REVIEW -- BRUCE SPRINGSTEEN: WORKING ON A DREAM

Bruce Springsteen

Working on a Dream

(Columbia)

Hope is all over Bruce Springsteen’s 16th album. It’s there in the title, Working on a Dream, and it’s in the songs – odes to love, life and the Great Beyond. Of course, hope has always been at the center of Springsteen’s songs, even when they seemed hopeless. Most of Born to Run, Darkness on the Edge of Town and The River are about despair and wanting to get the hell out of desperate situations. It’s hope that keeps Bruce, Mary, Wendy and everyone else going. Working on a Dream, recorded with the E Street Band, doesn’t shroud its hope in songs about luckless losers and road-bound tramps; it’s the focal point on “My Lucky Day,” “What Love Can Do,” “Tomorrow Never Knows” and “Life Itself.” The album even starts with a shot of old-school optimism, “Outlaw Pete,” an eight-minute epic about one of Springsteen’s urban cowboys. But unlike the guys in “Jungleland” and “Darkness on the Edge of Town,” Pete actually makes it out OK in the end. And unlike Springsteen’s last album, 2007’s overrated Magic, Working on a Dream isn’t hiding a political agenda. Sure, the title tune’s hope might as well be Obama’s, but this is a record of celebrations – little victories about stargazing and falling in love in the checkout line of the supermarket. -- Michael Gallucci

REVIEW -- CLEM SNIDE: HUNGRY BIRD

Clem Snide

Hungry Bird

(429)

Three years ago, frontman Eef Barzelay moved what was left of his band (originally from Boston then New York) to Nashville. They recorded Hungry Bird and then broke up. In the interim, Barzelay released a pair of solo records while Clem Snide’s sixth, and supposedly final, album sat on the shelf. With the release of Hungry Bird comes word that the group isn’t finished yet. But it sure sounds like it, if Barzelay’s apocalyptic requiems are any indication. The 10 songs shuffle along at a languid pace that’s as much about savoring the moment as it is mourning the departed. Barzelay still weds words – which cover everything from transgendered beauty queens (“Born a Man”) to Mad Max-like musings (“We have their bones to comb our hair”) – to delicately played and layered indie-rock. Songs go on for five, six, sometimes seven minutes, as if Barzelay doesn’t want this all to end. It’s a fitting finale. -- Michael Gallucci

REVIEW -- BEIRUT: MARCH OF THE ZAPOTEC

Beirut

March of the Zapotec

(Pompeii)

Beirut’s last album, 2007’s The Flying Club Cup, sounded like a boozy gypsy wedding band auditioning for the world’s shakiest circus. Ringmaster Zach Condon led his ad-hoc group through wobbly waltzes and horn-drunk parade marches that seemingly came without sheet music. This six-song EP is more of the same, with Condon expanding his repertoire to include some mariachi madness with help from a 19-member troupe he found in Mexico. Tracks like “El Zócalo” and “La Llorona” bring la fiesta. March of the Zapotec is paired with a disc by Realpeople, Condon’s pre-Beirut bedroom project. The five synth-pop songs on Holland do for ’90s house what Beirut does for Balkan folk: swathe it in indie-pop cool while maintaining a bit of old-school tradition. --Michael Gallucci

CULTURE JAMMING -- JANUARY 28

TOP PICK

Prince of Persia

(Ubisoft)

This next-gen rethink of the videogame classic (for the PlayStation 3 and Xbox 360) opens up an expansive playing field, taking gamers on different paths to various adventures. All your favorite moves are here: the punching, the climbing, the jumping from one decaying ledge to another. Also, the new tagalong pal really comes in handy during the puzzles and fights.

DVD

American Teen

(Paramount Vantage)

One of last year’s best documentaries follows four Indiana teenagers through their senior year in high school. There’s a nerd, a jock, a popular girl and an artsy chick. Not so surprisingly, their lives often converge and collide, with intersecting problems. And, also not so surprisingly, their parents are often the root of their angst.

DVD

The Day the Earth Stood Still Special Edition

(Twentieth Century Fox)

Keanu Reeves’ dreadful remake of the 1951 classic should be disintegrated with a ray gun. The smart, subtle original -- one of the best sci-fi movies ever – still resonates 50-plus years later. This two-disc set features critical and making-of docs, plus commentary by director Robert Wise (who also helmed West Side Story and The Sound of Music!).

