By the writers of Last Word Features

(based on a 5-star rating)

Gorillaz: ‘Plastic Beach’ (Virgin)
★★★★
The electro/hip-hop/soul/pop bubbles and simmers in some of the tightest, most melodic songs the Gorillaz have produced on “Plastic Beach,” the cartoon quartet’s third album. The disc has a world-falling-apart concept, about a place built from the junk of civilization that has floated to the South Pacific. And it actually works, if you care to pay attention to such things.

Among the collaborators this time are soul legend Bobby Womack, who goes up against Mos Def’s rhyming on the ‘70s-rooted “Stylo”; Snoop Dogg rapping on the title cut; and, most impressively, Lou Reed’s unmistakable “singing,” combining a chorus of harmonies over a hip-hop beat on “Some Kind of Nature.”
The song “Melancholy Hill” sounds like it came from the synthesized ‘80s: There’s chilled-out electronica that takes Moby one better and sweet pop balladry to boot – all smartly produced. There’s no instant hit like “Clint Eastwood” on “Plastic Beach, but it’s the Gorillaz most satisfying outing yet. – L. Kent Wolgamott
Buy if you like: Moby, Orbital

Everybody Was In The French Resistance…Now!: ‘Fixin’ the Charts, Volume 1’ (Cooking Vinyl)
★★★ 1⁄2
As the main songwriter in Art Brut, Eddie Argos has proven himself to be one of rock’s funniest lyricists. So if anyone was going to take a bit of the piss out of some popular pop songs (and perhaps the artists that wrote them), Argos is as qualified as anyone. This is exactly what he does, partnering with Dyan Valdes of the Blood Arm in the side project Everybody Was In The French Resistance … Now!
On the duo’s debut, “Fixin’ the Charts, Volume 1,” they offer good-natured cheeky replies to songs by Avril Lavigne (“Girlfriend”), Michael Jackson (“Billie Jean”) and Bob Dylan (Don’t Think Twice It’s All Right”), to name a few. The lyrics have plenty of appeal, as Argos and Valdes turn “Girlfriend” into a tale of stalking boyfriend-stealing girl and “Billie Jean” (called “Billie’s Genes”) into a story about learning the identity of a long-gone father – and being glad he didn’t stick around.
But the lyrical cleverness is only part of the package. In this side project, Argos retains his trademark spoken-word vocal style, but with the exception of the ace rocker “Superglue” (a response to Elastica’s “Vaseline”), he sets aside the punky guitar rock of Art Brut for a more baroque keyboard-centered pop sound. The setting works well for the pop smarts Argos and Valdes bring to tunes like “Cheque Allies” (from which the band’s name is drawn) and “He’s A ‘Rebel’” (which has an appropriately bouncy retro feel). With such attributes, resistance to this CD is futile.
– Alan Sculley
Buy if you like: Madness, Ben Folds

Carolina Chocolate Drops: ‘Genuine Negro Jig’ (Nonesuch)
★★★★ 1⁄2
Though it’s a frequently overlooked chapter in American music tradition, blacks were playing banjo and other stringed instruments before whites in blackface co-opted their style in mocking minstrelsy. The Carolina Chocolate Drops are revisiting that element of their heritage, and doing a fine job of carrying it further.
With songs like “Snowden’s Jig (Genuine Negro Jig),” “Sandy Boys” and other traditionals arranged by the trio (Justin Robinson, Rhiannon Giddens and Dom Flemons exchanging vocals, fiddle, banjo, guitar and other instruments), plus quirky covers like Tom Waits’ “Trampled Rose” and the R&B cut “Hit ‘Em Up Style,” they’re playing more interesting bluegrass than everyone else on the circuit.
The instrumental opener, “Peace Behind the Bridge,” immediately conveys their skills, which don’t falter anywhere throughout. The bluesy “Why Don’t You Do Right?” highlights Giddens’ voice; “Your Baby Ain’t Sweet Like Mine” is just fun. Robinson’s original, “Kissin’ and Cussin’,” is another charmer. So is the entire album. — Lynne Margolis
Buy if you like: Earl Scruggs, Bela Fleck

Joe Pug: “Messenger”
★★★ 1⁄2
Joe Pug’s a Chicago-based songwriter who’s come up with a striking debut album with “Messenger,” a disc that gives folk singing a good name again. Like John Prine and Bob Dylan before him, two artists with whom he has unfortunately been compared, Pug doesn’t have a great voice – his is kind of creaky and craggy. But he has some great image-filled songs and presents them with great effectiveness, whether it’s a me-and-my guitar offering or a full band tune.
Among the best songs on “Messenger” are the anti-war track “Bury Me Far (From My Uniform),” the countryish “The Door Was Always Open” and the love song “The First Time I Saw You.” None of these songs or any of the rest on “Messenger” plow new ground, but Pug covers the old themes with fresh insight and a refreshing lack of cliché.– L. Kent Wolgamott
Buy if you like: John Prine, Justin Townes Earle.

The Texas Tornados: ‘Esta Bueno’ (Bismeaux)
★★★ 1⁄2
Though Freddy Fender and Doug Sahm have gone off to that big supergroup in the sky, the one they left behind on earth, the Texas Tornados, sounds as good as ever with Doug’s son, Shawn, filling in his dad’s big cowboy boots.
Standing alongside legends Augie Meyers and Flaco Jiménez and regrouping with original sidemen Speedy Sparks, Ernie Durawa and Louie Ortega, Shawn produced an album of unreleased tracks and new ones that perfectly captures the spirit of these Tex-Mex icons.
Highlights include the five songs Fender recorded shortly before his death (including “Another Shot of Ambition”), and the closer, an unreleased, Doug Sahm track, “Girl Going Nowhere.” Another strong cut is “My Sugar Blue,” an old Meyers tune spiced up with fantastic squeezebox riffs from Jimenez.
They could have skipped the oom-pah songs (“In Heaven There Is No Beer”? Really?), but it’s hard to quibble with adding excuses to hear Jiménez play. —Lynne Margolis
Buy if you like: Sir Douglas Quintet, Freddy Fender

REISSUE:

Paul Revere and the Raiders featuring Mark Lindsay: ‘The Complete Columbia Singles’ (Collector’s Choice)
Rating: ★★★ 1/2
The cheesy Revolutionary War soldiers costumes that were such a trademark for this group probably never did much to gain Paul Revere and the Raiders respect. But few groups that worked in the shadow of the Beatles and Rolling Stones in the mid and late 1960s were any better than Paul Revere and the Raiders. And while some of the group’s albums have been released on CD, and there was a solid best-of CD, “The Essential Ride,” released 15 years ago, only now is the band getting a truly comprehensive anthology treatment.
With three discs and 66 songs, “The Complete Columbia Singles” traces the group’s beginnings, covering party rock tunes like “Louie Louie,” “Have Love Will Travel” and “Oo Poo Pah Doo” into consistent hit-makers that drew the bulk of its repertoire from originals co-written by frontman Lindsay and Terry Melcher.
Today, some 40 years after songs like “Hungry,” “Good Thing” and “Him Or Me, What’s It Gonna Be?” rode high on the top 40 charts, the songs still sound frisky and fun. And of course “The Complete Columbia Singles” includes many non-charting tracks. Most didn’t fly for good reasons. But there are some decent tunes as well, particularly in the 1969-1972 era. That’s after the original Raiders had split from Lindsay and keyboardist Revere and the music grew more ambitious (the psychedelic sounds of “Just Seventeen” and “Sorceress With Blue Eyes,” or the bluesy ballad “It’s So Hard Getting Up Today”). – Alan Sculley
Buy if you like: The Sonics, Dave Clark Five