record reviews

September 4, 2011 at 12:00a.m.

Glen Campbell

Album: “Ghost on the Canvas” (Surfdog)

Grade: B

Given the circumstances of its release, it would be wonderful to say how Glen Campbell’s presumably final album is an unmitigated triumph. Not quite, though it came closer than anyone had a right to expect.

An in-demand studio pro in the 1960s and country-rock superstar in the 1970s, Campbell’s career faded with the years. But his family recently announced that Campbell, now 75, is in the early stages of Alzheimer’s disease. “Ghost on the Canvas” and a lengthy tour to support it are designed to be his public farewell.

Campbell, with producer and co-writer Julian Raymond, address the subject beautifully in the opening “A Better Place,” a musical prayer. “Some days I’m so confused, Lord,” Campbell sings. “The past gets in my way. I need the ones I love, Lord, more and more each day.”

The title track, written by Paul Westerberg, is the disc’s strongest. Campbell’s voice is barely weathered by age and he and Raymond smartly pick strong songs by younger writers Teddy Thompson and Jakob Dylan.

Campbell’s impressive supporting cast here includes Billy Corgan, Dick Dale, Chris Isaak and Brian Setzer, and the music is lovely. Unfortunately, the disc is weighed down by a series of superfluous instrumental interludes that mostly cast a pall. Mid-tempo arrangements predominate and with the ending songs “Strong” and “There’s No Me ... Without You,” there’s a feeling of repetition both musically and lyrically. Campbell’s farewell statement, however, is brave and deserves to be heard.

— David Bauder, Associated Press

Jake Owen

Album: “Barefoot Blue Jean Night” (RCA)

Grade: C

Jake Owen’s third album, “Barefoot Blue Jean Night,” opens with a guy telling his lover he’ll do whatever she wants to make her happy. The song, “Anywhere With You,” epitomizes Owen’s country music career: He strains for radio play by following formulas established by others, which keeps Owen from establishing his own identity or point of view.

Owen occasionally achieves a hit: The new album’s breezy title cut has become his third top 10 single. But he misses more than he scores, and the reason can be found in songs such as the clich -filled “Keepin’ It Country” and the silly “Apple Pie Moonshine,” in which a blue-collar guy hits it off with a wealthy young woman because her moonshine tastes so sweet. As in the past, he focuses on lightweight fare that doesn’t resonate.

On better songs — such as the dramatic narrative “The One That Got Away” or the beach-party celebration, “Nobody Feelin’ No Pain” — Owen shows talent and personality. But he hasn’t climbed to stardom as quickly as peers Jason Aldean and Jamey Johnson because, thus far, he’s failed to suggest he has anything distinctive to offer. “Barefoot Blue Jean Night” doesn’t change that assessment.

— Michael McCall, Associated Press

David Guetta

Album: “Nothing But The Beat” (Capitol)

Grade: C

David Guetta’s new album “Nothing But The Beat” presents the Grammy-winning DJ and producer with a formidable task. Take good music from good artists and it infuse it with a dance club floor-filling frenzy. If there’s anyone who can, surely it’s the urban dance-track maestro who collaborates with A-list artists. Right?

Well, half-right. On “Nothing But The Beat,” Guetta accomplishes the main mission, but it’s nothing to run out and buy a new pair of dancing shoes for. This is a fairly routine treatment at best, and Guetta doesn’t inject enough of his own style to take the music to a level that the list of featured vocalists couldn’t do on their own.

Guetta gets things started in fine fashion, adding some of his signature energy to “Where Them Girls At,” with sharp vocals from Flo Rida and white-hot Nicki Minaj. The good stuff continues through “Little Bad Girl,” with solid feature work from Ludacris and Taio Cruz. But then things begin to get pretty pedestrian. “Sweat” with Snoop Dogg is a snoozer and “Without You” featuring Usher never delivers much more than soaring synth track.

— Ron Harris, Associated Press

RED HOT CHILI PEPPERS

Album: “I’m With You”

Grade: B

The big story of the Red Hot Chili Peppers’ first album in five years (“I’m With You”) is Josh Klinghoffer, who replaced longtime guitarist John Frusciante and pulls off the difficult trick of subtly changing the band’s sound without altering its personality. Klinghoffer, a 31-year-old veteran sideman, turns out to be a master of numerous styles, from the metallic noise that opens the album to the funky wah-wah strumming in “Factory of Faith” to the bluesy whining on the opening single “The Adventures of Rain Dance Maggie.”

Klinghoffer’s presence gives the band extra depth, something the Peppers have been developing since 1999’s “Californication.” Anthony Kiedis continues to grow as a singer, expressing different emotions simultaneously. Although “Brendan’s Death Song” was inspired by a friend’s overdose and includes bleak lines like “you know I’m almost dead” and imagery of a boatman ferrying the doomed, Kiedis’ vocal tone contains a natural hint of celebration and prevents the mood from descending into bleakness. Conversely, even when he raps, or leads party anthems such as “Goodbye Hooray” or the closing “Dance, Dance, Dance,” Kiedis’ deep and rubbery voice adds an air of melancholy.

Otherwise, not much news to report: Bassist Flea is energetic, and he must have pogoed around the studio throughout the disco-tinged “Monarchy of Roses” and the “Give It Away” throwback “Look Around”; longtime producer Rick Rubin commissions characteristic touches such as dramatic piano on “Police Station” and boisterous trumpet on “Did I Let You Know.” The album isn’t a departure from the Peppers’ last few albums, but the band continues to evolve from ’80s punk juvenile delinquents to a more U2-like institution. They’re good at it, and still reasonably funky, so why not?

— Steve Knopper, Newsday

STEPHEN MALKMUS

Album: “Mirror Traffic” (Matador)

Grade: B

The first, best thing about Stephen Malkmus’ Beck Hansen-produced fifth post-Pavement album is that it doesn’t sound like a Beck album. The alliance of ’90s indie icons has not resulted in Beck trying to “Odelay”- or “Sea Change”-ize Malkmus. Instead, it finds one aging hotshot letting the other aging hotshot be his self-referential, semi-detached self. Since he left Pavement — who then reunited last summer, after a 10-year break — Malkmus’ work has tended to sacrifice his offhand-seeming, hooky guitar-rock in favor of knotty, tricky-time-signature, proggy guitar-rock. The second best thing about “Mirror Traffic” is that, without ever aping Pavement, in many places it sounds positively breezy, as in the soaring, immediately ingratiating riff rampage of “Stick Figures in Love” or in the clever, inviting “All Over Gently,” whose light, airy art-rock tendencies makes cruelty sound kind.

— Dan DeLuca, Philadelphia Inquirer

JOSS STONE

Album: “LP1” (Surfdog Records)

Grade: B

Someone has been listening to Adele. Stone, the former British soul prodigy, adopts a more personal and winning approach here, trading her customary knockout power for character. Working with producer Dave Stewart on her first release after a bitter breakup with her old label, Stone still slays the R&B (“Newborn”). But she takes some interesting side trips as well, for instance the Shania Twain pop of “Cry Myself to Sleep,” the Bonnie Bramlett blues of “Landlord,” and the Tina Turner waltz of “Last One to Know.” As varied as “LP1” is, Stone is still one of those artists better taken in smaller bites. But in terms of command, quality and coherence, this is the closest to a classic Stone has come.

— David Hiltbrand, Philadelphia Inquirer