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Sleep Well Beast surely no snoozer

This is the cover of The National’s new album Sleep Well Beast.
This is the cover of The National’s new album Sleep Well Beast.

A- The National

Sleep Well Beast

4AD

The world's best rock bands are built on unique blends of talent and sound that set them apart from the others who strap on guitars and blister fingers in basements. Few have soared higher or set themselves apart more distinctively than The National, which exploded out of Cincinnati nearly two decades ago.

With Sleep Well Beast, the band's seventh studio album and first in four years, The National revives the distinctive vibe that led it to the forefront of 21st-century arena rock bands.

Pulsating bass and drums set a forward-leaning foundation for the band's polished guitar-keyboard mix. They convey urgency, transporting listeners through mostly dark lyrics past a sonic backdrop that offers hope, mainly because it's on its way somewhere. This happens on the mellow opener, "Nobody Else Will Be There," and on the rollicking "The System Only Dreams in Total Darkness."

What takes the band higher is Matt Berninger's charisma. Not since Bryan Ferry's heyday has a singer seemed to have stepped so vividly from the pages of a Raymond Chandler story.

The heartache is palpable. So is the tragic hero's cool remove.

Some bands with this much attitude lose luster when the charm wears off. But there'll be time to sort that out. The true believers won't be disappointed in the meantime.

Hot tracks: "Nobody Else Will Be There," "The System Only Dreams in Total Darkness," the raging "Turtleneck," the tender doo-wopish "Dark Side of the Gym"

-- SCOTT STROUD,

The Associated Press

B The Yawpers

Boy in a Well

Bloodshot Records

Just the usual rock 'n' roll stuff here. A concept album from a Denver-based trio about a newborn boy abandoned in a well by his mamma in World War I France that sounds like The Cramps hanging out with Two Cow Garage at a Gene Vincent show. There's also an accompanying comic book by J.D. Wilkes of the Legendary Shack Shakers.

Yup. Typical rock 'n' roll.

The bones of the concept, if we are to believe the album's origin tale, were excavated by singer Nate Cook after mixing too much booze and Dramamine before an early morning flight. Throw in the ashes of Cook's marriage and his fondness for Freud, Oedipus and the Great (or maybe not so Great) War and you've got what turns out to be an intriguing record produced by former Replacement Tommy Stinson that might sound a little loopy in theory, but manages to adhere into a cohesive statement.

Hot tracks: "A Visitor Is Welcomed," "The Awe and the Anguish" (especially the last 30-40 seconds) and the warped rockabilly thrash of "Mon Dieu"

-- SEAN CLANCY,

Arkansas Democrat-Gazette

B+ Prophets of Rage

Prophets of Rage

Fantasy

Prophets of Rage, the supergroup of members from Rage Against the Machine, Public Enemy and Cypress Hill, is clearly built to last on its eponymous debut.

Prophets of Rage is packed with future political anthems, fueled by Tom Morello's raucous guitar riffs and heated rhymes from Public Enemy's Chuck D and Cypress Hill's B-Real.

"Hatred, lies divided people, gorgeous anger deeds of evil," Chuck rhymes in "The World," where he trades lines with Morello over grinding guitar and trades grand verses with B-Real. "I'm elated to get y'all elevated. God remains God, yeah, and they hate it."

Chuck D's thunderous style fits nicely next to B-Real's more nimble flow, while also standing up to the wall of rock power coming from Morello, Tim Commerford, Brad Wilk and DJ Lord on the turntables. It's what drives "Radical Eyes," but it also allows for shifting gears to hit the groove-driven "Living on the 110," a potent anthem for the homeless, and the unifying "Strength in Numbers."

What makes Prophets of Rage so powerful is the way each song has multiple layers that all make the song stronger, like fingers closing into a raised fist.

Hot tracks: "Radical Eyes," "Living on the 110," "Strength in Numbers"

-- GLENN GAMBOA,

Newsday (TNS)

B Amadou & Mariam

La Confusion

Because Music

On their first album in five years, Amadou Bagayoko and Mariam Doumbia , the husband-and-wife duo from Mali who sing in French, reflect and deflect La Confusion (The Confusion) going on in their West African homeland and across the world.

After recording with multi-lingual musician Manu Chao and Damon Albarn of Blur, Amadou & Mariam created their new album in Paris with producer/keyboardist Adrien Durand, while relying on Malian musicians like Djeli Moussa Diawara, who plays the harp-like kora, and Youssouf Diabate, master of the ngoni, similar to the lute.

Guitarist/vocalist Amadou is an endless generator of riffs and arpeggios. Mariam's lead vocals are drenched in synth sounds and a savanna of percussion on the funky opener "Bofou Safou."

By the third song, "Filaou Bessame," Amadou's slinky guitar is front and center, and there's plenty of rock 'n' roll energy on the title track, too, which deals with the global communication overload.

Amadou & Mariam venture more deeply into dance, and the electronics mesh easily with their natural style. But gentler tracks like "Ta Promesse" and "Mokou Mokou" also shine.

Hot tracks: "Filaou Bessame," "Ta Promesse," "Bofou Safou"

-- PABLO GORONDI,

The Associated Press

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Prophets of Rage - Fantasy

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Adadou & Mariam. "La Confusion"

Style on 10/03/2017

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