Sergio Mendes - Encanto

“As on 2006’s “Timeless,” the Brazilian bossa nova master teams with Will.i.am on a collection of summery updates of the classics, as well as some new tracks. Updating such well-known songs as Antonio Carlos Jobim’s “Waters of March” (talk-sung here by Ledisi) is a great proposition for exposing the music to new audiences. Though it’s hard to imagine the updates will endure as long as the originals, guest artists including Natalie Cole gamely tackle the task. Standouts include Juanes’ bright, infectious chorus on “Y Vamos Ya”; tight bossa jam “Odo-Ya” featuring Carlinhos Brown; and Brasil ‘66 alum Lani Hall’s wistful vocal accompanied by Herb Alpert’s trumpet on “Dreamer.” Eminently synchable, it’s the kind of music you could imagine playing at a store or in a commercial.—Ayala Ben-Yehuda
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Cassandra Wilson - Loverly

“While Cassandra Wilson emerged in the early ’90s as the foremost “new standards” pioneer for reimagining contemporary pop music in the jazz vein, her musical pulse was informed by vocal predecessors who swung and scatted within the tradition. After widely divergent collections in recent years, she re-enters the standards zone with “Loverly.” Unlike other vocalists who let the music’s inherent melodic strength carry the show, she transforms the old tunes into her own heartfelt vision, such as when she reinvigorates “Caravan” with a gleefully syncopated groove and gives “Black Orpheus” a luscious new shine. On the latter, guitarist Marvin Sewell contributes an eerily beautiful serpentine guitar glow. Other top-tier support comes from pianist Jason Moran (brilliantly surprising breaks) and master percussionist Lekan Babalola (African rhythm specialties). The sole original and one of the album’s highlights, “Arere,” combusts with rollicking rhythms. —Dan Ouellette”

Janiva Magness - What Love Will Do

“Janiva Magness has been feeling the love recently, thanks to back-to-back best contemporary female artist wins from the Blues Music Awards and a deal with Alligator, yielding this debut. Magness possesses a mighty voice, which she cuts loose with memorable effect on the slow blues “One Heartache Too Late.” That voice works just as well in a funk or soul setting and, indeed, the record opens with the rugged funk tune “That’s What Love Will Make You Do.” She knocks down a bit of green-eyed soul on “Fool Me Again” and endows the lowdown blues “I Don’t Want You on My Mind” with a particularly sultry buzz. —Philip Van Vleck”

Original Broadway Cast Recording - In The Heights

“The last thing Broadway needs is yet another revival of “Gypsy” or “Grease.” So how refreshing that “In the Heights,” nominated for 13 Tony Awards, has potential to make the Great White Way appealing to someone besides tourists. Unlike last hip staging “Rent,” “Heights” isn’t begging sympathy for slacker kids; instead, it is a vibrant cultural snapshot about a close-knit Latino community at the top of Manhattan. The double-CD soundtrack contains 23 songs written by Puerto Rican show lead Lin-Manuel Miranda, who conceived the story as a one-act in 2000 at Wesleyan University. Supporting cast members are first-rate, and while the soundtrack is more memento than stand-alone collection—with highlights “When the Sun Goes Down” and “96,000″—it’s an exemplary, authentic spectacle of salsa, mambo and rap. A superlative way to live it again. —Chuck Taylor”

Richie McDonald - I Turn To You

“As frontman for Lonestar, Richie McDonald’s distinctive voice drove such country and AC hits as “Amazed” and “I’m Already There.” He exited the group last year to pursue a solo career and fulfills a longtime goal with the release of his first inspirational project. Most country artists who’ve tapped the Christian market have recorded familiar hymns and gospel standards, but McDonald delivers a collection of new songs that Christian audiences should eagerly embrace. He wrote nearly every song on this project. “What Would He Do” is a challenge to Christians to put their faith into action, while the title track is a powerful anthem that celebrates the hope and comfort found in a relationship with God. McDonald should be just as successful in the Christian arena as he’s long been in the country field. —Deborah Evans Price”

