Bruce Springsteen - Working on a Dream

1. Outlaw Pete
2. My Lucky Day
3. Working On A Dream
4. Queen Of The Supermarket
5. What Love Can Do
6. This Life
7. Good Eye
8. Tomorrow Never Knows
9. Life Itself
10. Kingdom Of Days
11. Surprise, Surprise
12. The Last Carnival
13. The Wrestler (Bonus Track)
As billed, this is a pop album. Which means it’s chock-full of the kind of tuneful, concise, ’60s Brill Building, heart-on-sleeve songs that Bruce Springsteen has always been able to write rather effortlessly but that, usually, he gives away to other artists because his own albums have to be, like, you know, Statements. Working on a Dream isn’t quite Magic 2.0, however, in that it lacks the Iraq War subtext — although there is something of a theme here, namely, “It may not be such a drag getting old, but this mortality thing is giving me pause nonetheless.” Exhibit A: “This Life,” an absolutely gorgeous folk-rock love song with the tag lines “This life and then the next / With you, I have been blessed.” Exhibit B: the seraphically rueful “The Last Carnival,” an elegy for recently departed E Street Band keyboardist Danny Federici that’s as moving as anything in Springsteen’s catalog. That said, there are a couple of terrific departures, as well as a couple of epics. Among the latter, “Outlaw Pete” is a tongue-in-cheek (or is it?) production number with swooping strings and an anthemic chorus that sounds like Bruce channeling Ennio/Sergio. And the quite astounding “Queen of the Supermarket” is the niftiest bit of rock & roll trompe l’oeil since the Police convinced the world that “Every Breath You Take” is a romantic love song instead of a creepy treatise from a stalker; hearing Bruce drop the F-word in the song’s last chorus is pretty much worth the price of admission all by itself. The departures? “Good Eye” is a mutant-blues/field-holler number that’s close to R. L. Burnside territory, and (my personal favorite) “Life Itself” is a spooky, midtempo psychedelic rocker with Revolver-era backwards guitar and somebody doing a convincing impersonation of Roger McGuinn’s sheetsof- sound 12-string solos from “Eight Miles High.” Everything is burnished quite beautifully by Brendan O’Brien’s production. If Working on a Dream falls short of Magic’s highs, it’s a lot more consistently listenable. And “The Wrestler,” the bonus track from the Mickey Rourke movie, is beyond remarkable. Springsteen may have won an Oscar for “Streets of Philadelphia,” but that song was the work of a pro doing a job. This one gets to the existential nub of its film in absolutely heartbreaking fashion. The Limited Edition Deluxe Package has a 40-minute DVD with a documentary and a bonus video, “A Night with the Jersey Devil.” Bedeviled by the economy? Opt for the CD only. The doc is interesting but only up to a point, and you’d never watch it more than once.

The Killers - Day & Age

1. Losing Touch
2. Human
3. Spaceman
4. Joy Ride
5. A Dustland Fairytale
6. This Is Your Life
7. I Can't Stay
8. Neon Tiger
9. The World We Live In
10. Goodnight, Travel Well
Sam’s Town was the kind of grandiose effort that no smart band would attempt twice in one career. For all their decadent veneer, the Killers are a smart band, so Day & Age smacks of reining it in. Not totally: The lyrical concept is nothing less than the state of the world, and the sound cribs from Born to Run, The Unforgettable Fire, and (I swear) A Flock of Seagulls. But discipline is the idea, from the concise songs to the glut of hooks. This live-for-today band has just bought itself another year. Download The Killers - Day & Age

Fall Out Boy - Folie à Deux

1. Disloyal Order Of Water Buffaloes
2. I Don't Care
3. She's My Winona
4. America's Suitehearts
5. Headfirst Slide Into Cooperstown On A Bad Bet
6. The (Shipped) Gold Standard
7. (Coffee's For Closers)
8. What A Catch, Donnie
9. 27
10. Tiffany Blews
11. w.a.m.s.
12. 20 Dollar Nose Bleed
13. West Coast Smoker
The everything’s-loud production on Folie à Deux is so off-putting that I worried about being deafened to whatever strengths the songs and the band might have. But after repeated listenings, it struck me that the medium is the message. The unremitting, ear-rattling buzz accelerates like a snowboard down the Big Rock Candy Mountain, all in some juvenile mashup of Hall & Oates, Queen, and ELO on steroids. Please, make it stop. Download Fall Out Boy - Folie à Deux

