New Recordings

Still Dangerous: Live at the Tower Theatre Philadelphia 1977

(VH1 Classic Records ***)

nolead ends Who rates as Ireland's best-yet rock band - especially live? Surprise, U2 fans: It's not a closed case. In their mid-'70s heyday, fellow Dubliners Thin Lizzy were killing it worldwide before Bono & Co. had convened in high school. Although never breaking big Stateside, the beloved Irish hard-rockers were nonetheless a hot ticket. No studio album ever matched their exhilarating onstage mix of double-barreled Celtic guitar scorch and cofounder Brian Downey's bracing drums, setting off the tough poetic bravado of their late bass-wielding front man, Phil Lynott.

Lizzy's 1978 Live and Dangerous double album is still hailed as one of rock's top in-concert documents. And this just-released official recording, despite its problems (see below) bolsters TL's rep. Its stated origin is a forgotten tape dating from the band's October 1977 two-night stand at Upper Darby's Tower Theater - and this time, promise, no overdubs, just the "raw, unadulterated, untouched" truth.

Except it's not. There exists a long-circulating bootleg of the entire 17-track 10/20/77 Tower show - precisely the gig claimed (debatably) as the CD's sole source; it was originally broadcast on radio's King Biscuit Flower Hour (now heard legally streaming online). And the set-list order is different.

Worse, Still Dangerous offers only 10 songs, with two more available as bonus downloads, justifying accusations of holding back. But any live Lizzy from this era is ace. And one particular power-surging transition, using the last note of their cinematically thrilling "Cowboy Song" as the first note of their hearty "The Boys Are Back In Town," arguably remains the finest live segue in the annals of recorded rock.

- David R. Stampone

nolead begins Mastodon
nolead ends nolead begins Crack The Skye
nolead ends nolead begins (Reprise ***1/2)

nolead ends Gods of hellfire and mortal fans of Viking helmets and crunching complex prog-metal arrangements, unite! Atlantis', I mean, Atlanta's doom-rock giants, Mastodon, have come for your children.

The mighty Don - guitarist Bill Kelliher, drummer Bränn Dailor, bassist/singer Troy Sanders, and vocalist/guitarist/lyricist Brent Hinds - tackle the band's densest-yet album. No small feat, especially when you consider that it's Springsteen producer Brendan O'Brien who lent Skye's seven epics just enough space to execute their usual Zappa/Crimson/

Rush-like frippery without sounding silly. That openness allows Mastodon's rarely-heard harmony vocals to soar high on the Rasputin-filled four-part rager "The Czar." But with molten-hot bedrock rhythms below its suitelike turns and twitches ("Quintessence" nearly makes you dizzy with all its change-ups), Mastodon's leaden ambience is at sensory-overload levels. Remember, these guys used to be pure hard-core. Add to this persnickety frenzy Mastodon's usual Tolkien/pagan death-match lyricism - fighting with devils below on the title track, pleading with the lords above on the shockingly melodic "The Last Baron" - and you get a Crack that's potently sensual prog-metal at its full-blooded (emphasis on the blood) finest.

- A.D. Amorosi

nolead begins DOOM
nolead ends nolead begins Born Like This
nolead ends nolead begins (Lex ***1/2)

nolead ends DOOM - a.k.a. Metal Fingers Doom (or is it Metal Face Doom?), a.k.a. Viktor Vaughn, a.k.a. Zev Love X, and known on occasion as Daniel Dumile - is easy to overrate because he's the missing link between Wu-Tang Clan and Kool Keith. Remove the coke-peddling gangsta smoke that encases the Wu mystagogy in a resilient, marketable film, and you're left with the myth: comic books, obscure film samples, B.S. philosophy as manliness rather than nerdiness. Oh, and lots of technique. Take away the genuine craziness of Kool Keith but leave the alter egos, the masked underground character, the disdain for hooks and choruses. Oh, and lots of technique.

Born Like This, the usually quite prolific MC's first 40 minutes in four years, sounds like his other records: kitschy-creepy soundtrack samples that span the deep-crate gamut from teary soul to synthetic klezmer, connect-the-dots verse patterns, and "songs" that end when they run out of stanza, be it at 1:38 or 4:11. The differences that make it one of his better ones are subtle: briefer skits but fuller tracks don't change up his mixtape feel but at least elevate these above glorified freestyles. Autotune on one cut, Ghostface-style wounded singing on another, the real Ghostface and his sometime accomplice Raekwon on separate highlights. These marginal variations make Born Like This less artsy for artsy's sake; it flows better than his other records. And to this guy, flow is everything.

- Dan Weiss

nolead begins Flo Rida
nolead ends nolead begins R.O.O.T.S.
(Route of Overcoming the Struggle)
nolead ends nolead begins (Atlantic **1/2)

nolead ends The last time we heard from Flo Rida - throaty rapper extraordinaire - the Southern gentleman went as Low as he could go. Rather than go so far down that he's out on this sophomore disc, R.O.O.T.S. finds Flo going round. "Right Round," actually. That's the cleverly sampled Dead or Alive smash Flo's snagged for his effervescent electro-hop. What's sparkling about that crib isn't the crispness of its mashup hitmakers. It's that for all of its joyful bounce, "Round" loses none of Rida's sluggish, sinister crank. It just lifts him higher. From there Rida (with too-plain-speaking pal Akon) takes to "Available" with the slipperiest of grooves and the babble of the single, sexy playa, only to express love for God and goodness after growing up from ghetto on the title track and beyond. The saints on the streets; it's been done before lots of times. Assists from Nelly Furtado, Ne-Yo, and Wyclef Jean offer zero help. But when he's solo, there's zest to Rida's best that's undeniable. Save the guests for dinner. Keep the R.O.O.T.S. to yourself.