Various Artists - Camp Rock

“As the “High School Musical” troupe troops to the big screen, Disney brings forth its next potential franchise concept—”Camp Rock,” a summer sojourn to a place where “you can feel the beat running through your feet,” as the cast tells us in the opening number, “We Rock.” This is ostensibly a vehicle for the fast-rising Jonas Brothers, but 15-year-old Miley Cyrus-like newcomer Demi Lovato is in the breakout seat as the aspiring Mitchie Torres, daughter of the camp cook and looking for her break. Neither Joe Jonas nor Lovato dominate the soundtrack, however, though they each have solo showcases as well as a Big Moment duet (”This Is Me”). The Jonas Brothers get to rock out on “Play My Music,” while the rest of the album is a contemporary (if not cutting-edge) pop smorgasbord featuring techy dance tracks, Avril-style chick rock, a touch of hip-hop and “deep” self-affirmations.—Gary Graff”

Wolf Parade - At Mount Zoomer

“Although Wolf Parade’s principal members have kept busy with various side projects (Sunset Rubdown, Handsome Furs, Swan Lake), it’s been a few years since the Montreal band’s last output of new material. But the time between now and its 2005 Sub Pop debut, “Apologies to the Queen Mary,” allowed the group to more fully develop its sound. “At Mount Zoomer” expands upon the bits-and-pieces pop approach of its debut into a solid set of rock songs. Highlights include the shift from taut opening guitar lines into a woozy bridge heard on “Soldier’s Grin,” the pounding piano and keyboard-led breakdown of “Language City,” the superb dark rock anthem “California Dreamer” and “Kissing the Beehive,” which finds Wolf Parade pulling out all the stops for a sprawling 11-minute epic. —Jill Menze”

The Offspring - Rise and Fall, Rage and Grace

“It sounds weird to say about a band of brainiac 40-somethings well into their second decade of work, but the Offspring makes an argument for its evolution—and, indeed, relevance—on this ambitious eighth disc, which is utterly devoid of pranksters, fly white guys or summer-barbecue anthems. Sure, the snot-rocket punk band putting on its big-boy clothes thing has been done before, and the Offspring don’t quite live up to the “American Idiot” here. Lyrically, Dexter Holland focuses more on big-ticket targets in the “shit is fucked up” sort of vein, and producer Bob Rock conjures standard rock crunch on tracks like “A Lot Like You” and the Snow Patrol-channeling “Fix You.” There are potent moments like the rise-and-fall ballad “Kristy, Are You Doing Okay?” and the fierce “Nothingtown,” but “Rise and Fall, Rage and Grace” sounds more like a tentative step in the Offspring’s new direction. —Jeff Vrabel”

Silver Jews - Lookout Mountain, Lookout Sea

“On Silver Jews’ “Lookout Mountain, Lookout Sea” lead Jew David Berman channels his inner Shel Silverstein, serving up a set of shiny, country-fried children’s songs for adults. Berman’s back from the brink and instead of looking inward, he spends much of these 35 minutes proffering colorful moral fables that confront America’s obsession with the superficial. At the center of his tales stand party barges, candy jails and “longtime guzzler[s] of hydrogenated crap.” But fanciful settings, odd protagonists and smart-as-a-whip rhymes notwithstanding, there is a wispy, twee quality to many of these songs, and ultimately the most affecting are those that sport the emotional and anthemic heft of the best Jews material, especially the wry yet achingly lonely “Suffering Jukebox” and the darkly dreamy “My Pillow Is the Threshold.” A warm, enjoyable effort, but perhaps short on the Jews’ best asset: Berman himself. —Susan Visakowitz”

James Blackshaw - Litany of Echoes

“Twenty-seven-year-old Brit James Blackshaw has lately emerged as a major force in the world of instrumental guitar, his epic, austere compositions and unpretentious 12-string technique perching him somewhere between John Fahey and Robbie Basho. But guitar isn’t the first thing you hear on “Litany of Echoes”; rather, it’s the tense piano plunking on opener “Gate of Ivory,” likely presented to assure fans that Blackshaw isn’t content to stay in one musical place. Repetition remains key to the material’s development (three of the six songs approach or exceed 12 minutes), but there are more accessible and melodic transitions here (”Infinite Cycle”) than in the past. There are even passages that resemble “hooks” (at the eight-minute mark of “Shroud,” particularly), and the songs make more logical sense as pieces of music thanks to their presence. Mostly, it’s just downright beautiful stuff. —Jonathan Cohen”

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