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Pop Jessica Simpson must have done quite a number on the most genial tall-dark-and-handsome of the 2000s. Despite an even more milquetoast synergy than usual - U2 meets Sting on the opener - the fourth album from the cornball writer of "Your Body Is

Pop

Battle Studies

(Sony **1/2)

nolead ends Jessica Simpson must have done quite a number on the most genial tall-dark-and-handsome of the 2000s. Despite an even more milquetoast synergy than usual - U2 meets Sting on the opener - the fourth album from the cornball writer of "Your Body Is a Wonderland" is easily his darkest. It's ironic how angry he is, considering that his last huge one was a plea for peace (and Barack Obama) called "Waiting on the World to Change." The word War appears in two song titles here, and lest the album title confuse you, this isn't a political record. No one gets assassinated in "Assassin," which mixes Mayer's literal-lady-killer metaphor with stealing (hearts, natch) - and dig this twist: The girl's an assassin, too! This is not to be confused with the entirely separate "Heartbreak Warfare," or the six pushy minutes of the McCartney-wannabe closer "Friends, Lovers or Nothing" ("anything other than yes is no"), which, I suppose, is answered by "Perfectly Lonely," the happiest song here.

Nothing on Battle Studies approaches the tenderness of earlier Mayer tunes such as "No Such Thing" or "Daughters," or even the goofy bedplay of "Wonderland." In the most technical, paradigmatic way possible, yes, he's more tuneful than hipper alternatives like Grizzly Bear - just check the Taylor Swift duet. But the tepid backwash here makes her likable fluff sound raucous by comparison. And while Swift is easily livelier, hookier, and more fun to listen to, she's also less jaded. Is that the change Mayer was waiting on?

- Dan Weiss

nolead begins Adam Lambert
nolead ends nolead begins For Your Entertainment
nolead ends nolead begins (19/RCA **1/2)

nolead ends Each year brings the same ritual: waiting to see if the newest batch of American Idol singers will make distinctive statements with their debut albums. Surely if any of these kids has star potential it's Adam Lambert, the glamtastic Season 8 runner-up.

He's certainly swinging from his high heels on songs like the title track, a jolting dance-floor imperative, and on the Abba-accelerated "If I Had You."

The most intriguing song is also the most atypical: "Soaked," a wall-of-sound power ballad on which Lambert sounds like a modern Roy Orbison.

He's trying on a lot of capes here: disco, glitter pop, hair metal, electronica, and more.

Ambitious and aurally rousing, For Your Entertainment is satisfying without being innovative.

- David Hiltbrand

nolead begins Dashboard Confessional
nolead ends nolead begins Alter the Ending
nolead ends nolead begins (Interscope **1/2)

nolead ends There are two sides to Chris Carrabba's Dashboard Confessional. There's the solo acoustic project he started nearly a decade ago and there's the polished pop-punk that embodies most of the band's recent work. For the most part, his acoustic work is much stronger, allowing his songwriting to shine and his heart-on-sleeve lyrics to come across as genuine. On Dashboard Confessional's new album, Alter the Ending, Carrabba attempts to reconcile those two facets by releasing a two-disc set that features both acoustic and full-band versions of the album's 12 songs. The plugged-in disc is filled with sweeping choruses, buoyant power chords, and gleaming guitar riffs, but the acoustic version is intimate and more engaging while retaining the catchy hooks and pop sensibility. Unfortunately, until Carrabba can abandon the full-band pop-punk cliches, Dashboard Confessional won't stand apart from contemporaries such as Panic at the Disco or Brand New.

