RECORD REVIEWS

April 3, 2011 at 12:00a.m.

Various Artists

Album: “Sin-atra” (Eagle Rock)

Grade: C

Just what makes those heavy metal rockers

Think they can sing like ’ol Frank Sinatra?

Everyone knows a rocker can’t sound like Sinatra

But they’ve got high hopes.

And some of those hopes are even justified on “Sin-atra,” an interesting and most unexpected heavy metal tribute album to Frank Sinatra. This is where the Chairman of the Board meets the power chord.

The best here — by far — is Twisted Sister frontman Dee Snider’s version of “It Was A Very Good Year,” a preening, insistent remake somewhat reminiscent of Queen’s “Innuendo” that lets Snider stretch his vocal talents into the higher ranges while remaining true to the spirit of the original.

Most of the songs on “Sin-atra” fall into two distinct categories: those that embrace the melody that was Sinatra’s hallmark, and those that bash melody in the head, stomp on its broken body, and then floss with it. Falling firmly into the latter category is the opener, “New York, New York” by Strapping Young Lad’s Devin Townsend. This track is so aggressively, over-the-top awful that it sounds like a bad Jack Black parody. The screams, growls and campy ringmasterlike asides will doubtless have Francis Albert Sinatra spinning in his grave.

“High Hopes” by Franky Perez of Scars on Broadway, and “Love And Marriage” by Elias Soriano of Nonpoint, are also Sinatra heresy: The hard-core, Pantera-like menace just doesn’t work here.

The melodic camp fares much better, led by Queensryche’s Geoff Tate on “Summerwind.” His soaring vocals perfectly fit the bill here, capturing the smoothness and class that defined Sinatra’s music, only four registers higher.

Glenn Hughes (Deep Purple, Black Sabbath, Black Country Communion) is seemingly everywhere these days, and he’s here, too, adding a soulful bluesy turn on “I’ve Got You Under My Skin.”

Former Judas Priest singer Tim “Ripper” Owens shoots and scores with “Witchcraft.” The remake would have made an excellent Judas Priest song.

Cheap Trick’s Robin Zander tackles “Fly Me To The Moon,” but his softer-edged vocals clash with the harsh foundation of the track’s guitar, bass and drums. Mr. Big’s Eric Martin fares better on “Lady Is A Tramp,” and it’s worth the entire price of the album just to hear Anthrax’s Joey Belladonna croon “doo-be-doo-be-doo” on “Strangers In The Night.”

— Wayne Parry, Associated Press

THE PAINS OF BEING PURE AT HEART

Album: “Belong”

Grade: B+

For their sophomore album, “Belong” (Slumberland), Brooklyn’s The Pains of Being Pure at Heart move the sweet guy-and-gal harmonies of Kip Berman and Peggy Wang and their twee sensibilities forward to the indie-pop explosion of the ’90s, delightfully crossing Belle & Sebastian with Smashing Pumpkins. They add some bouncy synths to that mix for the irresistible single “Heart in Your Heartbreak” and a bit of New Order drumming to “The Body.” But at their purest, The Pains are still building a tribute to the psycho-candy noise-pop of The Jesus and Mary Chain — quite a noble pursuit.

— Glenn Gamboa, Long Island Newsday

VARIOUS ARTISTS

Album: “Those Shocking Shaking Days: Indonesian Hard, Psychedelic, Progressive Rock and Funk 1970-1978” (Now-Again)

Grade: A

In 1975, known world music (and fuzztone guitar) enthusiast Jimmy Page observed that there was already “enough music recorded and in the vaults everywhere for me to be happy forever.” Given how increasingly available the planet’s cumulative wealth of recorded music has become, his notion has only grown more viable since. The global archives continue to deepen with more (re)discoveries of great, diverse music — and the unprecedented sharing of same. Best is when the curated presentation of the obscure yet enthralling comes as a lavish, well-annotated, well-chosen collection — like this. Particularly in its vinyl triple-disc version, Shaking Days delivers an engrossing swath of historic rock-based culture from Indonesia, the world’s fourth most populous country (and most populous Islamic nation).

Genres referenced in the compilation’s descriptive subtitle are accordingly represented over 20 tracks. Earthy Indonesian evocations of Led Zeppelin’s blazing crunch, Deep Purple’s churchy boogie, Hendrix/Santana acid flow, catchy psychedelia and Afro-jam-rockin’ James Brown-ian funk are often cut with native dangdut folk-pop and other Asian elements. The Indonesian archipelago’s ethnic diversity is also evident, from the trippy four-brother hard-rock act Panbers of Sumatra (the soaring “Haai”) to the darker-skinned otherness of Western Papua’s Black Brothers (“Saman Doye”). Truly mind-blowing.

— David R. Stampone, Philadelphia Inquirer

THE MOUNTAIN GOATS

Album: “All Eternals Deck” (Merge)

Grade: B

John Darnielle of The Mountain Goats writes finely observed character studies of individuals in crisis. That may sound more like the purview of a short-story writer than that of an indie musician, but Darnielle’s songs impress first on a literary plane. They don’t try to dazzle with diction (see the Decemberists), nor are they self-consciously complex in structure (see Sufjan Stevens); instead, they go for psychological and emotional depth, with subtle acoustic settings for his reedy voice.

Darnielle has been working at a consistently high level for the last decade, during which he’s released an impressive eight albums, the newest being “All Eternals Deck.” While not quite as superlative as the novelistic Tallahassee, the autobiographical “The Sunset Tree,” or the theological “The Life of the World to Come,” “All Eternals Deck” is full of Darnielle’s empathy, wit, and existential dread.

— Steve Klinge, Philadelphia Inquirer