‘IT’S NOT BIG IT’S LARGE’

‘IT’S NOT BIG IT’S LARGE’

Lyle Lovett and His Large Band

(Curb/Lost Highway)

Grade: D+

The Texan with the funny haircut isn’t in a mood for fun on this disappointing release. After opening with a jaunty, high-energy version of jazz legend Lester Young’s “Tickle Toe,” Lyle Lovett takes us into the valley of the dirges with little relief.

Dirges wouldn’t necessarily be a problem, except that many of his lyrics have little in the way of depth and too much in the way of numbing repetition. The results are often exercises in self-pity set to slow tempos.

The thinking man’s cowboy isn’t exactly prolific these days with new studio material, which makes this misfire especially unfortunate. In the last 11 years he’s released a concert recording of old songs (”Live in Texas”), a covers project (”Step Inside This House”) and a mostly instrumental film soundtrack (Robert Altman’s “Dr. T. & the Women”).

Other than “My Baby Don’t Tolerate” (2003), this is only Lovett’s second album of mostly original material in that time. Whether it’s a rumored case of writer’s block or the very real recovery time he needed after suffering serious leg injuries in 2002, new songs from this witty, genre-busting singer-songwriter are pretty rare these days.

“I Will Rise Up/Ain’t No More Cane” is a seemingly endless, 7-minute plus comedown from the adrenaline rush of the Lester Young cover, and the simplistic, glass half-empty ruminations of “All Downhill” and overly lugubrious “Don’t Cry a Tear” just help to pile on the buzz-killing mood.

Thankfully, “It’s Not Big It’s Large” does contain one of Lovett’s best-ever compositions, “South Texas Girl,” which reminds us just in time what a compelling songwriter he still can be.

—Martin Bandyke, Detroit Free Press

‘LIFELINE’

Ben Harper & the Innocent Criminals (Virgin)

Grade: B

Eschewing high-tech equipment and aiming for a low-key mood, adult-alternative rocker Ben Harper and his band knocked this album out in barely a week at a less than state-of-the-art studio in Paris. “Lifeline” was recorded immediately after the band completed a nine-month tour, so they might have been a bit tired. But they certainly had an almost telepathic sense of unity from so much time on the road.

“Fight Outta You” and “In the Colors” are quiet, warm and intimate, but Harper heats things up a bit on the more dynamic “Needed You Tonight” and “Say You Will.” Built around a delicate piano riff played by Innocent Criminal keyboardist Jason Yates, the soulful “Younger Than Today” is utterly beautiful, as is “Paris Sunrise 7,” an exquisite, improvised Weissenborn guitar solo played by Harper.

There’s a relaxed but confident quality to this acoustic-based record and it’s a nice change of pace for the California native, whose work has been consistently strong ever since his 1994 debut “Welcome to the Cruel World.”

—Martin Bandyke, Detroit Free Press

‘HUSTLENOMICS’

Yung Joc (Bad Boy South)

Grade: C

When Atlanta rapper Yung Joc emerged from under P. Diddy’s wing last year, he came across like a more affable Young Jeezy. While Yung Joc mined similar coke-slinging terrain as Jeezy on tracks such as “Dope Boy Magic,” Joc’s good-time hits — “It’s Goin’ Down” and “I Know You See It” — featured catchy hooks, a Southern drawl (lazily mumbled), and his endearing casual cockiness.

His sophomore album, “Hustlenomics,” hews close to that formula but with fewer memorable moments. “Coffee Shop” with newcomer Gorilla Zoe attempts to recapture the magic of past hits, with its cutesy-sounding chorus and bold snyths. But it is underwhelming, particularly for that reason. Plus, Joc’s rhymes about his own worth and his money-first worldview sound less than inspired. On the title track, he quips: “You can call me Malcolm X/ I hustle by any means.” How clever.

Even his rap peers who make cameos to boost Joc’s profile work against him. The Game, Jim Jones and Block on the assuredly menacing “Cut Throat” and Bun B and Young Dro on the banger, “I’m A G,” all have a more resonant vocal presence than Joc’s laidback flow. But Joc’s connections have gotten him this far, so there’s no reason to think he’s going anywhere soon but up the Billboard charts.

— Brett Johnson, Associated Press

‘THE HISTORICAL CONQUESTS OF JOSH RITTER’

Josh Ritter (Sony/BMG)

Grade: A

Singer-songwriter Josh Ritter’s fourth full-length CD has him sporting not only a new record label, but also a new sound — one that clearly straddles the line between Americana and straight-out rock ‘n’ roll. While Idahoan Ritter hasn’t completely turned away from his trademark introspective folk musings, the cheekily titled “The Historical Conquests of Josh Ritter” is his most sonically experimental effort to date, and one that seems deliberately designed to push him out of the “guy-with-a-guitar” category. Produced by longtime collaborator/keyboardist Sam Kassirer, “Historical Conquests” smartly plays to Ritter’s strengths: rapid-fire wordplay bolstered by sharp imagery, and a knack for clean melodies. He stretches but never strains on all 14 tracks, including the Dylanesque opener, “To the Dogs or Whoever,” and the soulful, radio-friendly “Right Moves.”

—Nicole Pensiero, Philadelphia Inquirer

‘NONE SHALL PASS’

Aesop Rock (Definitive Jux)
Grade: A

There’s a joke in Chris Rock’s repertoire that’s about Colin Powell’s being so well-spoken. While Rock’s really clowning dopey Caucasians with low expectations of African-American speech, that same tease can be aimed at MC Aesop Rock.

Born Ian Bavitz, fans credit his starkly smart-bomb missives and his flinty-voiced, rigidly pronounced phrases for his unique dynamism.

True. Rock (Aesop, that is) has a stoic hard baritone not unlike Michael Franti’s urgent turgid talk.

Aesop rarely comes off as fun or funny. But rather than concentrate on Aesop’s arid chatter — the dry, angry “beast of burden’s urgency” that is “Catacomb Kids” — focus instead on the rapper/producer’s dizzying humor and slippery musicality.

While the dippy, bass-y jazz-hop of “Bring Back Pluto” relates travails of little Russian dolls who get incrementally smaller with talk of the drug trade, Aesop makes the apocalypse go down sweeter than medicine on “Citronella,” with its honk and squeak of sampled brass and reeds. Even the epic-length “Coffee” winds up buoyant, funky and filled with speed-rapped silliness despite its decaffeinated doom sentiment. There might be plenty of vipers and vexing in Aesop’s garden. But at least he’s able to laugh about it. And he’s so well-spoken.

—A.D. Amorosi, Philadelphia Inquirer

‘MENTOR TORMENTOR’

Earlimart (Majordomo)

Grade: B

Elliott Smith is dead and gone, but his brand of delicate, dreamy indie pop is alive and well on the fourth album by Los Angeles three-piece Earlimart. Not that the veteran band fronted by Aaron Espinoza, who sings all 15 “Mentor Tormentor” tracks save Ariana Murray’s Aimee Mann-ish “Happy Alone,” are mere Smith imitators. Stately and precise melodic gems such as the foreboding “The Little Things,” relatively rollicking “Everybody Knows Everybody,” and lovingly orchestrated “Don’t Think About Me” stake out their own personal territory as contentedly melancholy rainy-day music.

—Dan DeLuca, Philadelphia Inquirer