Steve Earle Sidetracks (Artemis/Sony)

Fact: Earle is one of the best American songwriters to come along in the past 30 years. This collection is culled mainly from flipsides and film soundtracks, but the songs here are hardly mongrel dogs looking for scraps. The covers alone are worth the price of admission—the Chambers Brothers’ “Time Has Come Today,” Supersuckers’ “Creepy Jackelope Eye,” Flying Burrito Brothers’ “My Uncle,” Nirvana’s “Breed,” the Slickers’ “Johnny Too Bad” and Little Feat’s “Willin.’” There’s also a version of “My Back Pages” that is superior to even Zimmerman’s and the Byrds’ versions, I swear it’s true. The real treats here of course are Earle’s self-penned numbers, like “Me and the Eagle,” suggesting Nebraska-era Springsteen, or the haunting tale of a death-row prison guard in “Ellis Unit One.” Earle possesses the rare talent of being able to make the world stop turning for 40 minutes of pure bliss, even with his B-sides. 9.5/10 (Johnson Cummins)

Grim Skunk Seventh Wave (Indica/Outside)
Rolling for a lucky seven, Montreal’s heavy-lutionaries are clearly playing for higher stakes now. High-end alt-rock production c/o Dale Penner (Nickelback, etc.), coupled with keyboardist Joe Evil’s move away from the medieval organ motifs, suggest a more accessible Grim Skunk, grounded in the here and now. The anger’s still there, if more personalized (“Failed Again,” “Free”) and world-weary (“Victim of Maturity”), carried by rough yet tuneful guitar shred. Between the stages of rage, however, lurk the neat digressions that always made the Skunk stand out. Check the Pixie-esque title track, the rap-metal done right of “Head Games,” the cape-core of “Superheroes Never Die,” the Mano Negra cover and the catchy reggae-pop of “Check-moi Ben Aller.” 8/10 (Rupert Bottenberg)

Magoo Realist Week (Global Warming/Fusion III)
Scatterbrained and unhinged as it is, the third album by England’s Magoo is a playful traipse across genre lines that leaves some great tunes in its wake. Rugged garage rock, aggro shoegazing, psychedelic sunshine pop, abstract instrumentals and hippie balladry take shape with deliciously layered guitars, effects and sly, boyish vocals. In the spirit of freewheeling acts like the Super Furry Animals, early Stereolab and early Spiritualized, Magoo experiment and entertain without the weighty grandeur of their overrated associates Mogwai. Referential yet refreshingly inventive and ambitious, this underdog act deserves investigation. 8.5/10 (Lorraine Carpenter)

Neil Young Are You Passionate? (Reprise/Warner)
“Are you passionate?” What the hell was Neil thinking with that sorry-ass title? Unfortunately, the cheese doesn’t end there. With part of the Stax hit squad behind him—Donald “Duck” Dunn and Booker T. Jones (where is Steve Cropper?)—and Crazy Horse member Poncho Sampedro as well, this seemed like a no-brainer. But Neil’s take on Stax-style big-beat R&B is atrocious, zapped of any energy as he does the dog paddle through the tunnel of love on stinkers like “You’re My Girl,” “Gateway of Love” and “When I Hold You in My Arms.” Instead of laying the love thang on the line, Neil gets tangled up in clichés at every turn. When he reunites with Crazy Horse on “Goin’ Home,” he proves he still has some tricks up his sleeve, but one out of 11 songs hardly makes up for it. Bummer! 5.5/10 (Johnson Cummins)

Pet Shop Boys Release (EMI)
Despite the cozy familiarity of their nasal synthpop and the promising presence of guitarist Johnny Marr, the Pet Shop Boys have made a dreary, MOR misstep here. “Home and Dry” is a fair attempt at classic PSB form, while “Samurai in Autumn” peaks interest with its Eastern-tinged techiness, but the bulk of the disc sticks in a snoozy rut, alternating between AM-band ballads and utterly one-dimensional dance tunes. Although not known for their lyrical prowess, the Boys are surprisingly sketchy on tracks like “The Night I Fell in Love” and “E-mail,” the latter a meditation on the awesome power of cyberspace. 5/10 (Lorraine Carpenter)

Various Block Rockin’ Breaks
(Obsessive/Fusion III)
This is hilarious. Namechecking the Beasties, De La and Run DMC on the front, this’ll rope in the wigged-out, Exco-rockin’ junior G-men, who’ll be all like, “Word up, when I drops this bizomb, all the bee-yatches is gonna be like, yo!” Then they get home, look closer and see it’s all AOR klassix from Jefferson Airplane, Free, Jeff Beck, Donovan, Atomic Rooster and—wait for it—Billy Squier. It was mere nanoseconds of each of these hoary tunes that fuelled the hip hop heroics mentioned above. Now the less discerning consumer is stuck with the originals in their entirety, permullets, platforms and all. Devastating, unless of course you’re one of those of us who actually dig this kind of stuff… 8/10 (Rupert Bottenberg)