BOOK

Don’t Stop Believin’: How Karaoke Conquered the World and Changed My Life

(Da Capo)

Writer Brian Raftery’s look at karaoke culture is part history lesson (he travels from JapanUnited States in search of the planet’s best sing-along joints), part confessional (he really, really likes belting out cheesy tunes in public). It’s an amusing and often enlightening journey, highlighted by lists of the all-time best and worst karaoke songs. to the

VIDEOGAME

WWE Smackdown vs. Raw 2009

(THQ)

Everyone’s here for the beatdowns: Triple H, Undertaker, John Cena. You can even make your own wrestler and follow him through a storyline that’ll leave you bloody and bruised. Best is tag-team mode, in which you pair up with a friend, build your strengths and then administer some proper ass-kickings. (The game is available for pretty much every platform.)

--Michael Gallucci

REVIEW -- MATT AND KIM: GRAND

Matt & Kim

Grand

(Fader)

Somewhere around the middle of this brief CD (which doesn’t even make it to the 30-minute mark), the male half of the married couple whose names are above the title sings, “I stayed up all night/Slept in all day/This is my sound.” The sound on Matt & Kim’s second album comes straight outta the 1980s, when synth-pop was still a dirty word. The nerdy N.Y.C. twentysomethings plug in their Casios and skip around to bouncy songs like “Daylight” and “Good Ol’ Fashion Nightmare,” which owe as much to post-punk lo-fidelity as they do to indie-pop’s revision. Grand is stuffed with programmed handclaps, chirpy harmonies, and a sense that these are two kids who really like the past, especially their own cotton candy-colored memories of it. --Michael Gallucci

REVIEW -- NOUS NON PLUS: MENAGERIE

Nous Non Plus

Menagerie

(Aeronaut)

Nothing about Nous Non Plus is real. They’re from New York, but they play the part of chic Euro hipsters. Their songs are in French, even though only one of the six members speaks it. And we’re pretty sure Céline Dijon isn’t the singer’s real name. Even co-founder and producer Dan Crane is better known for his fakery, as air-guitar champion Björn Türoque. The band’s second album, Menagerie, occasionally offers some genuine pop music -- especially opener “Loli,” a garage-rocker straight outta the ’60s they missed, and “French Teacher,” which pulsates with disco throbs and falsetto swoops. But too often Nous Non Plus’ smug, winking attitude toward the various genres they attempt -- bubbly shag-jazz, bachelor-pad lounge, psychedelic carnival pop -- comes off as artificial as their monikers. It’s like Stereolab without the chops. Or the legitimacy. -- Michael Gallucci

CULTURE JAMMING -- JANUARY 21

TOP PICK

Tomb Raider: Underworld

(Eidos)

The best Lara Croft videogame in ages plops the world’s hottest pixilated adventurer in the middle of a Mexican jungle, a ravaged Thailand and other faraway locales in search of the Hammer of Thor. It’s available for pretty much every console, but stick with the Xbox 360 and PlayStation 3 versions. Lara has never looked better.

CD

Franco & le TPOK Jazz: Francophonic: A Retrospective, Vol. 1: 1953-1980

(Sterns Africa)

Congolese music giant Franco Luambo Makiadi died 20 years ago, but his songs still sound vital today. This two-disc collection gathers more than two dozen tracks that span a quarter-century … and almost as many genres. There’s plenty of African beat music throughout, but there’s also homegrown ballads, dance tunes and some fierce guitar playing.

DVD

Man on Wire

(Magnolia)

One of last year’s best movies works just as well on a smaller screen, where the true story about a French guy who tightrope-walked between the twin towers in 1974 plays like a riveting crime drama. The movie is staged as a suspense flick, incorporating old footage, new interviews and deliberately overstated reenactments for a documentary that doesn’t suck.

DVD

Warner Bros. Horror Double Features

(Warner)

The two new sets in this DVD series each feature a pair of chillers from the 1960s. Best: The Shuttered Room, about a partially haunted house. Most fun: It!, in which an ancient statue comes to life. Most bizarre: Chamber of Horrors, which includes onscreen Fear Flashers and Horror Horns, tipping off viewers to the scary stuff.

VIDEOGAME

Star Wars The Clone Wars: Lightsaber Duels, Star Wars The Clone Wars: Jedi Alliance

(LucasArts)

These two games (based on the animated TV show) focus on Anakin Skywalker’s pre-Darth Vader days, so expect appearances from a young Obi-Wan, General Grievous and various droids. Lightsaber Duels (for the Wii), in which your remote doubles as a lightsaber, puts you right in the action; Jedi Alliance (for the Nintendo DS) is portable.

