New Recordings

The Music, Volume 1
Cast Recording

(Columbia **1/2)

nolead ends The TV series Glee, about a crazy-quilt high school vocal group, is absolutely irresistible. The music alone? Slightly less so. The songs, stripped of their visual component, sound less ingenious, and in some cases, pro forma. When you can't see an overachieving Finn (Cory Monteith) belting out "Can't Fight This Feeling," what you're left with is a karaoke cover of REO Speedwagon. Ouch! And the less said about a skiffle tapdance through Billy Idol's "Dancing With Myself," the better. Some tracks still sparkle, like the soaring duet of Journey's "Don't Stop Believin' " from the Glee pilot, an achy-breaky rendition of Rihanna's ballad "Take a Bow" and a spit-shined version of Queen's "Somebody to Love."

Overall, the music comes across a little schmaltzier than it does on TV. But as always, the kids get an "A" for school spirit.

- David Hiltbrand

nolead begins Weezer
nolead ends nolead begins Raditude
nolead ends nolead begins (Geffen ***)

nolead ends Last year's The Red Album found Weezer frontman Rivers Cuomo struggling to fight the onset of a midlife crisis. This time around, he's embracing it. The adolescent thoughts that pervade teen pop anthems like "The Girl Got Hot," "I'm Your Daddy" and "In the Mall" aren't what one would expect from a family man on the brink of his 40s. Combine that with the long list of all-star collaborators he's corralled into helping him forget his age, including Top 40 favorites like Lil Wayne and the All-American Rejects - and the aptly titled Raditude presents an image of Cuomo sharply contradicted by any of his band's six previous albums. But if you can suspend disbelief long enough to ignore that this is all coming from a Subaru-driving dad with an expanding bald spot, this is one of the funnest, catchiest parties this side of high school.

- Jakob Dorof

nolead begins El Perro Del Mar
nolead ends nolead begins Love Is Not Pop
nolead ends nolead begins (The Control Group ***1/2)

nolead ends The plethora of internationally successful Swedish pop music acts over the years may tempt one to perceive a signature sound, a discernible influence - a result of mood, place, etc. But c'mon: Can anyone really spot the ABBA influence on Led Zeppelin's In Through the Out Door, their 1979 swan song LP recorded at the Swedish hitmakers' Polar Studios in Stockholm?

For many, Stockholm's now (indie) pop sound is Peter Bjorn and John - more rock than their 2007 breakthrough hit "Young Folks" might imply. And then there is PB&J's current tourmate, Sarah Assbring, a.k.a. El Perro Del Mar (her moniker inspired by a Spanish beach canine encounter). You might think she's a "Gothenburg Calling" alternative, hailing from Sweden's second city, a big college town and music hotbed. But her beautifully brooding, deceptively lively indie pop is gorgeously borderless.

Her third album is a slight departure, more beat-pushed (even including clubby remixes), developed with studio whiz Rasmus Hagg. It's also darker, if sparkling in its meditations on lost love, with EPDM's measured, ethereal and unmistakable voice conveying the sadness of a "Change of Heart" or moving on to "A Better Love." And her sublime take on "Heavenly Arms" must be the Lou Reed cover of the year, a track off his own pivotal album, 1982's The Blue Mask.

- David R. Stampone

nolead begins James Maddock
nolead ends nolead begins Sunrise on Avenue C
nolead ends nolead begins (Ascend Records ***1/2)

nolead ends It's been almost a decade since James Maddock's band Wood put out Songs From Stamford Hill and appeared headed for stardom. Now the New York-based British singer and songwriter is finally back. And while he may have endured a rough personal and professional stretch to get here, the music proves to be, as the cliche goes, worth the wait.

Sunrise on Avenue C's impeccably crafted pop - down-to-earth yet elegant with its occasional use of strings - is full of strong melodies and subtle dynamics; the title track, for one, a vividly sketched slice of urban romanticism, comes with a trombone solo in the coda that reinforces the sense of aching longing. That's the way it goes throughout, with the music as emotionally resonant as Maddock's songs, from the quiet intimacy of "Stars Align" to the rock-edged urgency of "Hollow Love."

This is adult music with nothing "Dumbed Down" - to borrow the title of Maddock's humorous poke at TV (and himself) - but my 14-year-old daughter also likes it. That's a neat trick.

- Nick Cristiano

Shadow on the Ground

(Rounder ****)

nolead ends Yes, there's a new Tim McGraw album out there. But, you know, life's too short, and besides, the label above does say "country." So we'll stick with the real thing, and James Hand is certainly that.

Shadow on the Ground is only the second studio album for the 57-year-old Texan. As with 2006's The Truth Will Set You Free, also produced by Ray Benson and Lloyd Maines, Hand pours a lifetime of experience into its grooves, creating a perfectly realized honky-tonk world, whiskey-stained and neon-lit.

With the quaver in his voice, his sometimes haunted air, and the twang-fueled music, Hand bears a strong resemblance to Hank Williams Sr. But from gut-punches like "The Pain of Loving You" and "Don't Depend on Me" to the defiant "Ain't a Goin' " and the gospel-flavored "Men Like Me Can Fly," Hand is clearly creating his own memorable musical legacy. As he puts it on "Ain't a Goin' ": "When you sing from the heart you know every part. . . . And when I'm gone I want it wrote on the stone, 'When he sang he sang it all the way.' "

- N.C.

nolead begins Lyle Lovett
nolead ends nolead begins Natural Forces
nolead ends nolead begins (Curb/Lost Highway ***)

nolead ends This is Lyle Lovett without his Large Band. On Natural Forces, the lanky Texan with the crooked grin leads a small ensemble and focuses on his folk-country side. His title song is a finely etched portrait of a loner cowboy, but mostly Lovett uses the album to showcase the work of fellow Lone Star troubadours: He gives sympathetic readings of songs by Townes Van Zandt, David Ball, Eric Taylor, and others.

