MUSIC REVIEW OF THE DAY: DUM DUM GIRLS - TOO TRUE

On an album that begins "We touched beneath our skin, right down to the bare wires," and is filled with lots of mechanized and angular, machine-made music, there's a surprising warmth to Too True.  That's mostly due to singer/writer/sole member Dee Dee's passionate readings of her dark lyrics.  The more danceable tunes see her recall sweet Debby Harry;  the darker ballads have the beauty of Johnette Napolitano's L.A.-noire of Concrete Blonde.

Along with producers Richard Gottehrer and Sune Rose Wagner (Wagner plays much of the music), Dee Dee has a blend of New Wave, synth-dance, shoegaze and decadence.  Evil Blooms is a bouncy 80's track, programmed drums up front, but some serious guitar behind, ending in a My Bloody Valentine bit of squeal.  Rimbaud Eyes is a sweet croon, with a dark threat lurking behind.  She's going to make us move, even when the subject matter is pretty bleak, or at least searching.  Lost Boys And Girls Club has "the void in my head, the hole in my heart, I fill them with things which all fall apart."  And in Trouble Is My Name, it's "I had a vision, I wanted to be dead."  I hope all this ultimately pleasing music helps keep the visions at bay.

MUSIC REVIEW OF THE DAY: ROSANNE CASH - THE RIVER AND THE THREAD

A concept album of sorts, but not a heavy-handed one.  Cash has a live-long, on-again, off-again connection to the South.  She was born there, after all, but moved to L.A. when her father got successful.  Then it was back and forth for summers and such, and periods of living there when her own career got going.  But it's always been a rocky relationship, loving but then leaving.

She's been in New York for a couple of decades now, but a series of trips to the South reignited her passion for the region, and a set of stories and coincidences emerged.  While there's no direct line from start to finish, the songs are all about her relationship to the region, from people she knows to family history.  Mostly, they are a batch of lovely songs.  Etta's Tune alone is a heart-warmer, two of her oldest friends, Marshall Grant. bassist of her dad's Tennessee Two, and his wife Etta, and their 65-year love.  Opening line "What's the temperature darling?" was what they would say to each other each morning after waking.  The Sunken Lands is about the area the poverty-stricken Cash family was given in the 30's to scrape together a living.  When The Master Calls is a Civil War ballad, inspired by a genealogy search that showed the Cash family had relatives who fought on both the Union and Rebel sides.  Each number has rich subject matter, each interesting on its own, no need to force a story line out of the whole piece.

What really makes it work though is the rich sound of the piece.  Produced and co-written with her husband, John Leventhal, there's a rich and warm feel to each song.  While ballads dominate, they also have a groove to them, acoustic soul music. Check out the strings and guitar solo in the bonus cut Your Southern Heart, an update of Dusty in Memphis.  And of course, Cash's voice is simply superb, this album the sonic equal to her last, hugely-loved The List.  I'd go for the deluxe version, with a hard-bound cover, a book with explaining notes, and three extra tracks, because this feels like a deluxe album, and that's how you should own it.

MUSIC REVIEW OF THE DAY: MUSIC FROM THE MOTION PICTURE THE WOLF OF WALL STREET

The key to a good movie soundtrack is how the music makes you feel while you see the action.  The key to a good soundtrack album, well that's completely different.  Some cuts fit the footage and plot just right, but don't really come off well in a compilation of tracks.  Listening is a lot different.  I'm not suggesting that filmmakers should keep this as a priority when choosing their music, it's just that sometimes both seem to work together better than others.  Most soundtracks I get have at least a couple of cuts that I could do without.

This one works as a great listen.  No surprise, since it's Martin Scorsese, who knows how to find great and obscure music, as well as classic cuts and surprising choices.  Also on board is Robbie Robertson as Executive Music Producer, a vet of most of Marty's films since they met at The Last Waltz.

I haven't seen the Leonardo DiCaprio vehicle yet, so I can't comment on the song usage, but the tunes go from cool jazz to classic Chicago blues, Bo Diddley to Billy Joel.  And good Billy Joel, Movin' Out.  There's not much I'd call pop or modern rock, aside from the always fun Never Say Never by Romeo Void, and The Lemonheads' scorching take on Mrs. Robinson.  There's some primal blues, nothing rare in Elmore James' Dust My Broom or Howlin' Wolf's Smokestack Lightning, but those are two cuts that are impossible to tire of, of top pedigree.