--Michael Gallucci

REVIEW -- M. WARD: HOLD TIME

M. Ward

Hold Time

(Merge)

The last time we heard from M. Ward, the guitar-strumming troubadour was on the road as one-half of She & Him with Elf cutie Zooey Deschanel. On his seventh album as a singer-songwriter with a soft spot for moody tunes, Ward once again summons tons of atmosphere out of modest situations. Hold Time opens with “For Beginners,” which plays like a primer on Ward’s post-folk, with acoustic guitar picking, a lilting melody and Ward’s warm voice – the usual stuff. But there are detours: The glammy “Never Had Nobody Like You” stomps like a tranquilized T. Rex, “To Save Me’ is the fluffiest rockabilly you’ve ever heard and “Rave On” down-tunes Buddy Holly’s rocker to a breezy shuffle. Deschanel left behind some of She & Him’s wistful ’60s pop (she and Lucinda Williams also add backing vocals), making Hold Time Ward’s most buoyant record – a multilayered meditation on all things dreamy. -- Michael Gallucci

REVIEW -- WILLIE NELSON: NAKED WILLIE

Willie Nelson

Naked Willie

(RCA/Legacy)

Back before he became the outlaw-country movement’s ponytailed poster boy, Willie Nelson was a Nashville songwriter toiling the trenches with hundreds of other guitar-strumming hopefuls. Eventually, he added “singer” to his résumé and set out to make it on his own. And like many country-music artists of the ’60s, Nelson fell victim to Music City’s hit-making machine—which slathered tons of goopy strings, schmaltzy backing vocals, and other crimes against music onto songs. (Is it any wonder Nelson went running to Austin with middle fingers flying a few years later?) Naked Willie gathers 17 tracks Nelson recorded between 1966 and 1970, strips away the gunk, and presents the material the way the singer heard it when he recorded it. Problem is, this rewriting of history complicates the natural order of things (just ask the Beatles, whose Let It Be … Naked really isn’t all that much better than Phil Spector’s heavy-handed version of their final album). Sure, many of these songs are way more tolerable without the grandma-safe orchestras, but not much is revealed in these back-to-basics forms. It doesn’t help matters that this isn’t the greatest batch of songs Nelson’s written and recorded. “The Ghost” is more haunting, and “What Can You Do to Me Now?” sounds more despondent than ever. Plus, it’s nice to hear the crack session musicians out front. But peeling away the past won’t erase the memories. --Michael Gallucci

CULTURE JAMMING -- JANUARY 14

TOP PICK

Flight of the Conchords

(HBO)

New Zealand’s greatest export since, well, ever, returns at 10 p.m. Sunday for its second hilarious season, picking up where it left off – with Jemaine and Bret still trying to launch their non-starting music career. In this week’s episode, the guys split with manager Murray after his other band, the Crazy Dogs, hit the big time with their atrocious “Doggy Bounce.” Bongo solo!

CD

Roy Harper: Counter Culture

(Science Friction/Koch)

Pink Floyd liked this British singer-songwriter so much they let him sing “Have a Cigar.” Led Zeppelin liked him too, penning “Hats Off to Roy Harper” in his honor. This two-disc best-of gathers 25 songs from his long and twisted career. The set covers 30-plus years -- everything from the minute-long “Francesca” to the 19-minute “One of Those Days in England.”

VIDEOGAME

Hasbro Family Game Night

(EA)

This old-school-meets-new-school outing for the Wii includes six board-game faves -- including Boggle, Connect Four and Sorry! – reconfigured for folks who grew up on Donkey Kong. Some work (Yahtzee is loads of fun); some don’t (Battleship is confusing and sucky). Best of all, Party Mode lets everyone join in. Finally, a videogame even Grandma will love.

DVD

Lost: The Complete Fourth Season – The Expanded Experience

(Walt Disney)

Just in time for this week’s season premiere of the best show on TV, this six-disc set gathers every episode from last year’s terrific and revealing run. We still have tons of questions, and the flashforwards open up a whole new hatch of queries. But there’s some great storytelling here, supplemented with cool deleted scenes and behind-the-scenes features.

TV

The Powerpuff Girls Rule!!!

(Cartoon Network)

After a five-year hiatus, the most ass-kicking little girls on the planet return with a new special featuring almost every villain they’ve ever tangled with. Creator Craig McCracken hosts a 14-hour marathon of his favorite episodes starting at 6 a.m. Monday, culminating at 8 p.m. with the premiere of the new ep. Totally awesome!

