record reviews

October 9, 2011 at 12:00a.m.

NEEDTOBREATHE

Album: “The Reckoning” (Atlantic)

Grade: A

These art-rock radio darlings from South Carolina cracked the surface with their 2009 release “The Outsiders.” Then they got a well-deserved boost this year as opening act on Taylor Swift’s tour.

On their fourth album, “The Reckoning,” released last month, NEEDTOBREATHE continues to explore the same antebellum sound, with songs that sound old and new at the same time. Mandolin and banjo add texture to this latest batch of timeless songs from the Confederacy, made special by the pleading vocals of Bear Rinehart.

“The Reckoning” could be their break-out album with singles such as “Drive All Night,” which features Springsteen-like lyrics about longing for something better, a crescendoing coda and even a whoa-oh-oh chorus that could be an arena-chant for fans.

Outside of a couple of songs that approach cloying — “Oohs and Aahs” and ““Maybe They’re On To Us” — the songwriting is magnificent. Check out “Slumber,” “Wanted Man” and “Devil’s Been Talking.”

“The Reckoning” proves this quartet, which still carries the Christian-rock label, is a force to be reckoned with.

—Guy D’Astolfo, The Vindicator

Rodney Atkins

Album: “Take A Back Road” (Curb)

Grade: C

Rodney Atkins, for better or worse, epitomizes the stance of the majority of contemporary male country singers. He celebrates family and rural life, and he unapologetically declares he is rough around the edges. But he doesn’t offer enough to differentiate himself from others.

On songs such as the album’s title cut — a current No. 1 Billboard country hit — Atkins pumps blood into the men he portrays in his lyrics. His voice communicates in a genuine way, mixing a conversational tone with dramatic flourishes. When he supports a son who occasionally causes trouble in “He’s Mine,” he makes it sound like a true-life tale.

But Atkins always pads his albums with forgettable songs, such as the silly love song “Feet.” He’s the kind of country artist who caters to radio without giving his fans much more to enjoy beyond the tunes they already know.

He also inexplicably includes the song “Farmer’s Daughter,” a 2010 hit included on a revamped reissue of his previous album, “It’s America.” Why include it on a special release then stick it on the next album, too? Such moves make Atkins an artist designed for downloading tracks instead of entire albums.

—Michael McCall, Associated Press

GEORGE BENSON

Album: “Guitar Man” (Concord Jazz)

Grade: A

“Guitar Man” is one of George Benson’s jazziest and most intimate recordings in years. It returns the spotlight to his guitar virtuosity, which became somewhat overshadowed by his vocals after his 1976 multiplatinum crossover album “Breezin.’” Benson returns to his roots, when he was one of the most respected jazz guitarists, but at the same time doesn’t neglect his pop fans, performing a repertoire ranging from John Coltrane (“Naima”) to Michael Jackson (“The Lady In My Life”) and Norah Jones (“Don’t Know Why”).

Benson opens with the ballad “Tenderly,” one of two solo guitar tracks on which his soft, flowing lines enhance the melody. His other solo track on the Irish ballad “Danny Boy” begins with Benson creating a bagpipe-like effect on guitar, as he uses his formidable technique in a nuanced way. On “Paper Moon,” he playfully trades licks with pianist Joe Sample in a straight-ahead jazz quartet with a superb rhythm section of up-and-coming bassist Ben Williams and longtime collaborator, drummer Harvey Mason. The highlight among the jazz offerings is “Naima,” on which Benson stretches the most improvisationally.

—Charles J. Gans, Associated Press

SCOTTY McCREERY

Album: “Clear as Day”

Grade: B

In five years, Scotty McCreery is going to be a huge country star. He has the right voice for it and the right temperament.

Right now, though, the 17-year-old “American Idol” winner still sounds like he’s trying to catch up, like he’s trying to grow into his role — which he probably is.

His debut, “Clear as Day” (Mercury Nashville/19), is well crafted and well written by some of Nashville’s best and brightest. The weak link in these songs is McCreery, which, to be fair, isn’t unusual for the get-it-done-quick debuts of many “Idol” grads.

In “Water Tower Town” — which, at slightly above midtempo, is the fastest of the album’s 12 tracks — McCreery sounds like he’s rushing to keep up with the tempo as he declares, “Nobody eats till you say, ‘Amen,’ and everybody knows your mom and them.” He handles Keith Urban’s “Walk in the Country” a bit better, though he’s clearly more at home with the ballads.

“Dirty Dishes” is a great song in the vein of Garth Brooks’ “Unanswered Prayers” that McCreery hammers home in a way that’s sweet, if not entirely believable, something that becomes clear when he tackles “The Trouble With Girls,” where he sounds genuinely befuddled by the opposite sex.

“Clear as Day,” which is oddly named after his ballad where two teenagers die in a car accident, is a decent start for McCreery but could’ve been so much more in more accomplished hands.

—Glenn Gamboa, Newsday

Merle Haggard

Album: “Working In Tennessee” (Vanguard)

Grade: B

During his six-decade career, Merle Haggard occasionally has released albums that sound tossed together, with less planning or depth than his monumental works. It is a testament to Haggard’s talent that even his trifles can be as entertaining, as is his new “Working In Tennessee.”

