Listening to the shimmering title track of this new platter, you might imagine you’ve happened upon a lost track from the Counting Crows’ vault, with the same rich, rootsy melodies and layered production. Listen a few more times, though, and it will dawn on you that this is a helluva…

Various Artists Songs For Summer (Oglio Records) You’ve got to give Adam Gimbel props for chutzpah. Last year his girlfriend, Summer Brannin, died of kidney cancer at the age of 21. Gimbel decided to commemorate her death by making a mix tape with some of her favorite bands. But he…

Robert Bradley’s Blackwater Surprise Time to Discover (RCA) When Robert Bradley’s Blackwater Surprise released its self-titled debut back in 1996, three friends borrowed the disc from me on separate occasions and not one got around to returning it. So I should have known better than to bring an advance copy…

Four years ago, in the thick of the last presidential campaign, MTV broadcast one of its “Rock the Vote” specials, during which one of the station’s vee-jays stuck a mic in Snoop Doggy Dogg’s face and asked for his views on the impending election. I don’t remember the exact wording…

Tommy Womack Stubborn (Sideburn Records) Tommy Womack is Steve Earle with a sense of humor. To those (like me) who regard Earle with the awe generally accorded religious martyrs, this is no small claim. But after listening to his breathtaking sophomore solo platter about 12,000 times, there can be no…

The Busy Signals Baby’s First Beats (Sugar Free) Analog keyboard, guitar, and drum machine: $400. Bedroom recording gear: $2000. Recording your debut album all by yourself: not quite as priceless as you think. Onetime Babes in Toyland roadie Howard W. Hamilton III is the Busy Signals. Other than backup vocals…

Various Artists Magnolia (Reprise) Down through the ages, one art form has always had the potential to inspire another, and rock ‘n’ roll is no exception. Patti Smith’s obsession with Rimbaud, Bill Nelson’s fascination for Cocteau, Tom Waits’ idol-worship of Jack Kerouac — all of these musical talents have found…

Kelis Kaleidoscope (Virgin) In a genre that relies on sonic and visual conformity, blond-and-pink-haired singer Kelis sticks out like Dennis Rodman — brash, independent, and alien but too talented to ignore. Her debut album opens, as so many hip-hop and R&B albums do, with an “intro.” Kelis interrupts her sci-fi…

Art of Noise The Seduction of Claude Debussy (Zang Tuum Tumb/Universal) British producer Trevor Horn’s avant-garde outfit, Art of Noise, was well ahead of the electronica curve in the early ’80s, using then-new sampling gimmickry to combine found sounds, electronic atmospherics, and synthetic beats to conjure the 1983 break-dance classic…

Tom Rush Very Best of Tom Rush: No Regrets (Columbia/Legacy) Tom Rush always has been saddled with that most deadly of labels: critics’ darling. Translation: popular failure. In a career that spans nearly 40 years, Rush has never achieved the kind of monster success enjoyed by his protégés Joni Mitchell,…

311 Sound System (Capricorn) Since forming in Omaha, Nebraska, in 1991, 311 has forged a consistent rap and metal-based sound inflected by shades of ska and reggae. You may remember the band from its huge hit “Down,” which ruled rock radio for a spell in the mid-’90s. With Sound System,…

Heather Duby Post to Wire (Sub Pop) Singer Heather Duby has one of those haunting, ethereal voices that makes everything she sings just a little bit melodramatic. On Post to Wire, Duby’s debut longplayer, love and loss are frequent topics. The accompanying music, however — cowritten with producer Steve Fisk…

The Mexico City quartet Café Tacuba has long played the enfant terrible of the rock en español movement. On three previous albums the group combined elements of traditional Mexican folk with an edgy pop sensibility and hip-hop production. With the double album Reves/Yosoy, the band has pressed what is by…

The Dixie Hummingbirds Music in the Air (House of Blues) This disc is being billed as an “all star tribute” to the Dixie Hummingbirds. There’s no doubt that the Hummingbirds — inarguably the most influential gospel group of this century — deserve a tribute. It’s just that this album doesn’t…

Lou Bega A Little Bit of Mambo (Unicade/RCA) Mambo has always been a mongrelized genre — a kind of catchall style that incorporates aspects of son, salsa, and danzón — the primary goal of which is to get bodies onto the dance floor. But the label, elastic though it may…

John Prine In Spite of Ourselves (Oh Boy Records) Nobody every bought a John Prine album for the beauty of his voice. The Illinois native has the vocal range of a bass drum and the subtlety of Kentucky moonshine. Prine’s genius — displayed erratically over almost 30 years and nearly…

Powerman 5000 Tonight the Stars Revolt! (DreamWorks Records) If imitation is the sincerest form of flattery, then Marilyn Manson, Rob Zombie, and Korn should be supremely flattered by the new Powerman 5000 album. Taking derivation to new heights, Tonight the Stars Revolt! finds PM5K brashly appropriating the fatalistic sounds of…

Robert Palmer Rhythm & Blues (Pyramid) Robert Palmer is one suave so-and-so. Ever since leaving the funky and cool Vinegar Joe in the early ’70s and going the way of the solo artist, he has made a career out of reinventing himself on a regular basis. Like David Bowie, Bryan…

The Pretenders ¡Viva el Amor! (Warner Bros.) Doing the late-night channel-surf thing recently, I stumbled across a broadcast of Hard Rock Live, the VH1 live-performance showcase featuring classic rock acts. The Pretenders were holding court, and the resulting performance was a testament to the talents of singer-songwriter Chrissie Hynde. It’s…

The Chemical BrothersSurrender(Astralwerks/Virgin)At one time the Chemical Brothers were the biggest electronica band in the land. Before Fatboy Slim was heard in every commercial, before Ray of Light won a Grammy, before Prodigy had a number one record, the duo of Ed Simons and Tom Rowlands had the biggest Big…

The Chemical Brothers Surrender (Astralwerks/Virgin) At one time the Chemical Brothers were the biggest electronica band in the land. Before Fatboy Slim was heard in every commercial, before Ray of Light won a Grammy, before Prodigy had a number one record, the duo of Ed Simons and Tom Rowlands had…

Red Hot Chili Peppers Californication (Warner Bros.) Apparently, reports of the Red Hot Chili Peppers’ creative demise were premature. The band’s new album, Californication, is a dark, hypnotic masterwork that reminds us that alternapop needn’t be a bad word. Like most good albums, Californication is an ambitious, overreaching mess with…