‘the slip’

‘the slip’

Nine Inch Nails (free download)

Grade: B

Trent Reznor dropped his poison pill into the pop water supply Monday when he offered the new Nine Inch Nails album as a free download, setting a new threshold in the ongoing breakdown of the record marketplace.

Did this form of delivery affect the nature of the music? “The Slip” will come out as a not-free CD in July, but it’s conceivable that the prospect of an unencumbered pre-release exchange with fans encouraged more daring choices in assembling the collection.

In any case, “The Slip” is murkier and less catchy than the last couple of regular NIN albums, “Year Zero” and “With Teeth.” On the rock numbers, Reznor blends the jarring sounds of the industrial rock genre that he popularized with a terse, punk-like attack, bringing an insistent, sometimes claustrophobic feel to his scenarios of alienation (“I feel a million miles away / I don’t feel anything at all”).

On the hushed, sad ballad “Lights in the Sky,” his voice drifts down into the dark waters he’s singing about, and he devotes time to instrumental studies in shape and texture, such as “Corona Radiata.”

Don’t be fooled by the relatively radio-friendly track “Discipline.” In “The Slip,” Reznor isn’t concerned with making it easy. But give it a try. What have you got to lose?

— Richard Cromelin, Los Angeles Times

‘Home Before Dark’

Neil Diamond (Columbia)

Grade: B+

While producer Rick Rubin coaxed some fine songs out of Neil Diamond on their first collaboration, 2005’s “12 Songs,” you could feel the fear of a singer told to stand alone with his guitar in front of a recording microphone for the first time in many years.

With the new “Home Before Dark,” Diamond sounds much more comfortable.

That’s mostly good.

In fact, we’ll defy any singer-songwriter this year to come up with a run of four stronger songs than the ones that open this album. Bookended by the epic “If I Don’t See You Again” and the Natalie Maines duet “Another Day [That Time Forgot],” each song is assured and insightful. Years of crusted bangles and beads prevent many people from taking Diamond seriously as a songwriter. That’s a mistake.

Diamond’s acoustic guitar is the centerpiece of a band that includes Heartbreakers Mike Campbell and Benmont Tench and plays with stately elegance.

Some bombast returns with the confidence. “One More Bite of the Apple” is an overused metaphor that Diamond should have known to avoid. He hasn’t quite reached the level of artistry that Johnny Cash did with Rubin, but “Home Before Dark” continues to solidify Diamond’s reputation.

— David Bauder, Associated Press

‘Momofuku’

Elvis Costello And The Imposters

(Lost Highway)

Grade: B

Ever since the brilliant sprint of Elvis Costello’s first four or five albums, fans have been pining for the proverbial return to form.

Over the years, there have been plenty of contenders — 2002’s “When I Was Cruel” and 2004’s “Delivery Man” are the most recent — but Costello tends to lose himself in ambitious genre exercises, attempting, with mixed results, to master everything from country to classical.

“Momofuku,” named either for the inventor of instant noodles or a hip New York eatery, was cut in a week by Costello, the Imposters (his classic Attractions lineup, less bassist Bruce Thomas) and a cast of young ringers, including Jenny Lewis and Jonathan Rice.

The album is available only as a digital download or two-LP set (a CD version is due later this month), and the vinyl format befits its loose, organic feel. Costello is as tuneful as ever, and whether he’s revisiting his rock past (“No Hiding Place”) or playing the leader of a dark lounge band (“Harry Worth”), he’s relaxed and in his element.

The new songs aren’t exactly rock, pop, alt-country or neo-new wave, although they contain elements of those and other styles. Even if it’s not as essential as his late-’70s masterpieces, “Momofuku” is unmistakably an Elvis Costello record.

— Kenneth Partridge, Hartford Courant

‘secrets’

Sierra Hull (Rounder)

Grade: A

Combine the angelic voice of Alison Krauss with the fiery mandolin picking of Rhonda Vincent and you have the sound of Sierra Hull on “Secrets.”

It doesn’t hurt that the 16-year-old Krauss prot g is backed by members of Krauss’ band Union Station, or that Hull’s co-producer is Station’s Ron Block. But it’s still her album.

She hits the ground running on the title track with a vicious mandolin lick followed by her driving vocal. It’s the only cut that includes all four members of Union Station — Dan Tyminski on vocals, Block on guitar and vocals, Barry Bales on bass and Jerry Douglas on dobro.

Two instrumentals highlight Hull’s mandolin virtuosity — “Smashville” by Jim VanCleve, who plays fiddle on the track, and Hull’s “Hullarious” — on which she’s joined by another amazing teen, 17-year-old banjo player Cory Walker from her band Highway 111 and shows she’s no slouch at guitar, either.

The lone ballad amid the 13 tracks is a lovely version of “The Hard Way,” far softer than Keith Urban’s grittier one. Hull also delivers a snappy bluegrass update of “Everybody’s Somebody’s Fool,” which Connie Francis took to No. 1 almost a half century ago. Hull dodges the youthful temptation to oversing or overplay and instead leads what amounts to a track-by-track jam session with some of the most talented musicians in bluegrass. It’s dominated by her mandolin and vocal dynamics few artists of any age ever master.

