Adam Young, 38, is a “maker,” or that’s what he calls himself.

He is an artist, a wood and metal worker, a skateboarder, a father, a husband and a man of the past. He mentions a “buddy” or friend in every other sentence, and it is clear he surrounds himself with  family everywhere he goes. But his work begs a certain autonomy.

He clearly appreciates working independently from a boss, a specific location or rules of execution. His handiwork, however, is behind some of the coolest spots in Austin — such as Yellow Jacket Social Club, Javelina and Farewell Books.

Young first came to Austin in 1994 to pursue skateboarding and be a part of the punk music scene. He moved back for a second time in 2004 for a landscaping job. He hasn’t left since then, and is now one of a handful of craftsmen keeping Austin beautiful with the work of his own two hands.

Young has worked with his hands since he was a kid. One of the first things he ever built was a tree house on a hill with his brothers at one of their Louisiana homes. But he never made a conscious decision to pursue woodworking as a career.

“It was something I just kind of stumbled upon, I suppose,” Young said. “Even now, I think that it’s pretty amazing that I’m able to have a family and make a living doing something that I really love and am passionate about.”

Old Crow is the name Young gave to his self-owned and operated business, which he’s had since early 2010. He’ll build anything from tables for friends to backyard decks for contract clients. Two of his most notable projects, however, are popular Austin joints: Yellow Jacket Social Club, a bar on East Fifth Street, and Javelina. Both have a well-worn and welcoming atmosphere, in large part due to the warmth of every surface, stool and bench. This feeling comes from using salvaged materials. Young traveled with the co-owner of Javelina, Craig Primozich, to Hillsboro, Ore., to see the old red barn wood that would become the base of the bar.

“I hadn’t even hired him yet and we went and picked out wood together and spent the day together,” Primozich said. “Once I saw him digging through all the stuff and talking about ideas and what he could do with things, I was pretty sold. He just knew what he was doing.”

Using salvaged materials, while not essential for Young, better suits his personal taste. He said either the material will dictate the design and what can be done with a piece of wood or metal, or a very specific design will require finding very specific materials.

“I don’t like to say that I have one thing, but for me personally I really love the look and the feel of salvaged materials and even repurposing materials or objects,” Young said. “The wood itself will tell me if it makes the cut to be used or not. Sometimes I’m not quite sure what it’s going to yield and then you peel the first few layers back and it blows you away how beautiful the grains and the colors and the things that pop out [are]. I think that’s one of the things about working with old material, some of the surprises that you can discover.”

Musicians like Levon Helm, John Prine and Kris Kristofferson inspire a lot of the wording and sometimes the imagery of Young’s work.

“I’ll just be listening to a song at one point and one of their lyrics just jabs me a certain way,” Young said of his creative process. “Right now Kris Kristofferson, I’ll just listen and listen and listen to Kris Kristofferson music over and over again for days and days and weeks and then … just kind of, something else will happen. It just shifts over to being inspired.”

Young is not a rock star and doesn’t have an ego, but he’s got a fan club. There are those who look to him as an artist, those who look to him as a creator of beautiful structures and there’s a little girl who looks to him as a father. As much as Young values his independence, it is clear that quite a few people would be lost without him. And while he would never admit it, he’s a lot like the salvaged wood he loves to work with so much. If you sand it down and peel back the layers, what you find will surprise you and strike you as remarkably beautiful.

Fresh off of his controversial collaboration with Brad Paisley on “Accidental Racist,” LL Cool J is back. While his debut, 1985’s Radio, broke new ground for the genre, James Todd Smith has struggled to find critical recognition since — though albums like 1990’s Mama Said Knock You Out and 1995’s Mr. Smith have achieved commercial success. Authentic, after many delays, is his first release in six years.

The album begins with “Bath Salt,” and Cool J very quickly reveals his stupidity. Over an unnecessarily orchestral introduction, the rapper declares, “I think this intro should be more dramatic…” before busting into maniacal laughing. By the time the beat drops, the audience is wondering what lines like “Slip into the bath salt,” and “hands on my nuts/that’s product placement,” mean. Regardless of authorial intent (or lack thereof), Cool J raps with an unmistakable tone of self-appreciation. 

