Kid Rock Live Trucker (Atlantic)
Kid Rock's first live album is a tight, no-frills set that reminds you how much fun Rock was before he started dating Pamela Anderson and tried to sing for real -- and how much fun his shows still can be. Live Trucker is also a de facto greatest-hits set: "Bawitdaba," "Cowboy" and the country coke ballad "Picture" (with Gretchen Wilson filling in for Sheryl Crow) are all here in bright, full-bodied versions, with a minimum of dumb banter and guitar solos. Outfitted with bigger riffs than the studio versions, trailer-hop stuff like "Devil Without a Cause" indicates that Rock is a great showman when his shtick is more Beasties than Ted Nugent. The world doesn't need to hear "Only God Knows Why" again, but between sturdy blue-collar stuff like "Son of Detroit" and muscular grooves from his crack band, Live Trucker maintains an old-school party-rock vibe. (CHRISTIAN HOARD)
Hawthorne Heights If Only You Were Lonely (Victory)
Hawthorne Heights went gold with their 2004 debut, The Silence in Black and White, a catchier-than-average screamo record that helped make these Dayton, Ohio, boys one of the most beloved bands on MySpace. On If Only You Were Lonely, Hawthorne Heights up the drama-punk ante, channeling tricky rhythms, shimmery soft parts and a metal-schooled three-ax attack into songs that are both action-packed and gratuitously stylized. The busy music suits the controlled agonizing of JT Woodruff, who alternates between little-lost-boy murmur and chorus-driving yowl on darkly catchy barnburners like "We Are So Last Year." Woodruff finds a dozen-plus ways to say he's sorry, but If Only You Were Lonely works best when he lets his mates do most of the talking. "Where Can I Stab Myself in the Ears" plows through metal-march power chords, a desperate call-and-response chorus and a tense half-time breakdown before giving way to the piano-splashed mood music of the closing "Decembers." This combination of grand ambitions and gut-level emotional impact should keep Hawthorne Heights' online-friends list healthy for years to come. (CHRISTIAN HOARD)
Ne-Yo In My Own Words (Def Jam)
When Ne-Yo sings, "I'm a man with a very healthy appetite for chicks" on the O'Jays-sampling ballad "Get Down Like That," you'd better believe it. Over thirteen tracks of state-of-the-art bump 'n' grind, the likable twenty-three-year-old -- who has an R. Kelly-ish delivery and a high, urgent tenor a little like Stevie Wonder's -- waxes poetic on love, heartbreak and how he wants to "sex you all over the place." Like Kelly, Ne-Yo (who is also a big-time songwriter, scoring a monster hit last year with Mario's "Let Me Love You") has a knack for sounding totally sincere while singing lines like "Baby, this time, why don't we try it in front of a mirror." But he's not just a player. The sleek hit "So Sick" is about being so devastated by a breakup that he never wants to hear another love song, and "Get Down Like That" is an ode to fidelity. And that's Ne-Yo in a nutshell: a freak in the sheets but a gentleman on the streets. (JONATHAN RINGEN)
Rhett Miller The Believer (Verve Forecast)
Having fronted Dallas' Old 97's as they evolved from steal-your-gal cowpunks to a world-class pop-rock act, Rhett Miller is still an underrated songwriter, partly because he makes his finely wrought romantic tunes seem so easygoing. Miller's second solo album, recorded while the 97's are on hiatus, doesn't unveil any new tricks, but like 2002's The Instigator, it's full of gracefully rocking arrangements and ace tunes.
Miller is a well-read guy who believes in keeping his heart on his sleeve and his songs tidy and focused. Catchy winners like "Brand New Way," the Rachael Yamagata duet "Fireflies" and the power-pop opener, "My Valentine," air their discontent and deep feelings without ever slipping into bathos. On the sorrowful title track, Miller remembers Elliott Smith with a simple, elegant refrain where many Smith memorializers might have plumbed much further into the darkness. These fluid, unfussy songs don't quite stick in your gut the way the 97's' best stuff does, but give Miller a chance and he can charm you something fierce. (CHRISTIAN HOARD)
Alan Jackson Precious Memories (ACR/Arista Nashville)
Nashville megastar Alan Jackson sings in a rich, restrained baritone that helps give even his rowdier songs a touch of classic-country elegance. That voice is at its most sensibly sturdy on Precious Memories, a collection of fifteen gospel hymns Jackson originally recorded as a gift to his mom. These graceful acoustic renderings avoid any hint of CMT flash or CCM ickiness: Take the God out of "In the Garden" or "I Love to Tell the Story" and they could work as spare change-of-pace ballads on another Jackson record, and even with the God left in, the gently rollicking "I'll Fly Away" would have fit nicely on the O Brother, Where Art Thou? soundtrack. Still, most of the material packs as much churchy tedium as simple charm, and Precious Memories is likely of limited interest to anyone who's not a fan of the originals, a Jackson devotee or the singer's mama. (CHRISTIAN HOARD)
Hank Williams III Straight to Hell (BRUC)
On this two-disc set, recorded on the cheap, Hank III's classic honky-tonk moves bump up against his bar-rocking efforts to "put the dick in Dixie and the cunt in country." "Low Down" reminds non-fans he can write a sad song worthy of his granddad, and raucous two-steps like the Kid Rock-dissing "Angel of Sin" give hard-drinking clichZs a punkish boot in the ass. (CHRISTIAN HOARD)
