'HAVE A NICE DAY'

'HAVE A NICE DAY'
Bon Jovi
Island/Def Jam
sss
Wanna play a fun drinking game? Put a bunch of Bon Jovi CDs in the player and take a swig each time you hear the line "I'm gonna live my life." (Yes, it shows up here again). But that simple defiant declaration has been at the heart of Bon Jovi's musical and personal philosophy in the 21 years since they emerged from the garages of Sayreville, N.J. to conquer the world.
"Have A Nice Day" continues the band's long-held advocacy of making a stand, toughing it out through hard times, and taking solace in the belief that it's all going to come out all right. Nowhere is that more explicitly stated than in "Welcome To Wherever You Are," a feel-good self-help manifesto if ever there was one. With lines like "When you want to give up and your heart's about to break/Remember that you're perfect; God makes no mistakes," Jon Bon Jovi & amp; Co. provide a welcome respite from the doom and gloom of many contemporary bands.
And they still know how to rock. "Last Man Standing," an ode to a singer who actually (gasp!) sings his songs with a band that actually (double gasp!) plays their instruments without dancers or dazzling stage props seems like a slam-dunk concert opener. "Last Cigarette" uses some clever imagery to describe a fond, fleeting love as the wispy smoke from a gone-too-soon cigarette. "I Want To Be Loved" has some nice chunky power chords and Richie Sambora wah-wah effects, and "Complicated" and "Novocaine" rock out nicely. The title track is a sarcastic reaction to Jon's disappointment over George W. Bush's re-election last year, and has those trademark big Bon Jovi choruses and catchy hooks that have hit single written all over them.
'LIFE IN SLOW MOTION'
David Gray
ATO/RCA
ssss
Six albums into his career -- and his second to follow 1998's groundbreaking "White Ladder" -- David Gray delivers his most sonically ambitious recording to date. Eschewing the lo-fi bedroom production that graced his previous work, Gray enlisted Marius DeVries (of Bjork and Rufus Wainwright fame) to create a lush orchestral soundscape that enhances, but doesn't overpower, his passionate, sometimes tremulous voice. It's a surprisingly good fit; one that adds drama to Gray's emotion-laden songs, while allowing them to retain a sense of intimacy.
Thematically, this is a rather dark collection: despite its Springsteen-ish vibe, "The One I Love," is actually told from the perspective of a dying man; "Ain't No Love" is an unapologetically grim ballad; and the closer, "Disappearing World," aches with melancholia even has it expands from a single piano line into a soaring anthem. Yet Gray makes all that introspection sound gloriously vibrant as he strides in a new direction.
'PCD'
Pussycat Dolls
A & amp;M
ss1/2 stars
Poor Pussycats. Hard to take 'em seriously, since they started as an L.A. joke, a Viper Room girlie show that sprang to life only when C-listers Christina Applegate and Carmen Electra joined in. Yet without that no-star power, the six-piece -- prominently featuring singer Nicole Scherzinger from Days of the New and Eden's Crush -- eats surprisingly like a meal.
Sure, it's a shiny producers' banquet. The sweetest soul star of the Dirty South, Cee-Lo Green, turns the freak-envy of "Don' Cha" into swirling swing-hop. Will.i.am borrows Electric Light Orchestra's strings for the stutter of "Beep." And Timbaland laces PCD's harmonies through his own gloss-ified horns and clattering cowbells on "Wait a Minute."
But like Spice Girls without the cartoony uniforms, PCD and Scherzinger fill that hot mix's funky frame nicely with mellow-soul cooing that never screeches to distraction. Look, just be grateful they ain't Scary, Posh or Sporty.
'DREAMING MY DREAMS'
Patty Loveless
Epic
sss 1/2
Like Trisha Yearwood, Patty Loveless has long been one of Nashville's beacons of quality, merging artistic and commercial success over a recording career that began in 1986. "Dreaming My Dreams" is a diverse yet cohesive album that showcases the singer's confident and deeply felt artistry.
Loveless moves with consummate grace through a set that spans honky-tonk, folk, bluegrass and spirituals -- from Richard Thompson's achingly resolute "Keep Your Distance" to Delbert McClinton's frisky "Same King of Crazy"; from Delaney and Bonnie's sunny "Never Ending Song of Love" (with Dwight Yoakam) to Steve Earle's downcast "My Old Friend the Blues." The only stretch is "Big Chance," an original bluegrass number in which the singer takes the voice of a naive and restless young teen. Even if she's pulling things from her own past, Loveless' depth and experience long ago took her far beyond the girl's limited point of view.
'WITHOUT A SONG: THE 9/11 CONCERT'
Sonny Rollins
Fantasy/Milestone
sss1/2
A retired Maine attorney surreptitiously recorded this set in Boston's Berklee Performance Center before earning the leader's trust. Tenor saxophonist Sonny Rollins made it just four days after the 9-11 attack, and after he had had to be rescued from the chaos of his apartment building six blocks from the World Trade Center.
Mostly, though, this is a hard-blowing session that reestablishes Rollins as an amazing live performer and marks his first live release since 1986.
Jazz fans are always yearning to hear Rollins live in full throat, tearing up the saxophone with mind-blowing ardor.
This set of six long cuts mostly lives up to that desire. The session is long and windy, as live concerts tend to be. Rollins' nephew, trombonist Clifton Anderson and pianist Stephen Scott, take up a lot of audio real estate.
But Rollins shows up with his imperious self, quoting "Old McDonald Had A Farm" on the title track and laying down some searing memorable skeins on the calypso-laced "Global Warming" that indeed generated heat along with heartfelt applause.