New Recordings

Only Built 4 Cuban Linx, II

(Ice H20/EMI ***1/2)

nolead ends nolead begins Ghostface Killah
nolead ends nolead begins Ghostdini, The Wizard of Poetry
nolead ends nolead begins (Def Jam ***1/2)

nolead ends In Wu Tang Clan terms, RZA is the brilliant producer, Method Man the funny stoner, and Ol' Dirty Bastard the existentialist legend. But Raekwon and Ghostface Killah have long been Wu's most innovative artisans and poetic rappers - and each of their solo records proves as much.

Building on 1995's character-driven classic, Only Built 4 Cuban Linx, Raekwon's sequel has less of a story but amps up the drama and sonic novelty. Like most Clan solo projects, its members appear throughout. But it's the late J Dilla who lends Linx II its strangest, most soulful production, with the wildly militant "House of Flying Daggers" and the tender tribute to ODB, "Ason Jones."

Soul and tenderness aren't concepts you'd usually use to describe a Wu effort, let alone Ghostface Killah's bizarre catalog. Yet that's exactly what spills from his charming R&B alter ego Ghostini, as well as his singing guests and Wizard's overall caramel-coated vibe. Filled with sauntering melodies laced with soulful samples, tracks like "Baby," with Raheem DeVaughn, and the John Legend duet "Let's Stop Play'n" ooze from your speakers like Drambuie in a romantic reverie ideal for the oddest of seductions.

- A.D. Amorosi

nolead begins Muse
nolead ends nolead begins The Resistance
nolead ends nolead begins (Warner Brothers ***)

nolead ends Unconcerned with the critical brickbats tossed its way, England's Muse gets bolder and more unapologetically bombastic on this fifth studio album in the group's 15-year career. The Devonshire trio has long been revered in the U.K. - an award-winning top live act, selling out Wembley Stadium - but has yet to break big in the United States. Packed with ambitious pop-prog and arena-art-rock, this disc could do it. (A string of dates opening for U2's current stadium tour, including Tuesday at Maryland's FedEx Field, can only help.)

Backed by drummer Dominic Howard and bassist Christopher Wolstenholme, composer/vocalist/guitarist/

keyboardist Matthew Bellamy leads anthemic (and at times pompous) salvos against the system in a flexible voice that has something of Bono's declamatory tones and, most definitely, the sweeping brood, even falsetto, of Thom Yorke. But Muse has outgrown most other Radiohead comparisons. There's some grandiose original synth-rock here, while Bellamy croons a bit of "Mon Coeur S'Ouvre à Ta Voix" from Camille Saint-Saens' 1876 opera Samson and Delilah on one song and works in some Chopin on "United States Of Eurasia" - which also explodes into choice Queen-ly bits, the vocalist-guitarist recalling both Freddie Mercury and Brian May. And the closing "Exogenesis: Symphony" exhibits a delicacy its title might not suggest.

- David R. Stampone

nolead begins Paramore
nolead ends nolead begins Brand New Eyes
nolead ends nolead begins (Fueled by Ramen ***)

nolead ends Five pop-punks who went to platinum on a sinking ship (a misery business, you could say) in 2007 with actual MTV hits and actual word of mouth (on an indie, no less) have something to celebrate. That one began with "For a Pessimist, I'm Pretty Optimistic." This one's less optimistic; the first single's called "Ignorance" ("is your new best friend"). Hope it's not about fame ("you treat me just like another stranger") - that would undercut its melodic slash-and-burn, in this case somewhat flamenco-tinged. So far, the tracks they've released as singles very much outclass the ones they haven't, particularly the Rock Band special "That's What You Get."

Hayley Willams isn't a world-class front woman yet, not by a long shot. But she does elevate a cheapened and thin-spread genre with a Pat Benatar-sized clarity and gravity set to give her a huge hit ballad the day she's ready to sing one. For now, she's content to add some feminine muscle to her male sidemen's work. New songs such as "Playing God," "Feeling Sorry," and "Where the Lines Overlap" substitute clever chords for personality and anthemic turns for old clichés. Then again, a serious Christian who entrusts a bonus track to the Twilight teen-vampire franchise has some chutzpah.