- A.D. Amorosi

Brother to the Wind

(Stone Barn ***1/2)

nolead ends Craig Bickhardt is back home in the Philadelphia area after 24 years in Nashville, where he penned numerous hits for others. Brother to the Wind shows this songwriter's songwriter to be as fine an interpreter of his own material as anyone.

Cut in Nashville with some of the town's best pickers, and guests such as Janis Ian and Maura O'Connell, the album is a seamless, largely acoustic blend of folk, country and pop. The understated grace and piquant touches of the music complement the warm, carefully crafted lyrics, from the wryly observant "Life With the Sound Turned Down" to the lessons learned of "A Day Well Spent" and the heart-tugging reverie of "This Old House." (The last was a hit in the '80s for Bickhardt when he was part of the group SBK.)

In "The Real Game," Bickhardt contrasts the pros playing baseball for millions with the kids "down on the corner" playing for the sheer joy of it. After all his years in the big time, he too has managed to retain that purity of spirit, and Brother keeps it refreshingly real.

- Nick Cristiano

nolead begins Thom Schuyler
nolead ends nolead begins Prayer of a Desperate Man
nolead ends nolead begins (TSJ ***1/2)

nolead ends Thom Schuyler was the "S" in SBK, with Craig Bickhardt and J. Fred Knobloch, and cowriter of the group's "This Old House." With his two bandmates, he was also part of a storied songwriters-in-

the-round series at Nashville's Bluebird Cafe, and he has scored many hits as a writer.

Like Bickhardt's new album, Prayer of a Desperate Man is an intimate, mostly acoustic set that's nothing like the radio-driven fare of, say, Kenny Chesney or Lonestar, two acts Schuyler signed while a Music Row executive in the '90s. Up-tempo, horn-accented numbers like "(Ain't Nothin' Wrong With a) Kit Kat" and "Who Needs a Hummer?" show Schuyler can be pretty clever and funny. Those numbers, however, serve as counterpoint to keenly observed songs that cut close to the bone. Schuyler rings unerringly true - and holds the sap - while writing about himself ("When She Danced With Me") and his family ("Talk to My Old Man"), offering an elegy to the Greatest Generation ("Starting to Go"), or, in "This Is America," making a big, devastatingly dead-on statement not with broad brushstrokes but with a narrowly focused, finely detailed portrait.

- N.C.

He and She

(Blue Note **1/2)

nolead ends Wynton Marsalis recites his own poems about love on his new jazz CD. He has some experience in this area, having avoided marriage while fathering three sons.

His poetry holds that women are smarter, relationships are perilous, and wisdom is hard to come by: "You are the razor rim of some sudden primal chasm best broached boldly."

Hmmm. Can you spell oppressive?

The quintet portion is full of waltzes and documents budding moments of romance. "First Crush" is full of flutters from tenor saxophonist Walter Blanding, while "First Slow Dance" is a dreamy ballad. "First Kiss" sounds like someone bumping into the furniture, while "First Time" is a gale-force tango.

The quartet's music is impressive at points, but it's also hard to hold in the memory. Marsalis seems professorial, directing "head" jazz that has a distant, composed quality. Staying with the theme, it's like a foxy lover who goes through the motions with no heart.

Still, there are lots of nuggets to prospect for amid this set with pianist Dan Nimmer and drummer Ali Jackson. "Fears" is a rarity for the leader, a free tune led by bassist Carlos Henriquez. It's a shame the vibe doesn't predominate.

- Karl Stark

nolead begins Dr. Lonnie Smith
nolead ends nolead begins Rise Up!
nolead ends nolead begins (Palmetto ***1/2)

nolead ends For a solidly funky outing, this session from organist Dr. Lonnie Smith scores. Sometimes confused with keyboardist Lonnie Liston Smith, the often-turbaned Dr. L. is a Hammond B-3 organ maestro who made his bones with guitarist George Benson in the 1960s and left memorable marks on Lou Donaldson's "Alligator Bogaloo."

This set, with producer Matt Balitsaris, continues the leader's remarkable run of recent years. The session has got the feel of good pork barbecue minus the saturated fat. There's not much downside because Smith knows all the portals to funk. Peter Bernstein is a tasteful presence on guitar, while saxophonist Donald Harrison adds another dimension with his more questing and acidic take on things. Drummer Herlin Riley gives the spark for all the rhythmic fire.

The set presents five Smith originals and covers, ranging from the Eurythmics' "Sweet Dreams" to Thom Bell and Linda Creed's "People Make the World Go Round," popularized by the Stylistics. The energy flags by the end, but a lot of soul has been bared by then.

- K.S.

Angela Gheorghiu, Jonas Kaufmann, Enkelejda Shkosa, Fabio Capitanucci. Orchestra and Chorus of the National Academy of Santa Cecila, Antonio Pappano conducting

(EMI ****)

nolead ends A great new Madama Butterfly hardly seems possible. Hasn't the opera been done so much that there's nothing new to discover? Haven't all the great Italian Puccini sopranos, from Renata Tebaldi to Mirella Freni, come and gone?

This new set isn't for listeners attached to those lush Italianate voices. Romanian soprano Angela Gheorghiu has plenty of vocal shimmer, but it's a lean sound that makes its points through an often-revelatory projection of the opera's text. Her Pinkerton is the handsome young Finnish tenor Jonas Kaufmann, who tentatively lives up to his hype.

But the real star of the set is conductor Antonio Pappano, whose vital, intelligent, emotionally bristling treatment of Puccini's psychologically precise score has perhaps never been equaled on disc.

- David Patrick Stearns
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