‘No One’s First, and You’re Next’

‘No One’s First, and You’re Next’

Modest Mouse (Epic)

Grade: B

The eight songs on Modest Mouse’s first release in two years are not, unfortunately, groundbreaking new material. The EP “No One’s First, and You’re Next” is culled primarily from outtakes from the band’s last two full-length releases, 2007’s “We Were Dead Before the Ship Even Sank” and 2004’s “Good News for People Who Love Bad News,” with the addition of two new tracks. Yet, it’s still a surprisingly cohesive and well-structured album. It burrows deeper into the maniacally mutated Americana genre the band created with the release of “Good News.” There are gritty country choruses, undulating prog-influenced guitar solos, New Orleans brass and layers of reverb and distorted instrumentals. While Modest Mouse has lost the quirky song structure and lo-fi ethos that made their earlier albums unique and engaging, “No One’s First” does re-instill the fact that the group is the master of conflicting emotions, dishing out doses of melancholy, joy, inspiration and spontaneity in every song.

— Katherine Silkaitis, Philadelphia Inquirer

‘Gloriana’

Gloriana (Emblem/Atlantic)

Grade: B

It all sounds a little too easy for Gloriana. With four singers — 20-something brothers Mike and Tom Gossin and teenage belters Rachel Reinert and Cheyenne Kimball — who all look and sound like they arrived from Nashville central casting for the next Lady Antebellum or Sugarland. There are reasons to be skeptical about the “realness” of the group and their debut “Gloriana.” Sure, their first single, “Wild at Heart,” sounds great, a stomping rock-tinged number that plays like a countrified Fleetwood Mac while it builds some pretty four-part harmonies, and the “Go Your Own Way”-ish “How Far Do You Want to Go?” is just as good.

But in between, there are songs that sound a little too mechanized, from the Martina McBride-ish “All the Things [That Mean the Most]” to the Rascal Flatts-y “The Way It Goes,” and songs that sound ill-suited for multiple singers, including the oddly structured ballad “Change Your Mind.” There are also droopy ballads, such as “Cry on Command” and “Lead Me On,” where Gloriana plays it way too safe and ends up making you wonder how long this partnership will hold.

— Glenn Gamboa, Long Island Newsday

‘A**jack’

A**jack (Sidewalk/Curb)

Grade: A

Outlaw country? You don’t know from outlaw till you’ve dealt with the demons inside the son of Hank Jr. and grandson of the rambling man.

For all of the country cool his lineage should evoke, Hank Williams III plays it odd and hot, taking on the depressed tension of his forebears as well as their addictions, literary and literal.

While those obsessions have yielded elegant traditional country songs and honky-tonkers wistful in their execution, there’s a darker side to Hank III — the hard-core death-metal one he’s long put forth in concert as A**jack.

Finally committed to recording such a fantastic morass, A**jack’s debut goes beyond Williams’ hellbilly ruckus to find his sludgy frenzy furthered. It had to — Hank III wrote and performed this shebang alone. That gives focus to A**jack’s tunes of menace, abhorrence and heartache, as if he’s on a solo mission to Hades.

The violent “Chokin’ Gesture” and “Cut Throat” are short and not-so-sweet songs filled with curt contempt and gut-shot screams never to be confused with C&W’s good ol’ boy hoots ’n’ hollers. “Cocaine the White Devil,” on the other hand, takes its good old time skulking around its hulking disgust. William S. Burroughs couldn’t have done it better. Sensational.

— A.D. Amorosi, Philadelphia Inquirer

‘hometowns’

The Rural Alberta Advantage (Saddle Creek)

Grade: A

At their best, Toronto trio the Rural Alberta Advantage sound like an indie-rock dream date between Neutral Milk Hotel and the Arcade Fire. Vocalist-guitarist Nils Edenloff strums forcefully and sings passionately, his flat voice invested with desperation and fervor, and a few tracks burst into horn-enhanced climaxes. The brief songs, most under three minutes, race along to the dual percussion of Paul Banwatt and Amy Cole, and there’s rewarding friction between their stripped-down, homespun quality and the grand, distorted intensity, abetted by judicious use of Cole’s backing vocals, keyboards, horns, or strings.

Edenloff relocated from Alberta to Toronto, and many of the songs on “Hometowns,” RAA’s debut, grow from nostalgia: for rural life, for relationships lost, for historical events.

— Steve Klinge, Philadelphia Inquirer

‘The Bright Mississippi’

Allen Toussaint (Nonesuch)

Grade: A

Composer, pianist, and producer Allen Toussaint is a reigning sage of New Orleans music and has mostly rested his hat on the R&B side of things. But here on one of his few forays into jazz comes further evidence, if it were needed, of his extraordinary musicianship.

This folksy set puts him in with some heavy hitters, including clarinetist Don Byron, trumpeter Nicholas Payton, guitarist Marc Ribot, and, on one track each, pianist Brad Mehldau and saxophonist Joshua Redman.

The session is satisfying for its evocation of old-time New Orleans jazz. It features pleasant strolls through “St. James Infirmary” and Jelly Roll Morton’s “Winin’ Boy Blues.” It’s hard to play this music without sounding tuckered out, or at least heavy on retro. Toussaint, now 71, whose career stretches back to Professor Longhair and encompasses an amazing string of hits, makes it all sound extremely soulful.

The session doesn’t stop there. The players provide zesty voodoo on Thelonious Monk’s title track, featuring Byron’s airy clarinet. Toussaint’s duet with Redman on Duke Ellington and Billy Strayhorn’s “Day Dream” is a boffo performance.

— Karl Stark, Philadelphia Inquirer