- Dan Weiss

nolead begins Hope Sandoval and the Warm Inventions
nolead ends nolead begins Through the Devil Softly
nolead ends nolead begins (Nettwerk ***)

nolead ends Hope Sandoval is very frugal sharing her talents. Since the last Mazzy Star album in 1996, the darkly psychedelic singer has released only two full-lengths, 2001's Bavarian Fruit Bread and the new Through the Devil Softly, both in collaboration with Colm Ó Cíosóig. Unlike his loud, visceral work as the drummer in My Bloody Valentine, Ó Cíosóig's arrangements match Sandoval's narcoleptic musings with delicate, deliberate acoustic guitars or slowly reverberating electrics. The results are hypnotically beautiful dirges such as "Thinking Like That" and "Wild Roses." The arrangements are slightly fuller this time, but that's only a question of degree: The songs occasionally threaten to dissolve into a hazy dreamscape. The spooky "For the Rest of Your Life" and the lullaby-like "Sets the Blaze" meander but seem inert. That may be the intent: This is middle-of-the-night music, built for somnolent reveries.

- Steve Klinge

Blood and Candle Smoke

(Shout! Factory ***1/2)

nolead ends As one of Americana's greatest storytellers, Tom Russell has produced some magnificent epics, from dramatic narratives like "Gallo del Cielo" to sweeping concept albums like The Man From God Knows Where. The 12-song Blood and Candle Smoke, at once intimate and grand, ranks among his deepest and most moving works.

Certainly the musical accompaniment is among the richest of Russell's career, as members of Calexico help to provide a full-bodied, organic bed that includes keyboards and horns. Like Ry Cooder, Russell laments a gone America and seeks to shed a light on the soul-crushing effects of what's been lost in the slide toward vapid homogeneity. He does that with another powerful blend of the personal and the political. "Finding You" is a simple declaration of love, while "Santa Ana Wind" and "Mississippi River Running Backwards" look outward with apocalyptic dread.

As usual, Russell does all this in the context of cinematic stories and characters, and a vivid sense of place. In "The Most Dangerous Woman in America," for instance, his portrait of one desperate soul also makes a wrenching statement about the decline of the labor movement.

- Nick Cristiano

nolead begins Chris Young
nolead ends nolead begins The Man I Want to Be
nolead ends nolead begins (RCA Nashville ***)

nolead ends With "That Makes Me," Chris Young begins his second album by declaring himself be "a throwback." In one sense it's an uncharacteristic bit of chest-thumping, but it's not just posturing. The young Tennessee native, who got his break by winning the Nashville Star TV competition, continues the traditional-country style he displayed to winning effect on his self-titled 2006 debut.

Young can bring a rocking edge to the material, as he does on "That Makes Me" and "Twenty-One Candles," and he flashes an easygoing charm on the swaying "Gettin' You Home," a top-10 hit. But he really excels as a balladeer: With his smooth baritone and measured delivery, reminiscent of Josh Turner, he brings a beyond-his-years gravity to such moving tales as "The Dashboard" and "The Shoebox." "Rainy Night in Georgia," meanwhile, is a perfectly chosen cover: The mournful, after-hours feel is right in his wheelhouse, and he knocks this one out of the park.

- N.C.

Spirit

(Jazz Legacy ***1/2)

nolead ends Pianist Cyrus Chestnut was 6 when he started working the keyboards at the Mount Calvary Baptist Church in Baltimore. The 46-year-old pianist has traveled far since, recording tributes to Duke Ellington, Elvis Presley, and Vince Guaraldi's Charlie Brown Christmas tunes, as well as playing for Wynton Marsalis' Jazz at Lincoln Center Orchestra.

But the spirit remains, and so here Chestnut returns to the rich tradition that has nurtured so many artists. His solo piano here takes on classic gospel tunes, such as James Weldon Johnson's "Lift Every Voice and Sing," a staple of the civil rights movement.

His focus is dramatically old-style and reverent. Yet he also explores new facets of tunes with substitute chord changes and an improvisatory mind-set. He injects judicious dissonance on "Wade in the Water," so it leads to an amazing solo liftoff.

He also enlarges the songbook to include Bill Withers' "Lean on Me," which comes with a handsome repeating bass, and Paul Simon's "Bridge Over Troubled Waters," which gets a flowing treatment.

