Are You Passionate? (Reprise/65:51 )- NEIL YOUNG: As mellow and laidback as 1992's 'Harvest Moon', Neil Young's latest work evokes something akin to the "make love not war" spirit of the Sixties with a sound that owes much to classic rock and R&B. Helping the veteran singer-songwriter to create the retro mood are the mighty Booker T. & the MGs, sounding as fine and fluidly chugging as ever, and Young's longtime band, the raggedly rocking Crazy Horse. Songs like 'You're My Girl', about a father sharing his thoughts on adulthood with his daughter, and the romantic ballads 'When I Hold You In My Arms and 'Don't Say You Love Me' may not have much to induce serious reflection, but their reflective grace suits the subject matter perfectly. And when Young, one of rock's most perceptive and remarkably pithy social commentators, does turn his attention to bigger issues like surrendering to fate ('Going Home') and finding true faith ('Two Old Friends'), he uses the force of analogy to drive home some powerful points. There're some flawed pieces, like the somewhat contrived 'Let's Roll' which was inspired by the Flight 93 passenger who called his wife on the cell-phone moments before the plane crashed on Sept 11. But on the whole, 'Are You Passionate?', whose title track reaffirms the need to seize the day in these uncertain times, is a highly listenable album.
Become You (Epic/48:17) - INDIGO GIRLS: Probably realizing that the edgy, boundary-breaching stuff on 1999's 'Come On Now Social' isn't their true stock in trade, Amy Ray and Emily Saliers have gone back to the gentle, reflective folk-rock that has been their staple for over 15 years on this new studio effort. It's a terrific collection of mainly meditative melodies that not only give Ray and Saliers much room to display the bracing power of their enchanting harmonies, but also serve as perfect vehicles for their musings on existential burdens and romantic complications. There's a wistful beauty about ballads like 'Moment Of Forgiveness', 'Deconstruction', 'You've Got To Show' and 'Hope Alone', all of which deal with the inescapable despair of broken love. And such is the grace of the Girls' artistry that even when they're employing the minor mode and saying the saddest things, there's hardly a trace of sentimentalism in their manner of expression. Matters of the heart may be a significant thematic focus here, but the Ray and Saliers also manage to accommodate some biting social and political comment. The accordion-propelled 'Become You' subtly attacks racism in the American South, while the closer 'Nuevas Senoritas' pays tribute to women freedom fighters in Mexico. The songs, which feature beguilingly simple acoustic arrangements, just grow on you.
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The Eminem Show - EMINEM: Because rap is such a basic and imitable genre, the music's potency is entirely dependent on a performer's ability to transcend its limitations. Frankness of expression, an instinctive feel for rhythm, and a knack for creative assimilation are among the traits that distinguish a great rapper from a merely adequate one. While he may not exactly be the most resourceful and original of "beat poets", Eminem displays most of these qualities on this impressive if somewhat overlong third outing. He has honed his craft to such a level that he not only sounds compellingly confident and cocky here, he also gives the listener plenty to chew over by telling it like it is. For instance, there's 'White America' one of the most scathing indictments of racism, suburban rot and religious hypocrisy in the New World ever recorded by a rap artist, black or white. And while at the end of the song, he laughingly says, 'I'm just playing America, you know I love you', you can't mistake the sharply self-aware white boy's note of wicked irony. The tone on things like 'Business', 'Cleanin' Out My Closet', and 'Without Me' is equally trenchant, as he makes a mockery of his stardom and notoriety, examines his relationship with his mother, and considers his virility as well as his vulnerability. But through all that brutal expression -- the clean version of the album actually makes it sound like he worships his mother -- the dude who first shocked the world as Slim Shady, and became the biggest name in rap after being catapulted to superstardom via his second album, 'The Marshall Mathers LP', still shows he's a decent family man on 'Hailie's Song', a loving dedication to his daughter. Of course, there're some nonsensical rhymes and moments of meaningless bluster, but even these non sequiturs and self-glorifying rants have a certain punch to them.
