David Banner - The Greatest Story Ever Told

“Since he first appeared on the national stage with 2003’s “Mississippi: The Album,” Banner has used his platform as an opportunity to showcase the best and worst qualities of Southern hip-hop. The contrast reaches a head-scratching apogee on “The Greatest Story Ever Told,” where Banner alternates furiously soulful tracks about inner-city violence (”So Long”) with chest-beating sex jams in which foreplay is reduced to strangling a chick till her face turns blue (”A Girl”). The extremes offer up a portrait of a man far more complex than what we get from many of Banner’s peers, and the inventive beats (by Banner, Cool & Dre, Akon and others) add vital life to his gruff flow. But you have to wonder if some of these tracks simply reflect the rapper’s desire to be all things to all consumers.—Mikael Wood”

Sugarland - Love on the Inside

“Sugarland’s third album, finely crafted with producer Byron Gallimore, is proof positive that singer/songwriters Jennifer Nettles and Kristian Bush are on the cusp of superstardom. Hooky and infectious first single “All I Want to Do,” currently No. 3 on Hot Country Songs, is a tantalizing tease of the album’s breadth. Steamy “What I’d Give” finds Nettles growling her way through a honey-do list that would get any man’s blood pumping, while “Keep You” finds her convincingly pleading a seemingly no-win situation. “Joey,” a foreboding throwback written with Bill Anderson, leaves one wondering about the title character’s fate. “Genevieve” starts acoustic and slow, building into a rollicking ode to a favored beau, and “Steve Earle,” about the oft-married song poet, is hilarious and refreshingly raw from a production standpoint. —Ken Tucker”