New Recordings

Heligoland

(Virgin ***)

nolead ends Sade isn't the only chilled-out Briton to make a long-awaited return this discontented winter. Massive Attack, the Bristol, England, collective that, for better or worse, is credited with inventing trip-hop with Blue Lines way back in 1991, is back in action for the first time in seven years with an album named after a German archipelago. This time consisting only of producer-MCs Robert "3D" Del Naja and Grant "Daddy G" Marshall, Massive Attack is augmented by all sorts of guest vocalists - Tunde Adebimpe of TV on the Radio on the opening mood-setter, "Pray For Rain"; former Tricky consort Martin Topley-Bird on two shimmering tracks; and elsewhere, Hope Sandoval, Blur's Damon Albarn, and others. The result is neither as menacing nor as powerful as career highlights such as 1994's Protection, and after years of tinkering, Heligoland feels somewhat unevenly patched together. At their best, however - as on the disconcerting "Flat of the Blade," featuring Guy Harvey of Elbow - Del Naja and Marshall prove they're still sonic manipulators and songwriters highly skilled at creating a sense of ambient unease.

- Dan DeLuca

nolead begins Tindersticks
nolead ends nolead begins Falling Down a Mountain
nolead ends nolead begins (Constellation ***1/2)

nolead ends The Tindersticks' aesthetic has remained consistent since their early '90s beginnings: subtly orchestrated ballads rooted in lush countrypolitan, pulsing Northern Soul, and wide-screen spaghetti-Western soundtracks, all backing Stuart Staples' sepulchral voice and lyrics. Tindersticks songs can veer unpredictably from the sentimental to the lurid. What initially sounds like a sincere love song proves to be told from the perspective of a violent stalker, or to hide a twist that condemns the speaker. It's delicious stuff, moody, complex, and sometimes funny.

All of that is true of Falling Down a Mountain, the band's seventh studio album (not counting several soundtracks), down to what has become a tradition of including a duet with a guest female (this time it's the sui generis Mary Margaret O'Hara). But Tindersticks continues to push at the edges of their chosen purlieu, taking cues from Booker T. & the MGs R&B, creating new gothic grooves, and reinvigorating their hallmarks.

- Steve Klinge

nolead begins Ike Reilly
nolead ends nolead begins Hard Luck Stories
nolead ends nolead begins (Rock Ridge ****)

nolead ends Funny: Ike Reilly has always come up with intriguingly colorful titles for his albums - Salesmen and Racists, Junkie Faithful, Poison the Hit Parade, etc. Now, for the best album of a brilliant lot, the title is the rather generic Hard Luck Stories.

That title is the Chicago-area rocker's only misstep. Reilly is still mixing the motor-mouth wiseguy dazzle and bent blues of Highway 61 Revisited-era Dylan with blasts of the Clash's punkish intensity. But amid all the street-poet swagger, audacious humor, and industrial-strength hooks, he has sharpened his storytellimg skills and revealed a lot more heart: "Lights Out," "The Ballad of Jack and Haley," and "The Golden Corner" help make this the most emotionally resonant of his albums.

"The War on the Terror and the Drugs" starts out sounding like a lark, a buddy singalong with Shooter Jennings. Then Reilly sledgehammers you with this: "Well I dreamed my children / Couldn't catch their breaths / And they were falling off windowsills / Straight to their deaths . . . And out of their heads leaked laughter not lies / Mixed in the flowerbeds with sweet lullabies. . . . " Here's hoping a broad audience finds all the riches brimming in his hard-luck stories.

- Nick Cristiano

nolead begins Jaheim
nolead ends nolead begins Another Round
nolead ends nolead begins (Atlantic ***)

nolead ends Hip-hop smoothie Jaheim Hoagland, the toast of New Brunswick, is no novice to the romantic sentiment or the cool groove. As one of R&B and rap's smartest and most sensuous balladeers, he filled the gap neo-soul crooner Maxwell left when he briefly retired in the early 2000s. Plus, Jaheim's raw throatiness and bedroom delivery makes him a successor to Teddy Pendergrass in satin-sheet soul.

