New Recordings

21

(XL/Columbia ***1/2)

nolead ends British soul singer Adele Adkins offers a silent disclaimer with the title of her sophomore effort. It's a reference to her age at the time of writing the album. (Her debut was called 19.) Should we calibrate our criticism accordingly then, knowing the complicated role love plays in the life of a 21-year-old?

Thankfully, it's not necessary. In spite of her broken heart, and likely because of it, Adele is writing the best songs of her life. Already a firehouse vocalist, she has the right arrangements in place, playing off sparse bass and drums ("He Won't Go") and gospel-powered fragility ("Take It All," "One and Only").

Only a tepid cover of the Cure's "Lovesong" spoils the moment. But didn't we all have a Robert Smith phase at 21?

- Michael Pollock

nolead begins G. Love
nolead ends nolead begins Fixin' To Die
nolead ends nolead begins (Brushfire ***)

nolead ends G. Love's new album opens with a huge, spacious drumbeat that could almost come from Queen's "We Will Rock You." Instead, it's a Bukka White cover, the blues legend's "Fixin' To Die." Backed by Scott and Seth Avett, who produced the album, G. Love sings the antiwar song as a field holler and turns in some stirring acoustic guitar and harmonica work. It's very cool. As is much of Fixin' To Die.

G. Love (Philly's Garrett Dutton), abetted by the Avett brothers and a few friends, offers a set of rootsy, direct performances. Occasionally, he succumbs to his smirking affectations ("Just Fine"). His cover of Paul Simon's "50 Ways to Leave Your Lover" works better than the one of Lou Reed's "Pale Blue Eyes" (and neither as well as the Bukka White or the Blind Willie McTell ones or his own "Walk On"). But mostly, the thumping Fixin' To Die demonstrates G. Love's blues bona fides.

- Steve Klinge

nolead begins Ricky Martin
nolead ends nolead begins Música + Alma + Sexo
nolead ends nolead begins (Sony Music Latin **1/2)

nolead ends Ricky Martin has come a long way since Menudo. The Puerto Rican crooner made the gals swoon while pounding the charts with the salsa-riffic likes of "Livin' la Vida Loca" and other randy smashes. Sexual preference aside, Martin has recorded good, catchy pop. Which brings us to Music + Soul + Sex (the title translated into English), Martin's first since acknowledging last year that he is gay.

It's a shame this is his coming-out party, as it's on the shrill side, without the melodic contagion or sensuality of his previous work. Produced by previous collaborator/shiny-hit-maker Desmond Child, M+A+S, sung mostly in Spanish, is good. At 39, Martin is at his emotive vocal peak, yet much of his swagger has dissipated as he has few hooks to hang his voice on. Big love ballads such as "Tu y Yo" and the Spanish Harlem shake of "Mas" rank among his finest. But English language tunes such as "Shine" sound like an afterthought, and many of the Latino tracks lack heat. Where's that vida loca?

- A.D. Amorosi

nolead begins And You Will Know Us
by the Trail of Dead
nolead ends nolead begins Tao of the Dead
nolead ends nolead begins (Richter Scale/Superball *1/2)

nolead ends Tao of the Dead isn't difficult to listen to, but why would you want to? This Texas band is known for its amalgam of punk energy and prog grandeur. But the members achieved neither on a major label, pushing against A&R, advisers, editors. Why expect better from their self-released seventh album with self-drawn cover art?

Tao of the Dead is indistinct, aimless, and, most criminally, riffless, with vaguely seafaring melodies that never end up in a memorable chorus or lyric ("There is no light in this darkness" is sub-fortune cookie).

Even the Decemberists scaled back conceptual ambitions for a reality check on this year's The King Is Dead and, for letting its fans breathe, was rewarded with the No. 1 spot on Billboard. The best snippet here, "Spiral Jetty," weighs in at a spry 1:48. You can guess what end of the quality spectrum the 16-minute closer is on.

- Dan Weiss

Dos

(DeltaGroove ***)

nolead ends Like the far-more- celebrated and longer- running Los Lobos, Los Fabulocos are a Chicano band from East Los Angeles. If you prefer the earthy exuberance of the former's earlier work to its artier recent efforts, then you'll love Los Fabulocos.

The quartet's self-titled 2008 debut was a joyous blast, and so is this sophomore effort, although it also represents a step forward, as it is heavier on original songs. Most are by singer-accordionist Jesus Cuevas. His clear tenor has an openhearted appeal recalling that of Los Lobos' David Hidalgo, on every- thing from the upbeat opener, "Everything Will Turn Out Alright," to the mournful "I Never Thought," a ballad that's as much bayou as barrio.

Also contributing topflight material are bassist James Barrios and truly fabulous guitarist Kid Ramos, the blues/roots-rock veteran whose fiery six-string work adds much of the rock-and- roll edge to a delicious, Latin-flavored stew already brimming with energy and soul.

- Nick Cristiano

Eurydice

Eric Brenner, soprano; Liz Filos, alto; Steven Bradshaw, tenor; Toby Twining, alto/baritone; Mark Johnson, bass; Floreta Shapiro, cello

(Cantaloupe ***1/2)

nolead ends One of the great surprises of the Wilma Theater's 2007-2008 season was Sarah Ruhl's play Eurydice and its incidental music score by Toby Twining, created with choirs of overdubbed voices and discreet instrumental accompaniment. The effect, both in the theater and on this new recording of the music, is beyond other- worldly and downright mind-blowing. Since incidental music need not have any typical sense of beginning, middle, and end, the music soars with a breezy sense of fantasy, occasionally waving to 1950s do-wop and 1970s folk music, touching down in the wordless realm of Meredith Monk and going deep into the endless possibilities suggested by electronic music. Some passages have all musical information concentrated into a single, unaccompanied vocal line. At the other extreme, Orpheus storms the gates of Hades to rescue Eurydice with thick, microtonal chord structures quite unlike anything I've ever heard.

But even without a frame of reference for such sounds, they feel so elemental that there's no question about what the music is saying: Orpheus has splintered his musical psyche into a thousand pieces, all chorusing at once in an effort to change the laws of nature.

- David Patrick Stearns