‘SYSTEM’

‘SYSTEM’

Seal (Warner Bros.)

Grade: B

Seal made a whopping power play by recruiting writer/producer Stuart Price for the London-born singer’s new “System.”

Price helped engineer a minor miracle a couple of years ago with his work on Madonna’s “Confessions on a Dance Floor,” which revived her sagging career and proved to be one of her most solid releases to date.

Of course Seal’s not the icon Madonna is, and he’s got a tougher task ahead of him to restore his artistic relevance: For the last few years he’s mostly been known as the husband of supermodel Heidi Klum and father of her children.

Still, like “Confessions,” “System” feels like an event album, one that triumphantly returns Seal to his dance roots from the early 1990s, before he had hits with “Crazy” and “Kiss From a Rose.”

Seal’s husky, emotive voice is an ideal match for the electronic-oriented heft of “System” — the instrumental and vocal parts merging into a sound both grandiose and sincere, with neither side overwhelming the other.

Serious lyrics are typically degraded when run through the paces of dance music, sometimes to the point they sound hokey or absurd. But when Seal sings the title refrain of “If It’s in My Mind, It’s on My Face,” his provocative touch burns through the heady rhythm. The same goes for his plaintive delivery of the title track and earnest approach to “Amazing,” which is offered in two versions on “System.”

—Chris Campbell, (Knoxville, Tenn.) News Sentinel

‘100 DAYS, 100 NIGHTS’

Sharon Jones & the Dap-Kings (Daptone)

Grade: A

The record-label house band is a charming, archaic institution. Think Motown and the Funk Brothers, Stax and Booker T & the MGs and Sugarhill.

Now think Daptone and the Dap-Kings, the hottest soul combo going thanks to high-profile gigs this year on albums by Amy Winehouse and Mark Ronson. The Dap-Kings’ main job, though, is backing Brooklyn soul singer Sharon Jones.

She’s the levelheaded flip side to Winehouse’s boozy dilettante, digging into vintage-sounding soul grooves with the deeply felt passion of a true believer. Her band wrote tunes for Jones to sing in a robust voice edged with been-there grit, and she offers up powerhouse vocals over swinging horns on “Tell Me” and weaves her way through scratchy funk guitar on “Be Easy.”

Like many soul singers, Jones came up singing in church, and she balances secular with sacred on a few tunes here. Trebly guitar and low, moaning horns frame her pleas on “Humble Me,” and she strikes a determined note on “Answer Me” with a request for help from on high.

Jones’ powerful voice grows more compelling each time through, and every full, round bass note, horn blast and guitar fill the Dap-Kings play is, well, perfect. It’s a stunning combination that helps “100 Days, 100 Nights” rival anything Motown or Stax released at their peaks.

—Eric R. Danton, Hartford Courant

‘DIRT FARMER’

Levon Helm (Vanguard)

Grade: B

He’s the last of the Band’s three great voices — and he’s still around only because he has whipped throat cancer. The disease kept Levon Helm from singing for several years, but now he can, and the 67-year-old drummer/mandolinist/guitarist has put out his first solo studio album in 25 years.

The voice sounds a little pinched and ragged at times, but otherwise his unmistakably Southern instrument is almost totally back, and Helm sings with all the robust feeling of a guy who is relishing his second chance. The decidedly rustic “Dirt Farmer” features several traditional numbers Helm learned while growing up in Arkansas, and some of them, like “False-Hearted Lover” and “The Blind Child,” have the ancient-folk air of another world. But a lot of the set, especially contemporary songs such as Steve Earle’s “The Mountain” and Paul Kennerly’s “Got Me a Woman,” roll with a richly organic Americana vibe that would fit right in with the Band.

— Nick Cristiano, Philadelphia Inquirer

‘WOLFGANG’S BIG NIGHT OUT’

Brian Setzer Orchestra (Surfdog)

Grade: B

This big-band recording is a crack-up. Guitarist and leader Brian Setzer, who’s probably best known for leading the Stray Cats, a rockabilly band of the mid-1980s, has been dallying with swing for the last decade.

His riff here is to take classical chestnuts like “The Flight of the Bumble Bee” and run them through a Rat Pack blender. Grieg’s “Hall of the Mountain King” grows fangs and resembles Benny Goodman’s “Sing Sing Sing.” Tchaikovsky’s “1812 Overture” starts out Latin, while Rossini’s “William Tell Overture” gets downsized into a jaunty swing number that cries out for Frank or Dean.

Mozart, Beethoven and Wagner all get worked over into various states of boogaloo. The madcap endings are especially humorous. If this offends you, consider more roughage in the diet.

— Karl Stark, Philadelphia Inquirer

‘YOUR SECRET SAFE/LUZERNE’

The Trolleyvox (Transit of Venus)

Grade: B

“Your Secret Safe/Luzerne,” a two-disc set that offers distinct full-lengths as a two-for-one physical package but available as separate downloads, quickly follows last year’s politically minded “The Karaoke Meltdowns.” Led by songwriter and guitarist Andrew Chalfen (ex-Wishniaks) and singer Beth Filla, the Philadelphia band has worked the borders between power pop and psych-rock, and “Your Secret Safe” continues that tradition, with skillful echoes of Big Star, the Byrds and the Who (in a smashing cover of “Our Love Was”). Chalfen’s guitars chime and crunch, but Filla never quite soars, even though songs such as “I Call On You” or “Jean Jacket” beg for it.

Luzerne’s acoustic meditations — think Nico, Bert Jansch, Cat Power — suit Filla’s melancholy, conversational vocals better. Chalfen’s impressive finger-picking owes something to John Fahey, and instrumentals such as “Midvale” and “Mermaid Loop” are highlights. As opposed to “Your Secret Safe’s” bright electricity, “Luzerne” is a late-night, earthbound affair, beautifully dark, seductively stark.

— Steve Klinge, Philadelphia Inquirer

‘SON OF SKIP JAMES’

Dion (Verve)

Grade: B+

With “Son of Skip James,” Dion DiMucci picks up where he left off on 2006’s revelatory “Bronx in Blue,” when the Rock and Roll Hall of Famer proved to be a natural at the music that first moved him in the days before rock. That is, the blues.

This time out, the 68-year-old singer is not going it alone — there is keyboard and percussion accompaniment for his acoustic guitar and harmonica. But these exceptionally warm and intuitive performances make even clearer the connection between the blues and the music Dion is best known for: There’s not much difference in style and attitude between “Hoochie Coochie Man” and “The Wanderer.” And while delving into songs by Willie Dixon, Robert Johnson, Skip James, Bob Dylan and Chuck Berry, Dion again gets to meld his spiritual and street-wise sides. On the title song, one of two originals, he begins by stating that he wants to be more like Jesus before concluding, “I’m a lover not a fighter / But I can kick your ass.” No doubt.

— Nick Cristiano, Philadelphia Inquirer