Lovett does show his lighter side, cutting loose with the risque swing of "Farmer Brown/Chicken Reel" and the honky-tonk wordplay of "Pantry," and "It's Rock and Roll" is just that. Given the somber, slow-paced ambience that predominates, however, these bright, up-tempo performances seem out of place, giving the album a bit of a disjointed feel.

- N.C.

The Music of Wlodek Pawlik:
Nostalgic Journey: Tykocin Jazz Suite

(Summit Records ***1/2)

nolead ends In 2005, tenor saxophonist Michael Brecker needed a bone marrow transplant from a close genetic match to forestall the leukemia that would eventually kill him. His brother, trumpeter Randy Brecker, turned to Polish composer and jazz pianist Wlodek Pawlik, who helped the Breckers trace their family to a village in eastern Poland called Tykocin. (The rabbi there was named Tecosky, the same as their mother's maiden name, the liner notes say.)

Michael Brecker died without a match in early 2007. Pawlik went on to write this jazz suite and other tunes to honor Randy Brecker's Tykocin "homecoming."

Fashioned from Brecker's trumpet, Pawlik's trio, and a symphony orchestra from nearby Bialystok, the CD is one strong and emotional recording, both beautiful and haunting. The nine pieces cover a wide stylistic range, from crystalline piano and orchestral passages to some kicking jazz solos.

The three-part suite is especially tragic with the end punctuated by bells.

The subsequent compositions broaden that tone but do not completely leave it. Randy Brecker brought his A-game to this one, creating taut solos and adding to the sophisticated proceedings. Pawlik, who has been playing jazz for 30 years, is a well-schooled cat with some things to say, and he lays them out here.

- Karl Stark

nolead begins Mike Stern
nolead ends nolead begins Big Neighborhood
nolead ends nolead begins (Heads Up ***)

nolead ends Guitarist Mike Stern doesn't meet a style he doesn't like in his mythic Big Neighborhood. The Blood Sweat and Tears veteran, who parlayed that into jazz fusion success with drummer Billy Cobham and two stints with trumpeter Miles Davis back in the 1980s, turns to industrial-strength jazz fusion here on the title track.

This polyglot recording celebrates an African vibe on "Reach" via the wordless singing of Cameroon-born bassist Richard Bona. "Coupe de Ville" is shockingly straight ahead, while "Moroccan Roll" shows a wacked Middle Eastern feel that would fit nicely amid the haze of a hookah bar.

The set is OK as far as it goes. But nothing lasts for long, even many of the guests. Stern shows a yen for bassist Esperanza Spalding's airy singing on two cuts with drummer Terri Lyne Carrington. "Bird Blue" at least is cool. Another two tunes with groovemeisters Medeski, Martin & Wood are more successful, while trumpeter Randy Brecker appears with Monkish panache on "Hope You Don't Mind."

- K.S.

Maurizio Pollini, piano

(Deutsche Grammophon, two discs ****)

nolead ends Though Pollini has been playing Bach's Well-Tempered Clavier over the last 25 years, he has held off recording it or any other Bach until now. And you can't argue with the results. Though Pollini's aristocratic objectivity has so often lapsed into dryness in recent years that you wonder about his artistic health, this Bach recording is his single greatest since his famous 1970s set of late-Beethoven piano sonatas, and easily among the best recordings of this oft-heard repertoire.

Though the outlines of his interpretation are characteristic Pollini - straight, brisk tempos and ultra-clear textures - his phrase-to-phrase characterization is a continual revelation, and one whose facets of meaning continue to unfold upon repeated hearings. His deft handling of textures allows seemingly every note of Bach's sometimes-dense counterpoint to be heard - even with the imposing sound of the modern piano. Pollini's fingers have never been in better shape. Is Book II on the way? Please?

- Daniel Patrick Stearns

nolead begins Bruckner
Symphony No. 8
nolead ends nolead begins Orchestre Metropolitain, Yannick Nézet-Séguin conducting
nolead ends nolead begins (ATMA Classique ***1/2)

nolead ends This is a major addition to Nézet-Séguin's still-slim discography, but (as with all his recordings with his Montreal orchestra) it can't necessarily be taken as a state-of-his-art address. The church acoustic of his recording venue gives a nice glow to the sound picture but has to be a factor in the conductor's tempo decisions and inevitably blunts the apocalyptic majesty of works such as this.

That said, all signs point to Nézet-Séguin's being a major Bruckner conductor. He knows how to move Bruckner's masses of sound around in meaningful ways, finds great poetic significance in the solos, and builds the music's long climaxes effectively and with no sense of a long harmonic trudge. Most important, he couldn't feel the music more deeply. But all those characteristics were heard in higher relief during a recent Web cast of the same symphony with the London Philharmonic Orchestra. This set - whose second disc is filled out with the slow movement of Bruckner's Symphony No. 7 - will do for now.

- D.P.S.