record reviews

July 15, 2012 at 12:00a.m.

Hank Williams Jr.

Album: “Old School, New Rules” (Bocephus/Blaster)

Grade: B

Hank Williams Jr. kicks off his album “Old School, New Rules” by addressing ESPN’s decision to drop his song as the opening theme for “Monday Night Football,” a role he had for more than 20 years. In a robust voice, Williams bellows: “I’ll go find a network that will treat me right” to start “Takin’ Back The Country,” a song set to a rocking arrangement of his legendary father’s song “Mind Your Own Business.”

The lyrics of “Takin’ Back The Country” refer to his notorious 2011 interview on the TV program “Fox & Friends” in which he made an allegory that some construed as comparing President Barack Obama to Adolf Hitler. Williams makes it clear that he considers the incident an example of political correctness run amok.

Singing with fire in his belly, and offering up ferociously rocking tunes fueled by a bluesy slide guitar, Williams tackles political themes throughout “Old School, New Rules.” He wrote every song, save a cover of his father’s “You Win Again,” which he turns into a southern- rock stomper, and a duet with Merle Haggard on the latter’s classic hit “I Think I’ll Just Stay Here And Drink,” in which the two aging country stars have a ball trading lines with ribald delight.

Williams’ conservative viewpoint will rankle some and rally others. At age 63, though, the old lion of country music continues to roar — and to say exactly what is on his mind.

—Michael McCall, Associated Press

ZAC BROWN BAND

Album: “Uncaged”

Grade: A

Surprises are increasingly rare in the music industry — well, good surprises anyway.

The Zac Brown Band, however, pulls off a doozy on its third album, “Uncaged” (Atlantic), blending several shades of country, reggae, soul and jam-band rock in a combination that sounds effortless instead of experimental.

Yes, Brown won country fans over years ago, breaking through in 2008 with the harmony-filled anthem “Chicken Fried,” and fans of his live show know the band always has woven these genres together. But on “Uncaged,” the band steps up its game.

“Overnight,” which features Trombone Shorty, is one of the year’s best R&B songs, offering both an old-school soul groove and modern phrasing that suggests a fondness for Ne-Yo and Robin Thicke. While no one will confuse “Island Song” for a Bob Marley original, it’s the sort of reggae that collaborator Jason Mraz makes work.

There’s even a pop ballad, “Goodbye in Her Eyes,” that is brimming with crossover potential, as the band’s gorgeous harmonies lift the bittersweet love song and its regret-filled lyrics. (“Don’t smile at me if it ain’t what you mean,” Brown laments.)

Even the band’s country songs have gotten better. The rollicking first single, “The Wind,” is a fiddle-filled good time, and “Sweet Annie” sounds like the Southern-fried country cousin to “Sweet Melissa.”

The band has talked of how it wanted to create a new genre that combines all its favorite styles. “Uncaged” makes that genre sound like a winner.

—Glenn Gamboa, Newsday

DIRTY PROJECTORS

Album: “Swing Lo Magellan” (Domino)

Grade: B

With 2009’s Bitte Orca, Dirty Projectors established themselves as one of today’s most adventurous and significant indie-rock bands. Helmed by singer-guitarist David Longstreth, the band merged avant-garde conceptual structures, West African-influenced guitar lines and leaping female harmonies in songs that were as knotty as they were uplifting. It was the Projectors’ most accessible album.

“Swing Lo Magellan,” the much-anticipated successor and the band’s sixth overall, uses similar elements, but it’s looser, less dense and less immediate. The songs are full of startling bursts — a blast of Jimmy Page-like guitar in “Offspring Are Blank,” the bleat of women’s voices in “Gun Has No Trigger” — amid Longstreth’s elongated vocal lines. Moments of relative simplicity (the acoustic title track; the easygoing “Impregnable Question”) contrast with complexly layered, more challenging pieces (the skittering, electronic “See What I See”; the communal, clattering “Unto Caesar”). Bitte Orca is still the best gateway to Dirty Projectors’ complicated rewards, but “Swing Lo Magellan” often distills the band’s strengths.

—Steve Klinge, Philadelphia Inquirer

KITTY PRYDE

Album: “Haha I’m Sorry” (self-released)

Grade: A

The first words on Kitty Beckwith’s second EP are “Get out of my room!”; on the next track she proclaims herself the “rap game Taylor Swift” before guest weirdo Riff Raff drops in to rhyme “rhinoceros” with “immaculate.”

The most laconic voice-of-her-generation candidate even condenses a few years of New York Times-recognized microgenres (chillwave/ witch house/swag rap) into a happy, sluggish universe that culminates in turning 2012’s biggest breakout hit, “Call Me Maybe,” into the hypnotic-horns giggle “Give Me Scabies.”

The Floridian, a Claire’s employee and unlikely rap star, spends “Haha’s” other 10 minutes prizing 3 a.m. drunk dials, taking Adderall to stay thin, and bragging that she’s ruining hip-hop. She’s smarter than indie-rockers five years her senior, not least because she won’t tell us how old she actually is.

—Dan Weiss, Philadelphia Inquirer

MARINA AND THE DIAMONDS

Album: “Electra Heart”

Grade: B

Marina and the Diamonds certainly don’t lack ambition. On “Electra Heart” (Elektra), the British band tries to outpace everything from its successful 2010 debut “The Family Jewels” — bigger dance beats, broader lyrical concepts and way more drama from Marina Diamandis’ acrobatic vocals. That means attempting jaded, step-by-step relationship guides that also get fists pumping (“How to Be a Heartbreaker”) or dance-floor anthems that combine feminist theory with swooping vocals (“Sex Yeah”). Unfortunately, the group can’t quite pull most of it off, coming off heavy-handed (“Homewrecker”) or histrionic (“Starring Role”). Marina may strive to be the next Kate Bush, but too often here, she’s a second-rate Katy Perry.

—Glenn Gamboa, Newsday