New Albums: blink-182, ScHoolboy Q , Lee Moses

California

(BMG **)

nolead ends Achieving what Radiohead's A Moon Shaped Pool couldn't, the seventh album by the SoCal pop-punk band - and first since coleader Tom DeLonge was replaced by Alkaline Trio guitarist Matt Skiba - has succeeded in pushing Canadian rapper Drake's Views off the top of the Billboard album chart. Proving . . . what, exactly? Certainly that the snarky, aging pop-punk band retains more audience share than might be expected, and that their less-ambitious-than-Green Day three-minute rips continue to appeal to both current and former suburban youths. (The band has forthcoming shows at the BB&T Pavilion in Camden on Aug. 12 and on the Atlantic City Beach Sept. 12.)

The San Diego-born band's wit remains less than stellar - I won't repeat the inane, one-line lyric of the 29-second "Brohemian Rhapsody." And California's efforts to stand as a unified statement about the Golden State are feeble, though there are songs called "Los Angeles," "California," and "San Diego." But almost despite themselves, the late-1990s trio has gathered a smidgen of gravitas, as they turn sensitive balladeers on "Home Is Such a Lonely Place." And the realization that "the clock's running, our time's coming" threatens to harsh the buzz of the "Kings of the Weekend." - Dan DeLuca

nolead begins ScHoolboy Q
nolead ends nolead begins Blank Face
nolead ends nolead begins (Top Dawg Entertainment/Interscope ***1/2)

nolead ends Despite albums rife with fellow MCs (e.g., Anderson .Paak, Kanye West) and a familial association with old hip-hop friends (his Black Hippy supergroup, featuring fellow Cali rappers Ab-Soul, Kendrick Lamar, and Jay Rock), ScHoolboy Q rolls like a loner. A draining helplessness at the state of the sorry Union. A sense of loneliness even in the midst of loving people (including his daughter). Ruminations on gang initiations and absent fathers. It's all here, with Q's gruff voice and deeply felt, smartly written, and sing-songy flow intact. Only this time, Lamar's avant-jazzy To Pimp a Butterfly is Q's sonic inspiration, an aural wallpaper as sleek and lively as its words are woefully reflective.

Sharp visions of gangbang life are captured on "Ride Out" and "Groovy Tony/Eddie Kane." "Neva Change" paints the album's most poignant picture when Q spits, "You see them lights get behind us / They pull me out for my priors / Won't let me freeze 'fore they fire / You say that footage a liar . . . no wonder we riot."

Not everything Q & Co. rhyme is bleak. There's a gorgeous, warm family feeling on the thrumming "Blank Face," which finds its protagonist going Easter egg hunting and playing Santa at Christmas. Best yet is how, on "Black THougHts," the rapper comes up with hope and solutions for the world so currently gone awry. "Let's put our guns down . . . All lives matter, both sides." Thank you, Q. - A.D. Amorosi

nolead begins Lee Moses
nolead ends nolead begins Time and Place
nolead ends nolead begins (Future Days Recordings ***)

nolead ends Lee Moses was part of the Atlanta soul scene in the mid-60s. He was friends with Gladys Knight, who purportedly wanted him to sing and play guitar in the Pips, but he had sights on a solo career. He went to New York and palled around with Jimi Hendrix. But he released only a handful of singles and one little-heard album, 1971's Time and Place, now reissued.

Moses, who died in 1997, was a soul-shouter in the tradition of Wilson Pickett and Solomon Burke, and Time and Place is full of funky Southern grooves and gruff-voiced exclamations. He covers "Hey Joe" and "California Dreaming" as slow, dramatic ballads, and both showcase his impressive guitar playing. The excellent title track has a Muscle Shoals groove, punctuated by horns. On "Got That Will," Moses praises Sly Stone, Aretha Franklin, and Hendrix and sings that he's "gonna be a star one day." Unfortunately, that wasn't to be the case. Heard now, though, Time and Place sounds like he could have been.

- Steve Klinge

Relient K, Air for Free; Gucci Mane, Everybody Looking; Look Park, Look Park; MSTRKRFT, Operator.EndText