Desmond Williams Delights of the Garden (Eighteenth Street Lounge)
I’m not sure what Desmond Williams had in mind when he recorded this album, but the result is the least offensive, most easily agreeable, safe but not quite contrived batch of downtempo and neo-dub that I’ve heard in a while. You won’t be covering your ears from the lack of pleasantries coming out of the speaker, but if you get busy picking at a pesky hangnail, you won’t even notice that Desmond is on. That, of course, makes this a safe bet for people eating dinner, trying on clothes, or sipping martinis after work. Not a bad concoction for sitting down to, but it always helps to pack a few surprises in even the most relaxed of loot bags. 6.5/10 (Scott C)

Aim Hinterland
(Grand Central/Fusion III)
Following 1999’s debut Cold Water Music, one-man creative force Andy Turner takes Aim down a familiar, beat-friendly path. His clean and accessible rhythms and textures sometimes constitute hip hop, supplemented by guest vocalists Souls of Mischief and Diamond D, while the less genre-specific tracks maintain a distinctly urban feel with jazz, blues and movie samples and an overall lazy cool. Other guests vocalists include Kate Rogers on the lush “Girl Who Fell Through the Ice,” a highlight among tracks that too often feel like groovy muzak with a few “uhs” and “wuhs” thrown in for hip hop cred. 6.5/10 (Lorraine Carpenter)

Neon Phusion It’s Another EP
(Laws of Motion)
Well, the crew that I think is totally responsible for this whole broken-beat initiative has dropped what can be officially classified as a “taste” of the natural progression of things to come. Alex Phountzi, Kaidi Tatham and Orin Walters know how to build a solid groove, keep it there, and then flip it just when you thought you understood. That’s what they do. “It’s Another” and “Timeless Motion” are both soulful little shuffles that require some energy, but thankfully it’s energy that you’ll draw directly from the songs themselves. If you’re someone who can respect music for the mind, but don’t mind a little rug-cutting workout, then you should investigate the Neon Phusion camp. That’s what they do. 8/10 (Scott C)

Tosca Different Tastes of Honey
(G-Stone/Fusion III)
Coming down off the massive album Suzuki, Tosca unloads a plethora of aural facelifts for the hit single “Honey.” There are at least a dozen knob-turners contributing to this slice of chillout dubtronica, representing a dizzying variety of beats. The Funky Lowlives deliver some mean acid funk, Faze Action’s workout is Brazilectro-tinged house and Rockers Hi-Fi takes us back to Studio One in Jamaica, back in the day. With so many different sonic vibes bouncing off each other, one gets the feeling of a brand new album with the only twist being that every song has the name. For serious Tosca fans and lounge heads. 8/10 (Peter Lightburn)

Tweet Southern Hummingbird
(Missy’s Goldmine/Warner)
Yes, R&B vocalist Tweet is signed to the same label as the late Aaliyah (Missy’s Goldmine Inc.) and her breakaway single “Oops (Oh My)” was produced by longtime Aaliyah producer Timbaland, but she’s not the “new” Aaliyah. Actually, she’s an old-school-style vocalist (’70s groove, not ’80s funk) whose sultry vocals are a mixture of blues (the acoustic-driven “Motel”) and soul (“Best Friend” featuring Bilal). Even when she turns up the heat, with the jammin “Boogie 2Nite” or the nostalgic “Make Your Move,” she’s more retro slide than dirty south funk. 8.5/10 (Gerard Dee)

Billie Holiday Body and Soul (Verve/Universal)
The greatest vocalist in jazz history died July 17, 1959 at the age of 44 and, particularly if you only know her through the terrible film biography starring Diana Ross, you owe it to yourself to hear the real thing. This new reissue would be a good place to start, looking at material from the later part of her career. It’s a marvellous session done in L.A. in early 1957 and has a 41-year-old Billie joined by some of the finest jazz musicians of the time, including Ben Webster, Jimmy Rowles and Barney Kessel. The material is well chosen and includes “Moonlight in Vermont,” “Embraceable You,” “Let’s Call the Whole Thing Off” and the title tune (outtakes of Sammy Stept’s “Comes Love” are an added bonus). 10/10 (Len Dobbin)

Kronos Quartet Nuevo (Nonesuch/Warner)
A new thing indeed for the avant-populist string quartet, last heard on the tragic, sombre Requiem for Adam with Terry Riley. Sure, there’s tragedy to be found on this bizarre disc, sandwiched between sex and death, blood and laughter, whiskey and holy water. Nuevo is a kaleidoscopic impression of 20th-century Mexico, on which the Quartet interpret corridas and TV themes, Esquivel and Revueltas, time-worn radio hits and hymns to the Guadalupe. With the able assistance of arranger Osvaldo Golijov, Mex-rawkers Café Tacuba, the Nortec Collective’s Plankton Man remixing and some old one-armed guy playing a leaf (no, really), plus street noise to spare, Nuevo, for all its chaotic unpredictability, paints a distinct and vivid picture. 9/10 (Rupert Bottenberg)