--Michael Gallucci

REVIEW -- THE BPA: I THINK WE'RE GONNA NEED A BIGGER BOAT

The BPA

I Think We’re Gonna Need a Bigger Boat

(Southern Fried)

The latest project by Norman Cook (a.k.a. Fatboy Slim) began life as a series of warehouse parties he hosted with producer pal Simon Thornton. Visitors included folks as diverse as introspective singer-songwriter Martha Wainwright, new-wave/world-music weirdo David Byrne, aging punk Iggy Pop, and British rapper Dizzee Rascal. The sessions, compiled as I Think We’re Gonna Need a Bigger Boat, are as mixed as the guest list. Taking a cue from Cook’s big-beat catalog (“The Rockafeller Skank,” “Praise You”), the BPA—it stands for Brighton Port Authority—mix electronic blips and beeps, classic-rock riffs, and pop hooks at dizzying speeds. Things fly by so fast and so furiously, there’s rarely time to notice that Cook loads Bigger Boat with his usual dose of rudimentary samples and brain-aching repetition. “Should I Stay or Should I Blow” bounces along to a swingin’ ’60s beat. “Seattle” is an airy tribute to new beginnings. And “Toe Jam,” featuring Byrne and Dizzee, is playful froth. It all makes for a dance party that was probably a blast to attend. The CD, however, sorta comes off like one of those “All I got was this T-shirt” souvenirs. --Michael Gallucci

REVIEW -- DAN AUERBACH: KEEP IT HID

Dan Auerbach

Keep It Hid

(Nonesuch)

As the singing and guitar-playing half of the Black Keys, Dan Auerbach makes a reverb-drenched racket that falls somewhere between garage-rock primitivism and indie-rock hip. As a solo artist on Keep It Hid, he makes a reverb-drenched racket that sounds an awful lot like his fulltime gig, but with a couple of new turns. Last year’s Attack & Release was heralded as the Keys’ breakthrough, a collaboration with producer Danger Mouse that added nuance to the band’s usual bash-and-smash. But except for some vaguely funky beats here and a synth hum there, the record was pretty much the Black Keys on a slightly larger budget. Keep It Hid continues Auerbach’s adventures outside of the garage. In addition to guitar, he plays drums, keyboards, and percussion. Various friends and family help out too. Opener “Trouble Weighs a Ton” is a front-porch acoustic blues, slowed to a deathly crawl. And “I Want Some More” sounds like one of Tom Waits’ trashcan operettas (Auerbach even sifts his voice through a rusty filter, pulling out its innate rasp). But Auerbach soon settles into his old ways, with bluesy stomp (“Heartbroken, in Disrepair”), nighttime R&B (“Real Desire”), and fuzzy-guitar Stooges rock (“Street Walkin’”). Without Keys cohort Patrick Carney’s slapdash drums, Keep It Hid has more natural swing. But it’s also a solo album that doesn’t stray far from the garage. The basement is about as far as it gets. --Michael Gallucci

REVIEW -- Miles Davis: Kind of Blue: Legacy Edition

Miles Davis

Kind of Blue: Legacy Edition

(Columbia/Legacy)

Kind of Blue, originally released in 1959, pretty much wrote the book on modern jazz. Its chief contributors—John Coltrane, Cannonball Adderley, and Bill Evans, among them—went solo not long after and influenced generations of players in their own right. And as much as this record-collection essential is Miles Davis’ show, he ably shares the spotlight with one of the greatest ensembles ever gathered. The very first notes of album opener “So What” immediately set the tone of this late-night classic: laid-back, sexy, and in it for the long haul. By the time the track wraps up nine glorious minutes later, Davis and crew have taken listeners on an aural journey that’s as thrilling as it is revelatory. The two-disc Legacy Edition pares down last year’s pricey 50^th Anniversary Collector’s Edition, a lavish set that also tagged on a making-of DVD. This set retains the Collector’s Edition’s bonus cuts and extra disc of outtakes and alternate versions. None is particularly enlightening (especially since many of them are merely false starts and studio chatter), but a 17-minute version of “So What” captures most of the classic group tearing it up onstage a year later. --Michael Gallucci

REVIEW -- Glen Campbell: Greatest Hits

Glen Campbell
Greatest Hits
(Capitol/EMI)

