Albums of the Week
José James
“No Beginning No End”
★★
THE New York R&B-jazz singer-songwriter’s fourth album (and first for Blue Note) may be a little too aptly titled — it’s a slow burner, but it’s so deliberately laid out that it never actually seems to catch fire. James has a handsome, husky voice whose phrasing is more early Lou Rawls than D’Angelo or Marvin Gaye — he’s a jazzman before he’s a soul man, so if you prefer the latter to the former, consider yourself warned. But if you really need a follow-up to “Voodoo,” which despite recent appearances D’Angelo doesn’t seem to be in a hurry to provide, this is worth investigating.
Bad Religion
“True North”
★ 1/2
IF you want utterly basic, meat-and-potatoes-with-minimal-garnish punk rock, look no further than the 16th album by Los Angeles longtimers Bad Religion. Greg Graffin has never had much of a voice, and advancing age isn’t helping any, and it’s noticeable even when the band revs the tempo, as on the minute-long hardcore stomp “Vanity” or “Land of Endless Greed.” Better those than the bathetic slow tempo of “Hello Cruel World,” an early candidate for 2013’s worst song: “Hello cruel world/Don’t you know that you’re killing me?/And I don’t mind/But I could use a little sympathy.” Not after this.
Downloads of the Week
A$AP Ferg
“Work”
★★
WITH a No. 1 debut, A$AP Rocky HA$ now watched two related ACT$ — the group A$AP Mob and $OLO rapper A$AP Ferg — attract major-label bidding WAR$. The latter’s freestanding leak “Work” ADD$ little charm or presence to the BA$IC formula — $LOW-rolling BEAT$ and smug BOA$T$ (“I’ll be out tomorrow/My lawyer’s Jewish”).
Aaron Neville
“Ting a Ling”
★ 1/2
AN apparently ageless New Orleans falsetto king, Aaron Neville’s twinkling voice is seldom charmless. On this forgettable stroll though a Clovers number from the new covers album “My True Story,” he comes close. It’s a deliberately relaxed rhythm that drags the beat, but there’s no color to the arrangement or performance.
Toro y Moi
“Say That”
★★
SOUTH Carolina singer-songwriter-producer Chaz Bundick rarely raises his voice above a pinched murmur, but his third album of lo-fi synth-pop, “Anything in Return,” is his most tuneful. The memorable part of “Say That” isn’t Bundick’s bleh vocals, but a nagging, repetitive background vocal sample of a woman singing random syllables.
Darius Rucker
“Wagon Wheel”
★ 1/2
THE Hootie & the Blowfish frontman-turned-country star’s new single — from his forthcoming album, “True Believers,” his third since going full-on Nashville — is breezy enough to pass by barely unnoticed. It’s about embracing the South (“Running from the cold up in New England/I was born to be a fiddler in an old-time string band”), but it doesn’t grip
FaltyDL Feat. Ed Macfarlane
“She Sleeps”
★★★
“HARDCOURAGE,” the third album by Brooklyn dance producer Drew Lustman — a k a FaltyDL — is often frosty and frequently gorgeous, and this number, featuring the singer from England’s Friendly Fires, represents it nicely. Macfarlane’s haunted Brit-soul falsetto complements the layered synths and shuffling rhythm — like a more indie take on Usher’s “Climax.”
The Night Marchers
“All Hits”
★★½
SAN DIEGO garage-rocker John Reis plays raw enough to make Jack White sound like he’s going dubstep. “All Hits,” from his band’s second album, “Allez Allez,” is a manifesto masquerading as a boast: “Every hair that I split, every song that I s - - t: It’s all hits!” He’s kidding, but not really.