‘NOEL’

‘NOEL’

Josh Groban (Reprise)

Grade: C

Like Barack Obama, this holiday record from pop-opera’s wunderkind gathered speed once Oprah gave it a shout. And what a shout — last week, according to Billboard, sales hit 2.77 million, making it the top album of ’07. This record holds little but the obvious, but Groban makes it sound good. His rich, cool voice is at its best when most alone, with sparse instrumentation, as in his reverent, piano-only take on “It Came Upon a Midnight Clear” and the sparest parts of “Silent Night.” Groban’s hearty takes on “Panis Angelicus” and “Ave Maria” range from glorious to decent on the oh-holy-holiday meter. But there’s so much — way too much — stuff going on on the rest of “Noel,” and it becomes a distraction. A shrieky gospel choir directed by Kirk Franklin here, a hoarse Faith Hill duet there. Though it’s sweetly admirable to have kids and soldiers talking as part of “I’ll be Home for Christmas,” that cornys-up the track beyond mere treacle. Then again, David Foster’s overblown Manheim Steamroller-meets-”Doctor Zhivago” production makes every swirl epically saccharine. Really, this is no way to spend a holiday.

— A.D. Amorosi, Philadelphia Inquirer

‘THE COOL’

Lupe Fiasco (Atlantic)

Grade: B

Lupe Fiasco’s “The Cool” figured to be a last-minute entry in the hip-hop album of the year sweepstakes, and sure enough, it comes in at the wire strong enough to contend with the 2007 efforts of Kanye West, Common and Jay-Z for that title. The rapper born Wasalu Muhammad Jaco ups the ante from last year’s “Food & Liquor,” with more rapid-fire rhymes and broader themes. Indeed, “The Cool,” conceived as an exploration of temptation and all the dangerous places it can take you, sometimes plays like a litany of all that’s wrong in the world, on titles like “Gold Watch,” “The Coolest” and “Dumb It Down.” But “The Cool” is also full-up with hooks, like the one sung by Chris Martin imitator Matthew Santos on “Superstar,” or the nifty guitar figure that propels the analytical “Gotta Eat.” Or better still, the chopped-up break-beat groove provided by Unkle, a British production outfit, that Fiasco ever so nimbly rhymes over on “Hello Goodbye [Uncool].”

— Dan DeLuca, Philadelphia Inquirer

‘CARNIVAL VOL. II: MEMOIRS OF AN IMMIGRANT’

Wyclef Jean (Columbia)

Grade: B

Former Fugee Wyclef Jean is either a visionary internationalist who sees a world without musical borders or a shamelessly star-struck show-off whose albums exist primarily to demonstrate just how big his Rolodex is. Or more likely, both. How else to explain “Carnival II,” a sequel to a 1997 album of the same name? The staggering guest list includes Shakira, Norah Jones, Paul Simon, Mary J. Blige, Serj Tankian (of brainy metal band System of A Down) as well as rappers Lil’ Wayne, T.I. and Will.I.Am, and, of course, noted percussionist Louis Farrakhan. (I kid you not.) Pan-cultural anthems like “Slow Down” and the Indian film music extravaganza “Hollywood Meets Bollywood (Immigration),” which makes excellent use of sonorous rhymer Chamillionaire, come so effortlessly to Jean that it’s tempting to dismiss them as facile and superficial. But the multiculti lounge lizard deserves props for maintaining an ebullient party vibe throughout a jam-packed effort that attempts to make sense of the immigrant experience, even if it does get carried away trying to include what one song refers to as a “Million Voices.”

— Dan DeLuca, Philadelphia Inquirer

‘TASTEMAKER’

Pittsburgh Slim (Def Jam)

Grade: B

So what’s a young rapper who repeatedly admits he’s not a “tough guy” going to rap about? Sex, of course. Pittsburgh Slim — aka Sied Chahrour — fills “Tastemaker” with the kind of bumping sounds that’ll get the gals out on the dance-floor and the testosterone-saturated lyrics that’ll occur to those watching those gals move. The Los Angeles-based performer, a transplant from Pittsburgh, has already gotten a huge boost for the release with the electro-pop first single, “Girls Kiss Girls,” thanks largely to a video featuring Penthouse model Krista Ayne. In the video, she helps him realize the traditional male fantasy of seeing a little playful girl-on-girl action. Ayne and another woman give “Slimmie” a webcam show, which prompts his humorously overanxious response: “Do it for real, girl, don’t pretend ... Let me see! Let me see! Let me see!” And the rapper doesn’t have his libido in high gear only for “Girls Kiss Girls.” Sex is pretty much all he has on his mind on “Tastemaker,” which is refreshingly honest, if a little juvenile. Although Pittsburgh Slim could be the would-be oversexed little brother of “Slim Shady” Eminem, for his cocky disposition as much as his scrappy frame, his sound has more in common with indie-electronica-rock performers like Peaches and Lords of Acid. Start to finish, the seven-track “Tastemaker” is club music, from the pounding opener, “Pittsburgh Slim,” to the frenetic-percussion and clapping-beat closer, “Toy.” The rapper’s sex-charged restlessness is matched line for line by crackling, irrepressible rhythms. He may not have anything deeper to offer than “With so many pretty chicks, who can choose?” (“Superstar Extraordinaire”) or “Little skirt, ain’t nothin’ underneath it/Every playboy wanna rock with you” (“Kiss and Tell”). But who doesn’t have moments when their thoughts are more primal than profound?

— Chuck Campbell, Knoxville (Tenn.) News Sentinel

‘NEVER LOOK BACK’

Tom Gillam (Treehouse Productions)

Grade: B

We’re fortunate that Tom Gillam is still around, because in March 2006 he suffered his third heart attack, and it was nearly fatal. “Never Look Back,” recorded mostly beforehand, shows just how gifted an artist we would have lost. Backed by his band, Tractor Pull, Gillam packs the album with guitar-driven, country-tinged rock that echoes the ’70s, in a good way. (In other words, up there near the likes of Petty and the Allmans, not down there with the Eagles.) Gillam’s songs, however, exert their own pull — they’re well-crafted, sturdily melodic, and full of catchy choruses. For all that, he can also shift gears, as he does on the brooding “Where Is Bobby Gentry?,” which comes with a string section that echoes the one on “Ode to Billy Joe.”

— Nick Cristiano, Philadelphia Inquirer