On the surprise side, the closer is an instrumental by Allan Toussaint, Cast Your Fate To The Wind, truly inspirational.  Equally nice is the Ahmed Jamal Trio's version of the chestnut Moonlight In Vermont.  Sharon Jones & the Dap-Kings are tapped for their cover of Goldfinger, perhaps not as exciting as you'd hope, as Jones sings it more subtly than the great Shirley Bassey version, and I guess it's a song that really needs to be over-the-top.  But that's a minor complaint in this all-round excellent collection, which is like listening to a smart and hip late-night DJ.

MUSIC REVIEW OF THE DAY: SHARON JONES & THE DAP-KINGS - GIVE THE PEOPLE WHAT THEY WANT

This album was due last year, but was put on hold while Jones battled cancer.  Now, wonderfully, she has a clean bill of health, back in business, and business is good.  One of the premiere soul  acts of our time, Jones and Co. continue to mine the classic 60's sounds, with just enough modern touches to belong in this time as well.  Opener Retreat! has a great girl-group sound, The Supremes as if produced by Phil Spector.  But the Daptone Records pay-off is in the glorious arrangement with brilliant horns and bells, awash in big echo.  Things get funkier on Stranger To My Happiness, a soulful strut, Jones telling it like it is, this time with everyone playing and singing sharp, sassy lines.

It's hard to overstate how integral the horns are to these songs, certainly one of the joys of the Dap-Kings records, but all the parts contribute to the joy for soul fans.  The background vocals hit perfectly, answering Jones' lead lines like horn stabs of their own, in the Curtis Mayfield-styled We Get Along.  Lead guitar licks are short and sweet fills, finding the right spots in between horns and vocals.  Pushing it all is the wonderful Daptone rhythm section, sleek and tight, as well-oiled as the fabled Funk Brothers, from bass to bongos.  And before anyone says retro, no 60's act had the great separation and depth of listening field found here, modern production just giving us more opportunity to hear the instruments in their full clarity.  Glad to have you back, Ms. Jones, and so quickly.

MUSIC REVIEW OF THE DAY: THE AUTUMN DEFENSE - FIFTH

Hey, when did Badfinger get back together?  Since that's an impossibility, somebody else must be behind this smooth, intricate pop.  Turns out that when John Stirratt and Pat Sansone aren't on the road or recording with their main band Wilco, they have this going on as a side project. Seems I've been missing out, too.  This is album number five, over a decade of tours and sessions stuck in between the rather frantic pace of Wilco's schedule.

There are of course lots of other similar side projects, but few are as completely polished as this is.  Usually they are just vehicles for music vets to let off a little steam, but great work and attention to detail has gone into this album.  While I hear Badfinger, it's really a love letter to late 60's-early 70's pop of many influences, especially acoustic rock with thick harmonies and glossy arrangements.  There are several tracks with minor key mellow verses that then blossom into heavenly choruses.  The group also strays near the power pop line on the most uptempo tunes, including None Of This Will Matter.

The group's playing some live dates for this new album, and hopefully will become less of a secret and gain more of a cult following at least.  Those who have discovered them know a good thing; their out-of-print, decade-old debut is selling for big bucks online, $78 and such.  In other words, we got us a cool band here.

MUSIC REVIEW OF THE DAY: OTIS REDDING - THE KING OF SOUL, ARETHA FRANKLIN - THE QUEEN OF SOUL

A pair of four-disc boxes to celebrate the Queen and King, during their golden years, on Atlantic and Stax, respectively.  There are bigger and more sumptuous boxes out there, with booklets and better packaging, but the point here is to get all the great music, at a more affordable price.  In this case, it's around forty bucks each, pretty good for five hours of legendary stuff.  Virtually all of Redding's recorded output is here, given his early passing, and really Aretha hasn't done much since leaving Atlantic in 1976, sadly.  No dispute on her title as Queen of Soul of course, nobody touches her for that, and all the proof is here.  With Otis, there are more contenders, and it would be hard to argue against Ray Charles, Sam Cooke, or James Brown, but I notice the Redding Family Trust has wisely incorporated the name The King Of Soul, so Otis wins in the courts anyway.

Redding's remarkable story and voice was cut short after a blazing mid-60's run, but he left a hundred or so tracks, thanks to the prolific recording standards of the day.  In addition to 45 and album sides, the compilers do a nice thing here, bundling up several cuts from his fiery live albums, Live In Europe and In Person At The Whisky-a-Go-Go.  These perfectly show what an explosive vocalist he was.  He blasts onto the stage in Europe with his Respect, simply one verse and chorus repeated several times, before knocking them back again with Can't Turn You Loose.  Then he actually builds the tension up more, with a ballad, with his amazing vocal on I've Been Loving You To Long (To Stop Now), shaking the rafters as he reaches for the high note, singing "..I try.....".  Behind him, the brilliant Booker T and the MG's match his energy, wisely hitting the road for the most important dates.  So, two good chunks of live music, plus all his solid hits, including six numbers from his album with Carla Thomas, King & Queen.

