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Pop Metallica hasn't truly done riff-racing thrash metal since 1988. In its place, guitarists Kirk Hammett and James Hetfield, drummer Lars Ulrich, and several bassists traded Metallica's patented molding of volume and speed for something less operatically dynamic and less gloriously morose. They found pop hooks and structures, garage slop and therapy-laden lyrics.

Pop

Death Magnetic

(Warner Bros. ****)

Metallica hasn't truly done riff-racing thrash metal since 1988. In its place, guitarists Kirk Hammett and James Hetfield, drummer Lars Ulrich, and several bassists traded Metallica's patented molding of volume and speed for something less operatically dynamic and less gloriously morose. They found pop hooks and structures, garage slop and therapy-laden lyrics.

Were they bad? No. Metallica just didn't thrash - for 18 years.

Now with producer Rick Rubin driving the group, Metallica has once again found its power overdrive and gloomy mojo, its speed and precision. Forget that Hetfield is rusty as a lyricist, erring on the side of pomp, pun and cliche. "Venom of a life insane / Bites into your fragile vein," he howls on "The Judas Kiss." Oy. Luxuriate instead in the polished-brass pummel of its rhythms and its hot, six-string harangues.

"That Was Just Your Life," "All Nightmare Long" - they're epic and heavy, frenzied and full-blooded, with quadrupled drum rumbles and wildly frantic riffs. "Broken, Beat and Scarred" finds them ferociously anxious yet with an oddly positive message. If 2004's documentary

Some Kind of Monster

was about Metallica's psychic healing process,

Death Magnetic

is the magnificent roar of a band unwinding without having to break down.

- A.D. Amorosi

Year of the Gentleman

(Def Jam ***)

By spiffing up and calling his album

Year of the Gentleman,

Ne-Yo wants to remind hip-hoppers and new-jack soul heads alike of pop's standard-bearers in song and style. But it's not the tilt of a man's hat or the cut of his coat that puts audiences in mind of legends like Frank and Nat. It's how he wears his wiles, musically and sartorially. And that suits the smooth-as-silk crooner/producer/songwriter extraordinaire fine.

The hit-maker (he's written for Beyoncé and Rihanna), who spent his first albums sounding like a cross between R. Kelly and Stevie Wonder, understands that melody comes before rhyme and rhythm and gives "Closer" an impressively anthemic chorus to go with its chintzy Euro-disco swirl. Quickly flitting and funky in a chic way, "Miss Independent" is one of

Gentleman

's most bracing tracks. Ne-Yo rarely got it right when it came to the fast stuff, so it's impressive that he's figured it out. Still, it's in heart-broken ballads such as "So You Can Cry" and "Stop This World" that Ne-Yo shows off the big emotions and the bigger-still choruses - the catches in his throat and the tunes. You don't need a fancy suit for that.

- A.D.A.

The Block

(Interscope **1/2)

I think I'm the first person to play New Kids on the Block song "Dirty Dawg" in 14 years. Research, I swear. Their second reunion bid - which contains a song called "Sexify My Love" - is better.

But what is "better" exactly, with a critically maligned group that can be blamed for the late '90s boy-band boom that annoyed your 15-year-old Korn fan so?

"Better" is not woofing at their objects of sex/ire. "Better" is wringing out the last drops of pleasure from T-Pain's Pro Tools kit. "Better" is letting their producers run wild with gleaming synths and autotuned harmonies and all sorts of fancy-for-a-sub-Britney-budget spacing and bumping tricks. "Summertime" is even a respectable summer single that could be mistaken for the Knife when the mike's off. "Twisted" and "Dirty Dancing" are even richer. The awful lyrics and odd reliance on rhythm-stilting snapclaps every fourth beat get tired. And approaching 40, I don't think any of the showbiz-travailed fivesome has ever used the word

woman

in their lives. But as far as exhumed corpses go - and a twisted, postmodern smile forms as I type this - this beats the Stooges'.

- Dan Weiss

That Lucky Old Sun

(Capitol ***)

The sadness beneath the sunniness is what makes Brian Wilson's output with the Beach Boys rise to greatness. And that sense of longing, of missed opportunities, of envy of the lucky old sun that just rolls around heaven all day permeates the 66-year-old Wilson's paean to his hometown of Los Angeles. "Swept away in a brainstorm / Chapters missing, pages torn," he sings in "Midnight's Another Day," alluding the time the

Pet Sounds

auteur spent lost in a haze of mental illness, adding "All these people make me feel so alone."

That Lucky Old Sun

is by no means up to the level of Wilson's most brilliant work, and Wilson's vocals (of Van Dyke Parks lyrics) can sometimes be creepily distant, as if someone put him in front of a teleprompter with the world's greatest Beach Boys cover band behind him. But if this isn't a long-dreamed-of sequel to

Smile

, it's enough to bring a bittersweet smile to your face.