Motherland (Elektra/58:22) - NATALIE MERCHANT: Though grace and gentleness are still a big part of her sound, there's a new-found toughness about the former 10,000 Maniacs frontwoman's latest solo set. Grammy-winning roots-rock producer T-Bone Burnett's lean approach may have something to do with that. But it's Merchant's own grim observations on such songs as the Middle Eastern-tinged opener 'This House On Fire' ("It's all gonna catch like a house on fire, spark an evil blaze and burn higher...") and the bluesy 'Saint Judas' ("Yea, though you may walk in the valley in the dark, there's no greater evil than the darkness in your heart...") that give the album a measure of weightiness. The same sense of pessimism and earnestness informs 'Put The Law On You, a minor-mode blues that is as melancholy as it is mordant. However, the edgier pieces are balanced by an almost equal number of evocative bittersweet ballads that recall Merchant's finest moments with 10,000 Maniacs. And it's these tunes, including the folk-inflected title track, the chamber-pop dirge 'Henry Darger', the moody 'The Worst Thing', and the sunny yet sad 'Tell Yourself', that are most likely to keep luring you back to this wonderful work.
Let It Rain (Elektra/42:00) - TRACY CHAPMAN: Structurally more ambitious that anything she has done, Tracy Chapman's sixth album also stands in stark contrast to the sonic excess that defines contemporary pop.
It's folk-inspired music aimed at the head and heart, a collection of austerely arranged mood poems that wrestle with emotional and spiritual confusion, and romantic complications.
Everything about the sound and texture -- from the sparse and almost unprocessed instrumentation to Chapman's soulful yet restrained vocals, at times beautifully counterpointed by high harmonies -- reflects grace and taste. And on such meditative pieces as 'In The Dark', 'Almost', 'Say Hallelujah' and 'Happy' and 'Goodbye', the ellipitical beauty of Chapman's art is almost transcendent.
It's soft but by no means soporific, as a fat but unobtrusive beat is at the heart of almost every song. An album that just grows on you.
The Ragpicker's Dream (Mercury/55:41) - MARK KNOPFLER: While it's not as brilliant as 2000's 'Sailing To Philadelphia', the former Dire Straits frontman's latest solo effort thoughtfully returns to the concerns of rural folk and the downtrodden through an astute combination of folk, country and blues.
Knopfler may at times sound like a jaded urbanite desperately seeking rustic simplicity, but he shows genuine feeling for the settings he conjures up on songs like 'Hill Farmer's Blues', 'A Place Where We Used To Live' and 'Marbletown'. He also invests his musings on culture and creature comforts with poetic grace, though there're some moments of mild murkiness.
Knopfler plays a lot of acoustic guitar here, reserving his soulful electric for exquisitely understated textural fills. And he has become such a master of pithy expression that you hardly notice the limited range of his tonal register.
The Rising (Columbia/72:59) - BRUCE SPRINGSTEEN: While the title may be mistaken for a call to arms in response to the horrors of Sept 11, 2001, Bruce Springsteen's first studio album with the E Street Band in almost two decades actually delivers a stirring message of peace, hope and healing at a time when the "Bush-men" running his country seem hungry for war. Reaffirming the preciousness of life and reflecting the perspectives of the victims of the tragedy, their surviving family members and heroic rescue workers, the 15 songs are compellingly evocative but hardly evince any trace of affectation, bitterness or sentimentalism. And like 1984's rabble-rousing 'Born in The U.S.A.', the music here is infused with a bracing glory that reasserts the power of rock n' roll to move your heart and body. You become absorbed in the proceedings right from the opener 'Lonesome Day', a bright folky mid-tempo rocker with an exhilarating chorus. And your concentration hardly wavers during the long ride (if this were a vinyl release, it would be a double album), even though not everything keeps you in thrall. But the purposeful distillation of styles ranging from doo-wop and rockabilly to Philly soul and country demonstrates how eager Springsteen is to keep the music fresh and varied in mood and texture. He even gets a qawwali "party" to add some Eastern flavour to the minor-mode 'Worlds Apart', a plea for the now-elusive universal love that transcends cultural boundaries. It may not be the most original-sounding of tunes, but the emotional conviction that drives it is positively affecting. The three songs that take the album out -- the invigoratingly anthemic 'The Rising', the meditative 'Paradise', and the sad but hopeful 'My City Of Ruins' -- are also among the album's most memorable. Credit should go to producer Brendan O'Brien, the man behind such remarkably edgy Pearl Jam albums as 'Vs.' and 'Vitalogy' (could there be a connection between Springsteen's 'Nothing Man' and the same-named song from 'Vitalogy'), for keeping things here as wonderfully elemental and unprocessed as possible.
