'PEARL JAM'

'PEARL JAM'
Pearl Jam (J)
Grade: C+
The good news: On this new eponymous set, Pearl Jam rocks with a sense of purpose and aggression we haven't experienced on a Pearl Jam record since "Vs." way back in 1993. To get the same invigorating feeling, fans had to attend a Pearl Jam concert.
The bad news: If only the band had inspiring songs of note worth engaging us. "World Wide Suicide," the first single, is somewhat enticing given the political climate and is less strident than singer Eddie Vedder's "Bushleaguer" attack on the president four years ago. Coming from another band, the slap at big business ("Unemployable") might feel genuine, but Pearl Jam, from day one, has always talked one way but behaved another. The mainstream rock group left Sony's major label Epic and leapt into bed not with an independent but rather with Clive Davis' J Records for this CD.
Sincerity aside, nothing truly stands out and feels made for the ages the way early Pearl Jam classics such as "Jeremy," "Even Flow," "Alive," "Daughter" or "Better Man" felt immediately. These new songs don't represent musical growth so much as utmost competence in retracing a familiar, somewhat dated '90s sound. They will rock like nobody's business in concert yet would not be standouts on a Pearl Jam "Greatest Hits" CD.
Howard Cohen, Detroit Free Press
'LIVING WITH WAR'
Neil Young (Reprise)
Grade: A
Leave it to the mercurial Neil Young to follow up last year's gentle, nonpolitical "Prairie Wind" with this collection of scathing anti-war and anti-Bush songs. Rush-recorded and rush-released, "Living with War" is filled with blistering rage and a desperate urgency.
Young is no knee-jerk liberal by any means, but "Let's Impeach the President" leaves little doubt where he's coming from politically. The particularly withering song also includes some contradictory sound bites from Bush, followed by Young chiding, "Flip ... flop."
The basic tracks were recorded almost entirely live in the studio in just a few days, with longtime collaborators Chad Cromwell (bass) and Rick Rosas (drums) providing intense backup to Young's paint-shredding electric guitar and howling vocals. Adding depth and gravity is a 100-voice choir, used judiciously but to great effect throughout. These immensely cathartic 10 songs will certainly do little to heal the red-blue state divide, get the president impeached or stop the war, but they are a strong, indelible statement.
Martin Bandyke, Detroit Free Press
'ALL THE ROADRUNNING'
Mark Knopfler and Emmylou Harris
(Warner Bros./Nonesuch)
Grade: B
The pairing of ex-Dire Straits front man Mark Knopfler with peerless vocalist Emmylou Harris is one intriguing combination. The two aren't exactly oil and water, but Knopfler's M.O. is more that of a laid back, earthy rock 'n' roller, while Harris' territory lies in more expressive, celestial country stylings. But it's the duo's mutual love of all forms of roots music that makes this project work so well, even though some of the weaker material merely simmers instead of coming to a boil.
The blues-soaked "Right Now" and pensive "Rollin' on" are both outstanding, but the most magical track, "This Is Us," has the duo convincingly playing the roles of a husband and wife sharing memories of a full and happy life together. Set to a sprightly riff straight out of the Everly Brothers greatest hits catalog, the song traces a relationship with images that are touching, sometimes funny and deeply evocative.
Martin Bandyke, Detroit Free Press
'THE HARDEST WAY TO MAKE AN EASY LIVING'
The Streets (Vice/Atlantic)
Grade: B
The tragicomic raps of Mike Skinner, the British MC-beatmaker who performs as The Streets, has made him a major star in his native country and a hip-hop antihero stateside. His two previous discs are examples of the best of British rap -- "Original Pirate Material" (2002), a solemn document of Brit angst over skittish U.K. garage beats, and "A Grand Don't Come for Free" (2004), an aural tele-novella about a week in his loutish life.
Now, Skinner exorcises the demons of that success on his latest cheeky effort, "The Hardest Way to Make an Easy Living." However, this disc is not full of "my-Ferrari-has-a-flat" style complaints. Over the album's minimal tracks, Skinner is willing to show his warts.
On "Pranging Out," despite drug dabbling and rap star pressures, he admits: "Right now logic states that I need to be not contemplating suicide." Later, show business cynicism seeps through on the title track: "It seems like the safest way to double your money/ is to fold it in your pocket."
But Skinner's conversational delivery is most effective on the amusing first single, "When You Wasn't Famous," on which he fails to bed a starlet who's more famous than him. The sly self-deprecation recalls the Pharcyde's '90s hit, "Passing Me By" and hints at a more honest take on stardom that's often lost on his wealth-obsessed American contemporaries.
Brett Johnson, Associated Press
'LET LOVE IN'
The Goo Goo Dolls (Warner Brothers)
Grade: B
Who says you can't go home again? Put the Goo Goo Dolls back in their hometown of Buffalo, N.Y., and watch the inspiration flow. The trio set up shop in a Masonic hall to record their eighth album, and this get-back-to-your-roots approach has resulted in a solid collection of power-pop ballads and anthemic, Springsteenish rockers. Polished to a sheen by Glen Ballard, the album has just enough sonic edge to keep the slickness in check. There are some heavy rockers -- "Listen," with bassist Robby Takac handling lead vocals, practically jumps out of the speakers -- while other, tender songs are a perfect fit for singer/guitarist John Rzeznik's earnestly romantic voice. Don't be surprised if the Goos manage to make Supertramp's decades-old "Give a Little Bit" a radio hit again; it's that catchy.
Nicole Pensiero, Philadelphia Inquirer
'BITTER TEA'
The Fiery Furnaces (Fat Possum)
Grade: C+
There's a lot to love about the Fiery Furnaces. The brother-sister duo of Eleanor and Matthew Friedberger relish experimentation and are deliberately hard to peg; they can write great melodies and tell dense stories that are playful and cryptic. Best of all, Eleanor possesses a subtle, flexible voice.
But "Bitter Tea," the Furnaces' fourth full-length album and the companion piece to last year's "Rehearsing My Choir" (which featured the siblings' grandmother) is exasperating. It overuses gimmicks: backward vocals; arbitrary, abrupt shifts among arrangements (tack piano to squelchy synthesizers to bluesy slide guitar) that simply repeat a short, albeit appealing, melody; lyrics that rely on relentless repetitions.
The amusing "Police Sweater Blood Vow," the melancholy "Benton Harbor Blues," and the girl group-style waltz "I'm Waiting to Know You" are keepers. But most of "Bitter Tea" deliberately undermines the Furnaces' considerable charms. It's an album I want to like more than it wants to let me like it.
Steve Klinge, Philadelphia Inquirer