record reviews

March 14, 2010 at 12:00a.m.

‘Plastic Beach’

Gorillaz (Virgin)

Grade: B+

As cartoons, Gorillaz should never have to worry about limitations. However, the possibilities on the band’s “Plastic Beach” (Virgin) — the third collaboration between musical mastermind Damon Albarn, his ever-growing circle of friends, and visual artist Jamie Hewlett — feel distinctly finite.

According to Gorillaz mythology, “Plastic Beach” is an island in the South Pacific made of debris washed up from the rest of society. It’s an idea that fits in nicely with the album’s twin themes of one man’s trash being another man’s treasure and the melancholy that comes from realizing how much is actually wasted.

There’s little exuberance here. Instead, Gorillaz mainly goes for laid back, starting with the electro-funk “Welcome to the World of the Plastic Beach,” featuring Snoop Dogg going on about how the world seems hopeless.

— Glenn Gamboa, Long Island Newsday

‘Battle of the Sexes’

Ludacris

(Disturbing Tha Peace/Island Def Jam)

Grade: B

Few rappers understand balance better than Ludacris, and “Battle of the Sexes” proves it. Not only does Luda know when a song needs an R&B crooner or a female voice, he knows when he needs to speed up a flow or rough up a rhyme. It’s that combo that makes “I Know You Got a Man” sound fresh, that makes “Sex Room” with Trey Songz a success and makes the Tiger Woods-inspired “Sexting” so funny.

— Glenn Gamboa, Long Island Newsday

‘San Patricio’

The Chieftains, featuring Ry Cooder

(Hear Music)

Grade: A

“Riverdance” visits the Rio Grande on “San Patricio,” an unlikely but likable merger of music from Ireland and Mexico.

The album tells the story of Irish immigrants who deserted the U.S. Army in 1846 to fight on the side of the Mexicans against the invading Yankees. Known as the San Patricio battalion, the immigrants were scorned in the United States, but they’re remembered as heroes in Mexico.

The Chieftains bring history alive with their characteristic exuberance and grace, and a parade of guest artists help celebrate a confluence of musical genres. Ry Cooder, who co-produced with the Chieftains’ Paddy Moloney, contributes an original ballad, and there are fine performances by singers Linda Ronstadt, Lila Downs and 92-year-old Chavela Vargas, among others.

Included are a lullaby and march, airs and reels from Ireland, as well as Mexican sones, boleros and canciones rancheras. Uilleann pipes give way to trumpets, and the bajo sexto alternates with the tin whistle.

— Steven Wine, Associated Press

‘Get Off on the Pain’

Gary Allan (MCA Nashville)

Grade: B

Many modern Nashville artists cop the macho swagger of the outlaw movement of country music’s past, but few remember how artists such as Waylon Jennings and Willie Nelson balanced self-aggrandizement with sensitive self-examination.

Gary Allan, to his credit, is tough enough to show a tender side. On his eighth studio album, “Get Off on the Pain,” Allan not only rocks with bluster; he also opens his tortured soul and searches for redemption.

It’s on the ballads where Allan truly flies. “Along the Way” and “She Gets Me” both find a rowdy rambler acknowledging how much his lover sacrifices to keep him. On the musically stripped-down “No Regrets,” Allan attunes his gruff-but-powerful voice to convey a hard-earned strength that’s come in the five years since the suicide of his wife, Angela, while admitting, “I still miss her every day.” That’s the kind of searing honesty too often missing from country radio today.

— Michael McCall, Associated Press