— Tom Gardner, Associated Press

‘nine lives’

Steve Winwood (Columbia)

Grade: A-

Five years after his acclaimed indie release, “About Time,” Steve Winwood has returned to the majors with “Nine Lives,” but fear not: He’s made minimal concessions to the pop commercialism that wilted much of his mid-’90s output. “Nine Lives” is a muscular, genre-jumping collection that has the understatedly talented Winwood exploring everything from Latin rhythms (”Secrets”) to acoustic blues (”I’m Not Drowning”) — and even offering a nod to his past with the Traffic-y flute-and-organ jam “At Times We Do Forget.” Winwood’s bandmates — particularly saxophone player/flutist Paul Booth and percussionist Karl Vanden Bossche — are given plenty of sonic wiggle room, enhancing the expansive arrangements that give songs like “Dirty City” (featuring Eric Clapton) and “Raging Sea” a loose but structured vibe. Winwood lays down plenty of funky guitar and Hammond organ licks throughout, but his greatest instrument remains the soulful, soaring vocals that first brought him fame as a teenager more than 40 years ago.

— Nicole Pensiero, Philadelphia Inquirer

‘through these wallS’

Hilary McRae (Hear)

Grade: A-

She’s only 21, so Hilary McRae wasn’t around in the ’70s. But that’s the decade the piano-playing singer and songwriter evokes on her exceptionally accomplished debut.

Buoyantly catchy in many spots, “Through These Walls” could easily qualify as pop. The music, however, is grounded in warm, uptown R&B, heavy on the horns. The sophistication of the arrangements matches that of McRae’s schmaltz-free songs — tough or tender, she dwells on matters of the heart in ways that expose raw feeling without resorting to histrionics or melodrama. Add her decidedly dusky alto, and you have a young artist who sounds wise and battle-scarred beyond her years while also coming across as a vibrant new voice.

— Nick Cristiano, Philadelphia Inquirer

‘Night Train to Nashville’

Tab Benoit (Telarc)

Grade: B

Tab Benoit’s passion for the music of his native Louisiana hasn’t always prevented him from succumbing to generic, meat-and-potatoes blues-rock. In the last few years, however, the singer-guitarist has tapped into his roots in ways that have produced the most consistently rich and satisfying albums of his career.

“Night Train to Nashville” continues that trend, as it captures a live set in Music City in which the bayou bluesman is again backed by his fellow Louisianans in the group LeRoux. The performances highlight both the straight-on soulfulness and tangy flavor of Benoit’s blues and R&B (he wrote nine of the 11 tracks, which also touch on rock, country and zydeco). Adding some flavor of their own are several guests, including Jim Lauderdale, Jimmy Hall and Kim Wilson, but they never steal the spotlight from the front man and his songs.

— Nick Cristiano, Philadelphia Inquirer

‘Supreme Balloon’

Matmos (Matador)

Grade: B

If the long-running electronic duo Matmos — Martin Schmidt and Drew Daniel — has veered toward arty abstraction in the past, its seventh album is a pleasant surprise. “Supreme Balloon” is a ticklish feat of rubbery soul and playful melodies, relying on short songs in all but one instance: the 24-minute title track, which starts at a low hum, hits upon a busy flutter in the middle, and ends with deconstructive blurts of synthesizer. Otherwise, squishy gems like “Polychords” and “Exciter Lamp” keep us nodding and tapping our feet through the duo’s cryptic collage of sounds. Matmos always enjoys a challenge, whether collaborating with Bjork or recording a live album. Here, the duo successfully tackles cuddly electronic pop worthy of Hot Chip.

— Doug Wallen, Philadelphia Inquirer

‘Trust Me’

Craig David (Warner Bros.)

Grade: B

“Trust Me” isn’t just the title of British artist Craig David’s fourth studio album. The two-word combination might best serve as instructions for listening to the disc.

The 26-year-old, who made a splash in the United States with his 2001 platinum debut “Born to Do It” but then fell off the radar here, exudes soul. His voice is sweet and sincere on the delicate, slow-moving track “Awkward,” with its earthy mix of guitar and organ.

But creatively, David isn’t so easily labeled. Perhaps it’s because he escapes the usual boundaries of those in his musical genre — going full-throttle with sounds some artists only dabble in.

The tempo, the drums and the electrifying horns on “6 of 1 Thing” and “Don’t Play with Our Love” boast Cuban influence. The lead single “Hot Stuff [Let’s Dance]” starts with a ’50s-era drumbeat and continues with a sound culled from the days of disco.

There are tracks, such as the folksy “Top of the Hill,” that might seem out of character, but the guy sounds good, nevertheless. For those who choose to follow David’s directions, “Trust Me” is easy to enjoy, even if the selection of tracks doesn’t mesh seamlessly together.

— Melanie Sims, Associated Press