New Recordings: The Man In The High Castle, Barenaked Ladies and The Persuasions

Resistance Radio: The Man in the High Castle Album

(30th Century/Columbia ***1/2)

nolead ends The second season of the Amazon drama The Man in the High Castle is set in a fictionalized early-1960s America living under the dark cloud of fascist rule after an Axis victory in World War II. Resistance Radio takes its name from the pirate station in the show, and this 18-track set produced by Danger Mouse and Sam Cohen features an impressive list of contemporary acts covering pre-British Invasion songs with a typically melancholy living-in-an-oppressive-state bent. Kicking off with Sharon Van Etten's gorgeous take on Skeeter Davis' "The End of the World," the album, which was recorded in the weeks after the presidential election last year, moves from strength to strength with Beck's tender "Can't Help Falling in Love," Angel Olsen's vengeful "Who's Sorry Now," and Benjamin Booker's stinging "Spoonful." Other contributors reimagining pop, Motown, and country hits of the era, who Danger Mouse presumably has on speed dial, include Norah Jones, Grandaddy, the Shins, Karen O, Michael Kiwanuka, Kelis and Kevin Morby. Cool concept, expertly executed.

- Dan DeLuca

nolead begins Barenaked Ladies and the Persuasions
nolead ends nolead begins Ladies and Gentlemen: Barenaked Ladies and the Persuasions
nolead ends nolead begins (Raisin' ***)

nolead ends Like a cross between NRBQ and They Might Be Giants, Canada's Barenaked Ladies have made some of pop's oddest, cleverest musical moves, with serious playing chops and the sort of soaring, mellifluous vocal harmonies that would make Brian Wilson (a charge of one of BNL's best songs) envy-tinted green. Imagine then that the band saved its strangest, yet most beautiful (and challenging), ideas for its 30th anniversary, one matching harmonies with even-richer ones of old-school New York City a cappella act the Persuasions.

Rarely has BNL been accused of having heavy soul, but pulling from their longtime catalog (save for the Persuasions' giddy "Good Times"), cofounder Ed Robertson and Co. selected their most elastic melodies for their newly assembled collective to tackle. Along with the chipper, nearly a cappella "One Week," the funky barbershop team croons as one (and complexly) on a jazzy, piano-filled "Gonna Walk," a reggae-tinged "Don't Shuffle Me Back," and a pure poppy "Odds Are."

- A.D. Amorosi