record reviews

November 6, 2011 at 12:00a.m.

THE BEACH BOYS

Album: “The SMiLE Sessions” (Capitol)

Grade: A

Maybe hell has frozen over.

Here, finally, is a version of the Beach Boys’ 1967 magnum opus, “SMiLE.”

“SMiLE” is both one of rock music’s greatest lost albums and one of its seminal texts, thanks to songs that appeared on subsequent Beach Boys albums and to myriad bootlegs. The follow-up to 1966’s “Pet Sounds” was never completed. Brian Wilson had a lofty plan to construct the album out of modular sections, and although hours and hours of material was recorded, the project was abandoned before it was ever put together officially. In 2004, Wilson released a newly recorded version of it, “Brian Wilson Presents Smile,” but here we have the original tapes assembled into a full-album sequence.

From “Heroes and Villains” to “Surf’s Up” and “Good Vibrations,” these are some of rock’s greatest songs, and they sound glorious in newly remastered clarity and more meaningful in the context of “SMiLE’s” impressionistic narrative.

— Steve Klinge, Philadelphia Inquirer

MIRANDA LAMBERT

Album: “Four the Record”

Grade: B

Miranda Lambert refuses to get boxed in.

After her breakthrough success with the Grammy-winning “Revolution,” a country careerist would have consolidated her “wild child with a heart of gold” persona with more of the same. Not Miss Miranda, er, Mrs. Blake Shelton.

On “Four the Record” (RCA), Lambert forges a whole new plan of attack, putting aside the rock leanings of “Revolution” for a more serious alt-country vibe. Though the single “Baggage Claim” may showcase some of that “Crazy Ex-Girlfriend” sass, the bulk of “Four the Record” is far more experimental.

It boldly opens with what would more naturally seem like a closer, a big-tent folk embrace “All Kinds of Kinds” that tells tales of a cross-dressing congressman and a pharmacist who medicates her kids. Lambert follows that with “Fine Tune,” an odd pop number that has the kind of phrasing expected from Feist or Regina Spektor and a decidedly non-country fuzzed-out effect on her vocals.

Her pick of alt-country chestnuts — Gillian Welch’s “Look at Miss Ohio” and Allison Moorer’s “Oklahoma Sky” — not only shows off Lambert’s great taste, but her great voice as well. However, it’s her simple love songs — “Easy Living” and “Over You” — where her voice is most potent. It’s where “Four the Record” declares Lambert a superstar.

— Glenn Gamboa, Newsday

LOU REED & METALLICA

Album: “Lulu” (Warner Bros,)

Grade: B

Lou Reed aficionados loathe the fact that punk’s godfather would dare pair with pedestrian metal dudes. Metallica fans are wildly disgusted that the thrash gods welcomed this grating, tuneless infidel into their temple.

Good. Repulsion is a fine place to start when it comes to their “Lulu” collaboration.

Based on playwright Frank Wedekind’s violent tale of an alluring lass using sexual wiles to rise through German society only to fall into poverty, prostitution and worse, Reed’s lurid lyrics are aptly incendiary and corrosive. While there are a few awkwardly pretentious rants (i.e., “Mistress Dread”), the self-hating poetics of “Dragon,” the wrenched ardor of “Pumping Blood,” and the recoiling humor of “Brandenburg Gate” are particularly and vividly pernicious.

Throughout these frank moments, guitarist Reed and his partners in grime make ghoulish avant-metal of the first degree, brooding, pile-driving, noise without melody. The effect is not unlike Metallica’s earliest mournful bangers, only with Reed’s monotone barking up front. The careening wall of woe (94-plus minutes) has its breaks, in the moody acoustic guitars of “Little Dog,” the Velvet Underground-like chug of “Iced Honey,” and the quietly tremulous build toward raging fury on “Cheat on Me.”

Bracing stuff, not for the faint of heart.

— A.D. Amorosi, Philadelphia Inquirer

Deer Tick

Album: “Divine Providence” (Partisan)

Grade: A

And now for something completely different: Deer Tick’s new album.

“Divine Providence” is a party wagon with the wheels coming off, a rollicking burst of hijinks that should come complete with grainy black-and-white footage of double-time drunken antics.

The lusty leer of opener “The Bump” foreshadows an album that mimics the Rhode Island quartet’s rollicking live show. It’s carefree and rambles a bit, with blasts of drunken chatter and sounds that are clearly here just because they were fun to make. By the time we get to The Ramones-like bop of “Let’s All Go to the Bar,” we’re in the car cruising right along with John McCauley and Co.

McCauley and his delightfully raspy voice were the centerpiece of Deer Tick’s last album, “The Black Dirt Sessions.” The album, one of the best of 2010, even featured McCauley’s profile on the cover. He’s at it again here, pushing the party forward on “Something to Brag About” and “Miss K.,” and supplying a few stunning weepers like the slowly unfurling “Electric” and “Chevy Express.” This time, though, band mates contribute songs and lead vocals and the ideas never seem to stop because of it.

— Chris Talbott, Associated Press

Wale

Album: “Ambition” (Maybach Music Group/Warner Bros.)

Grade: B

With a slew of mixtapes, Wale built a reputation as a witty rapper who delivered quick punch lines. Wale’s clever wordplay meshes well with the high-energy, well-produced tracks typically associated with the Maybach Music brand. The rapper doesn’t waste time showing that on his confident intro, “Don’t Hold Your Applause.”

Wale provides some thought-provoking perspective on “D.C. or Nothing.” He raps about his concern on how a checkup from the doctor strikes more fear into people from his hometown than the local police.

— Jonathan Landrum Jr., Associated Press