Jaheim's newest album, Another Round, is more than a match for 2002's Ghetto Love and 2007's The Makings of a Man. His vocals on the muskily macho "Bed Is Listening" and the tender entreaty of "Otha Half" have more punch. The beats are less fluid and more pronounced than on previous outings. His melodies also have more definition, especially the pleading "Find My Way Back." Tracks such as "Whoa" or "Her" have a newfound catchiness. Jaheim's doing what he's always done a little better, harder and longer now - and that's no naughty double entendre.

- A.D. Amorosi

Downtown Church

(EMI/Credential ***1/2)

nolead ends Patty Griffin really did go to church for her seventh album. Downtown Church was recorded in Nashville's historic Downtown Presbyterian Church - fitting, since the set focuses on gospel songs and hymns. The esteemed singer and songwriter contributes only two originals, although, typically, "Little Fire" and "Coming Home to Me" are strong entrants that fit the theme.

Working with producer-guitarist Buddy Miller, Griffin sounds equally at home with black and white gospel traditions, from Hank Williams' "House of Gold" to Dorothy Love Coates' "The Strange Man." In one case - "Virgen de Guadalupe" - she also draws from the Hispanic well. She is helped by an outstanding cast of singers - Emmylou Harris, Jim Lauderdale, Mike Farris, Raúl Malo, Shawn Colvin, Regina and Ann McCrary, and Buddy and Julie Miller. The performances are rarely of the roof-raising variety, but Griffin's eclecticism proves liberating. Her varied choices add up to a personal vision that only enhances the overall power of the collection.

- Nick Cristiano

nolead begins Various Artists
nolead ends nolead begins "Crazy Heart": Original Motion Picture Soundtrack
nolead ends nolead begins (New West ***)

nolead ends The soundtrack to Crazy Heart, in which Jeff Bridges plays a hard-living, seen-better-days country singer, boasts some impressive talents. The producers are T Bone Burnett and the late Stephen Bruton, both of whom also penned much of the top-flight original material. Up-and-coming Texas troubadour Ryan Bingham writes and sings, and the accompanists include such aces as guitarist Buddy Miller and pedal-steel player Greg Leisz. And sprinkled throughout are vintage cuts by the likes of Buck Owens, the Louvin Brothers, and Waylon Jennings.

None of this would amount to much, however, if Bridges couldn't pull off his role - if he couldn't sound like a real country singer. But the great actor does. Mostly it's in a Guy Clark kind of way - weathered and conversational and knowing on numbers such as "Hold on You" and "Brand New Angel," but adding some vigor when the tempo picks up on "Somebody Else." Fellow actor Colin Farrell also acquits himself well on the twang-fueled romp "Gone Gone Gone."

- N.C.

Faith In Action

(Posi-Tone Records ***1/2)

nolead ends You've got to like the deep lyricism that Orrin Evans puts forth here. The bandleader, composer, pianist, label owner, booking agent, and former Germantown Friends School music teacher looks back to the early years of his career on this trio recording.

The set pays rich tribute to alto saxophonist Bobby Watson, who gave Evans an early break when the often-Philly-based pianist was on the rise in the mid-1990s. Half of the 10 tunes are by Watson, including the handsome ballad "Beattitudes."

The playing here is magisterial, daring at times and quiet at others. Thelonious Monk clearly influences Evans' puckish moments and clotted chords on the Evans original "Don't Call Me Wally" though Evans is so far his own man that it's a delight.

Evans' trio, mostly with bassist Luques Curtis and drummer Nasheet Waits, represents a high point in his work. - Karl Stark

nolead begins The Tyrone Brown Ensemble
nolead ends nolead begins Suite for Frederick Douglass
nolead ends nolead begins (Dreambox Media ***)

nolead ends Great speeches express their own music. Bassist Tyrone Brown and violinist John Blake evoke the alchemy between word and tone here in their 11-part Suite for Frederick Douglass.

