Paul Weller - 22 Dreams
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The big worry about Miley Cyrus' proper debut — her first album minus the Hannah Montana alias, that is — was that she would affect a too-grown-up persona, especially given her recent photographic controversies. Billy Ray's 15-year-old daughter wisely avoids the musical equivalent of a fake ID on Breakout, yet it's the too-conservative tunes that let her down. After the second disc of last year's Hannah Montana 2 introduced Cyrus as a solo artist — and featured the wonderfully terse East Northumberland High, the best Avril Lavigne song she never recorded — there was reason to believe that Breakout would continue in that same promising vein. But while the slow-into-snappy single 7 Things is an obvious attempt at a follow-up, and although much of the disc tends toward the same mildly punky pop (much of it co-written by Cyrus), there's an unwelcome familiarity to the hooks, a sense that Breakout is actually just a mash-up of moves tried and discarded by Lohan/Duff/fill-in-the-Disney-diva-of-your choice. The by-the-numbers cover of Girls Just Wanna Have Fun and the ham-handed eco-anthem Wake Up America only reinforce the idea that by playing it safe, Cyrus might be risking a chance to be a more important star than those who've preceded her. Essential download: 7 Things — Dan LeRoy Sugarland
Love On The Inside
Mercury Nashville Sugarland followed the huge breakthrough of its 2004 debut by cutting one of its members to become a duo, but scored an equally impressive success with its follow-up two years later. The Atlanta pair's third album, Love on the Inside, adheres to the musical method on which the act has feasted to date, and adds occasional fresh wrinkles to its buoyant, pop-laced country. Singer Jennifer Nettles revels in her vocal twang, applying it liberally to the anthem-style chorus of the electric-guitar-lined Take Me as I Am and using it as the most propulsive element on the juicy It Happens. Partner Kristian Bush is a less obvious contributor, but helps build comfortable places for her elongated drawl to land, such as the instrumental backbones that shape the hearty Already Gone. Although much of the disc is cut from the act's most obvious available cloth, the fanciful, exuberant Steve Earle is a fun departure, a slice of over-the-top role-playing in which Nettles builds an amusing character. The likes of the shimmering ballad Very Last Country Song are less ambitious and more typical, but despite the duo's penchant for hauling out the cookie cutter, the results are frequently something sweet. Essential download: Steve Earle — Thomas Kintner CSS
Donkey
Sub Pop Music is my hot, hot sex, CSS declared on its 2006 self-titled (if spelled out) debut, Cansei Ser Sexy. Music plays a more therapeutic role on Donkey as the Brazilian band dances and parties away its troubles. Although Donkey has a sleeker sound than its predecessor, CSS keeps its focus squarely on booty-shaking beats and pulsing bass on songs alternately about rocking your face off (opener Jager Yoga) and overcoming emotional turmoil (Left Behind, on which singer Lovefoxxx promises to dance my ass off till I die as part of her regimen of forgetting). Reggae All Night proposes doing exactly that, while I Fly is a surreal account of transforming into a winged insect for the apparent purpose of stalking a would-be paramour. Gritty guitar sometimes takes the lead, as on Give Up, but synthesizers are the musical constant here. They purr on Left Behind, swirl through the musical breaks on How I Became Paranoid and chatter wildly behind sleazy sex-funk guitar on Move. The band's Portuguese name translates to I'm tired of being sexy, something Beyoncé is said to have once remarked. By contrast, you get the feeling CSS is just warming up to it. Essential download: Left Behind — Eric R. Danton Paul Weller
22 Dreams
Yep Roc Paul Weller's ninth solo album is supposed to play like a year in the British singer's life. The greatest knock against the collection might just be that it succeeds in following that concept. At 21 songs, 22 Dreams seems to last months. There are plenty of worthwhile moments, such as the banging soul romp of the title track, but Weller surrounds them with exhausting filler cuts and showboating genre change-ups. For Weller, it's a return to old-school ambitiousness. In the late '70s and early '80s, as leader of the Jam, he cut a path from punky mod rock to soul and funk. Later, as head of the neatly pressed Style Council, he tried jazz, hip-hop and electronic music, challenging Elvis Costello for the title of furthest-reaching original punk. On subsequent solo albums, Weller has mostly tended toward forgettable, if finely crafted, soul-informed rock. Here the mundane songs work best, as his efforts to defy expectations — see Echoes Around the Sun, his underwhelming psych-rock collaboration with Oasis' Noel Gallagher — rarely justify their disruptiveness. These days, when Weller branches out, it's more in service of restless musical talent than a unique songwriting voice. Essential download: 22 Dreams — Kenneth Partridge NICO MUHLY
MOTHERTONGUE
BRASSLAND
A graduate of both Columbia and Juilliard and a repeated collaborator of Philip Glass, Vermont-born Nico Muhly has worked with the BBC and Boston Pops, among others. He's only 26 years old, which might explain why he's also assisted Will Oldham, Rufus Wainwright and the National. Muhly is first and foremost a composer, but that title doesn't quite do justice to the monumental range and ambition of his second album. Unfolding in three suites — Mothertongue, Wonders and The Only Tune — this daring showing first pairs the peeps and chirps of mezzo-soprano Abigail Fisher with orchestral bursts and rattles. Then it's the creepy vocals of trombonist Helgi Hrafn Jonsson that are shrouded in eccentric swells and tiny details. Finally comes folk singer Sam Amidon, who also plays banjo and guitar, adapting a traditional tune. If Muhly's far-flung universe of sounds reminds some of Bjork's a cappella album Medulla, it's no coincidence: longtime Bjork collaborator Valgeir Sigurosson recorded, produced, mixed and contributed electric bass to Mothertongue. Yet this is decidedly Muhly's vision, and though he plays only keyboards and a few other instruments here, he composed the entire album, which...
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