record reviews

February 12, 2012 at 12:00a.m.

van halen

Album: “A Different Kind of Truth” (Interscope)

Grade: B

Let’s face it, for many fans, Van Halen without founding singer David Lee Roth just isn’t Van Halen. It’s Van Hagar. Or even Van That-Guy-From-Extreme.

Nearly 30 years after Roth and his bandmates parted ways after the group’s “1984” album, they’re back with “A Different Kind Of Truth.”

Despite its title, the album’s 13 tracks feel more than a little bit familiar, which is a good thing if you’re looking to rewind the clock to Van Halen circa the late 1970s and early 1980s. If that sort of thing strikes you as dad-rock, however, then not so much.

Regardless, “A Different Kind Of Truth” shows 14 years since the last full Van Halen album, guitar demon Eddie Van Halen remains at the top of his game, betraying no hint of age or wear in his guitar work. All the staples are there: scorching riffs, waves of overlapping notes that dive bomb into deep growls and signature sonic horse wails.

Notably absent from “A Different Kind Of Truth” are the keyboard-heavy songs or power ballads found in the stretch of albums with Sammy Hagar on vocals. Instead, Van Halen mostly delivers hard-pounding rockers — less “Jump,” more “Atomic Punk.” And speed. Several tracks, such as the relentless “Bullethead” and “As Is,” fueled by a rockabillylike riff, are as fast and heavy as anything Van Halen has previously done.

A lot of the credit for that goes to drummer Alex Van Halen and Eddie Van Halen’s son, Wolfgang, on bass. (Wolfgang replaced original Van Halen bassist Michael Anthony during a U.S. tour about four years ago.)

Roth’s voice hasn’t aged quite as well, but his delivery is lively and he lobs in plenty of his trademark yelps. The singer always was equal parts hype man and frontman, and on some tracks, like the underwhelming first single, “Tattoo,” he’s in over-the-top, Diamond Dave mode, singing “Sexy dragon magic! So very autobiographic!”

Singing with an audible wink worked better on their smash hit “Panama,” but you can’t blame Roth for trying. He’s just giving fans of Van Halen 1.0 what they’ve wanted for three decades. And on party rocker “Blood and Fire,” Roth tells those fans: “Told you I was coming back/Say you miss me/Say it like you mean it.”

— Alex Veiga, Associated Press

paul mccartney

Album: “Kisses on the Bottom” (Hear Music)

Grade: D

Paul McCartney paints such a fun picture of holiday “singsongs” at his childhood home, with the rugs rolled back and his dad on piano, that it’s a shock his first album of standards is a stone-cold drag.

Sir Paul talked about wanting to make such a disc before he got too old and, for much of the time here, it sounds like he is too late. The delicate high registers required on songs such as “Home [When Shadows Fall]” and “The Glory of Love” are largely beyond him now at age 69. He sounds frail, even elderly.

His accompaniment, led by Diana Krall, is first-rate but steers him toward slow songs that sap the project of any sense of fun. Even the album title is unfortunate. “Kisses on the Bottom” is a lyric from “I’m Gonna Sit Right Down and Write Myself a Letter,” but in this context seems like a silly double entendre.

The exceptions here are stunning and quite illustrative. The two best songs are brand-new, and the only songs McCartney wrote himself. “My Valentine” is a love song to his new wife, Nancy, written on a Moroccan vacation. Album closer “Only Our Hearts” features a lush Johnny Mandel arrangement and a Stevie Wonder harmonica solo. More importantly, they are written for McCartney’s voice today, and he’s comfortable and confident singing them. If he had no more new material, it would have been fun to hear McCartney dip into his catalog and revisit period pieces such as “Honey Pie.”

Paul McCartney’s weakness on this disc is not trusting Paul McCartney more.

— David Bauder, Associated Press

CLOUD NOTHINGS

Album: “Attack on Memory” (Carpark)

Grade: A

“Attack on Memory” is a literal title two ways. After a decade of lofty chamber prog and ’80s E-Z listening, Dylan Baldi is restless to make indie rock again, and after two squishier garage-pop efforts, he’s as poised to rewrite history as anyone else in the game. No one loves guitars with less garbage than Steve Albini, whom Baldi handcuffs to these songs to stay the course. It works, hilariously, like Wild Flag: coming together so easily because rock’s not dead, just absent. For eight songs in 33 minutes it shoots out of Cloud Nothings, bridging the forgotten gnarls of Polvo and Unwound with the neglected pop-snot of Tokyo Police Club and Let’s Wrestle. “I need time to stay useless,” Baldi pleads with all his throat.

— Dan Weiss, Philadelphia Inquirer

dierks bentley

Album: “Home” (Capitol Nashville)

Grade: A

A banjo kicks off Dierks Bentley’s new album “Home,” recalling a backwoods sound prevalent on his previous, bluegrass-inspired album “Up on the Ridge.” The similarities stop there. The bluegrass album generated rave reviews and but no radio hits. With “Home,” Bentley returns to contemporary country music and the top of the charts — in the distinctive fashion that has established him among country music’s most interesting hit-makers.

Bentley always uses banjo, fiddle, mandolin and especially dobro in his music, but with a modern beat and energy that, along with his distinctive voice, gives him a compelling sound of his own.

Like his peers, he regularly offers songs about celebrating with friends. “Am I The Only One,” already a No. 1 hit, as well as “Tip It On Back” and “5-1-5-0” are as entertaining as any partying songs coming from Jason Aldean and Eric Church.

But the Arizona native separates himself from his peers with love songs, which feature a sensual quality rare in modern country music. The steamy “Breathe You In” and the tortured “In My Head” are outstanding relationship songs, while “Home,” a valentine to America, is a patriotic ode that doesn’t stoop to jingoism. “Home” indeed finds Bentley back where he belongs: on the top of the country music charts.

— Michael McCall, Associated Press

OF MONTREAL

Album: “Paralytic Stalks” (Polyvinyl)

Grade: C

It’s easy to admire Kevin Barnes’ unfettered imagination and creativity. But he doesn’t always make it easy to love his albums, and “Paralytic Stalks” makes few concessions to accessibility. This time out, Barnes is more interested in concocting a continuous prog-psych suite than in structuring conventional songs. In OM terms, it’s dark and difficult such as “Hissing Fauna, Are You The Destroyer?” rather than cheery and fun like “Satanic Panic in the Attic” or “False Priest.”

Although his live band is duly celebrated for its maximalist extravagance, Barnes records mostly alone, this time with a handful of studio musicians. Almost every song is dense with multitracked vocals, orchestral strings and woodwinds with abrupt twists and leaps and diversions into dissonance. It’s an angry album, bitter about the human propensity for violence and spiteful about failed relationships. It’s impressive, but it’s more often alienating than alluring.

— Steve Klinge, Philadelphia Inquirer