‘Joy’

‘Joy’

Phish (JEMP Records)

Grade: A

The finicky fans of Phish have never been much satisfied with the Vermont jamband’s studio offerings — if they were, they wouldn’t go to such extremes to catch the band live.

“Joy,” the foursome’s first post-reunion record, is one of the band’s strongest, most self- assured albums in more than a decade, the surest sign since the March reboot concerts in Hampton, Va., that Phish intends not just to hang around awhile, but to keep pushing onward and upward.

Will Phish-heads take notice?

It doesn’t matter. Months will pass, live versions of these tracks will integrate into the two-plus hour sets, and no matter what fans think now, jubilation will eventually erupt with the first strains of “Backwards Down the Number Line,” “Light,” “Sugar Shack” and “Time Turns Elastic,” four tunes off of “Joy” that stand out here as potential monsters in the Phish canon.

As a whole, “Joy” is grounded, unfussy and songwriting-driven. This album is remarkable for its clarity and focus; through multiple listens, individual instruments shine within the intricate weave, a credit to producer Steve Lillywhite, who might otherwise have been tempted to bog down its sprightly tracks with an unnecessary jumble of sonic layers.

— Josh L. Dickey, Associated Press

‘popular songs’

Yo La Tengo (Matador)

Grade: A

Few current bands have been on as long a winning streak as Yo La Tengo. Aside from 2003’s lightweight “Summer Sun” (and discounting the group’s myriad secondary releases, such as the all-covers set released earlier this year under an unprintable pseudonym), every album the Hoboken, N.J., trio of Ira Kaplan, Georgia Hubley, and James McNew has released since 1992’s “May I Sing With Thee” has been good to great. “Popular Songs” is no exception: It’s excellent.

The first half — nine songs in 36 minutes — focuses on pretty, jangly ditties and soul-funk nuggets, buoyed by strings and/or organ, with detours for a fuzzed-out garage rocker and an Ira and Georgia back-and-forth duet in the style of Marvin Gaye and Tammi Terrell or Lee Hazlewood and Nancy Sinatra.

The second half — three songs, 37 minutes — has one droning meditation (solid), one minimalist atmospheric noodling (negligible), and one feedback freakout jam (great).

For a 25-year-old band that’s never had a commercial hit, the album title is mostly ironic. But this is one band that deserves to be more popular.

— Steve Klinge, Philadelphia Inquirer

‘Humbug’

Arctic Monkeys (Domino)

Grade: B

What a funny band Arctic Monkeys is: Alex Turner’s screechy Yorkshire accent and veddy British lyrics, warily detailing the minutiae of pub life, politics and pulling birds; the band’s rapturously scrappy mix of music-hall lilt and punk-rock disgust.

Ray Davies, Ian Dury and Damon Albarn have spun like-minded tall tales and sing-along melodies throughout Brit pop’s history. Arctic Monkeys somehow made it fresh again, sprier.

That’s why at first listen it’s hard to take the broken heaviness of “Humbug.” There’s a psychedelic density within their wonky personae. Blame producer Josh Homme (Queens of the Stone Age) for turning chipper pianos into spook-house organs and transforming their guitar attack into something resembling Cream or Black Sabbath. But can it be Homme who’s turned Turner into a showbiz crooner with a baritone swoon? Homme does sing that way, at times, on his own albums.

Rather than approaching vocals with his usual cunning curtness, Turner daffily elongates phrases. Deliciously, too. Whether it’s the cranked-up “Pretty Visitors,” the oozing “Crying Lightning,” or the slurring ballad “Cornerstone,” the attitude remains — but it’s gotten older, golden, and wearier if not wiser. Cheeky Monkeys.

— A.D. Amorosi, Philadelphia Inquirer

‘Lean Forward’

The Bottle Rockets (Bloodshot)

Grade: A

“I ain’t broke down, I’m just out of gas,” Brian Henneman spits out defiantly on “Hard Times.” It’s a hard-luck tale that suits the times — no surprise coming from roots-rockers who have always worn their everyman sensibilities proudly. Musically, however, the Bottle Rockets are still fueled up and running on all cylinders.

“Lean Forward” reunites the Missouri quartet with producer Eric Ambel, and it rocks with crisp toughness. Henneman and his writing mates, including bassist Keith Voegele and drummer Mark Ortmann, haven’t lost any of their edge, either. Celebrating the journey over the destination in “The Long Way” or the communal fun of public transportation in “Get on the Bus,” solemnly personalizing the losses of war in “The Kid Next Door,” or taking a hard look at a dying relationship in the soul-tinged “Solitaire,” the songs are honest and unsentimental, and lead singer Henneman again comes across as a true-blue workingman’s bard.

— Nick Cristiano, Philadelphia Inquirer

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