Entertainment

Capital ideas from DC rapper

Pop singer Kelly Clarkson goes country with satisfying, down-home results on her latest single, “Tie It Up.” (Rick Diamond/Getty Images)

Despite its wide range, the third album from DC hip-hop artist Wale is too by-the-numbers. (
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Albums of the Week

WALE

“The Gifted”

★★

ON his third album, DC rapper Wale is in an expansive mood, from the arrangements, which include orchestral soul on “Heaven’s Afternoon,” to the lyrics, which throw plenty of curveballs. On one song, “Golden Salvation (Jesus Piece),” he gives author Haruki Murakami a shoutout. And on “Black Heroes/Outro About Nothing” he declares “Ain’t been a black hero since Robert Townsend.” Despite these offbeat touches, Wale’s flow is too workmanlike to get all that worked up over. Nevertheless, he’s hard to hate — especially when he brings on Jerry Seinfeld for a skit. (Wale first gained attention for a mixtape based on “Seinfeld.”)

MAVIS STAPLES

“One True Vine”

★★ 1/2

mAVIS Staples has followed her Grammy-winning, Jeff Tweedy-produced “You Are Not Alone” by bringing Tweedy back. The latest edition of the gospel/R&B giant’s recent run in the veterans-going-back-to-basics style of Johnny Cash, et al., features well-chosen songs, from the sly “I Like the Things About Me” (“That I once despised”) to Funkadelic’s classic “Can You Get to That?” Staples knocks them both out of the park. At 73, her voice has weathered naturally with age. It’s still commanding, and the arrangements have a nice, loose swing, especially on the 1930s gem “Woke Up This Morning With My Mind on Jesus.” Still, as usual with albums of this type, it sometimes seems overly polite.

Downloads of the Week

M.I.A.

“Bring the Noize”

★★★ 1/2

ALL the bad p.r. surrounding her last album must have rejuvenated M.I.A. This cut from the upcoming “Matangi” is fearless and assured. She’s still answering her critics — the downfall of 2010’s “Maya” — but this time she sounds like she’s having fun, even as the beat keeps shifting beneath her.

KELLY CLARKSON

“Tie It Up”

★★★ 1/2

BETWEEN this banjo-picking chugger and the adorably Dolly-esque ballad “Don’t Rush” (with Vince Gill) off last year’s best-of, Kelly Clarkson is going country hard. Good. “Tie It Up” is like a raucous, fun-loving cousin to the Band Perry’s “Better Dig Two” — we’re getting married or else.

SCHOOLBOY Q Feat. KENDRICK LAMAR

“Collard Greens”

★★★ 1/2

LA rapper Schoolboy Q and his Black Hippy group-mate Kendrick Lamar get loose over a beat that’s dark and minimal but also warm and luxurious — the blips are enticing rather than alien, and the percussion percolates. Lamar also claims he’s a god more convincingly than Kanye. Not difficult, but still.

Escort

“Barbarians”

★★★

New York City’s premier disco band includes 17 musicians, though bassist Dan Balis and keyboardist Eugene Cho are the masterminds and Adeline Michele the singer. They follow 2011’s superb debut album with this cool, rockish mid-tempo single whose groove calls to mind mid-’80s Talking Heads being fronted by a soulful woman.

Edward Sharpe and the Magnetic Zeros

“This Life”

★ 1/2

FROM the LA folk rock band’s self-titled third album, frontman Alex Ebert sings like a Woodstock-era white soul man. Specifically, Joe Cocker, going from a self-involved whisper to a bombastic howl, with organ to match. Whatever he’s doing, it’s difficult not to want to tell him to stop trying so damn hard.

John Mayer

“Paper Doll”

★ 1/2

HOW typical: John Mayer has written a lovely guitar line and then put a bunch of patronizing crap on top of it: “You’re like 22 girls in one/And none of them know what they’re running from.” Good thing he’s singing to paper dolls and not people, huh?