'love'

'LOVE'
The Beatles (Capitol)
Grade: A
"Love" might best be described as a remix record. Drawing from The Beatles' original master tapes, producers George and Giles Martin have jumbled and rearranged familiar songs and sounds into a distinct new work.
Officially, it's the soundtrack to the Cirque du Soleil theatrical production that opened over the summer in Las Vegas, a swirling mash-up of Beatles songs and sounds. But it's also a glistening array of music that works in its own right -- and is the best glimpse behind The Beatles' creative curtain since the "Anthology" series a decade ago.
To some Beatles purists, the very idea of "Love" may sound like sacrilege, akin to melting down "Mona Lisa" to doodle with the individual oils. But even the most stubborn traditionalists will likely be won over by this exquisite, often rapturous album, which stands as its own unique opus while affectionately celebrating the group's legacy.
The disc's track count is 26, but there's far more Beatles music here than that. Having isolated individual sounds and performances from the group's master tapes, producer the Martins find links among tempos and keys to stitch a broad but intimate sonic tapestry. The result is an album that retains the marrow of its showcased songs, but with "enough little bitties to it to keep you interested for a hundred years," to borrow a John Lennon line.
Whole books and Web sites have been devoted to logging every sound and sonic anomaly The Beatles put to tape. For fans of those, "Love" will be a treasure hunt. Horns from "Savoy Truffle" decorate "Drive My Car." "Lady Madonna" finds a "Hey Bulldog" riff tucked underneath. "Get Back" churns with a lick from "A Hard Day's Night," crowd noise from "Sgt. Pepper," drums from "The End" and the final chord from "A Day in the Life."
Brian McCollum, Detroit Free Press
'ORPHANS'
Tom Waits (Anti-)
Grade: A
Talk about cleaning out your closet. The one-of-a-kind Waits unleashes a dizzying and dazzling collection of 54 songs, including 30 new ones, that add up to three hours of music, enough to satisfy even the most ravenous of his cult of fans.
"Orphans" is broken into three CDs, subtitled "Brawlers," "Bawlers" and "Bastards," which pretty much defines the omnivorous Waits' approach to making music. "Brawlers" is loaded with raunchy, frayed-around-the-edges blues-rockers, while "Bawlers" spotlights Waits' tender, sentimental and melancholy side with ballads, lullabies and waltzes. "Bastards" is best described as experimental and totally off the wall.
Along with the ton of previously unreleased material, "Orphans" also includes numerous pieces originally recorded for film, theater and elsewhere. Highlights are simply too numerous to mention, but let's just say you haven't really lived until you've heard Waits tackle the Ramones' classic "The Return Of Jackie and Judy."
Martin Bandyke, Detroit Free Press
'9'
Damien Rice
(Heffa/Vector/Warner Bros.)
Grade: B
In his parody song "Fountains Of Wayne Hotline," Robbie Fulks jokes about a songwriting trick he labels "The Radical Dynamic Shift," a moment when a song jumps from quiet to loud, or the reverse. Damien Rice is all about radical dynamic shifts on "9," his follow-up to 2003's acclaimed "O."
Rice's songs are full of impassioned drama: Almost all of them begin with Rice singing quietly in his Irish brogue and accompanying himself on an acoustic guitar. Then, suddenly, strings swell in the background and the band crashes in with a Sigur Ros-like crescendo that quickly subsides, leaving Rice again sparsely attended. The arrangement works brilliantly for "Elephant," "Me, My Yoke & amp; I" and a handful of others, but when song after song uses the same ploy, "9" sags: The shifts become predictable rather than radical.
Steve Klinge, Philadelphia Inquirer
'KINGDOM COME'
Jay-Z (Roc-A-Fella)
Grade: B
With his girlfriend Beyonc & eacute; Knowles and A-list collaborators, including Usher, Chris Martin of Coldplay and producers Dr. Dre and Kanye West, "Kingdom Come" finds the 36-year-old Jay-Z aiming not only to rescue rap, but also to give the music industry a desperately needed shot in the arm. But for all of its blockbuster swagger, the album turns out to be introspective and vulnerable for a big-time rapper, and as much about "the maturation of Jayzeezy" and what it's like to be a grown-up hip-hop star who's willing to own up to self-doubt.
Usher sings on the Neptunes-produced "Anything," and John Legend lends a soulful hook on the male bonding "Do U Wanna Ride." Dre's three productions include the slinky piano groove "Lost One," which mourns the loss of a nephew killed in a car crash, and worries over relationship troubles with Knowles ("I don't think it's meant to be, B"). Things seem less dire for the celebrity couple when Knowles turns up on the cautionary tale "Hollywood," in which the rapper surveys the pitfalls of fame. Another standout Dre track is "Minority Report," an indictment of the Bush administration's response to Hurricane Katrina. "Kingdom Come" is by no means a great album, and the disc takes occasional missteps, egregiously on "Dig a Hole." Still, the rapper remains a consummate craftsman, and his return to action shows that his status as "kingpin of the ink pen," as he dubs himself, remains intact.
Dan DeLuca, Philadelphia Inquirer
'LOVE, PAIN & amp; THE WHOLE CRAZY THING'
Keith Urban (Capitol Nashville)
Grade: C
Keith Urban didn't need the attention. Career momentum was ensured for this three-time CMA Male Vocalist as he recorded his fourth solo CD.
But marrying an Oscar-winning actress (Nicole Kidman) and landing in rehab four months after the wedding and on the eve of the release of this new album puts Urban on a radar beyond country music's vast reach.
It also casts expectations on the album the 39-year-old Aussie can't fulfill. Urban is a talented guitarist and passable singer, but he's not a gifted lyricist. Those looking for insights into the human condition will do well to avoid Urban's catalog of clich & eacute;s and trite reflections. "There's a past in everyone/You can't undo, you can't outrun" he decides on the otherwise fine rocker "Used to the Pain."
What makes "Love, Pain & amp; the Whole Crazy Thing" Urban's best solo work is the music's increased vitality. His previous releases may have been popular but they left little impression, the equivalent of musical invisible ink. This problem reappears here in formulaic numbers such as "Everybody" (co-written with song hack Richard Marx), "God Made Woman" or "I Can't Stop Loving You" (a remake of a bland Phil Collins single).
But "Love, Pain" taps into Urban's concert reputation as a skilled musician. The stomping energy of tracks like "Used to the Pain," "Faster Car" and "I Told You So" fall much closer to the rock side of the radio dial and are more accomplished than nearly anything you'll find there these days. The merest hint of country accents seem an afterthought, little passages shoehorned here to keep the Nashville community tuned in.
But this time Urban's going to grab the curious, too. They may not find much to get excited about but they will find catchy music while the devoted should appreciate the star's slight evolution.
Howard Cohen, Miami Herald