An established superstar in her native Mexico, Thalia -- a singer and soap-opera actress who also happens to be the new wife of Tommy Mottola, the ex-husband of Mariah Carey -- is now setting her sights on gringo America with an album mostly in English. Unfortunately, Thalia's efforts to break the language barrier, make her meek and mute her charms; the four Spanish songs sound more dramatic and nuanced than the English tracks. "Don't Look Back" is a bouncy Kylie Minogue knockoff, but feisty Thalia deserves a better musical translation than this. (BARRY WALTERS)

David Lee Roth Diamond Dave (Magna Carta)

After leaving Van Halen in the mid-Eighties, David Lee Roth scored a smidgen of pop success with tunes that bordered on Vegas-style schlock. On his seventh solo album, he sticks to a more palatable brand of sleaze blues, with a competent bar band backing up his feisty come-ons. Roth sounds plenty energetic, but the whole package is forgettable -- the only time he works up any sense of urgency is on the unfortunately titled "Thug Pop." Turns out he's not such a gigolo after all -- just kind of a bore. (CHRISTIAN HOARD)

Fannypack So Stylistic (TommyBoy)

The funny girls of Fannypack -- Jessibel, Cat and Belinda -- may already be known to some of you as the trio that chirps, "Fix yourself, girl!/You got a camel toe!" They aren't so much a hip-hop group as the Bow Wow Wow of bass music. On So Stylistic, Fannypack deliver spit wads of speaker-wrecking low-end, tweaked vocoder vocals, cheesy early-Eighties synth riffs -- and that's just the title track. The group uses every ridiculous rhythm effect and old-school trapping in the book, then it takes the "moon-June-spoon" school of rhyming to a distant galaxy. Check the fat-ass rave house joint "System Boomin'," wherein homegirl Belinda squawks, "Sometimes it's an illusion/Music is a drug, and we're abusin'!" FannyPack intersperse their tunes with sound bites of one another -- one hilariously human bit is a recording of Jessibel on the phone negotiating with her moms. (It's . . . so . . . cute!) Stylistic may be an After School Special version of Miami bass, but the joke is on the genre: Fannypack deflate all the blowup-doll fantasies in booty music and replace them with real live girls. As Beyonce would say, "Can you handle this?" (PAT BLASHILL)

Eastmountainsouth Eastmountainsouth (Dreamworks)

You can't believe everything you read. And if you've read the hype that Eastmountainsouth play rootsy, "raw-veined Americana," you'll find the duo's debut a letdown. There's not a whole lot of rawness here, rather overcooked, slick production. What Kat Masclich and Peter Adams do offer is something less gritty, more pretty. Their stunning vocal unity -- rivaling that of the Indigo Girls -- coasts gracefully over intelligent, sparkling songs that draw from historical events ("Show Me the River"), literature ("Still Running") and personal experiences. But the individuality of both songwriters drowns under waves of flawless, and characterless, studio swells and intricate ethereal arrangements, recalling more Enya than the Carter Family. EMS trade the intimate earthiness of high-lonesome for the anonymity of pop, leaving one wondering what these two obvious talents would sound like in a more pristine state. Hopefully next time they'll keep it a little dirty and give us roots that are deep, but not quite so buried. (ROBIN AIGNER)

Big Bad Voodoo Daddy Save My Soul (Big Bad/Vanguard)

The late-Nineties neo-swing movement failed, in part, because communicating octogenarian ballroom dancers' beloved music to punk-loving teenagers is a difficult trick. But a perhaps more fundamental reason involves singers -- classic big-band swing had Frank Sinatra, Billie Holiday and Louis Armstrong, while the recent stuff stars Brian Setzer and Big Bad Voodoo Daddy's one-dimensional Scotty Morris. Save My Soul, the Los Angeles combo's second CD since 1998's breakthrough Big Bad Voodoo Daddy, is a perfectly adequate, occasionally inspired reconstruction of old-school boogie-woogie and jump blues. Twelve years of horn charts have given this Daddy an upbeat tightness that redeems the Dixieland-reviving "Zig Zaggity Woop Woop Pt. 1," the New Orleans march "You Know You're Wrong" and the slinky story-song "Oh Yeah." But ultimately Morris' flat singing can't keep up with the horns, and BBVD winds up swamped in the same sludge that stalled Setzer, Squirrel Nut Zippers and Cherry Poppin' Daddies. (STEVE KNOPPER)

The Fugs The Fugs Final CD (Part 1) (Artemis)

Counter-culture pillars the Fugs return, yet again, with a customarily piebald album of ribald humor, whimsical existentialism and poison-arrow political satire. Founders Ed Sanders and Tuli Kupferberg and Co. hit the tarmac running with eighteen new cuts that, unfortunately, are about as radio-friendly as dead air. Rock, folk, country, doo-wop -- all genres are in play as the guys starch everybody from Jesus Christ to Dick Cheney ("The VP had a heart attack/Oily blood, you know.") But the total walloper is the riotous "Is," in which history's greatest philosophers are laid to waste courtesy of sage Clinton's quote-for-the-ages: "It depends upon what the meaning of the word 'is' is." We've also got septuagenarians who can't get it up, gonzo working-class ditties and famous martyrs to spare. This ain't everybody's poison but it'll catch most ears and stay playable far longer than a Weird Al disc. (ADRIAN ZUPP)

Ambulance Ltd. Ambulance Ltd. (TVT)

"Summery" is the best word to describe the self-titled EP by New York-based quintet, Ambulance Ltd. Falling somewhere between the solid, indie rock sensibilities of Pavement, the classic-yet-progressive compositions of Big Star and the reverb-heavy, hollow atmospherics of My Bloody Valentine, Ambulance Ltd. hit the right balance. They pay deference to the best of Sixties-era sounds with overflowing light-hearted harmonies and a powerful grasp on melody. The quietly happy and unfettered instrumentation of "Young Urban" teems with feel-good familiarity, while the upbeat, rolling rhythms of "Stay Where You Are" are the musical accompaniment to a top-down drive up the coast. The only drawback of Ambulance Ltd. is its brevity, forcing you to hit repeat to prolong the sunshine. (LILY MOAYERI)

(July 7, 2003)