, but if nothing else, the members of Billy Talent sound like they’ve passed kidney stones, developed ulcers and suffered many a hangnail in the making of their latest anguished epic. 5/10 Trial Track: “The Dead Can’t Testify” (Erik Leijon)
 Various
Up End Atom: A Tribute to Atom and His Package
(Hartless Hind)
The “package” being the QY700 sequencer with which Philly’s four-eyed one-man band Adam Goren rewrote the punk handbook in the mid-’90s, birthing nerdcore with his corny, catchy tunes and quirky, convoluted wit. Diabetes has limited Goren’s musical activities recently, so here, a whole bunch of appropriately spastic, nasal, Casio-clutching wieners like the Zambonis, Math the Band and the Emotron do some of Goren’s gems justice—and raise bucks to fight diabetes too. 7.5/10 Trial Track: The Emotron, “Me and My Black Metal Friends” (Rupert Bottenberg)
 Discovery
LP (XL/Select)
Rostam Batmanglij of Vampire Weekend and Wes Miles of Ra Ra Riot unite to “embrace and comment on the pop music of the last decade” via Auto-Tuned vocals, R&B beats and synth SFX, warping the formula slightly with real percussion, reggae riddims and pitch shifts. Inevitably, indie peeps will find this record unpalatable while the mainstream crowd can easily access superior pablum on the radio dial. 4/10 Trial Track: “Carby” (Lorraine Carpenter)
William Orbit
My Oracle Lives Uptown (Kobalt Digital)
From occasional Madonna and Étienne Daho producer, and co-producer of Seal and Prince’s “Batdance,” this six-year project is a collection of lethargic, inoffensive radio pop without the superstars singing over it, making it a vaguely catchy blend of mid-tempo breaks, echoing guitars and bubbly synths by a man who’s made his living engineering tame musical backdrops. 5/10 Trial Track “White Night” (Jack Oatmon)
 The Narcicyst
self-titled (Paranoid Arab Boy)
Montrealer the Narcicyst (aka the Mirror’s Narcel X) opens a window to his soul on this first full solo album. While delivering a thoughtful record that sheds light on the modern Arab experience, he also provides solid bangers to break your neck to. “Vietnam” and “P.H.A.T.W.A.” most notably stand out, but other songs like “Hamdulilah” and “Sumeria” offer a contrast very rich in texture. 8/10 Trial Track: “P.H.A.T.W.A.” (Morgan Steiker)
Madness
The Liberty of Norton Folgate (Yep Roc/Outside)
Three decades in and 10 years after their last album, the Nutty Boys of second-wave ska return with a work on par with the best of their post-Two Tone, dark-carnival dance-pop (see: “Our House” etc.). Opening and closing on elaborate odes to London’s rougher corners, Norton Folgate is packed with sharp, playful, elegantly executed and above all unshakably catchy and resolutely English numbers. 8.5/10 Trial Track: “Idiot Child” (Rupert Bottenberg)
 Psychotropical Orchestra
Pacheco Sessions (Denso)
The manic mezcla of Montreal’s Spanish-language anarchist Latin big band feels like your house party playlist on peyote. Demonic, feisty and over-the-top, from the horn section announcing the resurrection of Antonio Aguilar, the punkish megaphone vocals, dark, psychedelic guitar work and dub funk basslines to beachside, piña colada-sipping percussion (do I detect a güiro?). Pure light and fresco chaos. 8/10 Trial Track: “Cuantas Noches” (Erik Leijon) CD launch at Divan Orange, Sat., July 18, 8 p.m., $5
 Orchestre National de Barbès
Alik (Wagram)
The ONB are a group of musicians from Paris whose work is tough to describe—a bit of Mahgreb, a touch of France, with some punk and rock ’n’ roll thrown in for good measure. Known for their boisterous 1999 live album, ONB keep the energy level high here, as tunes range from the gnawa rhythm of “Civilise” to their own rendition of the Rolling Stones’ “Sympathy for the Devil.” 8/10 Trial Track: “Sympathy for the Devil” (Erin MacLeod) With Alpha Thiam at Metropolis tonight, Thurs., July 16, 8 p.m., $38
Mini CD Reviews
Ocote Soul Sounds & Adrian Quesada Coconut Rock (ESL/Select) Martin Perna’s Afro-Latin off-Antibalas project returns, less cosmic yet more rich, funky and expansive than last year’s debut. 9 (RB)
Church of Misery Houses of the Unholy (Metal Blade/Rise Above) Devastating, crushing doom and heavy, heavy psych from Tokyo’s finest. 8.5 (JC)
Tiny Vipers Life on Earth (Sub Pop) Seattle’s Jesy Fortino delivers a second LP of spare and sad, glacial and gothic folk that’ll leave you in a foetal position. 7 (LC)
We Were Promised Jetpacks These Four Walls (Fat Cat) A cheerful record coming from Scotland? Hell no, this is painfully depressing. 6 (EL)
Marcy Playground Leaving Wonderland... In a Fit of Rage (Woz/EMI) “Sex & Candy” peeps now all about the saccharine sweet and less about the... well, sex. 4 (EL)
Zeus Sounds Like Zeus (Arts & Crafts) When the edgiest song on your debut EP is a Genesis cover, naming yourself after the God of thunder calls for punitive weather. 4 (LC)
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