Songs of Mass Destruction

Track Listings
1. Dark Road
2. Love Is blind
3. Smithereens
4. Ghosts In My Machine
5. Womankind
6. Through The Glass Darkly
7. Lost
8. Coloured Bedspread
9. Sing
10. Big Sky
11. Fingernail Moon

Menacing as they sound, the songs of mass destruction gathered on Annie Lennox's fifth solo disc don't manage to so much as nick the gorgeous instrument she's built her career on. Weaving artfully as ever around the contours of songs that suggest the worst--Lennox is world-wise and therefore maybe inevitably world-weary--she imparts gravity and grace in a voice as cloudless and surface-smooth as just-brewed mint tea; from the tentative beginnings of the mournful "Dark Road" to the gospel-bottomed gorgeousness of "Ghosts in My Machine," she's in full command of her considerable vocal powers. And it's possible she's never used them to such moving effect on a single record. Earlier Lennox or Eurythmics albums might have succumbed here and there to slight-seeming experiments in style, but Songs of Mass Destruction doesn't dilly-dally. All swerves, even playful ones (see "Love Is Blind" and "Coloured Bedspread," a synth-y song that wouldn't seem so out of place on a recent Madonna record), are on-message: "Womankind" busts wide open not only because it needs to (a voice this big can't be contained, it reminds us), but to demo empowerment, and the hopeful "Sing" signs off with a seconds-long African guest vocal. There's an upside to the destruction of cultural wellness that led Lennox to write this record, and it's artistic creation. Songs of Mass Destruction is a sterling, rock-solid, expert example. --Tammy La Gorce

Hannah Montana 2: Meet Miley Cyrus [ENHANCED] [SOUNDTRACK]

Disc: 1
1. We Got the Party
2. Nobody's Perfect
3. Make Some Noise
4. Rock Star
5. Old Blue Jeans
6. Life's What You Make It
7. One in a Million
8. Bigger than Us
9. You and Me Together
10. True Friend

Disc: 2
1. See You Again
2. East Northumberland High
3. Let's Dance
4. G.N.O. (Girl's Night Out)
5. Right Here
6. As I Am
7. Start All Over
8. Clear
9. Good and Broken
10. I Miss You


Tweens aren't often heralded for their good judgment and excellent taste (Heelys--hello), but if any young starlet can redeem them, it's Hannah Montana. On this, the second soundtrack from the Disney Channel series, Miley Cyrus takes her cues from her TV alter ego, who has an alter ego of her own: Disc 1 features Miley as Hannah, hair-tossing pop princess by weekend, likable schoolgirl by weekday (see "Old Blue Jeans" and "True Friends" to get a sense of each episode's un-cloying sweetness). But disc 2 is the start of something new, as her friends over on the High School Musical set might say: Miley sings strictly as her spunky, truth-telling self. This yields a number of pepped-up pop tracks bound to vibrate through the walls of pink bedrooms everywhere--"See You Again" is a boy-centric song instantly relatable to anyone who's ever been in seventh grade and suffered a bout of bashfulness, "East Northumberland High" puts a punk spin on an I'm-just-not-into-you tale, and "Clear" bounces on a reggae beat while canceling any doubt about our heroine's ability to stand up for herself. Like Hannah before her, Miley makes the best of both worlds--this well-worth-it set, by turns rockin' and reflective, is a masterful example. --Tammy La Gorce

It's Not Big It's Large

1. Tickle Toe
2. I Will Rise Up / Ain't No More Cane
3. All Downhill From Here
4. Don't Cry A Tear
5. South Texas Girl
6. This Traveling Around
7. Up In Indiana
8. The Alley Song
9. No Big Deal
10. Make It Happy
11. Ain't No More Cane
12. Up In Indiana (acoustic)

On his sophomore effort for Lost Highway (and first release in four years), Lyle Lovett tests the label's free-spirited reputation with an eclectic slate of songs that range from fervent country swing through gospel-blues, though the core here finds the Texas singer-songwriter in a decidedly quiet, introspective mood. Anchored by a vibrant, swinging take on Lester Young's "Tickle Toe," his big band's first sprawling instrumental workout in many a year, Lovett quickly segues into the intriguing gospel-blues of the "I Will Rise Up/Ain't No More Cane" medley before shrewdly contemplating the backside of life and fame's inevitable grade on "All Downhill from Here" and the weary "This Traveling Around." The plaintive grace of "Don't Cry a Tear" and "The Alley Song" hauntingly blurs genre boundaries, while "South Texas Girl" does a little quiet Tex-Mex retrenchment. Lovett celebrates his 50th year here with a muse that's ever restless, yet still spry enough to relish the simple, varied joys of the buoyant "Up in Indiana" (also featured in a stripped-down acoustic version), the bluesy "No Big Deal," and the gospel-meets-carnal playfulness of "Make It Happy" before another fervent, elegiac version of "Ain't No More Cane" brings the album full-circle. --Jerry McCulley

Icky Thump

1. Icky Thump
2. You Don't Know What Love Is (You Just Do As You're Told)
3. 300 M.P.H. Torrential Outpour Blues
4. Conquest
5. Bone Broke
6. Prickly Thorn, But Sweetly Worn
7. St. Andrew (This Battle Is In The Air)
8. Little Cream Soda
9. Rag And Bone
10. I'm Slowly Turning Into You
11. A Martyr For My Love For You
12. Catch Hell Blues
13. Effect and Cause

