'12 SONGS'

'12 SONGS'
Neil Diamond
Columbia Records
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When irony-inclined Gen X got its turn at the controls of pop culture in the '90s, a few age-old rules of cool were promptly revised. The stuff once quarantined for corniness -- Burt Bacharach, the Carpenters, lounge music, ABBA -- was given a new hip sheen.
The latest of those unlikely pop revivals is the release of Neil Diamond's long-awaited "12 Songs," a handsome and often stirring set of lean, unembellished performances.
The album marks a dramatic shift for the 64-year-old singer/songwriter, who has remained a massive concert draw for two decades while devoting scant energy to the studio. This is truly Diamond in the rough: Far from the sequined grandeur of his oversized '80s hits and the chirpy pop that launched his career, the sound is spare and organic -- just the singer and his acoustic guitar tastefully backed by Smokey Hormel and a pair of Tom Petty's Heartbreakers.
Featured is some of the most emotionally evocative songwriting of his career. The record draws its power from its restraint. There's honesty in the delicate feel of songs like "Captain of a Shipwreck" and "Oh Mary."
--Brian McCollum, Detroit Free Press
'CHICAGO WIND'
Merle Haggard
Capitol
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Fans of Haggard's trademark populism won't be disappointed by this follow-up to the album of lush pop standards he recorded last year. The revered singer-songwriter, who will be forever identified with 1969's "Okie from Muskogee," takes aim at everything from meddlesome judges to vanishing civil liberties on "Where's All the Freedom" and rips the war in Iraq and the nation's crumbling infrastructure in the biting "Rebuild America First."
Most of "Chicago Wind," however, is like its low-key title song: gentle, reflective and a little wistful. Haggard, 68, who covers tunes by Roger Miller and Willie Nelson amid six new songs of his own, assumes the role of remorseful lover on "What I've Been Meaning to Say," heartbroken son on "I Still Can't Say Goodbye" and philosophical elder statesman on the disc closer, a duet with Toby Keith that finds him musing in a weathered voice: "There's one common thread in the scheme of it all/Some of us fly, all of us fall."
--Greg Crawford, Detroit Free Press
'ULTIMATE ISAAC HAYES: CAN YOU DIG IT?'
Isaac Hayes
Stax/Fantasy
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There's no question mark at the end of the title of this 2-CD-plus-DVD career retrospective, but the short answer is, who couldn't? With David Porter, Hayes the songwriter was one of the architects of the house that Stax built, writing soul-pop classics like "Hold On I'm Coming."
But Hayes' star was launched with the shaving of his head, the shading of his eyes and the Quaalude conceptualism of the LP "Hot Buttered Soul," where he slowed down pop tunes like "Walk on By" to a psychedelic stroll. Then it was lit in the funk firmament by his soundtrack for the blaxploitation smash "Shaft," whose theme song's insistent, persistent riff, combined with Hayes' pimp-speak vocal, became a Soul Power anthem and an Academy Award winner.
--Terry Lawson, Detroit Free Press
'THE ROAD AND THE RADIO'
Kenny Chesney
BNA
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Kenny Chesney, country music's reigning entertainer of the year, tips his Stetson to the guiding lights of his career in the title of his latest album, "The Road and the Radio." Musically, however, he's stretching beyond the island rhythms and party anthems of his past by showing a restless ambition that suggests he's not done growing yet as an artist.
Always a savvy singles artist, Chesney of late has approached each album as a conceptual project. This one wistfully examines the complex emotions that come with living out one's dreams. The album-opening title cut and the closing "Like Me" both describe the life of a traveling entertainer as both salvation and curse; both songs suggest that reaching one's goals doesn't necessarily erase life's problems.
Those looking for signs of reflection on the end of his brief marriage to actress Renee Zellweger will find them in "Beer in Mexico," which finds a guy downing cold ones while reflecting on whether he'll ever find true love.
Chesney still cranks the guitars on upbeat sing-a-longs such as "Living in Fast Forward" and "Summertime," and he still falls back on sentimental fare like the hit single "Who You'd Be Today" and the rural living tribute "In a Small Town."
But Chesney excels at stretching Nashville's formulas just enough to move country music forward without pushing the envelope beyond what radio will accept. Country music will be better for it.
--Michael McCall, Associated Press
'AERIAL'
Kate Bush
Sony
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It's been 12 years since English prog-rock faerie queen Kate Bush released an album. In that time, the 47-year-old musical adventurer's influence has grown, with artists from Coldplay to PJ Harvey to Andre 3000 of OutKast proclaiming their adoration. (Refresher course: Bush scored a worldwide hit with the Emily Bronte-inspired "Wuthering Heights" in 1977, and peaked in 1985 with "Hounds of Love," whose title cut was covered last year by the Futureheads.)
If anyone was concerned that motherhood and middle age had ironed out Bush's eccentricities, not to worry. "Aerial" is a 16-song, double-disc collection divided into two parts, titled "A Sea of Honey" and "A Sky of Honey." One song features Bush repeating the words "washing machine" as she melds the corporeal and ethereal; another builds a chorus out of the decimal digits of pi. Bush's flair for harmonic invention is intact, and songs like "A Coral Room," written for her late mother, combine undeniable beauty with emotional resonance.
--Dan DeLuca, Philadelphia Inquirer
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