A- Jennifer Nettles That Girl Mercury Nashville
As lead singer in the contemporary country duo Sugarland, Jennifer Nettles and partner Kristian Bush kept growing increasingly experimental over four albums. For her first solo album, Nettles strips her songs to their basics - sonically and emotionally.
Nettles is blessed with a voice that features a wide range and a distinct, vinegary tone. But it’s her ability to connect with a song’s emotional content that makes her stand out. That Girl shows off that quality remarkably well, whether singing an open-hearted ballad like “This Angel,” a playful yet meaningful bopper like “Moneyball” or a complicated confessional like the title cut.
Producer Rick Rubin balances spare acoustic arrangements with inventive rhythms and orchestrations. Even the most dramatic moments shine because of a deft, light touch, from the Latin rhythms of“Jealousy” to the way horns come in on “This One’s For You.”
That Girl recalls classic Carole King and Linda Ronstadt. It’s a reminder of how powerful music can be when it comes from the heart and tilts more toward talent than technology.
Hot tracks: “This Angel,” “Moneyball,” “Jealousy.
- MICHAEL McCALL The Associated Press
A Against Me! Transgender Dysphoria Blues Total Trebel
Well, this is easily the best rock album ever made about coming out as a woman.
We’re not being catty. Against Me! frontwoman Laura Jane Grace was formerly Against Me! frontman Tom Gabel, who began indentifying as a woman a couple of years ago. The band remains a hammering punk-rock force and Grace doesn’t shy away from writing about her transformation and all its confusion and tumult. Grace now explores her experience with a righteous defiance and undeniable vulnerability (no, her voice hasn’t changed). She somehow has also managed to hold her group together after a trouble-filled recording process and the exit of two longtime band mates.
Opening with the blistering title cut, Grace lays out the uncertainty she faces in lines like “you want them to see you/like they see every other girl … ” and “you’ve got no hips to shake ...”
“Drinking With the Jocks” is a ragefest about trying to fit in with a crowd you hate but whose acceptance you crave; “Unconditional Love” borrows the riff from Bowie’s “The Jean Genie” over lyrics of self-hate and doubt.
Through it all, though, is a swagger coursing through the blood of this album, and one can’t help but smile and pump a fist in salute to Grace and her Against Me! cohorts for creating a piece of art so wholly honest and encompassing. We could all learn from Transgender Dysphoria Blues, which is, among all the gender-switching talk and focus, simply a great rock ’n’ roll album.
Hot tracks: The title cut, “Black Me Out,” “True Trans Soul Rebel.”- SEAN CLANCY B+
Blackie and the Rodeo Kings South File Under Music
In the movie biz, January releases are often in the “what were we thinking when we made this?” category.
But in music, that’s not always the case. Take the rootsy Blackie and the Rodeo Kings’ enjoyable new recording for example. The Canadian band has stripped the music to mostly acoustic, but with lively arrangements played with lots of energy.
It opens with the melancholy companions “North” and “South”; the former a gentle acoustic shuffle of sorts, the latter adding an organ and a particularly moving vocal. “I’d Have to Be a Stone” has a bluesy vibe, a ’50s rockabilly touch, and to a degree that’s what’s happening on “Everything I Am,” too.
Hot tracks: The beautiful “Driftin’ Snow,” about what’s lost and gained when you leave home; “South”; “I’d Have to Be a Stone.” - ELLIS WIDNER
B+ Harpeth Rising Tales From Jackson Bridge Harpeth Rising
Folk music? Bluegrass bender? Art song? Classical shenanigans?
The quartet Harpeth Rising is up to all of it and more on Tales From Jackson Bridge, an album that cares not for comfort but does offer buckets of quirk. Strings instead of percussion push this music as it zigs and zags from corner to corner. “Ghost Factory” is mysterious with an amazing violin solo. “Wheelhouse” is one of the few here with a conventional rock/pop chorus.
As with too many music acts, whatever humor the group has is set aside after they appear on the cover in Old West costumes. The lyrics sometimes fall in a nowhere zone between evocative and specific. The music, with all its sharp angles, leaves a more lasting mark.
Hot tracks: “Ghost Factory,” “Wheelhouse.”
- WERNER TRIESCHMANN
B+ Young the Giant Mind Over Matter Fueled by Ramen
Young the Giant surprised the rock world with its smashes “Cough Syrup” and “My Body” in 2010, unusual anthems that connected with audiences. When it came time to follow up the successful debut, though, the California band froze for a bit. Mind Over Matter is its postwriter’s-block effort, and it feels oddly unsure and confined.
There’s clearly some worry they’re trying to shake off, especially in the single “It’s About Time,” where they discuss paralysis and lurch into Incubus territory. Oddly, they are actually at their poppiest on the dance-beat-driven “Paralysis,” showing they learned how to make their disaster fears work for them.
Hot tracks: “It’s About Time,” “Paralysis.” - GLENN GAMBOA Newsday
Style, Pages 27 on 01/28/2014