‘JEWELS IN THE CROWN: ALL-STAR DUETS WITH THE QUEEN’

‘JEWELS IN THE CROWN:
ALL-STAR DUETS WITH THE QUEEN’

Aretha Franklin (Arista)

Grade: A

Pity the fool who attempts to go up against the undisputed Queen of Soul, Aretha Franklin. At age 65, she can still sing circles around her younger counterparts.

Franklin demonstrates her ability to belt it out with the best of them on “Jewels in the Crown,” a collection of 16 mostly old duets with such artists as Mary J. Blige, Whitney Houston and Mariah Carey, spanning almost the entirety of her career at Arista, from 1981 on.

The album also includes two new numbers: the Underdogs-produced smooth R&B tune “Put You Up On Game” with “American Idol” winner Fantasia and the much more funky, catchy “What Y’all Came to Do” with crooner John Legend.

The latter duet, which samples a riff from Sam & Dave’s 1968 dance anthem “I Thank You,” highlights Franklin’s gritty soul chops in the best way possible. She whoops, she hollers, but she doesn’t overdo it. Legend knows how to complement, versus compete with, her voice.

The best of “Jewels in the Crown” are actually reworkings of Franklin’s ’60s hits, from a grooving, layered version of “[You Make Me Feel Like] A Natural Woman” with Bonnie Raitt and Gloria Estefan from 1993’s Fox TV duets special to a spirited “Chain of Fools” with Carey from VH1’s 1998 “Divas Live” concert.

Franklin’s two duets with Blige may verge on the edge of a vibrato standoff, but also emphasize the elder chanteuse’s deep-seated vocal and emotional influence.

— Solvej Schou, Associated Press

‘INTOXICATION’

Shaggy (Big Yard/VP)

Grade: C+

Shaggy is like a reggae cicada, emerging at semiregular intervals to land libidinous hits on the charts and then dropping out of sight for years at a time. It happened in the mid-’90s with the singles “Oh Carolina” and “Boombastic” and again in the early ’00s with “It Wasn’t Me” and “Angel.” Now the Jamaican-via-Brooklyn singer returns for another crack at the charts with his latest album, “Intoxication.”

Not much has changed since his last go-round. Shaggy’s sonorous voice is still all about cadence and inflection on monotone vocals that he breaks up with little yelps and a generous ration of guest vocalists, including Akon, Collie Buddz and Sizzla.

Shaggy has said he intended to return to his “hard-core dance-hall and reggae” roots on “Intoxication,” and, accordingly, the album bops along on straightforward reggae grooves. But there’s a creeping sameness to the songs that’s not helped by so many of them sharing a theme: sex.

There are exceptions: Buddz livens up “Mad Mad World,” trading socially conscious verses with Shaggy. Akon throws down a smooth hook on “What’s Love.” And Shaggy calls out faux-pious hypocrites on “Church Heathen.”

Alas, such high points are overshadowed by the abundance of filler on “Intoxication.”

Precedent suggests it’ll be awhile before his next album though, so enjoy the buzz while it lasts.

— Eric R. Danton, Hartford Courant

‘THE BLACK AND WHITE ALBUM’

The Hives (Universal)

Grade: B-

The Swedish band whose hit “Hate to Say I Told You So” and two-tone suits launched a Scandinavian rock revival seven years ago are back with their fourth full-length album and, yes, more black and white suits.

While 2004’s “Tyrannosaurus Hives” repeated the group’s garage formula, the Hives’ appropriately titled new album is half ear-smashing rock ’n’ roll perfection and half a hapless attempt at commercial experimentation.

Recorded in Sweden, England, Mississippi and Miami, the album starts with a quick bang on “Tick Tick Boom,” a surefire single with singer Howlin’ Pelle Almqvist’s shout-outs of “yeah!” clamoring over thunderous riffs.

The next five songs continue that sense of garage-fueled relish, from the shakers and sing-along chorus of “Try It Again” reminiscent of Danish popsters Junior Senior to the punky cowbell-filled “Hey Little World.”

Indication of less workable things to come starts in the middle of the Pharrell Williams-produced “Well All Right!” A bouncy, groovy tune filled with handclaps and Almqvist’s soul man growls and whoops, the song breaks into a strange, dirgelike interlude midway.

Williams also lends his hip-hop touch to “T.H.E.H.I.V.E.S.,” a number sporting ’70s funk licks, a robotic New Wave chorus and Almqvist singing falsetto, chanting “we rule the world” without his usual ego-driven gusto.

“Giddy Up!” is just plain ridiculous, a synth ditty with yelped lyrics and a “My Sharona” thrust. “Puppet on a String” replaces guitars with piano, throwing in an oddly deep hip-hop chorus and spooky howls.

