New Recordings

Lust Lust Lust

(Vice ***1/2)

When I listened to

Lust Lust Lust

while driving through a blinding snowstorm in central Pennsylvania the other day, the blizzard of noise surrounding Sune Rose Wagner's and Sharin Foo's girl-group and rockabilly retro squall provided a suitable aural equivalent to the whiteout before my eyes. And when further tested under less extreme conditions, the Danish duo's third - and best - full-length album proved equally effective at conjuring an all-encompassing world of echoey, B-movie, "Be My Baby" ecstasy.

On

Lust

, rather than limit themselves with self-imposed rules - like recording an entire album in B flat major, as they did on 2003's

Chain Gang Of Love

-

Foo and Wagner loosen up without losing sight of the Spectorian garage-rock ethos that's always lit their fire. "I know that you want the candy," Wagner and Foo sing on

Lust

's catchiest track. As long as it's this addictive, we always will.

- Dan DeLuca

Devotion

(Carpark ***1/2)

The Baltimore duo Beach House - Victoria Legrand and Alex Scally - scored universal acclaim for its sleepy, self-titled debut in 2006, building anticipation for this follow-up. It's another low-key gem, steeping Mazzy Star-ish bedroom pop in cosmic, reverby psychedelia with help from ethereal keyboards and faint drum-machine beats. Legrand's yawn of a voice sets the band's gently hazy tone, which at first feels same-y but soon reveals itself as a meticulous dissection of shoegaze. Some songs employ balmy Caribbean influences and carnival-style luridness, while a version of Daniel Johnston's "Some Things Last a Long Time" (once covered by Built to Spill) approaches heartbreaking beauty. Despite how very slowly it unfolds,

Devotion

has surprising presence and staying power.

- Doug Wallen

Vagabonds

(Ryko ***1/2)

Don't fault

Vagabonds

for sounding like a Jayhawks album: Gary Louris' weary, soaring voice and rootsy songwriting has been the Minneapolis band's hallmark. With the Jayhawks on hiatus, Louris needn't be expected to take a radically different approach for his first solo effort, including indulging his penchant for songs with blue in the title ("True Blue," this time).

Produced by the Black Crowes' Chris Robinson,

Vagabonds

favors Louris' soulful acoustic side for a beautiful set of searching, longing meditations. It includes an occasional diversion into electric rock ("Omaha Nights") and country gospel (the hand-clapping coda to "To Die a Happy Man"), but its heart is with Gram Parsons ("She Only Calls on Sundays") and

Harvest

-era Neil Young (the title track). Louris' songs are easygoing and precise, introspective and inviting, and

Vagabonds

equals classic Jayhawks albums such as

Hollywood Town Hall

.

- Steve Klinge

Discipline

(Island ***)

Janet Jackson and her new team (Ne-Yo, Stargate, The-Dream, Rodney Jerkins) update the sweat-driven sound and dippy sexuality of her Jimmy Jam and Terry Lewis past for something alternately warm, robotic, and oddly au courant. The results are mixed, from the crassly banal (Is being "heavy like a first-day period," as she sings on "Feedback," supposed to be sexy?) to the magnificently mechanized (the post-Britney gurgle of "So Much Betta."), Jackson's writers and producers even create different levels of frenetic Jackson family homage with "Rollercoaster," a slippery take on Control-era swing and "Rock With U," a slowed-down tribute to Michael. But for all its slips and slides, Jackson hasn't sounded this confident in her material, its sensuality and the power of pop since her rhythm nation's reign began.

- A.D. Amorosi

Sentimental Streak

(World Village ***)

Her father, Luis Russell, was a pianist and composer who played with Louis Armstrong, and her mother, Carline Ray, is a bassist and singer. So it's easy to see where Catherine Russell got her affinity for the old-time jazz and R&B she sings on

Sentimental Streak.

Russell tackles songs originally recorded by Armstrong, Pearl Bailey, Ella Fitzgerald, Bessie Smith, Willie Dixon and others. Her performances are no exercises in nostalgia, but they're not full of postmodern irony or attitude, either. She simply approaches them with the skill of a masterful singer who knows how to inject her own personality into the heart of a great song. And as she shows with "Luci," she's capable of writing a nuanced, alluring number herself.

- Nick Cristiano

Another Country

(Fantasy ***)

Another Country

finds Tift Merritt in another mind, as well. The North Carolina native, now based in New York, was inspired by a retreat in Paris, and the more delicate, pop-oriented approach she takes this time suits the introspective, soul-searching nature of the lyrics.