Lucinda Williams - Little Honey

1. Real Love
2. Circles And X's
3. Tears Of Joy
4. Little Rock Star
5. Honey Bee
6. Well Well Well
7. If Wishes Were Horses
8. Jailhouse Tears
9. Knowing
10. Heaven Blues
11. Rarity
12. Plan To Marry
13. It's A Long Way To The Top
Lucinda Williams relies on her road band, Buick 6, from the false start of “Real Love” that kicks off Little Honey to the final gospel-blues assault on AC/DC’s “It’s a Long Way to the Top” that tucks it away. With this tour-tested chemistry behind her, Williams delivers the voice of experience, offering advice to a self-destructive “Little Rock Star,” embracing the security and simplicity of love in a world gone to war in “Plan to Marry,” and holding tight to her integrity in a business desperate for the almighty buck in the brassenhanced, spooked-organ arrangement of the 9-minute epic “Rarity.” Her voice is the perfect instrument — charred, broken, weathered in all the right places, the sound of a countryblueswoman who has spent years on the road. Only her duet with Elvis Costello on “Jailhouse Tears” sounds forced, as EC’s bluster turns emotion into self-parody. Download Lucinda Williams - Little Honey

Labelle - Back to Now

1. Candlelight
2. Roll Out
3. Superlover
4. System
5. The Truth Will Set You Free
6. Without You in My Life
7. Tears For The World
8. Dear Rosa
9. How Long
10. Miss Otis Regrets
Three decades have passed since Labelle last made an album, but it’s not like the singers have spent the time resting on their laurels from their “Lady Marmalade” dance-funk heyday in the mid-1970s. Between Sarah Dash’s stints with Keith Richards and the Rolling Stones, Nona Hendryx’s excursions into avant-garde and alternative rock, and Patti LaBelle’s music/fashion/food cottage-industry solo career, the group’s legacy has been a noticeably living one. Accordingly, Back to Now’s music is as appropriate as its title. The most old-school aspects are the work-ethic energy and the unflagging spirit that the trio pours into every track, and while some of the names lending a hand production-wise (Lenny Kravitz, Gamble & Huff) may imply retrofit, there’s little nostalgia evident. Even the disco-vibed “Roll Out,” co-written/produced by Wyclef Jean, pulsates with the ever-viable mix of grit and glamour that Labelle imprinted on contemporary R&B, something they rarely receive enough credit for. Just as viable is the force of nature that is Patti LaBelle. Hearing her gospel-grounded wails on “Candlelight,” “Tears for the World,” and Mother’s Finest’s “The Truth Will Set You Free,” it’s hard to believe that she and soul sisters Hendryx and Dash are in their 60s. I realize it’s impolite to talk about a woman’s age, but if the ladies of Labelle aren’t the epitome of a generation’s, er, new attitude about getting older, I don’t know who is. Download Labelle

Pink - Funhouse

1. So What
2. Sober
3. I Don't Believe You
4. One Foot Wrong
5. Please Don't Leave Me
6. Bad Influence
7. Funhouse
8. Crystal Ball
9. Mean
10. It's All Your Fault
11. Ave Mary A
12. Glitter In The Air
There’s something heady about the collision of revenge and regret on the oddly, albeit aptly named Funhouse. And like Bob Dylan before her, Pink has decided to leave, if not some Blood on the Tracks, then some carnage on her stilettos as she publicly high-steps through the five stages of grief over her divorce from motocross racer Carey Hart, while pretending not to. Of course, she’s had some professional help — and we’re not talking about time on the couch. Instead, she enlisted Max Martin, Butch Walker, and (on the Prince-ly title track) No Doubt’s Tony Kanal to assist in gilding her poison arrows. On the thumping, poptastic hit “So What,” verses tumble out of her lip-glossed mouth as she crows, “So what, I’m still a rock star, I got my rock moves, and I don’t need you / And guess what? I’m having more fun.” But is she? There’s something brittle and a little desperate in her need to show the ironically named Hart that she’s over him — but there’s also something endearing and vastly entertaining about listening to her attempt it. Download Pink - Funhouse

