New Recordings

Recovery

(Aftermath/Interscope ***1/2)

nolead ends When Eminem returned from the hip-hop wilderness with last year's Relapse, his first album since 2004, he made clear his technical skills as a motor-mouthed MC were undiminished. But while Relapse proved Slim Shady could still act like a deranged maniac, and add more twisted chapters to the ongoing psychodrama with his mother, it chickened out when it came to honestly addressing Em's addiction issues or grief over the 2006 death of his longtime hype man and best friend, Proof.

Recovery, which features production input from longtime Em mentor Dr. Dre and a new team of lesser-knowns, rectifies those issues. It's as if, with any concerns put to rest that he might have gone soft, the rapper born Marshall Mathers - who topped the Beatles as the biggest-selling artist of the '00's - can now get down to what's really on his mind. As a result, Recovery is executed with a musical and lyrical ingenuity and confidence missing since 2002's The Eminem Show. Confidence shines in the confessional single "Not Afraid," the unafraid-to-be-

vulnerable "Talkin' To Myself," in which he raps about how threatened he was/is by Kanye West and Lil Wayne, and the lightning-quick "No Love," in which he pairs with Wayne and makes amusing use of Haddaway's 1993 club hit "What Is Love?"

It's an Eminem album, so of course, Recovery is inanely juvenile at times, including potshots at reality-TV sitting ducks Brooke Hogan and David Cook. The single "Won't Back Down," with Pink, is a weak link. A bad-taste Michael J. Fox joke is funny the first time but pathetic the second. The silliness, however, is minimal. (No stupid skits, thankfully.) More often, Recovery is smart, surprising, and re-energized. Case in point: The vengeful rant "25 To Life," which pretends to be yet another misogynistic attack on Eminem's wife, Kim, but actually concerns another complicated codependency. With whom or what? Hip-hop itself.

- Dan DeLuca

nolead begins Various Artists
nolead ends nolead begins The Twilight Saga: Eclipse (Original Motion Picture Soundtrack)
nolead ends ( nolead begins Chop Shop/Atlantic ***)

nolead ends Abs and cheekbones aside, the Twilight movie franchise, now in its third installment, might not appeal to anyone born before 1993. But its soundtracks sure do, boosted by well-respected indie acts and modern-rock heavyweights. New Moon, the previous Twilight soundtrack, featured Bon Iver, Lykke Li, and Grizzly Bear, all names you'd recognize from the blogosphere; it also included songs by Death Cab for Cutie and Muse, bands you'd know from listening to the radio.

For Eclipse, that formula gets a wonderfully dark polish. The guest list is still random and in sharp contrast - from the Black Keys and Dead Weather to the Bravery and Metric - and the melodrama may be dialed back, but there's a sense that everyone found the same page, tapping into their inner goth. They're not worrying about the movie's ongoing story line - vampires, werewolves, and a messy high school love triangle. Eclipse resembles The Crow, showing unexpected maturity when things go especially right, as they do on Cee-Lo's galloping "What Part of Forever." It's a soundtrack that may not overshadow the movie, but keeps a life of its own.

- Michael Pollock

nolead begins Grace Potter
& the Nocturnals
nolead ends nolead begins Grace Potter & the Nocturnals
nolead ends nolead begins (Hollywood ***)

nolead ends No one would confuse flaxen-haired Vermont native Grace Potter with Tina Turner, or Potter's shabby band of beardos with the flashy, fleshy Ikettes. But if you close your eyes and fall backward into your time machine, you'd swear you were hearing the mighty Ike & Tina Revue rocking while rolling down the murky river. Such hard-soul appropriation isn't new. Yet, Grace and her band of late-night renown do, indeed, keep it fresh.

Throughout Potter & the Nocturnals' catalogue, there have been wide ripples of organ jazz and jam in their muddy, watery sound. But for this effort, Grace and the band take things, à la Ike & Tina, nice and rough, with bigger, thicker beats and buoyantly lean and rugged arrangements. The grooves go deeper ("Oasis"). The melodies are punchier and more direct ("Medicine" and "Paris" are contagiously riff-rocking), and Potter has never had more swagger and raw sensuality in her voice.

- A.D. Amorosi

nolead begins Sia
nolead ends nolead begins We Are Born
nolead ends nolead begins (Monkey Puzzle/JIVE **)

nolead ends With a musical mindset that seeks to fuse jazz, soul, and electro-pop, Australian popstress Sia always has looked better on paper than she sounds on record. After last year's successful Some People Have Real Problems, her latest We Are Born has been heralded as both a sequel and a departure.

Following Sia's contributions to Christina Aguilera's Bionic, it would be fair to expect We Are Born to be a vivid pop confection. But while the volume might be amped up, Sia's fourth album is predictable and overproduced.

While "Clap Your Hands" and "Stop Trying" bring brief glimpses of something more, too many tracks resemble the pseudo-Norah Jones styles of "I'm in Here," or the flat opener "The Fight."

