Pop

The cartoon figure on the cover of @#%&*! Smilers is wearing an upside-down grin, with his tongue out to boot. Not surprising, because Aimee Mann has never been one to make excessively happy music. Sometimes, her tendency toward the dark side can make Mann too much of a bitter pill to swallow. Here though, the adult-alternative crush object lets enough light in on a loosely linked set of songs about emotional desperadoes that are built on old analog keyboard sounds and strummed acoustic guitars. Stronger than its boxing-themed 2005 predecessor The Forgotten Arm, Smilers doesn't sugarcoat a thing - "So you roll on, with the best you can/Getting loaded, watching CNN," she sings in "31 Today." But its sharp-eyed and hard-earned short stories in song arrive with inviting melodies decorated with subtle strings and deftly employed horns, balancing out the melancholy with the hint of a not entirely cynical smile.

- Dan DeLuca

George Stanford
Big Drop
(Mercury ***)

This Philly pop minstrel is old-school. He puts the song first, ahead of the arrangement and the attitude. The result is somehow dreamy and visceral, like a cross between Thunderclap Newman and Citizen Cope. Stanford, who grew up in Narberth and fronted the eclectic local band Townhall, brings an artful but organic touch to his debut. Songs like the touching piano ballad "My Own Worst Enemy," the delicate breakup song "Nikole," and the plaintive "Heartbeat" are unvarnished and fetchingly vulnerable. Once in a while a trombone drifts into the mix. You can't blame Stanford for that. It was the first instrument he learned to play. See? Old-school.

- David Hiltbrand

The Futureheads
This Is Not the World
(Nul ***)

If the Futureheads' self-titled 2004 debut was a manic dance-punk racket, 2006's follow-up, News and Tributes, was a thundering post-punk colossus that earned comparisons to Fugazi and Mission of Burma instead of XTC and the Buzzcocks. Freed from its former record label, the band lands smack in the middle of those two sounds on its third outing. World is fierce and expansive but also agile and propulsive, kick-starting with the strong single "The Beginning of the Twist" and never letting up. Barry Hyde's confident, lilting shout still leads the trio's punchy delivery, even if his lyrics have gotten cheesier ("Because you've had too much to think tonight") and the songs more formulaic. Still, it's hard not to cheer for such sturdy, swooping anthems.

- Doug Wallen

Mates of State
Re-Arrange Us
(Barsuk **)

For a famously devoted hubby-and-wife music-making couple, mates Kori Gardner and Jason Hammel usually manage to stay away from any yuckiness associated with such pairing. Though they've softened the new-wave crackle and dynamic rhythmic attack of their previous recordings to include chipper strings and jumpy choruses, there's not much smoochie-faced longing to be found here. They've got the high-pitched vocal tics and accompanying harmonies, thumping drums, driving Farfisa-like organs and spicy girl-group peaks of their past on the sprightly "The Re-Arranger" and the spacey "Now."

But such evenness means Mates of State lack the drama and punch of tumultuous couplings like Tammy and George or Ike and Tina. And rather than ever finding even a twinkle of domestic frenzy, Kori and Jason opt for the pastoral ("My Only Offer") and saccharine ("Blue and Gold Print"). Of course, I love, love, love that Jason and Kori are so happy. Yet I can't help but want to muss it all up just to hear some harder results - rearrange them a bit to get to the dark side of wedded bliss.

- A.D. Amorosi

Country/Roots

Doin' the Funky Thing accurately describes Walter "Wolfman" Washington's new album, which is bookended by the loose-limbed "Shake Your Booty/Funky Thing." But the disc could also be named after another key track, "I'm Back," because the album marks the New Orleans institution's return to the Crescent City after Katrina forced him to flee.

"I'm Back" (with Dr. John on organ) is less about personal triumph than the enduring spirit of New Orleans and its music, without glossing over the hardships. That spirit permeates Funky Thing, as singer-guitarist Washington and his seasoned band, the Roadmasters, get down on an infectiously spirited set that also displays a good share of uptown stylishness.

- Nick Cristiano

Julianne Hough
Julianne Hough
(Mercury **1/2)

For the first time in three seasons, this pixieish 19-year-old from Provo, Utah, didn't win ABC's Dancing With the Stars. (No surprise there. She was saddled with Adam Carolla.)

But Hough isn't crying in her beer. (No surprise there. She's Mormon.)

Instead, she's launching a career as a country singer, opening on tour this summer for Brad Paisley. Judging by her debut CD, it should be quite a show.