Aidan Smith - Fancy Barrel

1. Aeroplanes, Pigs etc.
2. Cuckold
3. Alone, Askew
4. Love Song (With Aneurysm)
5. Everytime I Lean I Fall Asleep
6. Jam Will Suffice
7. Mantra #1
8. Song for Manchester
9. Vaudeville
10. Words Waltz Like Flies
11. Bert's Violent Rage
12. Donkey Blood
13. Everything Is Boring
14. Basslines & Shapes
15. Everybody Thinks I'm a Millionare
Up until now, the Salford suburb of Eccles is best known for giving its name to a currant-dotted cake with the consistency of fl aky concrete. Aidan Smith may just be its next big thing. A librarian by trade, his gentle, acoustic-based homespun philosophy and laconic Manc wit unsurprisingly call to mind his mate Damon Gough, aka Badly Drawn Boy. There’s a hint of ‘Abbey Road’-era Beatles on the accordion’n’brass-backed ‘The Cuckold’ while ‘Everytime I Lean I Fall Asleep’ shows that Smith can do James Taylor-ish acoustic love songs too. The oddball, tea-fi xated ‘Jam Will Suffi ce’, however, will have you wondering if Smith has a dog called Gromit and invents rabbit-catching devices for fun. Whatever the truth, ‘Fancy Barrel’ is a right little cracker. Download Aidan Smith

NORAH JONES - The Fall

1. Chasing Pirates
2. Even Though
3. Light as a Feather
4. Young Blood
5. I Wouldn't Need You
6. Waiting
7. It's Gonna Be
8. You've Ruined Me
9. Back to Manhattan
10. Stuck
11. December
12. Tell Your Mama
13. Man of the Hour
Norah Jones' fourth album, "The Fall," may surprise some of her die-hard fans, or at least disarm them a bit. During the 13-song set, Jones ditches the gentle piano-playing of her previous work and rises to a new level of creative boldness. With a new group of musicians behind her, Jones incorporates a fresh, beat-savvy sensibility into these noir-like arrangements, playing plenty of electric guitar and exploring the piercing quality of Wurlitzer electric piano. Jones adopts a smoky voice and soulful veneer for the opening track and first single, "Chasing Pirates," while displaying a slinky kind of ambience on "Light As a Feather (co-written with Ryan Adams), The social commentary "It's Gonna Be" offers a garage-rock attitude, and "You've Ruined Me" has a rich Americana flavor. But Jones is still a little bit country {"Tell Yer Mama") and a little bit rock'n'roll {"Stuck"). Overall, the artist straddles those lines in an entirely different manner than she ever has before Download NORAH JONES

BIG KENNY - The Quiet Times of a Rock and Roll Farm Boy

1. Wake Up
2. Long After I'm Gone
3. Be Back Home
4. Less Than Whole
5. Go Your Own Way
6. To Find a Heart
7. Happy People
8. Drifter
9. Free Like Me
10. Share the Love
11. Whole Experience
In many ways, Big Kenny and John Rich—who make up country duo Big & Rich—are the perfect couple. But Big Kenny's new album, "The Quiet Times of a Rock and Roll Farm Boy," is a thoughtful, often profound sojourn into musical independence—his Former major label reportedly rejected every solo project he turned in. That Frustration led to the defiant "Free Like Me," which warns, "Don't fit me inside your expectations/You'll never know everything I can be." Big Kenny's musical kinship with Rich is evident on "Wake Up." in which the singer demonstrates moving poetry and surprisingly head-turning lead vocals. The lead single, "Long After I'm Gone," is a midtem-po stop-and-smeii-the-roses anthem, while "To Find a Heart" may well be the album's sleeper hit. Sonically, "Farm Boy" puts the artist's influences on intriguing display (he cites Merle Haggard, Willie Nelson, the Beatles, Queen, Bob Marley and Bill Withers, among others), yet manages the often elusive feat of a cohesive, articulate and entertaining experience from First note to last.

