Spins

Common

Universal Mind Control

Label: Geffen

If you like: Common sounding … common

Song to download: "Punch Drunk Love"

(out of four)

The rapper Common has been dabbling in acting, but on Universal Mind Control, his eighth disc, he takes on his most ambitious role -- someone who enjoys having fun. Common's relationship with pleasure is complicated. He has been a bohemian sex symbol, but he has also been a self-righteous rapper, though a musically palatable one.

His past two discs, largely produced by Kanye West, were mature, eclectic and subtle. This time, Pharrell Williams of the Neptunes is the executive producer, and it's a blatant mismatch as he and The Neptunes treat Common as an obstacle to be worked around. Common has become less nimble with age, and there's little ease left in his locution, even when borrowing phrasings from Jay-Z, the Notorious B.I.G., or the Sugarhill Gang.

Worse, this disc finds Common at his least imaginative and toothless, as on "Sex 4 Suga." He has made politeness his art form -- acolytes tend to overlook such tracks as the slightly garish "Heidi Hoe," from his 1992 debut album. So for hip-hop's values voters, Universal's more salacious songs will verge on sacrilege. But even those who can look past the topical dissonance will be confronted with the musical dissonance.

The Neptunes have created beats better suited to a far more enthusiastic and versatile MC -- from the sauntering soul redolent of A Tribe Called Quest on "Punch Drunk Love" to the sensational, woozy, blaring horns on "Gladiator," in which Common tries to reassert his legacy.

But a moment later he's discussing Michael Vick and Nelson Mandela in almost the same breath. Even Common's social conscience has been muddled.

— Jon Caramanic
The New York Times

Pretenders

Break Up the Concrete

Label: Shangri-La Music

If you like: Chrissie Hynde's soul with Gram Parsons' heart

Song to download: "One Thing Never Changed"

Chrissie Hynde has long been rock's toughest gal, always leaving no doubt who is in control of her band, Pretenders -- to the point that the band has evolved, through misfortune and dictatorial attitude, into Hynde and whomever she chooses.

After years in England, Hynde recently returned to her native Ohio. Her return is echoed by Break up the Concrete, the new Pretenders disc, a veritable homage to rock's traditional roots. Thematically, it's affairs of state and heart, with Hynde sounding unusually approachable and both wistful and wise. The band of session pros includes a pedal-steel player, Eric Heyward, and drummer Jim Keltner, and the disc was made in 10 days, sounding casually tight and surprisingly lived in.

It bounces from rockabilly rave-ups to quasi-country weepers and rustic blues. The playing and songs are great, and Hynde' sounds terrific, a portrait of integrity. In all, it's the best Pretenders album in years. The trick -- don't compare it with early Pretenders albums. It is what it is.

— Ed Bumgardner
relish staff writer

Mudvayne

The New Game

Label: Epic

If you like: System of a Down as a lobotomized radio-metal band

Song to download: "Dull Boy"

The New Game, Mudvayne's new album of growly agro-metal, tries to instill a bit of dread with a goofily sordid narrative -- a murder mystery that fans, if any are left, can try and solve -- and it trawls some pimply musical terrain to get there.

The heaviness common to the band's old music is missing. For that matter, gone are all the traits that the band's old fans had come to treasure. The album's gooey, mid-tempo grind at best evokes System of a Down stripped of ambition and eccentricity.

Mudvayne's oeuvre has long tried to reconcile vocalist Chad Gray's radio-ready inclinations -- now the band's dominant trait -- with more menacing instrumental fare. The band should pick one card and play it, as almost tuneful single-bait like "Have It Your Way" and "Scarlet Letters" undermines the gnashing of "Dull Boy," the track most like the Mudvayne of old.

Why this lowbrow stuff still sells in an otherwise great time for metal is the album's real mystery.

— August Brown
Los Angeles Times

Seal

Soul

Label: Warner Bros.

If you like: The same old (soul) song

Song to download: "If You Don't Know Me By Now"

Seal's music has always had soul, but with Soul, he pays tribute to vintage songs from the great soul era of the 1960s and '70s. Seal's emotive, silky-smooth voice handles the trademark variances of the soul sounds that stemmed Philadelphia, Memphis and Detroit.

Seal opens with Sam Cooke's "A Change is Gonna Come," which finds fresh poignancy in the recent election of Barack Obama as president of the United States. Equally relevant is the album's closing track, Curtis Mayfield's "People Get Ready." In between are more classic-but-safe songs, including James Brown's "It's a Man's Man's World," Ben E. King's "Stand By Me," and Otis Redding's "I've Been Loving You Too Long."

David Foster's subtle production pays homage not just to the music, but to the period, as well. Seal not only re-creates these songs, but he also honors their relevance along the way.

The downside -- there are lots of great soul songs. It's time to move beyond the obvious.

— John Carucci
The Associated Press

Brandy

Human

Label: Epic Records

If you like: Keyshia Cole, Beyonce

Song to download: "Fall"

Brandy has gone through much in the four years since her last CD. She left her longtime music label, dabbled in TV, and was involved in a car wreck that killed a woman.

Perhaps it's these experiences that make Human, her new album, her most personal. She reunites with longtime collaborator Rodney Jerkins for the majority of the CD, and the set never disappoints, Brandy, now 29, explores love in deeper ways -- the infectious "Piano Man" -- than most contemporary R&B artists.

Some of the songs, such as "Camouflage," are therapeutic -- and good songs. The title track, which Brandy co-wrote, is a beautiful reflection of her growth as a singer and as a person. Other songs of note: the cool "1st & Love," "Fall," co-written by Natasha Bedingfield, and "Shattered Heart," a futuristic heartbreak song.

Since Brandy emerged as a teen sensation in 1994, she has released solid R&B albums. Add "Human" to the top of that list.

— Mesfin Fekadu
The Associated Press

Modern Skirts

All Of Us In Our Night

Label: www.modernskirts.com

If you like: The Shins

Song to download: "Radio Breaks"

There is something instantly, eerily familiar about All of Us in Our Night, the second album by Modern Skirts, produced in part by David Lowery of Cracker and Mike Mills of R.E.M.

It's not that the songwriting is derivative -- far from it. A close listen to these songs reveals the masterstrokes of a nonconfrontational band that makes the complex seem simple and keeps the unexpected within easy understanding -- whether it be to the myriad shifts in dynamics or the odd chord change that catches the ear in a wondrous way.

And therein is what's familiar -- Modern Skirts, as Brian Wilson's best work with The Beach Boys, uses beautiful sounds and tuneful songs to mask an innate sense of melancholy that tugs at the heart and, given the obtuse lyrics, plays with the mind.

Sweet, but never saccharine, the album gains heft in the interaction of each song. It's an album to get lost in -- quirky pop, but delivered with almost childlike wonder.

— Ed Bumgardner
relish staff writer