Last year’s Meet Glen Campbell found the venerable session guitarist, temporary Beach Boy, and ’70s TV star covering Velvet Underground, Green Day, and Replacements songs. It was his first new album in more than a dozen years and one of his all-time best. Two of its cuts—the Foo Fighters’ “Times Like These” and Jackson Browne’s “These Days”—cap Greatest Hits, a remastered set that gathers 16 tracks spanning 40-plus years. And the best of them, just like on the comeback CD, show Campbell—a country-music behemoth in his heyday--as a sharp and insightful interpreter, starting with John Hartford’s “Gentle on My Mind,” which netted Campbell a truckload of Grammys in 1967. But it’s the following year’s “Wichita Lineman” that made him a star. Campbell peels away the layers of isolation and desperation in Jimmy Webb’s oft-covered song (everybody from Johnny Cash to R.E.M. to the White Stripes has had a go at it). He does the same on his version of Webb’s “By the Time I Get to Phoenix,” usually a maudlin snooze with other singers. Greatest Hits glides through string-soaked faves from the ’60s (“Galveston”), mid-‘70s pop hits (“Rhinestone Cowboy,” “Southern Nights”), and some stuff that nobody remembers (“True Grit”). Through it all, Campbell resurfaces as one of pop’s most understated artists. --Michael Gallucci

REVIEW -- Animal Collective: Merriweather Post Pavilion

ANIMAL COLLECTIVE
Merriweather Post Pavilion
(Domino)

On 2007’s Strawberry Jam, experimental noise-making weirdos Animal Collective glided on the outskirts of dreamy indie-pop. Fan fave “Peacebone” even flirted with a sunny melody that exposed a heart beneath all the usual digital flotsam. The band’s ninth album, Merriweather Post Pavilion, is still frolicking in the clouds, skimming the surface of Beach Boys-style harmonies and contemporary psychedelia. But it’s also a total mindfuck, a record so enamored with making sounds – from long, drawn-out tribal jams to Philip Glass-like bursts of repetitive minimalism – that things like hooks, riffs, and songs evaporate in the sonic atmosphere. Now a trio, Animal Collective thrives on the dichotomy between Panda Bear (the pop-minded one) and Avey Tear (the weird one). Both trek to their respective outer limits on Merriweather Post Pavilion. The opening “In the Flowers” takes a couple of droning minutes before it settles into something resembling a groove, but the very next cut, “My Girls,” immediately jumps into a bright, synth-kissed ray of melodic indie-rock. And so it goes throughout. For every bit of bouncy dreampop like “Summertime Clothes,” there’s an atonal spurt of messy clatter like “Daily Routine.” But Animal Collective fans are used to this. The group has played around with listeners’ expectations and gratification ever since Sung Tongs put the guys on hipsters’ radars back in 2004. Merriweather Post Pavilion is merely their latest adventure in head music: often perplexing and occasionally brilliant. -- Michael Gallucci

REVIEW -- Late of the Pier: Fantasy Black Channel

Late of the Pier

Fantasy Black Channel

(Astralwerks)

Last year’s Echoclistel Lambietroy EP introduced this English quartet as noise-loving, racket-making hooligans with 40 years of rock ‘n’ roll history in their arsenal. Late of the Pier’s weapon of choice on their full-length debut is all forms of electronic bash and thrash, but there are plenty of other references here too. Opening instrumental “Hot Tent Blues” rides a fuzzy guitar riff straight outta any ’70s glam-rocker’s playbook. “Space and the Woods” struts like early-’80s new-wave robots. And the all-over-the-place “Focker” cops modern-day indie-rocker style. Fantasy Black Channel’s stuttering synths, 4x4 disco drums, and buried and mostly inessential vocals are signs that these guys are targeting dance floors. The Roxy Music, Prince and Franz Ferdinand nods are signs that they know their place. -- Michael Gallucci

REVIEW -- K’Naan: Troubadour

K’Naan

Troubadour

(A&M/Octone)

Straight outta Somalia doesn’t have quite the ring of, say, Compton or even Detroit, but African rapper K’Naan boasts a much tougher backstory than most stateside MCs. He left his war-torn homeland on the country’s last commercial flight when he was in his teens. Now 30 and living in Toronto, K’Naan looks back on a lifetime of sacrifices, hardships and violence on his second album. While there’s plenty of regret and frustration here (spanning immigration problems to the Iraq War), K’Naan lines Troubadour with jumpy beats and an often-playful flow that make the best of these situations. Mos Def, Damian Marley and Maroon 5’s Adam Levine help out, but this is K’Naan’s show – from the sweetly reflective “Take a Minute” to the mostly autobiographical “People Like Me.” True to its name, Troubadour scours the globe for songs and stories – a little like M.I.A. fused with Bob Marley. With a shout-out to Dre thrown in for street cred. -- Michael Gallucci