- Katherine Silkaitis

nolead begins Them Crooked Vultures
nolead ends nolead begins Them Crooked Vultures
nolead ends nolead begins (DGC ***)

nolead ends As supergroups go, Them Crooked Vultures, who are Dave Grohl of the Foo Fighters, Josh Homme of Queens of the Stone Age, and Led Zeppelin's John Paul Jones, is pretty super. What's more, this self-titled riff-rock debut is superior to most big-name one-off powwows because it refuses to take itself too seriously. Led Zep is the obvious starting point, with two prodigiously talented alt-rock fanboys getting their jollies playing with the monster bassist who laid down the foundation for Robert Plant's ululations. But TCV brings the heavyosity without ever growing overbearingly imitative, and the trio is often unabashedly silly - see the psychedelic "Interlude with 'Ludes" - while remaining more than serious enough about the business as of constructing scuzzy, boogie-down productions like the swirling "Scumbag Blues" and the stampeding "Elephants."

- Dan DeLuca

Country/Roots

Old Things New

(Universal South ***)

nolead ends The title song of Joe Nichols' fifth album is a spare, fiddle-and-steel ballad that references Hank and Haggard but really is about making big life changes. "Takin' some old things and makin' 'em new," however, is a line that also could apply to what Nichols, at his best, does with country music.

Throughout Old Things New, Nichols gives country a contemporary feel without compromising its roots. As usual, the singer excels as a balladeer, especially on the title song and the piano-only closer, "An Old Friend of Mine" (i.e., booze). But he also wraps heartache in bright, catchy honky-tonk on "Man, Woman," and does some rowdy barroom philosophizing on "Cheaper Than a Shrink" (again, booze).

Unfortunately, Nichols also revisits his career nadir by tacking on, as one of two bonus tracks, a remixed version of his hit "Tequila Makes Her Clothes Fall Off" that pulls off the tough trick of making this "song" sound even dumber.

- Nick Cristiano

nolead begins Chip Taylor
nolead ends nolead begins Yonkers, N.Y.
nolead ends nolead begins (Train Wreck ***)

nolead ends As a former hit songwriter ("Wild Thing," "Angel of the Morning") and professional gambler who has become an acclaimed Americana troubadour, Chip Taylor has led a life that could be the stuff of song. Now it is, as the 69-year-old singer-songwriter turns autobiographical for his latest album.

Yonkers, N.Y. focuses on Taylor's formative years in that New York City suburb, where he first got into music and gambling while growing up with his parents and his two brothers, one of whom is the actor Jon Voight. The work bears Taylor's hallmarks. The songs are poignant, wise and funny, and framed with lean, country-flavored arrangements that suit his conversational style. In a few cases, like the one about his "Bastard Brothers" (said with affection, of course), he includes spoken stories as interludes. They're good but not essential, as the lyrics and music stand well on their own.

- N.C.

Jazz

Twelve Pieces

(NYC ***)

nolead ends Vibraphonist Mike Mainieri, the force behind the celebrated fusion band Steps Ahead, is 71 now and still making great music. Here he fashions a happening collaboration with a leading Dutch jazz guitarist, Marnix Busstra.

The quartet, with bassist Eric van der Westen and drummer Pieter Bast, is occasionally funky and mostly cool-toned. It could be music for an aquarium except that the sparks between Mainieri and Busstra are quite real.

Busstra, who wrote 10 of the 12 tunes, often favors beauty before technique in his concept of fusion. "It's Done" is a dark, handsome ditty full of quiet elegance. "Square Brown" starts twangy but settles into a fusion groove, while "Kannada," based on an old Indian children's song, leads the quartet into quasiglobal territory.

Mainieri contributes "All in a Row," his view of a classical 12-tone row, and it's fiendish, as expected.

Luckily, most of the rest is more simpatico. It's a fun amalgam of American and European jazz elements.

- Karl Stark

nolead begins Roni Ben-Hur
nolead ends nolead begins Fortuna nolead ends

nolead begins (Motema ***)

nolead ends Guitarist Roni Ben-Hur names this set for his Israeli mother. And while the recording shows hints of his Sephardic roots in Tunisia and Spain, the session feels more like a collection of standards even though only some of the tunes qualify.