Authentic is filled with gimmicks, like guitar solos from Eddie Van Halen, to misdirect the listener from LL Cool J’s lack of originality and sub-par writing. Also ubiquitous throughout the album is the 45-year-old rapper’s delusions of grandeur, ignorant of the fact that he’s been somewhat irrelevant since his first album.

The few highlights include Snoop Dogg’s laid-back verse on “We Came To Party,” apparently reviving his rapper persona in spite of his recent name change. The beats are easily the better part of the album, having been produced by the likes of DJ Z-Trip (Beck, Busta Rhymes) and Soundz (Pitbull, Trey Songz). 

Unfortunately, not even impressive production can save Authentic. “Bartender Please” is at least two minutes too long, crashing and burning in a chaotic shouting match between four speakers. The final nail in the coffin, though, burying what little promise the album has, is Paisley’s surprise guest appearance on “Live For You.”

Are Travis Barker’s 10-second drum solos necessary? Did LL Cool J need to enlist Tom Morello to offer his trademark minimalist guitar on “Whaddup?” And most importantly, did he really need to collaborate with Brad Paisley again? The answer to all these questions is probably not.

QUICK TAKES

Iggy and The Stooges' Ready to Die

Artist: Iggy and The Stooges
Album: Ready to Die
Label: Fat Possum Records
Songs to Download: "Unfriendly World," "Ready to Die," "The Departed"

It’s hard to overstate Iggy and The Stooges’ importance to punk rock music. Throughout its on-and-off career of 40 or so years, it has lost several members, and this album plays on themes of self-realization through old age. Slow ballads like “Unfriendly World” and “The Departed” are a welcome change from their cookie-cutter four-power-chord songs, and, overall, the album reflects a maturity that could only come from an old band like this.

Lights' Siberia

Artist: Lights
Album: Siberia
Label: Last Gang Records
​Songs to Download: "Toes," "Peace Sign," "Banner"

The Canadian synthpop artist renders her 2011 album Siberia acoustically. Unsurprisingly, the trimmed-down version is much better. Instead of her over-the-top synthesizers, her guitar playing — supplemented with violins and pianos — breathes new musical life into the same songs, while her fragile voice renders the lyrics more intelligible.

Deep Purple's NOW What?!

Artist: Deep Purple
Album: NOW What?!
Label: earMusic
​Songs to Download: "Blood from a Stone"

Apparently Deep Purple is still a band, and with NOW What?! they seem to acknowledge their own amazement at this fact. The album is exceedingly cheesy in its maintenance of the band’s classic rock sound. But, filled with organs and screeching solos, it sounds like a band doing what they love.

ELGIN — Jillayne Hunter and kb Thomason live in a minimalist oasis. With stark white walls, natural light and a Zen rooftop garden, the building looks like it could be found in downtown Manhattan. But instead of Manhattan, Hunter and Thomason reside in Elgin, participating in an artist residency program. 

Together, they form “The House of ia,” an art collective working out of a studio space in Elgin. “ia”, which they define as “the in between,” represents both the artists’ collaborative work, as well as the physical space where they live and create.

“We immediately found an effortless understanding for one another’s creative inspirations,” Thomason said. “We share a mutual desire to let go in order to receive uncharted direction from the demands of our artistic processes.”

Through support from a private grant, Hunter and Thomason are renting the studio space from the Sawyer Foundation. The foundation is facilitated by Margo Sawyer, a visual and installation artist, and professor of sculpture and studio art in the masters of fine arts program at the University of Texas. 

Sawyer selected Hunter and Thomason as the first residents of the space in Elgin partly because she was impressed by how well they worked together. Sawyer feels strongly about the importance of building community within the art population and recognizes the significance in having like-minded people living and working in a space that is completely dedicated to the creation of new works. 

“They are both amazing artists and it has been a pleasure to watch how the space and place has been an inspiration for their work,” Sawyer said. “They are creating works from dawn to dusk.”

Sawyer chose Elgin as the location for her studio, explaining that the city reminded her of artistically vibrant Marfa, an art oasis in a small desert town. She hopes that the quiet nature of Elgin will inspire new works from Hunter and Thomason and that the experience of the residency will be one of the factors in furthering their careers as artists.

