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Babyshambles Down in Albion (Rough Trade)
Singer/guitarist Pete Doherty's first album with his band Babyshambles is a beguiling, infuriating mess -- so close to triumph in places that I want to break it in half when it keeps falling lazily short. Rock & roll history is full of hard-drug abusers who made vital, roaring records between needles and spoons: Keith Richards, Kurt Cobain, Johnny Thunders. Doherty, formerly of the Libertines and currently the British tabloids' favorite celebrity junkie, is not yet one of them. At times, Down in Albion is barely coherent. Guitars jangle and collide with small regard for correct pitch or rhythmic punch. And Doherty doesn't sing; he brays, straining for notes and pathos in "What Katy Did Next," crashing into the chorus of "Pipedown" like a drunk through a saloon door. Then there are moments when Doherty drops the wasted preening and whips the chaos into a thrilling precipice dance: the chugging chord progression and full-moon howling in "Fuck Forever," the soiled-glam slam of "8 Dead Boys." As a lyricist, Doherty has a sharp eye for others' desperation (when he can be bothered to stop obsessing on his own). "Albion" is his stark retort to Ray Davies' mythic England, a song for the dead-end kids who come out each night after the Waterloo sunsets. And there is no denying the battered beauty of the opening hook in "Up the Morning," an exhausted, addicting chorus that sounds like both Richard Hell and the solo George Harrison. At those times, Down in Albion (gamely produced by ex-Clash guitarist Mick Jones) is the sound of a soul and talent worth our caring and patience. If only he felt the same way. (DAVID FRICKE)
Sia Colour the Small One (Astralwerks)
Two years after its overseas release, Sia's second album and solo American debut finally hit U.S. stores on the strength of demand for "Breathe Me," the delicate and haunting track that accompanied Six Feet Under's climactic final scene. Born Sia Kate Isobelle Furler, this Australia-raised, England-based singer previously sang and co-wrote songs for chill-out duo Zero 7, and Colour the Small One brings similarly lazy tempos, hazy vocals, shuffling beats and soft atmospherics. It's an exhausted formula, and although "Breathe Me" manages to transcend it on the strength of the tune and its beloved associations, there's nothing else here that demands or deserves that kind of attention. Sia's murmured croon, imprecise diction and tendency to overdub herself into marshmallow-mouthed mush reduces her presence to an indistinct blur. She sounded more like a star when she cameoed in Zero 7 than she does on most of her own album. (BARRY WALTERS)
We Are Scientists With Love and Squalor (Virgin)
The full-length debut from this Brooklyn trio suggests a cross between Bloc Party and the band's tourmates Hot Hot Heat. Singer-guitarist Keith Murray switches between a lovelorn Brit swoon and twitchy neurotic vocals over ice-pick guitars and melodies that have a full-bodied, emo-ish rush on the choruses. The opener, "Nobody Move, Nobody Get Hurt," defines the group's Brit-centric spikiness -- with Murray intoning, "If you wanna use my body/Go for it, yeah" with only a hint of lust -- while the jagged rave-up "The Great Escape" shows that when their artful sonics meet focused songwriting, Scientists make dance-punk alchemy. (CHRISTIAN HOARD)
Dion Bronx in Blue (DMR)
As doo-wop giant Dion points out in the liner notes to Bronx in Blue, there was no rock & roll back when he was growing up in New York, and so it was the Southern sounds of the blues and country coming over the radio that set him off on his brilliant musical career. On Bronx, the former Belmonts frontman delivers deeply felt, stripped-down takes on some of his favorite songs from the likes of Robert Johnson ("Walkin' Blues," "Travelin' Riverside Blues" and "Crossroads"), Jimmy Reed ("Baby, What You Want Me to Do") and Howlin' Wolf ("How Many More Years"). Accompanied only by his acoustic guitar and a little percussion, Dion delivers stunning versions of Hank Williams' "Honky Tonk Blues" and Jimmie Rodgers' "You're the One." At age sixty-nine, Dion has made a moving, graceful piece of work and proved that the Bronx actually is part of the country. (DAVID WILD)
Morningwood Morningwood (Capitol)
New York foursome Morningwood's dirty name perfectly suits the glammed-out, Times Square-in-the-Seventies vibe of its debut. Twenty-three-year-old singer Chantal Claret's voice overflows with personality, veering from bubblegum cuteness (on the single "Nth Degree") to full-on raunch ("Jetsetter"), as former members of the Wallflowers, Spacehog and Cibo Matto generate a catchier-than-chlamydia mix of power-pop hooks and effects-heavy riffage. Produced by Gil Norton, who worked on the Pixies' Doolittle, the disc has that band's fingerprints all over it (especially Pedro Yanowitz's melodic, up-in-the-mix bass), with the live favorite "Take Off Your Clothes" coming off like a sex-crazed "Where Is My Mind?" By the end of the album, all the candy-coated excess might leave you feeling a little like Courtney Love after a heavy night. But at least you'll know you had some fun. (JONATHAN RINGEN)
The Move Message From the Country (Harvest/EMI)
Singer-guitarists Roy Wood and Jeff Lynne and drummer Bev Bevan -- the final lineup of this bold, pop-smart British band -- recorded this 1971 swan song at the same time as they cut their debut album as the Electric Light Orchestra. Message From the Country is the better LP and the closest Wood or Lynne came, together or in their separate careers, to creating big rock with classical weight: a Sgt. Pepper that truly rocked. Wood was his own Lennon-McCartney (he wrote all of the Move's Sixties U.K. hits) and played an orchestra's worth of strings and horns. Lynne joined in 1970, bringing his own Beatlesque gifts. His songs "No Time" and "The Words of Aaron" are heaving anguish, coated in silver sheets of vocal harmony and Wood's eccentric wall-of-reeds, while Wood's "Until Your Moma's Gone" is enriched greaser fun, his runting saxes pushing hard alongside the gorilla-heartbeat bass and drums. This reissue also features the Move's last pre-ELO singles, including "California Man" and "Down on the Bay," both later covered, to the letter, by ardent U.S. fans Cheap Trick. (DAVID FRICKE)