Sunday, April 16, 2006
'WHITE TRASH WITH MONEY'
Toby Keith (Show Dog/Universal)
Grade: C-
The last adjective usually attached to Toby Keith is "tame."
However, despite the evocative title "White Trash With Money," the Oklahoman's new album is his most mild-mannered collection since the late '90s, before he busted out of the country music pack by emphasizing his outspoken opinions and swaggering personality.
A couple of tunes strike stances his fans will recognize. His current hit "Get Drunk and Be Somebody" is the kind of lighthearted ode to weekend warriors at which he excels. He also unapologetically -- some will say obnoxiously -- jumps into political incorrectness with "Runnin' Block," about a buddy who goes on a blind date with an overweight woman to help his friend score with her slimmer sister.
But too much of the material, such as the ballads "Crash Here Tonight" and "Too Far This Time," would fit the repertoire of most any Nashville singer. Keith has spent years celebrating how different he is; now is not the time to start sounding like everyone else.
-- Michael McCall, Associated Press
'YOU IN REVERSE'
Built to Spill (Warner Bros.)
Grade: B
Besides expanding from a trio to a quintet, not much has changed with Built to Spill in the five years since the band released a new album.
The rockers still jam with defined entry and exit strategies, whether peeling off atonal leads as if their hands were ablaze or melodically lumbering along as if in a fog. And singer-guitarist Doug Martsch can still carry a melody, even with his pleasantly prepubescent nasal tenor.
Built to Spill simply, and usually effectively, goes with what it knows on "You in Reverse." A surging two-minute guitar workout featuring gnarled chords and mewling slides kicks off the opener, "Goin' Against Your Mind." The super-catchy "Conventional Wisdom" is capped by a Television-like exploration marked more by understated leads and guitar harmonies than noisy heroics.
The shock of the new can be thrilling. But "Built to Spill" proves that the dependability of something familiar can be just as satisfying.
-- Patrick Berkery, Philadelphia Inquirer
'GARDEN RUIN'
Calexico (Quarterstick)
Grade: A
Tucson-based Calexico has one of the most distinctive and unique sounds of any indie-rock band around, a mix of Tex-Mex, pop, rock, surf and spaghetti-Western influences that virtually defies classification. "Garden Ruin" builds on the success of the band's last full-length CD, "Feast of Wire," and its recent EP recorded with Iron & amp; Wine, "In the Reins," and is the group's most mature and most accessible effort to date.
There is deep gravity and subtlety in the songs and performances of the sextet, led by founding members Joey Burns (guitar, vocals) and John Convertino (drums), and the decibel level rises only on the punk-ish "Letter To Bowie Knife" and raging "All Systems Red."
Who needs volume, though, when you've got an album's worth of vivid, if unsettling, images ("Birds refuse to fly/No longer trust the sky ... Even the horizon is gone/Weather flees underground ..."), matched by music with an evocative effect.
-- Martin Bandyke, Detroit Free Press
'THUNDERBIRD'
Cassandra Wilson (Blue Note)
Grade: B
Working with producer T-Bone Burnett, jazz vocalist Cassandra Wilson goes deeper into roots-pop than ever before on "Thunderbird," experimenting with drum loops and Wallflowers songs, and singing in an unfamiliar falsetto on "Go to Mexico." The results are mixed, but frequently superb. Wilson's own "Poet," for instance, is too languorous for its own good, but she works wonders on an arresting "Red River Valley," accompanied only by Colin Linden's guitar. She also does a sultry, subtle bump and grind with Willie Dixon's blues "I Want To Be Loved."
Sure to annoy jazz purists, with plenty of pleasures to be cherry-picked by pop fans.
-- Dan DeLuca, Philadelphia Inquirer
'THE TRUTH WILL SET YOU FREE'
James Hand (Rounder)
Grade: B+
He's no secret down in his native Texas, but, at age 54, James Hand is just now making his national debut. And boy, is he ready.
Hand is an almost too-good-to-be-true honky-tonker cut from classic cloth. Several of the songs on The Truth Will Set You Free first turned up on a live album a couple of years ago, but here, co-producers Ray Benson and Lloyd Maines give them and the rest of the set sterling studio treatments with the help of ace guitarist Redd Volkaert, who lends a touch of jazzy sophistication.
While Hand sings with a Hank Williams quaver, it's clear that all of the heartache and regret that pour out of these tunes, as well as the flashes of humor, are his own. And it's also clear that, in vibrant contrast to what he claims at one point, he's not "Just an Old Man With an Old Song."
-- Nick Cristiano, Philadelphia Inquirer