Nothing here measures up to his classic “Working Man Blues,” which he re-records here as a duet with Willie Nelson. But after battling heart problems recently, he seems determined to enjoy himself.

The title song represents Haggard at his loosest and most joyous. Closely mimicking his hero Bob Wills, he captures all the sprightly joy of classic western swing, even if the lighthearted lyrics sound like he is creating them on the spot.

Similarly, the rambling social commentary of “What I Hate” sounds as if he jotted it down 10 minutes before recording it, but it nonetheless reveals a legend’s active engagement in the world around him. On the other hand, one of the more polished tracks, “Under The Bridge,” suffers from sentimentalizing homelessness, despite its good intentions.

—Michael McCall, Associated Press

FEIST

Album: “Metals” (Cherrytree/Interscope)

Grade: B

Give Leslie Feist credit for not focusing solely on the coffee-shop folk pop that she’s so good at. On “Metals,” the long-awaited follow-up to 2007’s “The Reminder,” Feist pushes at the edges of her sweet melancholy. She eschews perky pop — there’s no “1234” or “Mushaboom” here, although “Bittersweet Melodies” comes close — in favor of quiet, focused ballads and drum-pounding, work-song-like chants. Several tracks, such as “Undiscovered First,” begin as the former and end as the latter, and they’re emblematic of “Metals”’ conflicted personality, lyrically and musically.

Opener “The Bad in Each Other” sets the stage for an album about difficult love affairs. It begins with a thudding drumbeat, gets sweetened with strings, and ends with horns and electric guitars blaring. A coffee shop would have to be awfully noisy for this song to pass peaceably in the background. By contrast, near-solo acoustic songs such as the closer, “Get It Wrong, Get It Right,” sound all the more intimate, tender and pretty. But still conflicted.

—Steve Klinge, Philadelphia Inquirer

BLINK-182

Album: “Neighborhoods” (Interscope)

Grade: B

Tom DeLonge whining “I reached for a shooting star / I burned a hole through my hand” is not proof he’s more mature than he was when he threatened to get it on with your whole family, dog included. Blink-182 want to return with something meaningful to say after seven tragic years apart (producer Jerry Finn died; Travis Barker survived a plane crash) but don’t know how. Fortunately, music comes automatic to them, and the morose “Neighborhoods” still manages to be as consistently hooky as anything they’ve done, with several dynamite choruses (“Ghost on the Dance Floor, “Up All Night,” “MH 4.8.2011”) and Barker’s magic wrists (dig those hi-hat stutters on “After Midnight”). But they could really use a laugh.

—Dan Weiss, Philadelphia Inquirer

J. COLE

Album: “Cole World: The Sideline Story” (Roc Nation/Columbia)

Grade: C

As the first artist signed to Jay-Z’s Roc Nation label, J. Cole, the German-born, North Carolina-raised MC, has a lot of weight on his shoulders. Luckily, he lets no one down with his halting, Drake-like delivery and easily sonorous flow. Then again, J. Cole has some pretty formidable helpers such as Trey Songz, Missy Elliott, mentor Jay-Z and Drake himself stopping by to drop a lick or a rhyme or three.

Songz steps forward on the playfully soulful “Can’t Get Enough.” Elliot — atop a sample of Curtis Mayfield’s “Think” — turns Cole’s “Nobody’s Perfect” into a happily hammy soliloquy worthy of Shakespeare. As for Jay Z, he does his usual throughout the electro-prickly “Mr. Nice Watch” — stops by and drops cleanly pronounced, clipped rhymes about class structure that nearly overwhelm his rapping partner. Then he leaves. The optional word in that phrase is nearly.

Thankfully, none of these teamings distract from Cole’s clearheaded effort. The 26-year-old takes an overly familiar Paula Abdul sample for a ride on “Work Out,” finds the heartbeat of Brazilian songwriter Milton Nascimento on “God’s Gift,” and revels in rap theatricality on the showy “Lights Please.” Good job.

—A.D. Amorosi, Philadelphia Inquirer

MARIA MULDAUR

Album: “Steady Love” (Stony Plain)

Grade: B

As a singer whose music has long contained elements of R&B and other forms of American roots music, even before her mid-’70s hitmaking days with “Midnight at the Oasis,” New York-bred Maria Muldaur already has proved herself to be right at home in New Orleans. She continues her fascination with the Big Easy on “Steady Love.”

All but one of the album’s 13 tracks were cut in the Crescent City with some of the cream of the local scene, including keyboardist David Torkanowsky. Only the title track has horns, but the grooves are deep and hard. Muldaur, meanwhile, matches the vigor of the music. Her voice has grown a little huskier, but it’s no less expressive, and she’s obviously fully invested in a terrific collection of songs that fit her self-styled notion of “Bluesiana” music — songs by Elvin Bishop, Bobby Charles and Greg Brown, among others, as well as a few gospel numbers.

Perhaps nothing points up the timeless quality of this music as well as her performance of “Please Send Me Someone to Love.” Muldaur makes Percy Mayfield’s classic 1950s ballad sound like a wrenching lament for the world we’re living in right now.

—Nick Cristiano, Philadelphia Inquirer