record reviews

December 12, 2010 at 12:00a.m.

KE$HA

Album: “Cannibal” (RCA)

Grade: B

Where Lady Gaga goes, Ke$ha follows — a less glamorous, more amorous, skankier version, but that’s Ke$ha’s shtick. So here’s “Cannibal,” the companion to January’s chart-topping “Animal” (as Gaga did with “The Fame,” then “The Fame Monster”). Like its predecessor, “Cannibal’s” got manic sass, unapologetic sleaze and wildly contagious production/songwriting help from electro-pop’s go-to hitmaker, Dr. Luke. Yet his hyperkinetic rhythms and Auto-Tune sheen — along with Ke$ha’s usual salaciousness — never blankets her chops or progression.

Ke$ha freestyles like a champ and makes herself small on intimate ballads such as the childish but impassioned “C U Next Tuesday” — a quiet tune proving she can sing in stripped-down fashion.

— A.D. Amorosi, Philadelphia Inquirer

T.I.

Album: “No Mercy”

Grade: B-

Understandably, T.I. had a lot on his mind when he was working on “No Mercy” (Grand Hustle/Atlantic).

He is in an Arkansas federal prison, after being arrested in September on drug charges, which violated his parole on previous federal weapons charges. T.I. has publicly talked about trying to change his life, documented in his reality show “Road to Redemption,” and the Grammy-winning rapper and actor continues that discussion throughout “No Mercy.”

Over a chugging metal guitar riff, he rhymes unapologetically about his problems, summing it up with “You can be for certain ain’t nobody perfect, but when you’re rich ... no mercy.” It’s a twisted logic worthy of Kanye West, who delivers a highlight by producing and guesting on “Welcome to the World,” though it’s Kid Cudi who delivers the hardest-hitting lines, “Soon as Wayne get out, TIP go in, wonder why a — — wanna make a clip go in.”

It’s a weird juxtaposition against the catchy and inspirational “Get Back Up,” with Chris Brown, where T.I. offers apologies and vows not to disappoint again. On “That’s All She Wrote,” he trades well-crafted rhymes with Eminem, who delivers a wild, raging cameo as strong as anything on “Recovery.”

— Glenn Gamboa, Long Island Newsday

DUFFY

Album: “Endlessly”

Grade: B-

For “Endlessly” (Universal), Duffy has somehow become even more stylistically schizophrenic than on her debut, “Rockferry.”

The first single, “Well, Well, Well,” is bouncily close to her Winehouse-ian breakthrough “Mercy.” Yeah, yeah, yeah. She even takes giant dance steps toward Kylie-ness with “Love struck.” However, Duffy also retreats into ’50s torch songs with the aching “Too Hurt to Dance” and the lush title track.

The genre whiplash would be worth it for the right songs, but Duffy often comes up short on the modern end (“Keeping My Baby”) and the retro trip (“Breath Away”).

— Glenn Gamboa, Long Island Newsday

NICKI MINAJ

Album: “Pink Friday”

Grade: B+

Everything about 26-year-old singer-rapper Nicki Minaj’s debut “Pink Friday” (Cash Money) screams, “I have arrived!” The album carries a pink-gold heft: Its cover depicts a fairy-winged, fluorescent-haired Barbie Nicki with long, shapely, human legs, and Minaj has an impeccable pedigree as a Lil Wayne prot g who has guest-starred with Mariah Carey, Ludacris and Usher, drawing cameos here from Eminem (angry), Rihanna (beautiful), Will.i.am (funky), Drake (sexy) and Kanye West (just plain good).

A fine singer, Minaj shows off two basic rapping voices, a Missy Elliott-style cut-up who ends the Dungeons & Dragons-referencing “Roman’s Revenge” in a loony British accent, and a profane, Lil’ Kim-style gangsta who spits dirty words on “Did It On ’em.”

But a third persona emerges, full of vulnerability, contemplating antidepressants in the soaring “Here I Am” and declaring, on “Save Me”: “Yes, I’m a beast, and I feast when I conquer/But I’m alone on my throne.”

Minaj goes to the braggy gangsta well too often, obscuring her lyrical skills and distinctive talents — her manifesto “Last Chance” doesn’t come until the end — but strong dance beats paper over her shortcomings.

— Steve Knopper, Long Island Newsday

STEVE WYNN & THE MIRACLE 3

Album: “Northern Aggression” (YepRoc)

Grade: A

Steve Wynn’s amalgam of Lou Reed’s streetwise brashness, Neil Young’s openheartedness and Bob Dylan’s oblique poetry is pretty hard to resist, and who’d want to try?

LA’s veteran indie rocker is on a tear in his third outing with the up-for-anything Miracle 3 — guitarist Jason Victor, drummer Linda Pitmon and bassist Dave DeCastro — fusing Wynn’s penchant for Americana rock, psychedelia, brutal punk and extended jams into an intriguingly seductive blend.

“Everybody wants to wonder why,” he muses in “Colored Lights” before dropping the song’s exquisite punch line: “I don’t know why.” Wynn makes you relish wondering with him.

— Randy Lewis, Los Angeles Times

CHRISETTE MICHELE

Album: “Let Freedom Reign”

Grade: B+

The third album from this Grammy winner is brimming with sweetly asserted self-actualization, with Michele telling listeners she’s “A Star” and “Number One” before track three.

There’s also the strenuous “So Cool,” in which the jazz-trained singer puts on her dance-diva hat, and “Goodbye Game” and “Unsaid,” which contain background electric guitar freak-outs in a way that brings to mind “Purple Rain”-era Prince. “Freedom” (Def Jam) is a bit long — aren’t skits a relic of the CD era? — and some of the self-help mantras seem a bit mawkish. But there’s enough top-shelf R&B within to overlook those flaws.

— Maura Johnston, Long Island Newsday