By the writers of Last Word Features

The Rolling Stones: ‘Get Yer Ya-Ya’s Out: The Rolling Stones In Concert’
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The original single-disc document of the Rolling Stones’ Nov. 27 and 28, 1969 concerts at Madison Square Garden in New York City is widely considered one of the all-time great live albums. Now that release gets the super-deluxe treatment, with one bonus disc featuring five songs left off of the original release (including “Satisfaction”). Those five songs are also captured visually on a DVD. The other bonus is a 12-track disc with performances from the evening’s opening acts, none other than B.B. King and Tina Turner.
It’s hard to argue with the notion of “Ya-Ya’s” being one of the all-time live albums. The Stones were in the middle of their creative peak, and the performances at the Garden were tight and spirited. King, meanwhile, is captured in the prime of his career, while Turner is at her frisky best, long before she shifted from rough-edged soul to the more polished pop material of the ‘80s and ‘90s. All in all, this reissue makes a great live album even better, while turning “Ya-Ya’s” into a complete document of a historic point in the career of not only the Stones, but King and Turner as well.
— Alan Sculley
Buy if you like: The Faces, Black Crowes

AC/DC: ‘Backtracks’
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This AC/DC collection isn’t a typical compilation of greatest hits. Instead it puts together rare studio tracks, live cuts and videos, most of which have never been released in this form.
“Backtracks” comes in two versions. The standard set has a CD of studio rarities, a career-spanning CD of live rarities and a DVD putting together the band’s videos from “Big Gun” with some live bonus footage.
The more comprehensive, recommended deluxe edition expands the first CD from 12 to 18 tracks, has two live CDs and adds another DVD, this one of a smokin’ live performance in Munich, Germany, in 2003.
What comes across most in listening to the set is that AC/DC’s boogie rock sounds like the Faces with far louder guitars. They remember to roll as well as rock, which is a rarity in the hard rock world, and that’s what makes them continually interesting. While Brian Johnson rips out some “cookie monster” vocals in the later cuts, AC/DC isn’t a metal band. It’s apparent here that what they play is good, loud rock ‘n’ roll.
It almost goes without saying that “Backtracks” is for serious fans only. More casual listeners can get by with a greatest hits package, but AC/DC aficionados will want to put this at the top of their Christmas lists. Appropriately enough, “Backtracks” comes in a package that looks like an amplifier. Put it on 11 and crank it up. — L. Kent Wolgamott
Buy if you like: MC5, Motorhead

John Mayer: ‘Battle Studies’
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On “Battle Studies,” John Mayer’s embraced his inner sensitive dude, largely shelving the guitar for which he was once known, save a few biting flourishes. Opening with the lush “Heartbreak Warfare,” Mayer explores such touching topics as “All We Ever Do Is Say Goodbye,” asks “Do You Know Me?” and whispers something about “no more suffering, no more pain” in “War of My Life.” Getting the picture?
“Assassin” sounds like a Sting song, as do several other tracks, which says everything about “Battle Studies.”
A funkified version of “Crossroads” is the most interesting track on the disc. But that Robert Johnson/Cream cover just seems out of place in the midst of singer/songwriter schmaltz. Mayer has said that his models for the record were the ‘70s L.A. soft rockers. Unfortunately, he’s hit that target in all its soporific dullness.  — L. Kent Wolgamott
Buy if you like: Jackson Browne, Jason Mraz

Norah Jones: ‘The Fall’
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On “The Fall,” Norah Jones collaborates with Ryan Adams and Will Sheff of Okkervil River and lets a little guitar noise seep into the mix. But things never come close to getting noisy or out of hand. Instead, she applies her superb voice to pop songs like “Chasing Pirates” and “Young Blood” (a cash-in on the vampire trend), and “Man of the Hour,” which displays a bit of humor.
Jones is a terrific singer who puts a jazz-tinged spin on much of her music. But her material is generally far from challenging; her pleasant vocals and pop grooves slip into perfect background music at, say, Starbucks. “The Fall” isn’t as jazz oriented as Jones’ first three albums. But it’s still just what her legions of fans have come to expect: pretty music carried by beautiful vocals.  — L. Kent Wolgamott
Buy if you like If you like: Diana Krall, Cassandra Wilson

Leona Lewis: ‘Echo’
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With her previous CD, “Spirit,” Leona Lewis enjoyed the kind of major success in the states that she had already achieved in her homeland of England. With her star on the rise, plenty is riding on her new CD, “Echo.” And the new CD is the kind of take-no-chances work that will probably satisfy fans of “Spirit.” But the CD doesn’t satisfy this reviewer. To these ears, “Echo” is too formulaic, and offers little on a musical level that fans of slick R&B/pop haven’t already heard from the likes of Mariah Carey and Whitney Houston.
The overly produced “Echo” relies on plenty of synthetic sonic bells and whistles to go with Lewis’ voice, which though solid, isn’t particularly distinctive. Sticking largely to a mid-tempo sound, “Echo’s” songs are for the most part unremarkable and follow the well-trodden blueprint of building into the big chorus.
Lewis tries to save songs like “Broken” and “Alive” by throwing herself into her vocals. But most of the time, she simply sounds overly dramatic. In the end, there’s no hiding the reality that with a few exceptions (“Happy” and “You Don’t Care”) the songs on “Echo” are too predictable and pedestrian to stand out from the pack. — Alan Sculley
Buy if you like: Mariah Carey, Beyonce

R.E.M. ‘Live at the Olympia’
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One reason R.E.M. has survived for so long is that the band isn’t afraid to take chances; working out the songs that would become 2008’s “Accelerate” before an audience was a smart idea — even though singer Michael Stipe insisted their five-day Dublin stand was “an experiment in terror.” They also insisted “this is not a show,” and maybe it wasn’t, in the sense that they let the process invade what’s normally a run-through of already-perfected rockers and shimmering ballads.
But it must have been awesome to be in that intimate theater as an extremely talkative Stipe described the history behind this mix of obscure catalog gems and others so new that, in one case (the lovely “Houston”), the band had no idea what he was going to sing. As such, it’s a great document. It’s not for casual R.E.M. fans, however. — Lynne Margolis
Buy if you like: The Byrds, The Minus 5