'FROM THE END OF YOUR LEASH'

'FROM THE END OF YOUR LEASH'
Bobby Bare Jr.
(Bloodshot)
sss Bobby Bare Jr.'s inevitable march toward country continues unabated on "From the End of Your Leash," his sophomore disc with the Young Criminals' Starvation League. Bare is, of course, the son of country music legend Bobby Bare, and while Bare the Younger spent the late '90s dabbling in alt-rock, he now embraces his country roots with his new band, observing on the Nashville love note "Visit Me in Music City," "Roy Acuff cut my umbilical."
That said, you won't find Bare Jr. on a Hot Country radio station. He's an alt-country oddball, pairing lyrics like "I killed my valentine" with a cheery horn section, finding humor in naming a not-particularly-rocking song "Let's Rock and Roll" and penning the genre's answer to the Stooges' "I Wanna Be Your Dog" with "Your Adorable Beast." It's all anchored by Bare's world-weary croak of a voice that lends an even deeper gravity to blackly comic lyrics like "When the devil needs help, why does he always call me?"
A few too many lethargic ballads keep the album from being great instead of merely good, but Bare ends strong with an untitled track (let's call it "Mother Ucker") that proves he can balance rock and country as well as anyone. Honoring and building on one's legacy has rarely sounded this good. (Bare Sr. performs next Sunday at Ponderosa Park in Salem.)
'THE TIPPING POINT'
The Roots
(Geffen/Interscope)
ssss Always expect the unexpected from the Roots. On their genre-expanding 2002 album "Phrenology," the Philadelphia hip-hop band flirted with punk, downshifted neo-soul into a drum n' bass workout and imagined their guitar-riffing hip-hop as rock 'n' roll's offspring. The disc was heady, ambitious and undeniably progressive.
Now on "The Tipping Point," instead of further tinkering with song structure and metaphor, they've opted to make their sound more accessible. Down to a streamlined, 10-song CD (actually, there are two hidden tracks, one with a hook courtesy of comic Dave Chappelle), the new disc borrows from the past and eyes the future yet manages to remain some of today's most vital hip-hop.
More than any past release, the disc showcases the nimble rhymes of frontman Black Thought. He displays a socially aware side, dropping a couplet about the Patriot Act on the reggae-tinged "Guns Are Drawn" and societal ills on "Why (What's Goin' On?)."
In a homage to old school rap, Thought races through uncanny imitations of classic Big Daddy Kane and Kool G Rap verses on "Boom" -- but only after he drops his own barrage of boasts on "Break Beat."
However, for all the lyrical fury, the music is as funky as ever.
'THE CURE'
The Cure
(Geffen)
sss The Cure's Robert Smith has always represented discontent. His smudged lipstick and teased bouffant are merely visual identifiers of his isolation. Yet the Cure's sound has never felt as dense or dire as possible -- until now.
Producer Ross Robinson (Slipknot) has brought to the band's dark entreaties a sludgy sound that matches Smith's descending chords and generally bleak words.
On "Lost," the guitars sound as tangled as Smith's hair while he moans, "I got lost in someone else."
The mournful "Labyrinth" and the grungy "Us or Them" (Smith's most aggressive moment) are fueled by Robinson's mortar-thick take on The Cure's cobwebbed wall of guitars.
That density sometimes lets the band down, creating an empty weightiness for buoyant pop melodies ("The End of the World") and Smith's occasionally optimistic lyricism. No matter. The punkish energy of Smith's sorrows and pities comes through louder and clearer than it has in a long time.
'MUSIC FROM AND INSPIRED BY 'SPIDER-MAN 2''
Various artists
(Columbia)
ss 1/2 Unlike the treacherous tentacles of Spidey nemesis Doc Ock, the songs linked to "Spider-Man 2" aren't far-flung. They're typecast: The pompously earnest "Vindicated" by emo king Dashboard Confessional and the wooden "Ordinary" by Train are more like star Tobey Maguire's Peter Parker than his super-elastic title superhero.
That said, some of 2004's alt-stars try to fly. Hoobastank creates metal filled with angst on "Did You," a song not on its current hit CD, "The Reason."
Power-punk Yellowcard trades its happy sociopolitical lyrics for chirpy romanticism, and Jet and Maroon 5 deliver midtempo soul songs just right for the big makeout scenes.
'FEEDBACK'
Rush
Atlantic
sss The Canadian power trio tones down the tricky time signatures and pomp for a spirited 27-minute romp through late-'60s classic rock favorites from The Who, The Yardbirds, Love, Cream and Buffalo Springfield on a covers EP.
Unexpected and welcome.
Compiled from wire dispatches