We Are Born is listenable, even engaging. But Sia's new "pop" direction has done a remarkable thing: it hasn't produced a single memorable "pop" tune.

- Emily Tartanella

Joined at the Hip

(Telarc ***1/2)

nolead ends At 74, Willie "Big Eyes" Smith is a mere pup compared to 96-year-old wonder Pinetop Perkins. But the two grew tight when Perkins was playing piano and Smith the drums in the Muddy Waters Band, and their musical bond is evident on this lively set of Chicago and Delta blues.

Joined at the Hip - Perkins and Smith are so unabashedly old-school they are hip - has a mostly loose and easy feel. In a mix of Smith originals and covers like John Lee "Sonny Boy" Williamson's "Cut That Out," the arrangements leave room for Perkins' fluid piano rolls to play off the jabs of Smith's harmonica (the latter's son Kenny now handles the drums). They can grind it, too, as on the Smith-written "Walkin' Down the Highway." But even when they're being serious with the gospel standard "Take My Hand, Precious Lord," a little mischievousness shines through - listen for the few notes of "Jingle Bells" Pinetop improbably throws in at the end.

The rollicking "You'd Better Slow Down" offers a warning: "You're going to run out of gas." By the sounds of it, that's not something these two old cats have to worry about.

- Nick Cristiano

nolead begins Anne McCue
nolead ends nolead begins Broken Promise Land
nolead ends nolead begins (Flying Machine ***)

nolead ends An Australian native with an affinity for Americana, Anne McCue established herself as a triple threat - singer, writer, guitar-slinger - with her albums Roll and Koala Motel. And, as evidenced by her appearance on East Nashville: More Music From the Other Side, Vol. 3 alongside the likes of Eric Brace, Chuck Mead, Elizabeth Cook, and Kieran Kane, she sounds like one of the tougher denizens of a music community that serves as counterpoint to Nashville's slicker Music Row.

On Broken Promise Land, McCue displays her grittier side - and flashes her six-string chops - with dirty-toned, blues-edged rockers such as "Don't Go to Texas (Without Me)," the title song, and Rose Tattoo's "Rock 'n' Roll Outlaw." With her dusky alto, however, McCue also remains a spellbinder when she shifts gears, from the horn-kissed rock-and-soul of "Cruisin' Paradise (Tenerife)" to the atmospheric, vibes-accented "Motorcycle Dream," and the seductively slithering "The Old Man's Talkin'."

- N.C.

Be Yourself: Live at Dizzy's Club Coca Cola

(HighNote ***1/2)

nolead ends It was just one live gig in New York, but these folks collectively left behind some cred.

Guitarist Kenny Burrell joins with 24-year-old tenor saxophonist Tivon Pennicott and some sage middle-agers - pianist Benny Green, bassist Peter Washington, and drummer Clayton Cameron - to make what is by any measure a dynamic set.

At the heart is Burrell, 79, who remains his stylish self, always intelligent and mysteriously free. His unaccompanied "Be Yourself" is both good advice and sterling work.

The quintet reverently covers some decent, if predictable, tunes like "Tin Tin Deo," which gets fine and slinky treatment, and "Blue Bossa," where the quintet sets down some markers.

But the set's searing moment is "In a Sentimental Mood." Green prefigures the Ellington tune in his dreamy introduction, which is off-the-charts expressive, and the quintet starts in breathy mode, all silkiness and spice, before it gradually builds. Pennicott tries some weird stuff and achieves massive lift-off, first by vaulting into the highest reaches of his tenor and then by sheer musicality during a final cadenza.

A hot time is had by all.

- Karl Stark

nolead begins Stanley Clarke
nolead ends nolead begins The Stanley Clarke Band Featuring Hiromi
nolead ends nolead begins (Heads Up **1/2)

nolead ends Philly native and bassist Stanley Clarke fiddles with the cast but keeps the formula, especially early on. A big fusion sound abounds, parts soul, funk, and rock. The soloing can be adventurous, but the bass sonic effects sound retro 1970s, and not in a nice way. On one tune, a voice babbles on about global warming. And Chick Corea's "No Mystery" sounds like someone ripping off a Corea tune.

The tracks get more interesting by the end. Cheryl Bentyne of Manhattan Transfer gives her pipes to a Caribbean-like Clarke original called "Sonny Rollins," which cooks in unexpected ways

Hiromi Uehara, the Japanese pianist who was part of Clarke's 2009 trio CD Jazz in the Garden, is not exactly front and center here, though her original, "Labyrinth," lets her step out some.

Ukrainian keyboardist and arranger Ruslan Sirota and drummer Ronald Bruner Jr. form the core, while saxophonist Bob Sheppard contributes.

Clarke, who came out of Philadelphia 40 years ago to mold jazz fusion, connects with his fans, but not much more.

- K.S.