RECORD REVIEWS

'IT'S ALIVE'
The New Cars (Eleven Seven)
Grade: C+
The New Cars is kind of like The New Coke. The flavoring is close enough to remind you of a classic, revamped a bit, but destined to be a miscalculation nonetheless.
The New Cars is the beloved The Cars but without any of the important parts that made the old Cars go-go-go to the top with favorites like "Let's Go," "Shake It Up" and "Drive." Gone: Chief songwriter, voice and visual frontman Ric Ocasek. Drummer David Robinson. Ben Orr, lead singer on many of the hits, didn't have a choice; he died.
Instead, Todd Rundgren, who last had a Top 40 hit in 1978, the year of The Cars' original debut album, takes the lead role and disconcertingly morphs his voice into a self-conscious facsimile of Ocasek's, even when he's singing a live version of one of his own tunes ("I Saw the Light"). Why?
However, original members Greg Hawkes and Elliot Easton energize the 15 live tracks by playing harder. The original Cars had a poor reputation as a live act and this model cooks, Rundgren notwithstanding.
And "It's Alive" also tantalizingly points to the future, even as it looks back, by offering three new studio songs that are much better and catchier than anything on The Cars' last proper album ("Door to Door" in 1987). A full "new" studio Cars album suddenly sounds like an inviting prospect.
-- Howard Cohen, The Miami Herald.
'LOOSE'
Nelly Furtado (Geffen)
Grade: A
Nelly Furtado just can't settle down with one sound.
The Canadian songbird was breezy, eclectic pop on her multiplatinum debut, "Whoa, Nelly," then went for more acoustic grooves on her less successful follow-up, "Folklore."
Now back with her third CD, "Loose," Furtado doesn't just switch to another sound, but hop-scotches through a myriad of different genres, from trip-hop to '80s synth pop to Latin pop to R & amp;B pillow ballads.
With another singer, this approach could sound muddled, like a performer trying find a new identity at the expense of the listener. But Furtado -- with her light, airy vocals -- adapts to the changing musical landscape superbly, proving her best skill is not as a singer, but as a chameleon.
Though the first single, "Promiscuous," features the heavy influence of Timbaland, with its bubbling hip-hop groove, the rapper and producer -- who is an executive producer on the album and co-wrote many of its tracks along with Furtado -- surprisingly doesn't dominate on this disc. Instead, he and Furtado make a great team, showing Timbaland's dexterity and range as a producer and songwriter.
The pair, along with other writers, create a spacey-disco beat for the self-confidence booster "Afraid," then switch to a heavily synthesized dance rock track for the saucy "Maneater." "Showtime" sounds like a lost TLC tune, with its soft, romantic feel, while fiery "No Hay Igual" is a riveting mix of African drumming, Spanish rap and a foreboding, synthesized background.
Furtado slows things down a bit with her collaboration with Colombian rocker Juanes on the midtempo, guitar-centered bilingual track, "Te Busque." But the heat remains -- instead of boiling over, it just simmers.
-- Nekesa Mumbi Moody, Associated Press
'MERCERNARY: THE SONGSOF JOHNNY MERCER'
Dr. John (Blue Note)
Grade: B
Near the end of his celebration of one of the greats of American song, Dr. John offers the set's only original: "I Ain't No Johnny Mercer." Well, yes. But as he "fonkifies" these Mercer tunes in his inimitable New Orleans fashion, it's clear that the Crescent City native born Mac Rebennack continues to occupy his own special place in American music.
Maybe it's their shared Deep South heritage or the blues underpinnings of some of the numbers, but the Mercer songs lend themselves better to the Dr. John treatment than Duke Ellington's did on the piano man's uneven 2000 tribute, "Duke Elegant." "Blues in the Night," "You Must Have Been a Beautiful Baby," "Lazy Bones," "Moon River" -- most of the selections are steeped in Dr. John's rich, Big Easy gumbo, the lively warmth of the R & amp;B/jazz/funk playing off the hipster cool of a growly voice and its thick swamp patois.
-- Nick Cristiano, Philadelphia Inquirer