The trouble with his claim to the throne is also here, as we go deeper into this album cuts.  It was common for most artists, especially in soul, to do their own versions of current hits of the day by their rivals, so we get Otis doing Smokey (My Girl), some Brown and Charles, and a bunch of Cooke.  With the covers, sometimes he could make them his own, but other times, he simply relied on singing in his really big over-the-top voice to make his mark.  Some are brilliant adaptations, like his stomping take on Satisfaction, but when he tries Day Tripper by The Beatles, well it's a more subtle song than he delivers.  With only a few albums to choose from, the four-disc set does get some filler.  Sadly, Redding was starting to move away from simply astounding belting when he died.  As Dock Of The Bay, and some of the album cuts show, he and Steve Cropper were looking for a new, storytelling side to add.  Still, we're talking about five years here, a remarkable achievement.

Franklin is ... hell, Franklin is the greatest.  I'll just mention some examples.  Hear how she takes Redding's own Respect, which is a pretty great song, and completely turns it inside-out, in every way.  First, it's a bullshit lyric from him, a stereotypical macho blast about wanting "respect" (wink wink) when he gets home, after all, he's giving his woman all his money.  Aretha rewrites the tune, demanding she get respect, her propers, when she gets home, in one of the most uplifting song for women ever performed, whether you call it feminism or not.  She makes the song better too, coming up with the whole R-E-S-P-E-C-T part, plus the brand new arrangement.  Check out her sisters Carolyn and Erma doing the "Re-ah-re-ah-re-ah-re-ah-spect" line.  Further, I think she had the best backing vocal parts of all time.  Another great example is her version of (You Make Me Feel Like) A Natural Woman, already with a brilliant string and horn arrangement, made twice the song with the call-and-response ("What you done to me") between Aretha and the others.  Funky?  My my, check out Chain Of Fools.  And you can't accuse her of going over the top like Otis;  when she did unleash all the power she had, which was actually rare, it is totally appropriate, like an opera singer would.

As with the Redding box, we get a nice live interlude, including the famous version of Spirit In The Dark from Live At Fillmore West, when Ray Charles comes out of the audience at Aretha's bidding ("I just discovered Ray Charles" is a great joke).  Whether it was set up or not, it's a historic performance by the two.  And kudos to the compilers for including three live cuts from her Amazing Grace gospel album, something often overlooked in her career in hits packages.  Never forget she got all her training, voice, piano and arranging, in the church.  Her performance on these spirituals is just as inspired as anything else here.

I know, I sound like I'm directing more love Aretha's way, but really I'm a big Redding fan too, you have to have large collections of both artists.  These will do nicely.

MUSIC REVIEW: LUCINDA WILLIAMS

This is a deluxe reissue of Williams' 1988 album, her breakout release after some smaller label efforts that built her reputation.  The real success came not from her own tracks, but from the hit cover of her Passionate Kisses, by Mary Chapin Carpenter.  Form then on, Williams' skill as a songwriter was never in doubt.  Plus, this is a grand album, one of her two best, along with Car Wheels On A Gravel Road.

Those familiar with Williams in the 90's and beyond will find her a younger, gentler singer, her voice not so raspy, her edge not yet developed.  But she was still a solid writer, her material perhaps a little more easily digested.  The songs were easy to take in, the love songs intense, the heartache fresh and young, not damaged as she'd be able to transmit later.  Her characters are hurt but hopeful, like the small-town waitress who gets out of town for a wider world in The Night's Too Young.  I Just Want To See You So Bad is plenty powerful, about a woman who would drive all night to meet her lover.  What really makes this such a winning collection is the tight, upbeat arrangements, with lots of hooks, easily her most accessible work.  If she had stayed the course, more commercial hits might have followed.

This is the second time the disc has been reissued with bonus tracks, the first as a single disc with six extra cuts from radio sessions.  Now, it's a double-disc, complete with a full live concert, and a darn good one.  The same band on the album proves a rockier bunch live, and just as tight.  Nicely, the set includes the same old bonus tracks from the other version, so we don't lose anything.  It's one of those discs you'll go back to all the time