'THE ERASER'

'THE ERASER'
Thom Yorke (XL)
Grade: A
"You can try to please everyone, but it just isn't happening," Thom Yorke sings on "Black Swan," one of nine deeply neurotic, seriously pretty songs on his first solo album, which is as pleasing as anything the Radiohead main man has ever done. Not that Yorke is bending over backward to meet his audience halfway. Instead, as always, he's following his own artistic imperatives on a nimble set of mildly disturbed songs on which his effortlessly gliding, sweetly introverted vocals are paired with glitchy computer-generated beats and surprisingly tight song structures.
-- Dan DeLuca, Philadelphia Inquirer
'THE AVALANCHE: OUTTAKES & amp; EXTRAS FROM THE ILLINOIS ALBUM'
Sufan Stevens (Asthmatic Kitty)
Grade: C
It's not enough that Sufjan Stevens set himself the improbable task of writing and recording a CD-length pop music history lesson for each of the 50 states. Now, it turns out that last year's bountiful and justifiably praised "Illinois" yielded another album's worth of material. So, for anyone who wondered how the chamber-rock whiz could have taken the full measure of the state without writing songs about Adlai Stevenson, Saul Bellow and Henry Darger, the answer is: He didn't. The trouble with this second avalanche, however, is that it's too inclusive. There are sterling selections that it must have pained Stevens to leave off the original -- such as the title track, and the delicately wrenching "Pittsfield." And the outtakes offer fascinating windows into Stevens' methods in the studio.
-- Dan DeLuca, Philadelphia Inquirer
'SCALE'
Herbert (K7)
Grade: A
On the surface, "Scale" is a sophisticated, club-friendly pop album. With beats that grow out of Matthew Herbert's background in British house music and remix culture, with an orchestra of horns and strings, and, best of all, with the seductive vocals of Dani Siciliano, 'Scale" could appeal to fans of Bjork, recent Madonna or, for the history-minded, Arthur Russell.
On a second level, "Scale's" sweet, upbeat melodies often contain political barbs such as "Cover up: it's an allied slaughter / Pucker up: it's a friendly torture" (from "Something Isn't Right").
On a third level, "Scale" works from a high-minded conceptual base: it's an art album built from unusual production and compositional techniques (drums recorded underwater or in a hot air balloon; purported reliance on multiples of 12 -- as in the musical scale's notes -- for instrumentation).
Herbert's multifaceted "Scale" is intriguingly complex but eminently accessible.
-- Steve Klinge, Philadelphia Inquirer
'TESTIMONY: VOL. 1., LIFE & amp; RELATIONSHIP'
India.Arie. (Universal)
Grade: B
Soul's best bad-breakup album? Marvin Gaye's "Here, My Dear."
Country? Tammy Wynette's "Til I Can Make It on My Own" comes to mind where good love and hard loss are concerned.
But to cross those musical bridges while keeping up the downside of heartbreak, you'll have to call India.Arie.
Arie's never let frivol guide her emotional delivery, not as a songwriter or singer. Before Jay-Z disavowed Cristal, she eschewed the bubbly and its playa lifestyle.
But the weightiness played out on these softly twangy, funky songs finds neo-soul's feistiest survivor facing forlorn estrangements with tense resignation on the torn-down "These Eyes" and "Good Mourning."
Dumb pun. Good song.
Rather than stay wrought with the fraught, this princess of positivity occasionally leans into obvious platitudes ("There's Hope") to pull her through the misery. Yet, with rugged rapper Akon on "I Am Not My Hair," she finds making a future beyond the ephemeral can be as spiritual as it is sexual. She should've broken up with that guy sooner.
-- A.D. Amorosi, Philadephia Inquirer
'WHAT'S WRONG WITH RIGHT'
The Hacienda Brothers
Grade: B
"Western soul" is what the music of the Hacienda Brothers has been dubbed. The "brothers" -- Dave Alvin, accompanist Chris Gaffney and former Paladins singer-guitarist Dave Gonzalez -- do indeed have Western roots and recorded both their first album and this one in Tucson, Ariz. But their sound is a synthesis with a broader geographical reach.
With Dan Penn back as producer (and co-writer with Gonzalez of the title song), the Haciendas again put a strong dose of country into the kind of country-soul Penn pioneered in the South. Gonzalez even drifts all the way to country for a few twanged-up honky-tonk shuffles, and Gaffney's accordion provides some Southwestern atmosphere. But the emphasis is on soul -- the feeling -- and Gaffney's voice, full of weathered character, delivers loads of it, from the terrific "What's Wrong With Right" to Percy Sledge's "It Tears Me Up," and, reaching all the way to Philly, Gamble and Huff's "Cowboys to Girls."
-- Nick Cristiano, Philadephia Inquirer
'IT IS MY HEART SINGING'
Tina Davidson (Albany)
Grade: A
Few things inspire cynicism among tough-eared listeners of modern music more than the kind of greeting-card titles that Davidson employs so freely on her disc of three string quartets: "Delight of Angels," "Paper, Glass, String and Wood," and the title piece. But titles shouldn't stop anybody from exploring this emotionally generous, genuinely uplifting music.
Most fascinating is the triple string quartet, "Paper, Glass," heard here in an overdubbed version by the excellent Cassatt Quartet: Davidson has a field day with the rich possibilities of texture. What all of this has to do with the paper, glass, string and wood of the title is beyond me. But I love the music too much to care.
-- Philadelphia Inquirer