'BE THERE'

'BE THERE'
Keith Urban
(Capitol)
sss Aussie heartthrob Urban's third solo album is his best yet. Though he hasn't completely abandoned the bland '70s and '80s pop-rock that spoiled his first two solo efforts, Urban balances things nicely with the spirited and Celtic-flavored "Days Go By" (which just hit No. 1 on Billboard's country chart), a heartfelt cover of Rodney Crowell's "Making Memories of Us" and inspirational disc closer "These Are the Days."
The artist's trademark banjo flourishes are abundant throughout, and there are intriguing hints of bluegrass and alternative country scattered here and there. "Be There" isn't likely to make any 2004 best-of lists, but it's a step in the right direction for an artist who has allowed his talent to be compromised far too often by the Music Row machine.
'CELLABRATION'
Various artists
(Smithsonian Folkways)
sss The oddly spelled "cELLAbration" pays tribute to Ella Jenkins, singer, writer and children's songs collector for almost 50 years. Jenkins has apparently collected a few grown-up fans, and they're a talented bunch. Tom Paxton, Pete Seeger, Riders in the Sky, Bill Harley, Sweet Honey in the Rock, Tom Chapin, John McCutcheon, Cathy Fink and Marcy Marxer perform selections from Jenkins' vast repertoire, and it's a good bet they'll get your kids singing and moving.
They might also prompt children and adults to do a little thinking, not in a preachy way -- Jenkins would never approve -- but simply and with subtlety. Take "The World Is Big, The World is Small," sung by Seeger, who at 85 has been around even longer than Jenkins. "The world is far, the world is wide/But there's many different ways to see the other side ... You can travel on a bus, you travel on a train/You can travel in a song, you can travel in a name." But of course! Songs and names reflect their place of origin.
Africa, Latin America, Russia, Hawaii are some of the places the songs come from. Not to mention the imaginary (we think) "World of Whickum-Whackum," central location of a long and irresistible tongue-twister performed by Bill Harley.
Nobody will object if the kids just want to sit and listen. There is a lot to hear and enjoy, from a sprightly instrumental version of "Turkey in the Straw" by McCutcheon, Fink, Marxer and others, to a beautifully harmonized "Did You Feed My Cow" by Sweet Honey in the Rock.
'THE DELIVERY MAN'
Elvis Costello & amp; the Impostors
(Lost Highway)
ssss Mixing soul, country and rock 'n' roll with a fragmented, elliptical narrative about a man named Abel (a k a the Delivery Man) and the effect he has on the lives of three women, Costello has fashioned a raw-boned, emotional affair with the help of his superb band and a few extra-special guests.
Longtime sidemen Steve Nieve (keyboards) and Pete Thomas (drums) and more recent recruit Davey Faragher (bass) pummel their way through the noisy album opener "Button My Lip," then just as easily ease up on the weepy ballads "Country Darkness" and "Either Side of the Same Town." Lucinda Williams has the role of divorced bad girl Vivien on "There's a Story In Your Voice," while Emmylou Harris portrays Vivien's best friend Geraldine, a pious war widow, on "Heart Shaped Bruise."
Costello deliberately left out huge chunks of narrative in order to let the songs stand on their own and to avoid the dreaded "concept album" tag. The ferocious rocker "Bedlam" and New Orleans-flavored "Monkey To Man" don't advance any story lines, but who cares -- they're simply fantastic.
'TWO HANDS'
Leon Fleisher, pianist
(Vanguard Classics)
ssss A physical disorder, dystonia, interrupted Leon Fleisher's career in the 1960s by making performance with his right hand impossible.
He played music for left hand alone, but his fans looked back with nostalgia on the time when he was a master of the conventional repertoire. There's a happy ending: A series of treatments has restored the use of his right hand and Fleisher has been easing back into two-handed music.
This new CD, appropriately titled "Two Hands," is a magnificent reintroduction to Leon Fleisher, the master pianist. Recorded barely three months ago, it includes a deeply moving performance of Schubert's great Sonata in B-flat, D. 960. Tempos are moderate, although certainly not in the great coda of the final movement, and Fleisher finds beauty and profundity reminiscent of the playing of Arthur Rubinstein.
Also included are pieces by Bach, Scarlatti, Chopin and Debussy.
'AMERICAN IDIOT'
Green Day
(Reprise)
ssss Green Day's "American Idiot" is not a rock opera for the ages. But it is refreshing for this age.
In what is one of the most creative efforts in rock music this year, Green Day has come up with a political and social statement about the death of the American dream, and weaved it together in a 13-song track. It's an album that returns rock music to a time where making a statement -- politically or otherwise -- was as important as generating a hit.
The album follows a year in the life of a character named "Jesus of Suburbia," which is the second song -- complete with a five-part suite. The album, following a street ode of sorts, also has characters named "Whatsername" and "St. Jimmy." Although the songs are tied together, most stand well on their own.
The title track, "American Idiot," is typical Green Day with its smashing drums, ear-shattering guitar and in-your-face lyrics: "Don't want to be an American Idiot/Don't want a nation under the new mania/Can you hear the sound of hysteria?" Needless to say, it's also the album's first single.
But for every "American Idiot" moment (and there are a handful -- from "Give Me Novacaine" to "Letterbomb"), the album offers something different, such as the ballads "Are We the Waiting" and "Wake Me Up When September Ends."
The other big undertaking on the album is the nine-minute epic "Homecoming," another five-part song, that is big musically and complicated lyrically. It may be a risk to have two such numbers on an album. But like most of the album, it strangely works.