BRITNEY SPEARS
“Britney”
Jive Records
With the subtlety of a sledgehammer cracking eggs, the album “Britney” announces Britney Spears is a woman – as if we didn’t notice.
Over a dozen songs (five of which she’s written) the soon-to-be-20-year-old singer states her desire for independence, concluding with “What It’s Like to Be Me,” penned by her *NSYNC boyfriend, Justin Timberlake.
Most of the disc takes it to the bank with her bread ‘n’ butter dance-track sonics, but is at her best on a heartfelt cover of a Dido ballad “I’m a Girl, Not Yet a Woman.” She hits gold again with her take on “I Love Rock ‘n’ Roll,” which borrows liberally from Joan Jett’s original charts.
The rest is a good listen, but unlike her two previous albums, there’s no clear-cut killer single, such as “Oops! I Did It Again” or “Baby One More Time.” Instead of sugar and spice, there’s a newfound, slow-burn sexiness, especially in “Anticipating,” which captures the balance between the butterflies in the belly and lust in the head of a hot date. Spears also indulges in the Janet nasty-girl thing (on “Boys”). But even when the disc falters, which it does in spots, Spears is never dull.
TONY BENNETT
“Playin’ With My Friends: Bennett Sings the Blues”
½ Columbia
For 50 years now, Tony Bennett’s voice has remained smooth and on-key, his song selections impeccable and his choice of duet partners sublime.
That ol’ triple-witching magic is at full power with today’s release, “Playin’ With My Friends: Bennett Sings the Blues.”
Although there aren’t any down ‘n’ dirty kitchen-table blues, even aficionados of the 12-bar progression will appreciate Bennett’s smooth-groove, cocktail-hour adaptations featuring Diana Krall, Stevie Wonder and Billy Joel, among others.
Highlights include a sexy sparing match between Krall and Bennett on “Alright, Okay, You Win,” an exuberant “Let the Good Times Roll” with guitar master B.B. King and a powerful “New York State of Mind” with Joel. The showstopper, though, is Ray Charles and Bennett teaming on “Evenin.’ “
For those who like Tony straight up, check out the crooner’s solo, “Blues in the Night.”
VARIOUS AMERICAN ARTISTS
“Music for Photographs”
Smithsonian Folkways Recordings
If you want to understand a nation, look at its people’s faces, listen to their music and hear their words.
That’s what John Cohen – a 71-year-old photographer, musician and teacher – did in “Music for Photographs,” a 23-track CD of Americana accompanied by Cohen’s photographs and remembrances.
The album starts with a Harlem gospel choir, wades into Muddy Waters’ blues, captures a smoking, young buck named Bob Dylan and reveals Woody Guthrie in his pissed-off prime, singing about struggle.
The centerpiece is Dylan’s “Roll on John” that he performed live on WBAI in ’62, about a year after he arrived in New York.
Granted, a disc of pre-rock ‘n’ roll music won’t be for everyone, but it will delight those curious about how modern American music became what it is today.
PINK FLOYD
“Echoes: The Best of Pink Floyd”
Capitol
A few Floyd facts: Every year since 1970 more than a million of their albums are sold annually, while the 1973 epic, “Dark Side of the Moon” sells an average 8,000 copies a week. In fact, “Dark Side” has stayed on Billboard charts for 1,281 weeks – about 24½ years. No other album even comes close.
Now comes “Echoes.” The band’s first retrospective spans all of Floyd’s albums from “Piper at the Gates of Dawn (’67) to “The Division Bell” (’95).
Its 26 tracks shows there was a lot more to Floyd than their “Dark Side.” Instead of moving chronologically, it builds a wall of sound by putting the musical bricks together in new ways. That makes this collection worth a listen even if you already own the band’s complete catalog.
MERLE HAGGARD
“Roots, Volume 1”
Anti/Epitaph Records
Merle Haggard owed big-time, and he finally paid his stylistic debt to Lefty Frizzell with an amazing album of new and used old-time country.
“Roots, Volume 1” is a collection of Haggard favorites, including several by Lefty, Hank Williams and Arlie Carter. Raw and spontaneous – it was recorded in Haggard’s living room on non-digital period equipment – it continues the “Roots” tradition of low-tech production, high-quality talent.