Bagpipes, a song written as the soundtrack to a Michel Gondry music video, Patti Page's musical shadow, and Jack and Meg co-narrating a scavenger's rummages: It must be time for Icky Thump, the many-flavored riposte to 2006's Get Behind Me Satan. The duo starts big with the title track--Jack's fast-tumbling, falsetto-tinged lyrics jagging on hyper keyboard-sounding segues and Meg's pounding drums. They rarely shy from an idea, invoking acoustic Bob Dylan to frame "300 M.P.H. Torrential Outpour Blues," but interjecting a series of distortion-laden guitar paroxysms for good measure. The end of Icky, on "Effect and Cause," is where Jack's trademark vocal warble and spare, quick acoustic strums meet Meg's single-minded beats. Everywhere on Icky giant riffs leap and shout, with Flamenco horns and those eerie bagpipes and rhythmic shifts and Jack's impatient vocal kinetics, marking new territories even as the White Stripes again populate them with vintage ideas. --Andrew Bartlett

Call Me Irresponsible

1. The Best Is Yet To Come
2. It Had Better Be Tonight (Meglio Stasera)
3. Me And Mrs. Jones
4. I'm Your Man
5. Comin' Home Baby (duet with Boyz II Men)
6. Lost
7. Call Me Irresponsible
8. Wonderful Tonight (duet with Ivan Lins)
9. Everything
10. I've Got The World On A String
11. Always On My Mind
12. That's Life
13. Dream

It's no coincidence that Michael Bublé's new album starts with just his voice and some fingersnaps on "The Best Is Yet to Come," a song made famous by Frank Sinatra. The Canadian smoothie looks longingly towards early-'60s Vegas, an impression quickly reinforced when a boisterous horn section makes its grand entrance, about 20 seconds into the track. That Bublé means business is confirmed by the second cut, a fast-paced take on Henry Mancini's "It Had Better Be Tonight," and of course by the CD's very title, another song identified with Sinatra as his cockiest. There are just a few sidesteps from the retro formula that's served Bublé so well so far: a languid duet with Brazilian star Ivan Lins on the bossa "Wonderful Tonight," a gospel choir on "That's Life." Interestingly, Bublé co-wrote the best of those sidesteps, "Everything," a Norah Jones-esque number that alluringly harks back to sunny '70s pop. It's also the only song on the album produced by Bob Rock (best known for his work with Metallica), sending out a strong signal that Bublé should reach out to unlikely collaborators more often. --Elisabeth Vincentelli

Back to Black [EXPLICIT LYRICS]

1. Rehab
2. You Know I'm No Good
3. Me & Mr. Jones
4. Just Friends
5. Back To Black
6. Love Is A Losing Game
7. Tears Dry On Their Own
8. Wake Up Alone
9. Some Unholy War
10. He Can Only Hold Her
11. Bonus Track 1

Amy Winehouse's second album, Back to Black, is one of the finest soul albums, British or otherwise, to come out for years. Frank, her first album, was a sparse and stripped-down affair; Back to Black, meanwhile, is neither of these things. This time around, she's taken her inspiration from some of the classic 1960's girl groups like the Supremes and the Shangri-Las, a sound particularly suited to her textured vocal delivery, while adding a contemporary songwriting sensibility. With the help of producers Mark Ronson and Salaam Remi, "Rehab" becomes a gospel-tinged stomp, while the title track (and album highlight) is a heartbreaking musical tribute to Phil Spector, with it's echoey bass drum, rhythmic piano, chimes, saxophone and close harmonies. Best of all, though, is the fact that Back to Black bucks the current trend in R&B by being unabashedly grown-up in both style and content. Winehouse's lyrics deal with relationships from a grown-up perspective, and are honest, direct and, often, complicated: on "You Know I'm No Good", she's unapologetic about her unfaithfulness. But she can also be witty, as on "Me & Mrs Jones" when she berates a boyfriend with "You made me miss the Slick Rick gig". Back to Black is a refreshingly mature soul album, the best of its kind for years. --Ted Kord

Elvis #1 Singles [LIMITED EDITION] [COLLECTOR'S EDITION] [BOX SET]

RCA Records introduced the 45 record format in 1949, but it took six years for the seven-inch, two-sided single to gain popularity. And, coincidentally, it was soon after Elvis Presley signed with the label and released "Heartbreak Hotel," the first of his 21 chart-topping hits over the next 16 years. To celebrate the half-century since that hip-quaking debut, this tidy box set repackages every song--with its original B-side--on 20 CD singles, each designed to look like a 45 record and tucked into a colorful cardboard picture sleeve that closely replicates the original single. Elvis rocks ("All Shook Up," "Jailhouse Rock") and croons ("Love Me Tender," "Teddy Bear") through the early years, all chronicled with dates and credits in an accompanying booklet, and reinvents himself for late-‘60s hits ("In the Ghetto," "Burning Love" and the still-fresh "Suspicious Minds"). Grouped with such star power, the B-sides could get overlooked. But mostly undiscovered jewels like "That's When Your Heartaches Begin" (1957), "Lonely Man" (1961) and "Any Day Now" (1969) provide bonus tracks to casual fans of the King, and remind his greatest devotees that the Elvis legacy looms far deeper than his #1 singles. --Scott Holter