REVIEW -- Glasvegas

Glasvegas

Glasvegas

(Columbia)

This Scottish quartet looks like rockabilly revivalists. They throw fuzzy riffs against Phil Spector’s Wall of Sound. And they’ve been called the best new band in Britain. So there’s a lotta baggage that comes with their self-titled debut. But singer James Allan is so perfectly earnest, and the band is so wrapped up in these tales of losers, lovers and cheating hearts that you really can’t imagine them on a smaller scale. “Be My Baby” drums drive opener “Flowers and Football Tops” (about a dead boy), and buzzing guitars ring through “It’s My Own Cheating Heart That Makes Me Cry,” in which a bout of infidelity triggers a lifetime of guilt in the narrator. But Allan is most revealing on “Geraldine,” where he’s a sympathetic social worker talking folks through some hard times. It’s Glasvegas at their most compassionate. But just when you think they’re getting soft, the rousing “Go Square Go” ends with a room-shaking “here we fucking go” that’ll have you pounding your fists in appreciation. -- Michael Gallucci

REVIEW -- Fires of Rome: You Kingdom You

Fires of Rome

You Kingdom You

(The Hours)

N.Y.C. trio Fires of Rome kicks off its debut album with a huge, room-shaking organ that pulses like a mid-’70s prog-rock anthem that never found its footing. By the time singer Andrew Wyatt chimes in like a drunken tourist who got lost on his way back to the hotel, the song, “Dawn Lament,” has picked up snapping guitar fills, rolling drums and a small string section. It’s the start of a sweeping but occasionally directionless CD that skips around mostly pre-1980 genres with equal doses of cheek and recklessness. “It Makes Me Weak” even starts out as a 1970s AM-radio Yacht Rocker before settling into a TV on the Radio groove (yes, a modern-day concession) and then capping off like one of Genesis’ Peter Gabriel-era epics. Throughout You Kingdom You, Fires of Rome tries on some Gang of Four-style faux-funk, T. Rex-like glam-stomp and classic-rock power-trio pomp, all the while cruising in their cherry-red Camaros and hitting on not-so-innocent young virgins. -- Michael Gallucci

REVIEW -- Antony and the Johnsons: The Crying Light

Antony and the Johnsons

The Crying Light

(Secretly Canadian)

It doesn’t really matter much what Antony Hegarty chooses to sing about. All of his songs end up as vessels for his haunting voice, a heartbreakingly fragile and vulnerable instrument that’s not quite male, not quite female. On Antony and the Johnsons’ third album, he slips into 10 dark lullabies that barely resonate over his soothing croon. Even the orchestral set-pieces that accompany each and every tune play it low, resting beneath Hegarty like a giant fluffy pillow. A saxophone whisper drifts through “One Dove,” announcing last call at the most tranquil lounge on the planet. And on “Another World,” a piano tiptoes alongside the singer until the final minute, when buzzing alien noises creep in. With Hegarty, it’s all about expecting the unexpected (his best curveball was last year’s outing with neo-disco rump-shakers Hercules and Love Affair). The Crying Light shines on “Daylight and the Sun,” “Dust and Water” and other natural wonders. Add Hegarty’s voice to that list. -- Michael Gallucci

REVIEW -- A.C. Newman: Get Guilty

A.C. Newman

Get Guilty

(Matador)

Carl Newman is the middle man in the New Pornographers. With Neko Case leading the sweet and Dan Bejar providing the sour, Newman falls squarely in the center – a power-pop mastermind who isn’t afraid to get weird once in awhile. He’s also the one with most traditional hooks and sharpest sense of pop history. On his second solo album, he reflects on pre-Sgt. Pepper ’60s rock ‘n’ roll with both revisionism and enthusiasm. Opener “There Are Maybe Ten or Twelve” boasts an orchestral bulge that gives way to “The Heartbreak Rides”’ relative sparseness. And on “The Palace at 4 A.M.,” Newman goes literary deep. But Get Guilty is also an occasionally fussy record, revealing the studio stitches that help hold it together. Instruments are multi-layered, voices chime in harmony and nearly every song features a space-filling crescendo. It’s a labor of joy that spills over onto every note. -- Michael Gallucci