record reviews

March 25, 2012 at 12:00a.m.

Esperanza Spalding

Album: “Radio Music Society” (Heads Up)

Grade: B

It’s somehow fitting that Esperanza Spalding sang the Louis Armstrong hit “What a Wonderful World” at the Oscars, because her career arc bears certain similarities to the jazz legend’s. She began primarily as an instrumentalist, developed her own distinctive vocal style to accompany her bass playing, and on her new CD, she has embraced the pop music of her day without sacrificing her jazz roots.

The CD complements the bassist-vocalist’s previous release, “Chamber Music Society,” an intimate, acoustic melding of classical, jazz and world music. However, “Radio Music Society” is an extroverted, electric fusion of R&B, neo-soul and hip-hop with jazz, performed by a genre-spanning lineup including R&B singer Lalah Hathaway, rapper Q-Tip acting as a producer, and jazz drummers Jack DeJohnette and Terri Lyne Carrington.

“Radio Song,” about flipping through the dial until a catchy tune grabs you, opens her most accessible album that spotlights her singing and songwriting skills. The track has the dance beats, funky bass grooves, horn section accents and background vocals common to pop music, but Spalding’s arrangement veers off in unexpected directions with shifting rhythms and some wordless vocalizing.

Some of Spalding’s songs are about love — such as the bold and brassy “Hold On Me” and the soothing, lullabylike “Cinnamon Tree.” But she also ventures for the first time into overtly political themes — including a poignant duet with organist James Weidman on “Land of the Free” about a Texas man who was exonerated on DNA evidence after being imprisoned for 30 years for rape. “Black Gold,” with R&B singer Algebra Blessett taking lead vocals, is an uplifting anthem meant to instill pride in young boys about their rich African heritage.

— Charles J. Gans, Associated Press

THE TING TINGS

Album: “Sounds from Nowheresville” (Columbia)

Grade: C

It’s going to be harder and harder to view the Ting Tings’ surprise 2008 hit “That’s Not My Name” as a welcome (possibly feminist) rallying cry if the duo keeps making music that guarantees we’ll forget their names. The melodically inoffensive “Sounds from Nowheresville” doesn’t quite deserve the savaging it’s getting from some critics. But it’s shockingly barren and slippery even for a band that already claimed to have “started nothing” on its exuberantly scrapped-together debut. Employing even more scraps as varied as spoken garage rock (“Guggenheim”), CSS-style dance-pop (“One by One”), and Major Lazer-style dub-hop (“Soul Killing”), all of which is executed without an original wrinkle, they only get blander with close examination.

— Dan Weiss, Philadelphia Inquirer