‘Death Magnetic’

‘Death Magnetic’

Metallica (Warner Bros.)

Grade: A

Believe it or not, Metallica is very far from dead.

Chipping its teeth on the punishing thrash it helped give birth to, Metallica regresses in the best way on the highly anticipated “Death Magnetic.”

After 2003’s painfully weak “St. Anger” and a self-obsessed documentary (“Some Kind of Monster”) which alienated longtime fans, James Hetfield, Lars Ulrich and Co. are more metal here than they’ve been since 1988’s “And Justice For All.”

Parting ways with longtime producer Bob Rock, who took them mainstream, helps. Rick Rubin, who revitalized several veteran acts, from Neil Diamond to Johnny Cash to the Dixie Chicks, has stepped in and breathed new life into the band.

Is “Death Magnetic” on par with Metallica’s classics? No, but this is as close as they’ll ever come to the epic songs they once churned out with ease — only two of the 10 tracks on “Death Magnetic” clock in at under seven minutes.

Disc opener “That Was Just Your Life” kicks off softly with shades of “[Welcome Home] Sanitarium” before exploding with a trademark Hetfield staccato riff.

From there the thrash and complex arrangements just keep coming in waves.

“The End of The Line” is a bit political (“No consequence machine/Burn through all your gasoline”) but blisters the ears throughout. Same goes for “Broken, Beat & Scarred,” “Cyanide,” “The Judas Kiss” and “All Nightmare Long.”

They showcase their 1990s persona with “The Unforgiven III” and “The Day That Never Comes” and overpower with a nearly 10-minute instrumental, “Suicide & Redemption.”

— John Kosik, Associated Press

‘Do You Know’

Jessica Simpson (Epic/Columbia Nashville)

Grade: C

Jessica Simpson’s jump from pop to country music may seem calculated to save her music career, but the Texas native says she grew up a country fan.

Still, no one expected an album of waltzes and two-steppers. Predictably, her debut collection, “Do You Know,” focuses on slick Nashville pop; no one will mistake any of the 11 songs as boot-scooting honky tonk or dirt-road country rock.

Guided by Nashville’s Brett James and Grammy-winning producer John Shanks, Simpson handles her vocals with careful professionalism.

She also co-wrote eight of the 11 songs, hooking up with contemporary country hit-makers Hillary Lindsey, Luke Laird and Rachel Proctor, among others, for tunes that fit the current Nashville formulas.

But there’s nothing that distinguishes her voice or her musical direction from other country newcomers.

At her best, as on the ballad “Still Don’t Stop Me,” Simpson suggests she has potential to be a more singular artist than she’s yet proved. But from the first hit, “Come On Over,” to the religious-based “Pray Out Loud” to the love song to her quarterback boyfriend, “You’re My Sunday,” there’s little on Simpson’s down-home transition to propose she is ready to compete creatively or commercially with Carrie Underwood and Taylor Swift.

— Michael McCall, Associated Press

‘alphabutt’

Kimya Dawson and Friends

(Almost Gold/Columbia)

Grade: B

Kimya Dawson came of age on the soundtrack for the hit movie “Juno.” Now she translates her minimalist, coffee-shop style to a children’s album, “Alphabutt” and it’s no surprise it works.

But the question remains: Who is this album for? Children, or their too-hip parents?

The songs themselves are short, cutely crafted and probably unlike anything you’ve got in the playing rotation for your 3-year-old.

These songs explore hairy armpits, student loans, world hunger and the alphabet learned with the help of potty-room lyrics and alliteration.

The album begins with the fun ditty “Little Monster Babies,” a 1-minute, 27-second ode to fun levels of destruction the toddlers can bring to the home before they conk out.

The story lines get stronger with songs like “Bobby-O,” perhaps the best track on the disc. Children play percussion in the background while Dawson sings of Bobby-O, “skinny younger brother of Fabio,” who takes his horse Rambo down to Mexico looking for work.

It’s a great sing-a-long, but the Dick Dale surf guitar riffs and adult theme reinforces the notion that parents that grew up on 10,000 Maniacs and The Smiths might enjoy this more than their little alternative brood.

Dawson’s effort is admirable for parents who are looking for something quirky.

She’s no Laurie Berkner, but she’s good.

— Ron Harris, Associated Press

‘THE STAND INS’

Okkervil River (Jagjaguwar)

Grade: B

What makes the most sense about Okkervil River’s new “The Stand Ins” is that it doesn’t make sense.

The release by the Austin, Texas, band transplanted from New England is a “sequel” to 2007’s “The Stage Names,” an incomprehensible series of stories written in narrative style rather than traditional lyrical form.

How “The Stand Ins” is a sequel is anyone’s guess, but it does continue the offbeat charm of “The Stage Names” and singer/songwriter Will Sheff’s penchant for earnest melodrama.

The new release begins with a mysterious journey aboard a ship and ends with an even more mysterious journey aboard a spaceship. The in-between stuff is anchored to the experience of a performer, or performers, and disillusionment and change.

The discourse in the careening “Singer Songwriter,” for instance, includes a checklist of a family’s skill history and an evaluation of art versus an evaluation of soul that includes the line, “You’ve got taste; what a waste that that’s all that you have.”

Elsewhere, the vibrant, low-key discordancy of “Starry Stairs” serves as a backdrop for lines like, “I’m alive, but a different kind of alive than the way I used to be,” and the mopey ramble of “Calling and Not Calling My Ex” comes to focus with, “God knows I’m feeling really stupid now for ever having said goodbye.”

— Chuck Campbell, The Knoxville News-Sentinel