Presented here are selections from Douglass' speeches. In one, for example, given to an Independence Day gathering of ladies in 1852 in Rochester, N.Y., Douglass attacked the hypocrisy of celebrating freedom when so many were not free.

Brown and Blake, both lions of the Philly jazz scene, compose music that wraps around the words or plays between speeches, all in service to a quaint, 19th-century vibe. It's full of gentle, two-chord vamps, soft rhythms from drummer Craig McIver, the liquid chords of pianist Bill Meek Jr., and meandering, often sweet lines from a string trio.

Released during Black History Month, the CD at first projects an earnest quality, producing neither entertainment nor history. But one can appreciate the musicality of Douglass' words, read here by Paul Burgett, University Vice president of the University of Rochester.

By the end, it's almost as if Douglass' voice becomes a soloist, much like Coltrane's or Rollins', wielding words with the power of the blues.

- K.S.

Zuill Bailey, cello

(Telarc, two discs, ****)

nolead ends The photos of cellist Zuill Bailey - square jaw, natty suits, love of playing at the seashore - are all very nice but give no indication that he's anything but another young cellist making his mark with Bach. From the first notes, this disc commands attention above most others currently available and might be headed for classic status thanks to the combination of vision, temperament, and technique that comes together to great effect.

Those interested in more classically fashioned performances should skip this one, since Bailey puts a sympathetic but highly personal imprint on nearly every bar. Each movement accumulates tension effectively. Even the lighter dance movements show Bailey amusing himself as surely as Bach did while writing them. His rich-toned instrument is caught beautifully by the Telarc engineers, and Bailey's technique is such that no movement is too intricate for his stylish details.

- David Patrick Stearns

nolead begins Haydn
The Creation
nolead ends nolead begins Sally Matthews, Ian Bostridge, and Dietrich Henschel; London Symphony Orchestra and Chorus, Colin Davis conducting
nolead ends nolead begins (LSO Live, two discs, ***)

nolead ends nolead begins Sandrine Piau, Mark Padmore and Neal Davies, Gabrieli Consort & Players, Paul McCreesh conducting
nolead ends nolead begins (Deutsche Grammophon ***1/2)

nolead ends nolead begins Christiane Oelze, Scott Weir and Peter Lika. Berlin Radio Chamber Orchestra Chamber Orchestra of Europe, Roger Norrington conducting
nolead ends nolead begins (Profil, two discs, ***1/2)

nolead ends nolead begins Julia Kleiter, Maximilian Schmitt, Johannes Weisser, RIAS Kammerchor, Freiburger Barockorchester, Rene Jacobs conducting
nolead ends nolead begins (Harmonia Mundi, two discs, ****)

nolead ends Four excellent newish recordings of Haydn's most famous oratorio have particular claims on consumer attention, but one stands above the others. The Colin Davis-conducted LSO set has a particularly infectious live-performance energy reminding you that Haydn is one of this conductor's longtime specialties. But as with so many LSO recordings, off-form soloists are a significant problem - in this case, soprano Sally Matthews.

Equipped with a vocally excellent cast, Paul McCreesh adheres most scrupulously to up-to-the-minute research in Haydn-era performance, but does so with fussy, extreme dynamics and a buttoned-up quality that means the music soars only intermittently. You'd expect much the same from Roger Norrington, whose recent set of Haydn symphonies is even fussier, but here he and his excellent vocal cast have great fun - in a 1990 recording made for radio and not released until now.

In the Rene Jacobs set, the conductor is his bold, provocative self in ways that suit Haydn's ruddy spirit, and with a more biting period-orchestra sound that renders the music's descriptive effects in high-def 3D. The soloists aren't international stars, but they have a commitment and sense of immersion that equals their more glamorous counterparts.

- D.P.S.