By the writers of Last Word Features

New
Sam Baker: ‘Cotton’
(Music Road)
4 stars
Sam Baker is not much of a singer, yet his breathy, near monotonal tenor and halting, almost spoken delivery give even more strength to his remarkable storytelling. His spare characterizations are similarly rich in their economy; like Earnest Hemingway, he knows less is more.
“Cotton” differs slightly from Baker’s previous work because the music itself is less sparse. After an ethereal round of “Dixie,” it slides into the uncharacteristically drum-driven near rocker title tune before returning to Baker’s gentle strumming. Filigreed by Steve Conn’s gorgeous piano, the album, the third of a trilogy, is about forgiveness: for slavery, forced marriage, disappointment, accidents (including his own near death from a terrorist train bombing in Peru). “Ice that is black” is how Baker refers to the danger awaiting a sad woman who left on Christmas night in the song “Angel Hair.” It’s powerful stuff, haunting and gripping.
— Lynne Margolis
If you like this, try: John Prine, Todd Snider

Jeff Healey: ‘Songs From The Road’ (Ruf)
3 1/2 stars
Jeff Healey, the blind guitarist who developed his style and sound playing his instrument lying flat rather than holding it upright, passed away from cancer at age 41 last year. “Songs From The Road” is just that, a collection of live cuts from shows in Norway, London and his hometown of Toronto in 2006 and 2007.
His biggest hit, “Angel Eyes,” is here and is still hushed and vibrant. But what makes “Songs From The Road” notable (and a pleasant departure from the blues/rock guitar-wanker norm) is the song selection. Sure, there are some blues tunes, including a raw version of Muddy Waters’ “Hoochie Coochie Man.” But there are also songs by Dire Straits, Crosby Stills & Nash, the Allman Brothers, Cream and two from The Beatles. Healey and his band are more than comfortable with them and his spark-producing playing always fits the song, never going over the top or missing the groove.
— L. Kent Wolgamott
If you like this, try: Stevie Ray Vaughan, Tommy Castro

A.A. Bondy: ‘When The Devil’s Loose’ (Fat Possum)
3 1/2 stars
Listening to “When The Devil’s Loose,” it’s hard to believe that this is Scott Bondy, the former singer of Verbena, an underrated band that specialized in a sound that blended Southern pop and grunge. In going solo, Bondy (his real name is Augeste Arthur) has pretty much left behind the Verbena sound in favor of a burnished roots pop sound closer to a more Southern-tinged version of the Jayhawks than the raucous sound of Nirvana.
The shift in styles suits Bondy well, especially on songs from “When The Devil’s Loose” such as “ A Slow Parade,” “I Can See The Pines Are Dancing” and the title track, which are imbued with particularly graceful melodies. The CD suffers a bit from a lack of musical variety; most of the songs all carry a similar mid-tempo beat and have an understated feel. But if Bondy is a bit single-minded with his music, at least it’s a style he does well.
— Alan Sculley
If you like this, try: The Jayhawks, Golden Smog

Boys Like Girls: ‘Love Drunk’ (Columbia)
2 ½ stars
Boys Like Girls adds a little punk-pop churn to the classic radio rock mixture of mid-tempo, hook-filled anthems and sensitive acoustic ballads. That formula made the band’s debut sell a million copies and it’s likely to work again with album number two. That said, “Love Drunk” is one of those records that is likely to now be harvested for individual cuts rather than taken as a package. That’s probably the best way to hear it with acoustic numbers like “Two Better Than One” offsetting the radio rock of “Contagious” and the bounce of the title cut. In the end, “Love Drunk” is catchy pop music at its most disposable.
— L. Kent Wolgamott
If you like this, try All American Rejects, We The Kings

REISSUES

The Stone Roses: ‘The Stone Roses 20th Anniversary Edition’
4 stars
If you want to know where modern Britpop began, “The Stone Roses,” the striking 1989 debut from the band of the same name, is a good place to start. That’s not just critical opinion, it’s endorsed by Oasis’s Noel Gallagher’s review – “It’s perfect.”
Blending jangly guitar with Manchester melancholia, the Stone Roses combined hooks, attitude and emotion – and some great vocals by singer Ian Brown into a hit-making mixture across the pond. The Stone Roses never got much attention stateside. But the group’s reputation has grown in the 15 years since it broke up and this re-release of its classic album should bring the Stone Roses the accolades they are due. Recommended purchase: the 2 CD/DVD Legacy Edition set. In addition to the original album, which sounds fabulous, it includes a disc of demos that are more enlightening than most such collections and a DVD with a full concert, along with the music videos for the album.
— L. Kent Wolgamott
If you like this, try Oasis, Franz Ferdinand
Big Star: “Keep An Eye On The Sky” (Rhino)/Chris Bell “I Am The Cosmos” (Rhino)
4 stars
For a band that only released three studio albums, it’s pretty amazing to think that Big Star could justify a four-CD box set. (Remember, each song-packed disc in this set is roughly twice the length of each original album.) But this is precisely the case with “Keep An Eye On The Sky.” Virtually every studio cut that made Big Star one of the most influential power pop bands in history is included — many with improved alternate mixes — along with a bevy of demos and alternate versions of songs and even a few unreleased tracks.
The fourth disc – an unreleased concert from January 1973  — will be of special interest to fans. It has a few sloppy moments, but overall captures Big Star as the band was hitting stride as a musical unit. For the depth of the set, there is surprisingly little fat. The album tracks deliver one pop thrill after another, while the demos and alternate versions are well worth hearing. Big Star fans will also want to check out the two-disc re-release of “I Am The Cosmos,” the studio album by Big Star guitarist/vocalist Chris Bell that was originally released in 1992, 14 years after his death in a car accident. Although guitarist/singer Alex Chilton often gets credited as the genius in Big Star, “I Am The Cosmos,” along with his work on Big Star’s first CD, “#1 Record” (Bell left the band in 1972), suggest that Bell was a special talent as well. — Alan Sculley
If you like this, try Cheap Trick, the dBs