Tricks For Dawn (Cooking Vinyl/49:09) - MARY LORSON & SAINT LOW: Having honed her songwriting and singing skills with Madder Rose, the New York indie rock band she led in the '90s, Mary Lorson has evolved into a sophisticated songstress in the mould of Rickie Lee Jones.
This second collection of songs with her band Saint Low is a marvellous mish-mash of Burt Bacharach-style pop, laidback indie rock and lounge jazz.
Wonderfully evocative arrangements featuring violins, horns, woodwinds and folk instruments frame Lorson's luscious voice on such exquisitely melancholy ballads as 'Anything Can Happen', 'Your Lament' and 'Long Way Down'.
And while the mood can seem a bit too languid at times, the music radiates subtle shades of romanticism, especially things like 'Morningless Dreamer' and 'Tricks For Dawn' which evoke images of quiet corner hangouts in European cities.
Amazingly, though the lyrics at times consist of nothing more than non sequiturs, the words weave a strange magic.
The Willies (Nonesuch/66:24) - BILL FRISELL: The ever-experimental jazz guitarist makes another inspired foray into American folk (he first ranged through roots music on 1995's 'Nashville') on this often gentle, sunny, evocative ride. Marvellously supported by multi-instrumentalist Danny Barnes (banjo, acoustic guitar, bass harmonica, pump organ) and bassist Keith Lowe, Frisell offers a wonderfully textured programme of traditional tunes, folk standards and originals. His accounts of such folk chestnuts as 'Sittin' On Top Of The World', 'Cluck Old Hen', 'Sugar Baby' and 'Blackberry Blossom' have an enticingly lazy charm. And his own compositions, especially the ballads 'Everybody Loves Everybody' and 'I Want To Go Home', are so true to the folkways spirit that you'd find it hard to tell them apart from the non-originals without glancing at the track-list. The musicians have a glorious time on the celebratory Carter Family jig 'Single Girl, Married Girl', while 'Goodnight Irene' is marvellously reworked as a vehicle for nocturnal meditation. In some ways, what Frisell does here will remind you of Ry Cooder's best acoustic work. But Frisell's more expansive interpretive approach gives some of these tunes a darker hue.
Yankee Hotel Foxtrot (Nonesuch/51:51/Enhanced CD) - WILCO : On this terrific fourth effort, the Chicago-based alternative country-rock band serves up the kind of experimental souffle that anyone with a taste for the archly quirky will appreciate. The title alludes to the coding language of shortwave radio, and the songs are programmed in the spirit of a late-night show hosted by an introspective jockey sharing sad and happy anecdotes with his listeners. Opening with 'I Am Trying To Break Your Heart', a fuzzy lament on keeping a relationship going that has a gloriously drunken feel, the album moves into jangly folk-rock territory with the gracefully uplifting 'Kamera' and the poignantly wistful 'Radio Cure'. 'War On War' may sound like just another cheer-leading anti-war anthem, but it has a knockout melody and an atmospheric synth embellishment. And on the reflective 'Ashes Of American Flags', about life in a climate of terror, and the chamber-pop meditation on self-doubt 'Reservations', the band proves how effective its genre-mixing can be. An album that reveals fresh delights with every listening.