It's beguiling, to be sure. But when you get to Track 8, "Tell Me Something True," and it immediately kicks into rocking overdrive with punchy horns, you realize how much you miss the younger, rootsier Merritt. That's the one who brought both a tough, bluesy edge and country-soul elegance to much of 2004's great

Tambourine.

There are only echoes of that here, and the difference is underscored by the closing number, the wistful, sung-in-French "Mille Tendresses," which is more Edith Piaf than Lucinda Williams.

- N.C.

Coincidence

(Whaling Sound ***1/2)

Duet recordings can get tiresome from limited possibilities. But guitarists Joe Beck and John Abercrombie provide fresh riffs on the twosome outing.

The aim is to touch up some jazz standards and add plenty of rocking sass to the mix. A funky take of "All Blues" shows them succeeding on both counts.

Beck, the lesser-known of the two, is a crossover cat who backed singer Esther Phillips in the 1970s, including her hit single "What a Difference a Day Makes." He also had reflected fame from saxophonist David Sanborn.

Abercrombie is a reigning titan of the instrument, documented in large part on the Munich-based ECM label.

Their pairing goes to unexpected places. They find some pleasant free jazz amid the well-traveled confines of "My Romance." Ornette Coleman's "The Turnaround" puts them in happy blues territory. Abercrombie's originals, "Vingt-six" and "Just a Waltz" are both welcome and winsome ditties, while Beck's tune, "Mikey Likes It," rocks the house.

- Karl Stark

Cymbals

(Naïve ***)

Singer, composer and multi-instrumentalist Vinicius Cantuaria seems like a throwback to the Stan Getz bossa nova craze. The Brazilian, who has worked as a sideman for Gilberto Gil and Caetano Veloso, has been a New Yorker for many years and creates a delicious Brazilian sound with jazz overtones.

His music is liquid and hypnotic. The bass throbs like a lover's heart. And there's this amorous, guitar-centric haze that prevails over the proceedings, which include dips into the Antonio Carlos Jobim songbook.

For this satisfying and acoustically sophisticated outing, Cantuaria taps the über jazz pianist Brad Mehldau, along with violinist Jenny Scheinman, saxophonist Dave Binney, and trumpeter Michael Leonhart. It all makes for a cozy affair.

- K.S.

Lausanne Chamber Orchestra, Christian Zacharias, piano and conductor.

(DG Gold ****)

Trustworthy music lovers came out of pianist Christian Zacharias' recent Philadelphia Chamber Music Society recital claiming it was one of the best in their experience. Those who have heard his recent recordings weren't likely to be surprised. The third volume in his Mozart piano concerto series doesn't warrant comparisons to dozens of other recordings of this repertoire - even if it would do well. No, Zacharias has evolved into the kind of talent - if you're on board with him - whose recordings are desirable regardless of repertoire. Whatever the music he's playing, you'll have a highly cultivated but fresh-minted experience not available in many other places.

Even while disagreeing with some of Zacharias' slow-ish tempos in the final movement of

Piano Concerto No. 17

, the conviction and radiant energy of his playing creates more allure than you get even from Mozartean standard-setters such as Murray Perahia and Mitsuko Uchida. Also there to be enjoyed are myriad subterranean elements, such as the subtle play of rhythm and delightful wit in the orchestration.

- David Patrick Stearns

Roberta Knie, soprano; Zagreb Philharmonic, Lovro von Matacic conducting.

(VAI ***1/2)

Though one of the best Wagnerian sopranos of the 1970s and '80s, Roberta Knie retired prematurely due to eye (not vocal) problems with virtually no discography, aside from a video of Wagnerian excerpts with Jon Vickers - until this newly published 1977 concert. No doubt it will refresh memories of the famous Mann Center concert in which she sang the "Immolation Scene" amid a raging thunderstorm. Indeed, few helden-

sopranos have ever sung this music with such a lush sound, easy production, and seamless passage from note to note. What's missing is the sort of keen text-coloring that usually doesn't come until mid-career - when Knie was sidelined and retired to teach in Philadelphia. Her collaborator in this concert happens to be one of the great, but also under-recorded, Wagnerian conductors of his time. This isn't the greatest example of Matacic's musical charisma (for that, listen to his live 1959

Lohengrin

from Bayreuth, available both on Orfeo and Melodram), but it's still him, and the sound quality is excellent.

- D.P.S.