“Elgin is out of the city, and yet close enough to Austin to pull from and pour into the creative pool,” Hunter said. “Elgin is desolate in this way, so there is a necessity to create. We are able to wake up to a blank slate.” 

One of the duo’s newest projects is a short experimental film called “Quiet Creases” that explores the concept of non-verbal communication. Hunter and Thomason recently shot a dinner party scene that served as a platform for further experiments in the filming of “Quiet Creases.” 

“Our inspiration for this project sparked an interest in taking a closer look at non-verbal language and expression in our patterns of verbal communication, in a seemingly curated social environment, aka, the dinner party,” Hunter said.

The filming process involves 14 distinctive people from different walks of life, socializing in a dinner party setting. Through the film, Hunter and Thomason explore the inside of this common scenario by examining concepts such as witnessing degrees of intimacy, gesture, transparency, body language, information in expression, as well as the ritualization and performance aspects of human relations. The artists hope to further explore the medium of film.

Following their residency in Elgin, which will expire in June 2013, Hunter and Thomason plan to return to Europe to attend a two-month summer performing arts intensive and complete a fall residency in Stolzenhagen, Germany. They plan to show the works they created during their time in Elgin in Berlin and France, and will continue to seek financial support to fund their careers. After that, Hunter and Thomason are unsure of where their artistic endeavors will take them next. 

“The House of ia is a nomadic house,” Thomason said. “Our embrace of the unknown has become a perpetual practice.” 

Milwaukee-based artist Joseph Reeves is out to prove that anyone actually can be an artist with his current exhibit, “The Cell Phone Photo Gallery,” at Co-Lab Projects in East Austin.  

Reeves, a filmmaker, music journalist and studio arts graduate of the Milwaukee Institute of Art and Design, first came up with the idea for “The Cell Phone Photo Gallery” during his senior year of art school, when he constructed a small-scale version. Interested in rejecting the typical, stuck-up character the art world seems to project, he set out to assemble a community-wide project to which everyone could contribute.

“The Cell Phone Photo Gallery” amounts to a gallery space transformed by several hundred community-submitted cell phone photos that reveal an enormous collection of digital memories from people all over Austin.

“Organizing a community-wide art project really takes away the ego you find so readily in art sometimes,” Reeves said. “By engaging a typically non-art audience, it opens up the dialogue about what art really means.”

Reeves explained that because cameras have become so readily accessible on phones, the cell phone photograph tends to be dismissed artistically as inferior to “real” photography. 

“The project refutes this notion by organizing large scale, city-specific, cell phone photo exhibitions that call upon the everyday citizen for their own unique interpretation of art, photography and meaning,” Reeves said.  

In a wider context, “The Cell Phone Project” aims to document, explore and question the rising sense of sociocultural awareness that is occurring in part from easier access to technology, including the camera phone. An entire generation has almost universal access to a simple and effective tool for documenting their experiences and expressing their thoughts at any given moment. 

Reeves explained that he does not mean to support or challenge the debatable worth of this technological shift, as much as invite conversation about its implications and artistic value. 

“The main idea behind the project is mainly to get people talking about art,” Reeves said. “In my opinion, art doesn’t need to fit in any specific box. It is what you make of it.”

To spread the word about the project, Reeves used a variety of tactics to spark interest and to get people to submit. The massive collection of cell phone photos was gathered through direct, alternative and above all, creative submission strategies. Such strategies included handwritten letters left on car windows, notes in plastic eggs scattered around Zilker Park and of course, through social media. 

The assortment of photos Reeves received was eclectic, ranging from classic scenery to the unbelievably awkward. 

“Despite how different each photo I received was, every one made me think, ‘What’s the story here?’” Reeves said. “Seeing a snapshot into someone’s life just offers you a whole new perspective on people in general.” 

When choosing a location to exhibit the project, Reeves noted that he immediately thought that Austin would be the perfect place to do so, citing a technologically savvy and receptive audience, and a certain regional color he has yet to find elsewhere. 

“Seeing people get excited about finding their photos among the masses was definitely the best part of it all,” Reeves said. “It proved that this is Austin’s project, not just my own.” 

Atlanta-based artist Radcliffe Bailey takes relics from his family’s history to create works that explore the African-American experience. 

