Pop

"Man, we make our own movies," Craig Finn sings in "Slapped Actress," the nod to filmmaker John Cassavetes that comes just before the house lights go on at the close of Stay Positive, the fourth album by the Brooklyn-based bar band par excellence. Cassavetes (and his wife, Gena Rowlands) aren't the only cultural touchstones in Finn's often ungainly, always impassioned stream of consciousness. He name-drops hard-core punk bands Youth of Today and 7 Seconds (who "taught me some of life's most valuable lessons"), employs Dinosaur Jr.'s J. Mascis on banjo on "Both Crosses," and proves himself fearlessly unhip in referencing Billy Joel's "Only the Good Die Young."

The songs are boisterous, full-up with Tad Kubler's bashed-out power chords, pumping piano, and, this time out, some surprising touches like the harpsichord on "Joke About Jamaica." But more often than not, the characters are in trouble, whether it's the serious business going on in a police interrogation room in the rousing "Sequestered in Memphis" or the Midwestern townies acknowledging to themselves that the high point of "Constructive Summer" isn't going to amount to more than climbing to the top of the water tower to "get hammered." The early Springsteen comparisons still hold, but the '70s Catholic rock act the Hold Steady most resemble is Basketball Diaries poet-rocker Jim Carroll, who like Finn, couldn't really sing, but sure had a lot of stories to tell.

- Dan DeLuca

G-Unit
T.O.S.: Terminate On Sight
(Interscope ***)

Poor 50 Cent hasn't seemed tough for ages. He lost that race with Kanye West to see whose album sold the most, his ex-girlfriend sued him, and his mansion burned down. I don't even drink his Vitamin Water anymore.

But the worst thing is the disintegration of his rap outfit G-Unit due to a feud with Young Buck, its wryest ex-member. Buck left after this record was finished, so there are prime Buck rhymes and frisky flows in the slinky "I Like the Way She Do It" and the contagious "Rider, Pt. 2."

Buck's laments ("Even if 50 drop me/I still wouldn't sign") are dedicated to their boss in the face of inevitable downsizing. But by the time Buck gets to "No Days Off," he's no more than a rumor.

Rather than fold, G-Unit's 50, Lloyd Banks and Tony Yayo take to the streets with handsome reassurance before them and jittering hip-hop behind them. The Yayo-led "T.O.S." and the hard dance-hall of "Let it Go" are stunners. And 50? He can still send shivers with his cold flow and cocksure raps when he wants to. And though T.O.S. is no classic, it'll do till the real deal comes along.

- A.D. Amorosi

CSS
Donkey
(Sub Pop ***1/2)

More refined but no less sassy and party-starting than their giddy 2006 debut, Cansei de Ser Sexy, CSS' sophomore showing ought to earn the patchy Brazilian troupe a bit more respect. The '80s-inspired swoon of "Rat Is Dead (Rage)" is a first-spin winner, whereas buzzing numbers like "How I Became Paranoid" and "Believe Achieve" will make sure the dance floor doesn't feel neglected. These English-singing boys and girls have struck upon the reliable formula of spiking rubbery electro-pop with pointed indie-rock guitar hooks and playful sing-alongs. It's to their considerable credit that the end product plays like inspiration and not architecture, even if there's nothing here as naughty as the last album's "Music Is My Hot Hot Sex," which so memorably lit up an iPod commercial.

- Doug Wallen

Ace Young
Ace Young
(Pazzo Music *1/2)

You might recall Young as a finalist on Season Five of American Idol, won by dark horse Taylor Hicks in what may have been the show's best year talent-wise. Then again, you might not remember him at all.

Waiting two years to put out your debut album is not exactly striking while the iron is hot. After listening to this overheated, derivative collection, it's hard to figure out what took so long.

The CD is full of Michael Jackson-influenced jams like "Addicted," "The Letter," and "Where Will You Go" that shoot for funky but end up clunky. Apparently Young's ambition is to be the next JC Chasez.

The scattered ballads, like "You Redeem Me" and "The Girl That Got Away," are better-written, but they don't do much for Young's voice, which is sweet but bland and resorts too much to a thin falsetto.

The collection has the scorched feel of a soap-opera actor trying to launch a singing career. Maybe that's fitting.

- David Hiltbrand

Country/Roots