Ben-Hur, an early leader in a recent wave of Israeli jazz immigration, assembled a stellar crew, with pianist Ronnie Matthews (who died in 2008), bassist Rufus Reid, drummer Lewis Nash, and percussionist Steve Kroon. These guys practically define top-shelf, and Ben-Hur is always tasteful and inventive while riding the smooth wave.

The quintet performs a couple of A.C. Jobim tunes, including some nice heat generated on "Só Tinha De Ser Com Você." Isaac Albeniz' "Grenada" celebrates Ben-Hur's Spanish tinge, while Harold Arlen's "A Sleepin' Bee" gives the band some opportunity to swing.

- K.S.

Classical

Isabelle Kabatu, Angela Renée Simpson, Roberta Alexander, Jonathan Lemalu, Gregg Baker, Michael Forest. Arnold Schoenberg Chorus & Chamber Orchestra of Europe, Nikolaus Harnoncourt conducting

(RCA, three discs, ***)

nolead ends Neither the 2009 Graz Festival nor conductor Nikolaus Harnoncourt are likely sources for a new Porgy and Bess recording. But the 79-year-old Harnoncourt has longed to conduct the piece for decades, and here's the result in all its quirky glory. The great Porgy and Bess recordings - Houston Grand Opera (RCA) and the Simon Rattle (EMI) - came from productions with strong stage directors. Apparently lacking that, this set has an uncertain compass, most obviously the chorus, which seems to sing in phonetic English. Some of the folksier moments in Jonathan Lemalu's Porgy feel stilted, and Isabelle Kabatu's Bess has a misplaced stentorian quality, as if she'd rather be singing Turandot.

However, critical dramatic moments - sometimes considered the weak parts of Gershwin's score - take on the dramatic weight of Wagner in revelatory ways, especially with the likes of Gregg Baker as Crown. Also, Harnoncourt's deliberate sense of rhythm has a surprisingly funky quality in songs such as "There's a Boat That's Leaving Soon for New York," sung by Michael Forest in a near-ideal midway between operatic and pop singing. Like many Harnoncourt recordings outside his core Mozart/Beethoven repertoire, this is an interesting footnote to the piece's larger discography - recommended to his admirers in an inexpensive download (my source was the French Web site www.qobuz.com, with three discs of music for $15).

- David Patrick Stearns

nolead begins Schumann
Piano Concerto
nolead ends nolead begins Arturo Benedetti Michelangeli, piano; Orchestre de Paris, Daniel Barenboim conducting
nolead ends nolead begins (DG ****)

nolead ends nolead begins Myra Hess, piano; Royal Concertgebouw Orchestra of Amsterdam, Eduard van Beinum conducting
nolead ends nolead begins (Tahra ***)

nolead ends nolead begins Martin Helmchen, Orchestre Philharmonique de Strasbourg, Marc Albrecht conducting
nolead ends nolead begins (PentaTone ***1/2)

nolead ends Though all three recordings are new to the market, Myra Hess and Arturo Benedetti Michelangeli are reclaimed from European radio archives, the latter being a significant addition to the great pianist's discography. For whatever reason, the reclusive, cancellation-prone Michelangeli plays with a freedom that borders on reckless in this 1984 live recording, though never at the expense of his polished-marble sonority. The disc is filled out by a fine and also spontaneous performance of Images (Debussy) that he casually ran through while awaiting the setup of a 1982 TV broadcast of Ravel's Piano Concerto in G - in an act of genius at play.

The Hess and Martin Helmchen discs are quite worth hearing, but not for the Schumann concerto. Hess' 1956 recording survives in muffled sound, and the performance doesn't compare well to any of the other Hess/Schumann discs floating around. But the disc is filled out with Beethoven's Piano Concerto No. 5 from 1952 in good sound with the pianist at a higher and more inventive energy level. Helmchen's Schumann beautifully sculpts each individual phrase but, overall, feels too reticent. However, he makes an excellent case for Dvorak's infrequently heard Piano Concerto Op. 33.

- D.P.S.