“I think that art comes from a place that’s pretty close to me,” Bailey said Monday night at the Blanton Museum of Art Auditorium. “My grandmother gave me about 400 photographs right before she died and since then I’ve always tried to make things that would connect with my family members.”

Bailey said each image to him is like a deity. Part of the relationship with his art is tied to his family and conversations he has had with them.

“I always feel like I live between two different worlds, things that are tangible and things that are non-tangible and the paintings deal with things that are non-tangible, so I’ve always sort of played by the idea that we set ourselves between crossroads, between life and death,” Bailey said.

UT professor Michael Ray Charles moderated the talk with Bailey. The talk was presented in partnership with the UT Center for Art of Africa and its Diasporas and explored the origins of Bailey’s sculptures, photographs and mixed-media paintings.

Charles said he is intrigued by Bailey’s photographs and the context in terms of how the images come about.

“These photos are all post-reconstruction, so your work poses as an opportunity for African-Americans to reconstruct images themselves as opposed to being constructed,” Charles said.

Charles said Bailey seems to connect with his images, with the faces and with the people.

“You use your art to reconfigure their lives, and I’ve never heard anybody speak about that aspect in your work,” Charles said.

Bailey relies on his memory for his artwork and says photographs were like his first form of DNA. He also he approaches his art much like a dance while in the studio.

“It’s very normal for me to be working on 30 different things at one time but I have to bounce around each one,” Bailey said. “I’m staying busy not just because I have a deadline, but I have to keep moving because I can’t sit on one page. I have times where I just don’t work at all.”

Bailey said to this day he couldn’t have guessed he would be an artist. He says he did art in college because of his inability to play baseball.

“I think when I first started making art it wasn’t about me,” Bailey said. “I see myself as a vessel and things come through me rather than become about me.”

It had to happen eventually. Radiohead frontman Thom Yorke essentially continues his solo career under the moniker Atoms For Peace, gathering close friends for the band and taking the name from a track off his 2006 solo album The Eraser. The all-star group, consisting of Red Hot Chili Peppers bassist Flea and their touring percussionist Mauro Refosco, former Beck/R.E.M drummer Joey Waronker and longtime Radiohead producer Nigel Godrich, was initially gathered to perform songs off The Eraser live. After a few years of jamming together, they decided to record an original record, almost as a continuation of Radiohead’s turn towards electronica per 2011’s The King Of Limbs. 

Yorke’s electronic experimentalism dominates Amok, the band’s debut. He supposedly crafted the songs on his laptop before teaching the band what to do, and the result is as inorganic as the process sounds. Amok is a puzzling move — there’s almost no resemblance to typical songwriting formats like verse/chorus/verse, and Yorke’s consolatory emotional falsettos per late Radiohead songs “Lotus Flower” or “Jigsaw Falling Into Place” are largely downplayed and replaced with peculiar wailings.     

The songs are rendered largely inaccessible in their quest for avant-gardism. Opener “Before Your Very Eyes...” makes the listener arduously wait for three minutes before the band shows its true hand. Yorke’s ubiquitous moaning is oversaturated with reverb, to the extent of making any sort of lyrical intelligibility impossible. The fuzzy synthesizers backed by an incessant drum shuffle seem to continue through all of Amok’s unnecessary 47 minutes. The length of most songs is around five minutes, just long enough to hint at a musical climax that never comes. 

Some songs like the single “Default,” and “Unless” show untapped potential that is subsequently smothered with confusing electronic samples and vocal loops. What should be catchy turns out to be discordant through overproduction. And then Amok ends on the title track, fading away as unsatisfactorily and mysteriously as it began. 

With a lineup able to make any rock n’ roll fan jump out of their chair, one might have expected an enthralling debut. But Amok was crafted on a laptop, and maybe it should have stayed that way. The rock star names are just a publicity stunt. It is impossible to determine where Flea’s bass is real or when Yorke programs it. There is both a drummer and a percussionist credited in the band, yet the drums on every track sound like a drum machine. The result is a haphazard record that plays as an insincere spin-off of The King of Limbs, which could’ve been billed as a Thom Yorke solo project or a much less talented Flying Lotus. 

