REVIEWED BY CHUCK ARNOLD
COUNTRY
Give Michelle Branch credit for shaking it up: When she made her recording debut with 2001's platinum The Spirit Room, the then-17-year-old singer-songwriter was a refreshing alternative to the Britneys and Christinas of the world. Then she went and gave Santana a little TRL cred with the Grammy-winning hit "The Game of Love." Now, rather than releasing the follow-up to 2003's Hotel Paper, Branch is throwing yet another curve by hooking up with her former backup vocalist Jessica Harp to form the new country duo the Wreckers. They deliver a satisfying disc that should earn them some props in Nashville circles, while keeping Branch's pop fans happy. The CD kicks off with "Leave the Pieces," a twangy tale of heartbreak that is worthy of the Dixie Chicks. Things get even more rootsy on the bluegrass-tinged foot-stomper "My, Oh My," which showcases how these two make sweet harmony with voices that are difficult to tell apart. On standout tunes like the aching title track and the aptly titled "The Good Kind," they display how well they also blend as writers.
[STARS 3]
DOWNLOAD THIS: "The Good Kind"
Bolton Swings Sinatra
JAZZ-POP
If Rod Stewart can get away with singing The Great American Songbook, then why can't Michael Bolton take on Ol' Blue Eyes? Which is exactly what Bolton does on this collection of Sinatra standards such as "I've Got You Under My Skin." And while there is no cause to start spreading the news, this is not the total disaster it could have been. The only time Bolton really embarrasses himself is when he brings in his on-again love, fiancée Nicollette Sheridan, to sing "The Second Time Around," a duet that would surely make her Desperate Housewives character gag. (Strangely, though, you can barely hear Sheridan in the mix.) Although Bolton exercises surprising restraint on a lush "You Go to My Head," the blue-eyed soul belter still has a tendency to oversing, and he lacks the natural sense of swing of, say, Michael Bublé. Still, after a season of Taylor Hicks on American Idol, one can't help but have newfound appreciation for Bolton.
[STARS 2]
DOWNLOAD THIS: "For Once in My Life"
All the Roadrunning
COUNTRY/FOLK
Is there anyone Emmylou Harris doesn't sound good with? Last year alone she blessed everyone from Neil Young and Patty Loveless to Bright Eyes' Conor Oberst with her vocal presence. Now she has saddled up with former Dire Straits frontman Mark Knopfler for an album of country/folk duets. The likable result is a well-matched pairing of two lived-in voices, with Knopfler's grizzledness and Harris's gracefulness. Celebrating a life shared on "This Is Us," they make like Johnny and June.
[STARS 3]
DOWNLOAD THIS: "This Is Us"
Wolfmother
REVIEWED BY CHRIS STRAUSS
CRITIC'S CHOICE
ROCK
Jack and Kelly may have the DNA, but Wolfmother singer-guitarist Andrew Stockdale, 29, sounds like the musical spawn of Ozzy Osbourne. He kicks off this Aussie band's muscular debut album with a Black Sabbath-worthy wail on the pounding "Dimension." Throughout Wolfmother these boys wear their classic-rock influences on their vintage sleeves. While the Zeppelin riffs and prog-rock imagery of "White Unicorn" would be destined for county fairgrounds in lesser hands, these metalheads are far too gifted to be a tribute act. Backed by Myles Heskett's reckless drumming, Stockdale puts real bite into thunderous jams like "Woman" and the aptly named "Colossal." Though Wolfmother doesn't signal a new musical era, it captures the best of an old one.