Alice in Chains - Black Gives Way to Blue

1. All Secrets Known
2. Check My Brain
3. Last of My Kind
4. Your Decision
5. Looking in View
6. When the Sun Rose Again
7. Acid Bubble
8. Lesson Learned
9. Take Her Out
10. Private Hell
11. Black Gives Way to Blue
Seven years after singer Layne Staley became a drug casualty, Alice in Chains have reunited for a molten, groove-metal session that’s almost as dirty as — well, 1992’s Dirt. While sharing the vocal duties with newcomer William DuVall, guitarist Jerry Cantrell dishes out his patented swirling riz s and roaring chords on swaggering confessions like “Check My Brain.” But the tone of Black Gives Way to Blue is mostly hopeful; on the opening “All Secrets Known,” the band declares that it’s “a new beginning... time to start living.” Back in the day, it nestled its thunder against acoustic cuts, and on “Your Decision” and “When the Sun Rose Again,” the unplugged Alice is as stirring as ever. The title track, featuring piano from Elton John, brings closure in a bittersweet way, proclaiming, “I’ll remember you.” Download Alice in Chains - Black Gives Way to Blue

The Flaming Lips - Embryonic

1. Convinced Of The Hex
2. The Sparrow Looks Up At The Machine
3. Evil
4. Aquarius Sabotage
5. See The Leaves
6. If
7. Gemini Syringes
8. Your Bats
9. Powerless
10. The Ego's Last Stand
11. I Can Be A Frog
12. Sagittarius Silver Announcement
13. Worm Mountain
14. Scorpio Sword
15. The Impulse
16. Silver Trembling Hands
17. Virgo Self-Esteem Broadcast
18. Watching The Planets
Wayne Coyne envisioned Embryonic as an old-fashioned double album whose 70 minutes would meander and peak, not just play like an overlong CD. No frontloading the disc for these boys. Embryonic performs like a smartened iPod shuffle: Fully formed tunes segue into instrumental breathers that walk the scorched earth, and clunky keyboards sliced on Pro Tools crank distortedly as melodies surface and drown in effects. “Convinced of the Hex” sets the tone with overheated vocals and outsize beats, “See the Leaves” spits out an ugly ’70s funk, and “If” warbles in a childlike haze. The five Zodiac pieces (“Aquarius Sabotage,” “Virgo Self-Esteem Broadcast”...) allow for voiceovers and shimmering breaks. Just remember to get out the hyphen: There’s lo-fi, there’s hi-fi, there’s devil-enchanted heavy-metalelectronica-pop (“Worm Mountain”). The Lips’ sound processor goes beyond their expected psychedelia into some truly dark corners. Download Flaming Lips

Rihanna - Rated R

1. Mad House
2. Wait Your Turn
3. Hard
4. Stupid In Love
5. Rockstar 101
6. Russian Roulette
7. Fire Bomb
8. Rude Boy
9. Photographs
10. G4L
11. Te Amo
12. Cold Case Love
13. The Last Song
Rihanna may have been a good girl gone bad on her 2007 album, but on her new one, she's a good gin gone bad-ass. During the electric-guitar-soused "Rock Star," the RSB singer revels in her bad-girl rebellion, crooning, "Got my middle Finger up/I don't really give a fuck." And over double-speed drums on "G4L," she warns, "Any motherfuckers want to disrespect/We don't play that shit." Meanwhile, the singles "Wait Your Turn" and "Hard" find Rihanna singing beefy lyrics—"I'm such a fucking lady" and "the hottest bitch In heels," respectively—over epic piano patterns. But the artist doesn't talk tough all the way through the set. "Photographs" features Rihanna lamenting over a lost relationship above static drums, whereas on the heartfelt ballad "Stupid in Love," she croons over a pulsating beat, "You don't know what you lost/And you won't realize it till I'm gone," In either case, she proves that the good girl in her has gone bad indefinitely. Download Rihanna