Entertainment

It’s been awhile for Lyle

In his final album for Curb Records, Lyle Lovett sings covers, blues, funk, country swing and even Christmas tunes. (Michael Wilson)

Rap duo Chiddy Bang (Chidera Anamege, left, and Noah Beresin) may have the song of the summer in “Ray Charles.”

Rap duo Chiddy Bang (Chidera Anamege, left, and Noah Beresin) may have the song of the summer in “Ray Charles.” (Jonathan Leibson)

Album of the Week

LYLE LOVETT

“Release Me”

★★★

AFTER nearly 25 years at Curb Records, Lyle Lovett’s last album for his longtime label is a kitchen-sink CD featuring a little of everything. With both covers and originals, the music does stylistic flips from the blues and funk to country swing. And if you don’t believe Lovett’s emptied the cupboard for this contract finale, there’s even a couple of Christmas tunes.

The common thread in the disjointed but fun record is Lovett’s clever wordplay in his own songs and the double meanings layered in the songs he chose to cover. One spin of the title track, “Release Me,” says it all. On this piece the tall-haired Texan floats the well-worn lyrics “Please release me, let me go” on fiddles, with a soft, leather-dry West Texas drawl. With k.d. lang’s background harmonies, it’s sweet, but there’s no mistaking that this version is about finding freedom rather than losing love.

Lovett, now a musical free agent, nails the nobody’s-the-boss-of-me attitude with a slow-poke cover of Chuck Berry’s “Brown Eyed Handsome Man.” The tune’s opening line, “Arrested on charges of unemployment, he was sitting on the witness stand” finds Lovett looking ahead at not working for the label.

“The Girl With a Holiday Smile” is a surprise — and not just because it’s a Christmas song on an album released in time for Easter, but because it’s about a working girl. With possible inspiration from his ex-wife Julia Roberts’ hit film “Pretty Woman,” Lovett sings lustily: “I met a hooker at the grocery store/She wasn’t bad lookin’, she was a pretty little whore/Whoa-o-whoa, she’s the girl with the holiday smile.” Seems Santa’s songbook just got a brand-new ho, ho, ho.

Download of the Week

CHIDDY BANG

“Ray Charles”

★★★★

HIP-HOP meets old-school soul on “Ray Charles’’ — a single off today’s release, “Breakfast,” by Chiddy Bang, a Philly alterna-rap duo featuring Chidera Anamege and Noah Beresin. The bouncy song bows to Charles over a simple piano riff and upbeat ’50s-style jazz arrangement. The lyrics are packed with heartfelt admiration for Charles, but there’s also plenty of frat-boy humor centering on his blindness. Toward the close of the song, as the gospel chorus rises, repeating the line “You’re too blind to see it — Ray Charles,” you don’t know whether to join in or slink away. This is a tune to which you stick your tongue in your cheek and enjoy. Is it too early to call it a contender for the song of the summer, 2012?