It’s commendable the band is inching out of its garage rock shell, but that shell has also served the five-piece well and shouldn’t be broken.

— Solvej Schou, Associated Press

‘JORDIN SPARKS’

Jordin Sparks (Jive Records)

Grade: C+

Jordin Sparks is “Young And In Love” — and “Just For The Record,” she’s into that “Shy Boy.”

Those are some of the song titles from Sparks’ self-titled debut album, which oozes the earnestness that endeared the bubbly 17-year-old to gazillions of tween girls — and their mothers — as she sang to victory on “American Idol.”

Sparks has the wholesome appeal of a Disney Channel star — clearly an asset, at a time when Miley Cyrus/“Hannah Montana” is selling out stadiums in no less than four minutes.

That’s why it’s slightly jarring when Sparks turns into a club vixen on the Britney-esque “Young And In Love,” which is perhaps the musical equivalent of learning too much about your little sister. Granted, Sparks is nearly 18 — but still.

That said, this album as a whole is tame, upbeat, free from innuendo — something you might expect from the telegenic teen, who suggests original “Idol” Kelly Clarkson in terms of likability but lacks the Grammy winner’s irresistible bravado.

The disc consists mainly of slickly produced songs about boys (“No Air,” “Now You Tell Me”) and feel-good empowerment tunes (“One Step At A Time,” “This Is My Now”). But it takes a decidedly maudlin turn with “God Loves Ugly,” which has the comely singer asking: “With all of my blemishes, how could somebody want me?” Come on! You’re Jordin Sparks!

A standout is “Next To You.” The sugary-sweet pop song, a perfect fit for Sparks’ naturally soulful voice, gets better after several listens. “Maybe we’re friends/Maybe we’re more/Maybe it’s just my imagination/But I see you stare just a little too long and it makes me start to wonder,” she croons over smooth harmonies and crisp handclaps.

And that’s enough to keep you wondering what else Sparks may have in store.

— Erin Carlson, Associated Press

‘TAKING CHANCES’

Celine Dion (Sony)

Grade: D

It’s not that Celine Dion can’t sing without sounding like a pyrotechnic showstopper at one of her Vegas extravaganzas. She’s shown subtlety on her French-language albums and she unfurls Linda Perry’s “My Love” on this new album with subdued grace. Even Dion’s snoozy take on Heart’s big ballad, “Alone,” is cute in cloying fashion.

It’s not that going over the top, as Celine is wont to do, is necessarily a bad thing. Throughout her career, Dion has desperately, calculatedly tried to encompass everything and all with little artfulness. But at least she was trying. Ethel Merman was boisterous, but there was blood, tears and sweat behind each belt.

This Dion effort feels like an effort — but a bloodless one; a tactical maneuver, down to announcing her so-called risky intentions with her album’s name and title track, an insipid ballad. Dion’s limp anthems feel as staged and sluggish as her screechy, Eurotrashy rockers (like “That’s Just the Woman in Me” written by Kimberley Rew, Robyn Hitchcock’s Soft Boys partner).

— A.D. Amorosi, Philadelphia Inquirer

‘THE INEVITABLE RISE AND LIBERATION
OF NIGGY TARDUST’

Saul Williams (niggytardust.com)

Grade: B

Spoken-word poet turned hip-hop MC Saul Williams finds an ideal collaborator in Nine Inch Nails mastermind Trent Reznor. The techno-rocker’s broken-beat soundscapes match Williams’ furiously fractured verbal attack perfectly. The title is a play on David Bowie’s Ziggy Stardust. This is a concept album of sorts about a “ghetto Gothic millionaire” and “comical absurdist” whom Williams uses — along with Public Enemy samples and a cover of U2’s “Sunday Bloody Sunday” — to explore his personal version of the black experience. Is it rap? Is it rock? It’s not expensive to find out. The album is an Internet-only release, at niggytardust.com, where it’s $5, or free.

— Dan DeLuca, Philadelphia Inquirer

‘ORCHESTRA SOUL SEASON’

Tim Krekel (Natchez Trace)

Grade: A

Tim Krekel is one of those artists acclaimed more by his peers than by the general public. Over the last two-plus decades he has written numerous hits for others and is an in-demand guitarist. His ninth album, however, really demands attention.

“Soul Season” is a thrilling blast of rocking, horn-driven Southern soul, often bursting with roadhouse energy. From the driving stuff like “I Can’t Leave You Alone” to change-of-pace ballads like the magnificent “Wilson Pickett” and the closing touch of Crescent City R&B, “It Don’t Bother Me,” this hits the gut and the heart like the best soul music. It also shows that Krekel, much like the late Muscle Shoals master Eddie Hinton, is a not-to-be-denied triple threat, excellent not only as a writer and guitarist, but also as a singer.

— Nick Cristiano, Philadelphia Inquirer