Jazz players for generations were estranged from their church brethren for allegedly playing the devil's music, but that has changed for many in recent years. Chestnut's take on Duke Ellington's "Come Sunday" is a prayer in itself.

- Karl Stark

nolead begins Gretchen Parlato
nolead ends nolead begins In a Dream
nolead ends nolead begins (ObliqSound ***)

nolead ends Singer Gretchen Parlato isn't afraid to ditch the melody. Her voice soars like a horn or doubles as tonal percussion on her inventive take on Wayne Shorter's "ESP."

Parlato won the 2004 Thelonious Monk International Jazz Vocals Competition (Quincy Jones, Dee Dee Bridgewater, and Little Jimmy Scott were among the judges). This follow-up to her first, self-titled CD in 2005 adds to her luster and boasts an impressive cast of young lions backing her.

Parlato has a soft and breathy style. She's deep into the jazz-as-art thing and occasionally remote. But she also shows a musical vibe and an appreciation for things Brazilian, as on her bossa nova take on Stevie Wonder's "I Can't Help It."

Mostly, though, she's an unexpected voice with little fear. "Turning Into Blue" showcases her brand of Buddhist lyrics. Herbie Hancock's "Butterfly," which begins with a demonstrative baby showing a strong rhythmic sense, is a smooth occasion, while "On the Other Side" projects this playful, Caribbean feel.

Raising the session are guitarist Lionel Loueke, pianist Aaron Parks, bassist Derrick Hodge, and drummer Kendrick Scott, none of whom are folks recycling the same old thing.

- K.S.

Anja Harteros, Sonia Ganassi, Rolando Villazon, Rene Pape; Orchestra and Chorus of the Accademia Nazionale di Santa Cecilia, Antonio Pappano conducting

(EMI, two discs, ***1/2)

nolead ends nolead begins Christine Brewer, Karen Cargill, Stuart Neill, John Relyea. London Symphony Chorus and Orchestra, Colin Davis conducting
nolead ends nolead begins (LSO Live, two discs, ***1/2)

nolead ends Two new Verdi Requiem recordings, both by conductors based in London, each notable in its own singular way. The EMI set has conductor Antonio Pappano with his Italian-based St. Cecilia forces, and they're mighty indeed. By any heaven-storming standard, this is among the most dramatically compelling performances on CD, the "Dies Irae" sections having an extra terror I've never heard anywhere else. The soloists are all excellent, though tenor Rolando Villazon isn't the best team player, putting an overly personal (and not always nuanced) stamp on every phrase. In other respects, this interpretation isn't particularly original, just more compellingly realized than most.

Veteran conductor Colin Davis, in contrast, delivers something more original and distinctive, even though this live performance hasn't Pappano's polish and is contained by the less-than-expansive acoustic of London's Barbican. Rather than using mere vocal force, Davis' soloists - soprano Christine Brewer and tenor Stuart Neill especially - deeply probe the meaning of Verdi's word/music relationships. All are in their best voice. So if Pappano's is a viscerally hot library copy of the Requiem, Davis' is a specialized secondary recording that's more likely to be cherished.

- David Patrick Stearns

nolead begins Fuzjko Hemming
Fuzjko
nolead ends nolead begins Selections by Scarlatti, Beethoven, Chopin, Liszt and Debussy
nolead ends nolead begins (Domo **1/2)

nolead ends This is as much a warning as it is a review: Fuzjko Hemming, who has sold millions of CDs in Japan, is making concerted inroads into the U.S. market, both with recordings (available on amazon.com) and performances, most recently Saturday at Lincoln Center. Once a promising student of Shura Cherkassky, Hemming overcame a significant hearing loss to launch her late-in-life career. Now in her 70s, she is plagued by faulty piano technique, has acquired curious stage eccentricities (dishevelled hair, odd clothes), and often sounds like an artist in decline.

This disc appears to be a compilation of her better performances. In works that are well within her technical reach, there's a depth of relationship with the music: Her Chopin has an enveloping warmth, and Scarlatti's Sonata in E Major Kk. 380 is radically and convincingly reimagined. So there's something special here - though in labored, intermittent form.

- D.P.S.