- Dan DeLuca

Country/Roots

Do You Know

(Epic **)

This is a pretty solid country album, an assessment that has little to do with Simpson.

Producers John Shanks (he also produced Jess' little sister, Ashlee) and Brett James have fashioned a brisk and bold studio sound for the singer (if at times overly lofty). They also chipped in the album's best song, "Still Beautiful."

Simpson has always had a strong voice, but it overwhelms a lot of this material. Not surprisingly, she sounds best on the poppier entries like "You're My Sunday" and "Still Don't Stop Me."

To give her her due, Simpson fares well on "Do You Know," the duet with Dolly Parton that closes the album. But it's arrogant to hear her sing, "I could've been your June Carter Cash" on "Sipping on History." That line would be hubristic coming from Reba, much less a carpet-bagging crossover making her first trip out of the barn.

- David Hiltbrand

Los Fabulocos

(Delta Groove ***1/2)

Three veterans of Southern California's Chicano music scene team up here with the always terrific blues/roots-rock guitarist Kid Ramos, and the "Cali-Mex" sound that results is a rocking blast.

Los Fabulocos

features a few top-flight originals by singer-accordionist Jesus Cuevas - his chugging "Day After Day" highlights the band's working-class roots - and bassist James Barrios. Mostly, though, the quartet revives chestnuts such as Rockin' Dopsie's "You Ain't Nothin' But Fine" and Clifton Chenier's "All Night Long," infusing them with their own Latin fire and soul.

Singing in English and Spanish, Cuevas makes a charismatic front man. He has a clear, pleading voice that recalls Los Lobos' David Hidalgo, especially on ballads such as Lloyd Price's "Just Because." If you prefer the earlier work of that East L.A. band, before it started getting arty, then you should love

Los Fabulocos.

- Nick Cristiano

Jazz

Novas Bossas

(EMI ***)

Brazilian pop superstar Milton Nascimento fronts the Jobim trio, composed of Antonio Carlos Jobim's son Paulo on guitar and grandson Daniel on piano. Both also add vocals.

Nascimento, 66, shows a lithe voice on this lush session, which is full of languid flow and sensual Portuguese lyrics. Sometimes his tone wanders, creating a distraction. The arrangements can be clunky. Still, the session proves to be warm, full of bonbons like Dori Caymmi's mystical "O Vento."

The set features eight A.C. Jobim tunes, including a pleasant "Chega de Saudade," famed as the title track of Joao Gilberto's breakthrough bossa nova recording circa 1959. "Esperanca Perdida" is notable for its simple beginning, a break from the session's often crowded arrangements, and for Nascimento's gentle singing.

Daniel Jobim's "Dias Azuis" shows some of the family's formidable songwriting chops.

- Karl Stark

Classical

Philippe Jaroussky et al.; Les Arts Florissants, William Christie conductor; Benjamin Lazar, stage director.

(Virgin Classics, two DVDs, ***1/2)

In the opening moments, you see stage candles igniting in lieu of modern electric footlights - the first tip-off that the DVD of this 1632 religious drama is the ultimate time-travel experience - made possible by much surviving information on how

Il Sant'Alessio

was produced and performed. The simple wooden set looks like an altar painting from the period, and yes, the female characters do have 5 o'clock shadows peeking through their makeup, since women weren't allowed in sacred dramas. Even the gestures are said to be authentic, and they effectively draw the audience into this pared-down Monteverdi-style music.

Most operagoers may not want to visit this world often, but even if the music isn't as concentrated as Monteverdi's and the drama itself is extremely contemplative, one visit is enough to throw much light on that whole period of opera. Most of the singing is excellent, and in the title role countertenor Jaroussky is utterly magnetic, vocally and theatrically. Too bad he spends all of Act III lying onstage dead.

- David Patrick Stearns

Orchestre Metropolitain du Grand Montreal, Yannick Nezet-Seguin conducting.

(ATMA Classiques, ***1/2)

From the sounds of this recording, up-and-coming conductor Nezet-Seguin might be called the anti-Gustavo Dudamel. Instead of generating the expected youthful excitement typical of young artists, Nezet-Seguin is supremely contemplative. Most events are heralded with a slowing of tempo to make room for revelations with pure grandeur. It's Christoph Eschenbach-style Bruckner, and then some. In fact, Nezet-Seguin's reading of the final adagio is so slow as to be four minutes longer than Wilhelm Furtwangler's famous 1944 recording - with an effect that's nearly as cataclysmic.

Obviously, this reading isn't for everyone. And since the performance was recorded in a church, the acoustic keeps the ear a bit distanced from the music. Unquestionably, though, Nezet-Seguin is a conductor with deep convictions and great courage.

- D.P.S.