[STARS 3.5]
DOWNLOAD THIS: "Woman"
Like Blood Like Honey
POP
She is signed to Linkin Park's label, Machine Shop Recordings, and she is a featured vocalist on "Where'd You Go," the Top 5 hit by Linkin Park offshoot Fort Minor. But there won't be any moshing to Holly Brook's music. On her delicately crafted debut, the 19-year-old singer, songwriter and multi-instrumentalist from Mazomanie, Wis., comes off more like Generation Y's answer to Sarah McLachlan. With Brook's ethereal vocals floating atop airy arrangements driven by piano and acoustic guitar, songs like the quietly introspective "Curious," the laid-back "Saturdays" and the sweetly yearning "What I Wouldn't Give" are tailor-made for a revival of Lilith Fair.
[STARS 3]
DOWNLOAD THIS: "What I Wouldn't Give"
Jagged Edge
R&B
Jagged Edge tries to have it both ways—rough and smooth—on the R&B vocal group's fifth studio album. When they want to be bad boys, they can be very, very bad. "Ass Hypnotic," one of JE's forays into hip-hop, is about as crude as they come: "I was mesmerized by her booty/ I said right then that I was making her my duty." They're better off trading in raunch for romance on soulful, harmony-rich ballads like "Seasons Change," on which John Legend, sitting in on piano and background vocals, provides a touch of class.
[STARS 2.5]
DOWNLOAD THIS: "Seasons Change"
For information on where to find our Download This picks, go to www.people.com/downloadthis
Cast Recording Albums
The Tony Awards will be handed out on June 11, but a Broadway musical's true test of character is whether the songs stand on their own. Listen to these 2006 Tony nominees on disc and cast your vote.
THE COLOR PURPLE The musical (based on Alice Walker's novel and presented by Oprah Winfrey) has a heavenly cast. As the heroine, Celie, LaChanze gives the score a beating heart with the defiant ballad "I'm Here." The gospel-flavored numbers are very plot-specific but still stirring and wondrously produced. It's a score worthy of one of the greatest coming-of-age stories ever written. [STARS 3]
THE DROWSY CHAPERONE A frothy send-up of 1920s musicals with amusing (if forgettable) songs that evoke Cole Porter—despite the often knowingly terrible lyrics. Stage vets Edward Hibbert and Georgia Engel (Georgette from The Mary Tyler Moore Show) will charm your pants off with their duet "Love Is Always Lovely in the End." (Available June 13.) [STARS 2.5]
JERSEY BOYS A musical bio of the Four Seasons, New Jersey's answer to the Beatles. A keen cast polishes off the group's astounding roster of pop gems like "Sherry," "Big Girls Don't Cry," "Walk Like a Man" and—best of all—"Can't Take My Eyes off You." John Lloyd Young sounds miraculously like Frankie Valli, and it's gotta hurt, reaching those falsetto notes. But his voice and the music soar. [STARS 3.5]
THE PAJAMA GAME This revival of the 1954 musical comedy, starring the macho but mellifluous Harry Connick Jr., comes in a two-CD set, Harry on Broadway, Act I (one disc includes songs Connick wrote for the 2001 musical Thou Shalt Not). Except for a few memorable tunes ("Hernando's Hideaway," "Steam Heat"), The Pajama Game is a crop of corn, but Connick will still put stars in your eyes with "Hey There." [STARS 2.5]
SWEENEY TODD Patti LuPone (as the baker) and Michael Cerveris (as the murderous barber) sing the bejesus out of Stephen Sondheim's darkly comic, complex 1979 masterpiece. Cerveris sounds menacing; LuPone sexy and sad. And in their wide-ranging, beautiful voices, the show's macabre spirit becomes more human—and more haunting. [STARS 4]
THE WEDDING SINGER While the 1998 Adam Sandler movie had a soundtrack of '80s hits, the Broadway show (starring Stephen Lynch) has all new tunes—plus Sandler's hilarious torch song from the movie, "Somebody Kill Me." The songs are not totally awesome (to borrow an '80s phrase), but they're catchy and clever, and the cast has the right comedic chops to make them pop. STARS 2.5
Saved by the Bell Reunion
The hookups, the meltdowns, the memoires
The case reveals what was really going on what they think of each other now!
