Latest CD reviews: K.D. Lang, Sheryl Crow, Bob Mould

‘WATERSHED’

K.D. Lang (Nonesuch)

Grade: B

K.D. Lang’s voice is undeniable: lush, pitch-perfect, big but intimate, effortlessly seductive. Call her a phone-book singer (as in, she could sing a ...). It’s a joy to hear her sing anything. The self-produced, self-penned “Watershed” is a collection of luxurious ballads, love songs often tinged with sorrow and kissed with pedal steel, banjo, and other reminders of Lang’s past greatness singing uptempo country. Songs swell with strings and harmony vocals, but the focus is on Lang’s voice, which is as it should be. It’s a lovely album, but it’s so even-keeled that Lang sounds as alluring murmuring about “These cold dark places I’ve been” in “I Dream of Spring” as she does crooning “I will make you happy, I will make you smile” in “Once in a While.” It’s all about That Voice, but sometimes at the expense of the songs themselves.

— Steve Klinge, Philadelphia Inquirer

‘DETOURS’

Sheryl Crow (A&M)

Grade: D

When word leaked that this crooning Crow was bringing back Bill Bottrell 15 years after her “Tuesday Night Music Club” debut album, all I could think was how much fun would be had. Face it: Though her music is way sunny, there hasn’t been that head-back, free-wheeling verve in Crow’s sound since her producer/co-songwriter for “TNMC” went away. Sadly, “Detours” takes a faceless doom-looming turn, with the ever-greening Crow bringing Bottrell down with her. Nobody needs another environmental 911 call — not one as heavy-handed as “God Bless This Mess.” Or slick lyrics about oil futures (”Gasoline”). Or syrupy kids’ songs (”Lullaby for Wyatt”). Though her vocals are lovely and fluid, Crow manages to trivialize her own son as well as her battle with cancer in “Make It Go Away [Radiation Song],” with ham-fisted lyrics. What Crow does personalize through melodies effortlessly tender and vocals hauntingly raw is the rigor of romance. She cuts through the sultriness of “Diamond Ring” in a genuine snit and blesses stuff like “Now That You’re Gone” and “Drunk With the Thought of You” with some subtle soul blasts and Beatles-ish bliss. That’s the Crow I wanted to hear.

— A.D. Amorosi, Philadelphia Inquirer

‘DISTRICT LINE’

Bob Mould (Anti-)

Grade: B-

Wrestling superfan Bob Mould grapples with his many musical muses on “District Line.” It’s as though he’s in the middle of a ring being tugged in different directions by an electronic dance groove, thrashing guitar rock and Sugary pop. The result is like professional wrestling: You wonder what’s going to happen next. The best of “District Line” is terrific, and on those songs the guitars are loudest. “Return To Dust” and “The Silence Between Us” recall Mould’s seminal 1980s work with Husker Du. The album serves up plenty of catchy melodies, and the ballads “Walls In Time” and “Old Highs New Lows” would fit nicely on an album by Mould’s former group Sugar. Part-time DJ Mould is less successful exploring his penchant for electronic music. The trance-inducing “Shelter Me” is built on gurgling synthesizers that belong in a South Beach nightclub rather than this set. Several other cuts are marred by vocals either distorted or strained, but Mould roars on the rockers. At 47, that’s still what he does best.

— Steven Wine, Associated Press

‘MADE IN THE DARK’

Hot Chip (Astralwerks)

Grade: B

The five guys in the British synth and drum-machine quintet Hot Chip look like geeks, but they’re expert at programming the beating of human hearts into their computerized electro-pop sound. It’s not for nothing that the sampled voice of Todd Rundgren is heard on the terrific single “Shake a Fist” urging everybody to join in “a game called sounds of the studio.” The Chippers do not include a singer who’s as blue-eyed soulful as Rundgren, but they share a similar song-oriented aesthetic and a common fascination with manipulating technology for their own warmhearted ends. “Made in the Dark” may not include anything as hypnotically entrancing as “Over and Over” from 2006’s “The Warning,” but its stylistic range is broader, and it shows off a new facility for ballads such as the title track and “We’re Looking For a Lot of Love,” both of which leave the dance floor behind and head for the boudoir.

— Dan DeLuca, Philadelphia Inquirer

‘VENUS ON EARTH’

Dengue Fever (M80)

Grade: B

Dengue Fever is a flulike, mosquito-borne disease common in Southeast Asia and other tropical climates. It’s also a Los Angeles band that, while similarly exotic, is far less harmful to the health. The quintet consists of five Angelenos, spearheaded by brothers Zac and Ethan Holtzman and Cambodian-born singer Chhom Nimol. They specialize in fusing Cambodian pop music with gleefully trashy garage, surf and psychedelic rock. The band’s 2005 album, “Escape from the Dragon House,” was sung almost entirely in Khmer. But, while the dulcet-voiced Nimol sings in her native tongue on “Venus on Earth,” the disc also works in English interludes, such as the telephonic love song “Tiger Phone Card” and the spy-music instrumental “Oceans of Venus,” while navigating the fine line between the exotic and the accessible with winning grace.

— Dan DeLuca, Philadelphia Inquirer