ZZ Top (from left: Dusty Hill, Billy Gibbons and Frank Beard) turns in stomping Texas rock on “I Gotsta Get Paid” from their album “La Futura.” (Getty)
The title track of “Tempest,” Bob Dylan’s latest album out today, is too long at 14 minutes, but the album has some bluesy highlights in “Soon After Midnight” and an excellent revenge song, “Pay in Blood.” (AFP/Getty Images)
The title track of “Tempest,” Bob Dylan’s latest album out today, is too long at 14 minutes, but the album has some bluesy highlights in “Soon After Midnight” and an excellent revenge song, “Pay in Blood.” (Le Saux Lionel/SIPA)
Albums of the Week
Bob Dylan
“Tempest”
★★ 1/2
WITH two epics topping the nine-minute mark, Dylan’s new outing features his most ambitious songwriting since 1997’s “Time Out of Mind” revived him artistically. But while “Tempest” is frequently pleasurable, it’s musically modest — his longtime road band’s light touch can feel slight, and the title song, which is about the Titanic, feels every bit of its 14 minutes. (Too bad: Dylan often does well with epic length.) Still, there’s plenty of good material, from the lovely, quiet blues “Soon After Midnight” to the piss-and-vinegar cragginess of the revenge melodrama “Pay in Blood.”
Dave Matthews Band
“Away From the World”
★★
DAVE Matthews’ voice, a strange concoction of high and throaty that sounds like a soul Muppet, is definitely an acquired taste, and so are his dippy lyrics. “War is the most vulgar madness,” he laments on “Broken Things,” the opening cut from the eighth album with his self-named band; “Crime won’t save or feed a hungry child,” he finger-wags on “Mercy.” The arrangements are admirably varied, as when “Belly Belly Nice” skirts New Orleans-style funk, but too often the songs are well meaning but ineffectual. They’re perfect for dorm dwellers still figuring things out; the rest of us can live without them.
Downloads of the Week
Atoms for Peace
“Default”
★★
ATOMS for Peace are Thom Yorke’s new group, featuring Radiohead producer Nigel Godrich and Red Hot Chili Peppers bassist Flea. With its beatbox rhythms and eerie synth atmosphere, this stand-alone single (an album is set for 2013) sounds like it could be from any 2000s Radiohead album — only less focused.
Avett Brothers
“Live and Die”
★★ 1/2
THIS North Carolina bluegrass-pop sibling act is like Mumford & Sons with actual mountain credibility, and for their seventh album, “The Carpenter,” they’re again working with uber-producer Rick Rubin, who helmed their 2009 breakthrough record, “I and Love and You.” This jaunty performance sounds bright and ingratiating, but the song is merely likable fluff.
David Byrne & St. Vincent
“Who”
★★
DAVID Byrne’s music has largely been negligible for years now, and it remains so on this collaboration with singer-songwriter St. Vincent (a k a Annie Clark), from their album “Love This Giant.” His galumphing rhythm and pushy vocal melody (she sings a calmer bridge) seem like interesting-on-paper ideas that don’t translate in execution.
David Guetta feat. Ne-Yo & Akon
“Play Hard”
★
IT’S hard not to feel sorry for Ne-Yo — one of R&B’s sharpest singer-songwriters, singing vapid electronic dance choruses to reach the kids. When he yelps “Keep partying like it’s your job” over Black Eyed Peas producer Guetta’s irritating blips and Akon’s overworked Auto-Tune, you want him to brush off his résumé.
ZZ Top
“I Gotsta Get Paid”
★★★
ZZ Top’s last album came out in 2003, but the nearly decade-long absence hasn’t made their Texas boogie any less gritty or swampy. This blues-throwback lead track off “La Futura” stomps hard, thanks to Frank Beard’s laid-back, tricky drumming.
The Chris Robinson Brotherhood
“Let’s Go Let’s Go Let’s Go”
★ 1/2
THE ex-Black Crowes frontman has been making by-the-numbers boogie rock for his entire career. This opening track from the jam-heavy “The Magic Door” (his second album this year) is no exception. It’s a celebratory ditty that’s still rote thanks to Robinson’s undistinguished yelp and nothing lyrics.
Tiesto & Steve Aoki
“Tornado”
★★ 1/2
BY themselves, Dutch trance DJ Tiësto (who opened the 2004 Olympics) and LA electro-house fixture Aoki (who packed his tent at Electric Zoo) create utter cheese. But some cheese is better than others, and the soft-focus Daft Punk synth surge of this collaborative single is shameless without being (too) stupid.
The xx
“Angels”
★★ 1/2
QUIET, haunted and cinematically sparse, London duo the xx are as subtle as hipster rock gets. This opener from their second album, “Coexist,” is so wispy that it’s barely there — but the skeletal rumbling cloaks a straightforward ballad with silences that say as much as the chilly guitar.