record reviews

May 9, 2010 at 12:00a.m.

DIXIE CHICKS

Album: “Court Yard Hounds”

Grade: B

With the Dixie Chicks on hiatus and her marriage at an end, Emily Robison needed a creative outlet. She found it in a batch of songs that started as a solo project but turned into the Court Yard Hounds with her sister, Martie Maguire.

“Court Yard Hounds” (Columbia) walks the same folk-rock ground that the last Chicks album did, but Robison’s take is more peaceful-easy-feeling than Natalie Maines. She soothes like Suzanne Vega on “Skyline” and adopts the breezy feel of Shawn Colvin on “The Coast.” The long-distance love affair of “See You in Spring,” a duet with Jakob Dylan, would be equally at home next to “Blue Bayou”-era Linda Ronstadt or “Love Story”-era Taylor Swift.

But that doesn’t mean that the pair doesn’t tackle thornier issues. Robison gets riled up on “Ain’t No Son,” a rocking, wrenching tale of a father who disowns his son and then regrets it.

While “April’s Love” offers a simple, straightforward acoustic portrait of a breakup, “It Didn’t Make a Sound” is a clever embodiment of its complexities. The song veers into classic country, easing the pain with some sweet harmonies and rollicking piano riffs, which offer her enough comfort to declare, “Go ahead and leave me darling, you won’t ever see me crying,” as the fiddles and the guitars carry her off on the outro.

— Glenn Gamboa, Long Island Newsday

THE HOLD STEADY

Album: “Heaven Is Whenever”

Grade: B

“Heaven Is Whenever” (Vagrant) sounds like The Hold Steady may think being “America’s best bar band” is just fine. With the departure of keyboardist Franz Nicolay, things don’t sound nearly as grand — shifting their balance of influences away from stadium-rocking Springsteen toward club-friendly Replacements.

Nevertheless, “Hurricane J” is one of the year’s most memorable indie rockers, while “Our Whole Lives” shows they haven’t given up on amping-up Springsteen’s “Rosalita” just yet, and the massive “Slight Discomfort” shows all the “Stay Positive” ambition isn’t gone. Maybe this is the sound of regrouping.

— Glenn Gamboa, Long Island Newsday

GRAHAM PARKER

Album: “Imaginary Television”

Grade: A

More than 30 years after he came snarling out of Britain, Graham Parker remains as sharp as ever. And with his latest album the bantam rocker finds a new way to show he is far more than his angry-man image would indicate.

For “Imaginary Television [Bloodshot],” Parker created treatments for 10 TV shows — you have to read the often hilarious descriptions in the liner notes — and built songs off them. (The 11th track is Johnny Nash’s “Questions and Answers.”) The songs really stand on their own: You don’t need to know, for instance, that the catchy “See Things My Way” is from the “show” about 16-year-old Taiwanese conjoined twins Mikey and Mickey.

On the jaunty “Bring Me a Heart Again,” Parker, as private detective Nate Rimshot, confesses, “Long ago I felt my empathy wane.” In reality, when you consider that Parker is singing in the voices of his characters, this rather brilliant concept allows him to show a lot of empathy. True to his nature, though, he does it without ever seeming soft.

— Nick Cristiano, Philadelphia Inquirer

BROKEN SOCIAL SCENE

Album: “Forgiveness Rock Record”

Grade: B

With its masses of guitars and massive lineup that can reach a dozen or more, Toronto’s Broken Social Scene has demonstrated the strength in numbers. But numbers can lead to conflicts, and the title of BSS’s fourth album refers to rifts within the band, including between leaders Kevin Drew and Brendan Canning, that have since been patched.

“Forgiveness Rock Record” (Arts & Crafts) is in large part a makeup (as opposed to a breakup) album, as in “Sentimental X’s,” a softly percolating track featuring Leslie Feist, Metric’s Emily Haines, and Stars’ Amy Millan, three of the numerous guests/alums who supplement BSS’s current seven-member core.

Produced with Tortoise’s John McEntire, “Forgiveness” revolves around recurring themes and riffs, and its rhythms are often complex and detailed, sometimes with prominent electronics.

— Steve Klinge, Philadelphia Inquirer

PETER KARP AND SUE FOLEY

Album: “He Said, She Said”

Grade: A

It’s not a concept you see every day — two artists chronicling their growing relationship in song. Make those artists as gifted as Peter Karp and Sue Foley, and the results are as compelling as they are candid.

Both Karp and Foley had already forged individual voices out of various roots elements — Karp as a New Jersey-by-way-of-Alabama troubadour with a roadhouse flair who excels on guitar and piano, and the Canadian Foley as a blues-guitar firebrand who made her name in the music hotbed of Austin, Texas.

On “He Said, She Said [Blind Pig],” they duet and harmonize on several numbers, such as the playful, bluesy opener “Treat Me Right” and the acoustic ballad “Valentine’s Day.” They write separately, however, providing two perspectives on the relationship while maintaining a narrative thrust — note how Foley’s “Danger Lurks” dovetails into Karp’s “Ready for Your Love.”

— Nick Cristiano, Philadelphia Inquirer