Shout Out Louds' Optica

Artist: Shout Out Louds
Album: Optica
Label: Merge Records
Songs to Download: "Sugar" "Hermilia"

The ‘80s are either still alive or have been resuscitated on Shout Out Louds’ Optica. The Swedish band exchanges its lo-fi sounds for disco balls and sparkling effects. There’s a heavy synth background on songs like “14th of July” that bears comparison to Chromatics. Indie ballads like “Chasing The Sinking Sun” are reminiscent of a Funeral-era Arcade Fire. The songs are expertly crafted in an upbeat mood, hiding the deeper, melancholic lyrics of frontman Adam Olenius. 

Mount Moriah's Miracle Temple

Artist: Mount Moriah
Album: Miracle Temple
Label: Merge Records
Songs to Download: "I Built A Town" "Those Girls"

The cover art for Miracle Temple is a burning barn, which might represent how Mount Moriah is torching conceptions of country music.  The neo country power trio draws heavy influences from Neil Young, but features Heather McEntire’s powerful female vocals and perspective. The band’s heavy use of blues guitar work is tastefully complimented with aspects of gospel, like on the standout heartbreaker “I Built A Town.” 

Within the Ruins' Elite

Artist: Within the Ruins
Album: Elite
Label: Victory Records
Songs to Download: "Feeding Frenzy" "Ataxia" "Elite"

Within The Ruins is one of contemporary metal’s only hopes in a genre of image and showboating. The Massachusetts band set the bar high after 2010’s Invade made listeners seriously question how many times signature switches were possible in one song, and the band continue its work on Elite, confirming its status as a more serious Dragonforce and a slightly less technical Periphery. The album’s lightning fast riffs downplay distorted guitar effects and instead focus on time changes and technicality.

After 2008’s dance-punk album Antidotes and 2010’s relaxed Total Life Forever, Foals could have gone in any direction imaginable, but with Holy Fire it matures into a guitar-driven rock band. 

Following a lengthy, atmospheric “Prelude,” the first single, “Inhaler,” begins with a harmonic, delayed Bee Gees riff that makes you want to walk down the street and say hey to everyone. Frontman Yannis Philippakis leads us through a falsetto verse and three measures of a crescendoing pre-chorus before Foals launches into one of the heaviest riffs since Rage Against The Machine’s “Bulls On Parade.” The band’s ability to effortlessly switch between the two types of sounds is both surprising and inspiring, showing Foals’ ability to consolidate its heavier roots off Antidotes with soft rock from Total Life Forever.

“My Number” is the second single and an outlier from the rest of the album. It’s catchy instead of sulky, hiding the bitter sarcasm in Philippakis’ lyrics, “You don’t have my number, we don’t need each other now.”  

While the earlier songs make an effort to sound happy, the mood takes a turn toward depression on the centerpiece song “Late Night.” Philippakis convincingly stretches out the words “stay with me” in a chorus that concisely sums up the album. The funk guitar work is minimal, but effective, over a sprawled out, minor key piano chord progression.     

It’s obvious that Foals is up to something. Almost every song, besides “Providence,” is well-developed, with particularly inspiring transitions that demonstrate a control over music that could only come after a hit-and-miss process of elimination. There is a delicacy to Holy Fire that sets Foals above other indie contemporaries, and it sounds like it has found a niche somewhere between its infectious choruses and mysterious soundscapes.  

Artist: Foals

Album: Holy Fire

Label: Transgressive Records 

Songs to download: “Inhaler” “My Number” “Milk & Black Spiders” 

Despite its ostentatious title, Songs For Imaginative People, isn’t as exclusionary as it sounds. Darwin Deez presents accessible music that’s easy to relate to, discussing love in the 21st century while incorporating pop culture trends like Skype and online shopping. While the lyrics are on point and the rhythm section is particularly effective, it sounds like Darwin Deez uses the same chords on almost every song, musically undercutting what would otherwise be a slightly above average indie album. 

Artist: Darwin Deez

Album: Songs For Imaginative People 

Label: Lucky Number Music http://www.luckynumbermusic.com

Songs to Download: “(800) Human” “Free (The Editorial Me)” 

Although Bullet For My Valentine has a few legitimately good parts and arguably a sizable amount of talent, the majority of Temper Temper is filled with hypergeneric non-sequiturs that show an inability to successfully craft a song. Unfortunately, it repeats the same formula for every track: a fast chord progression, a buildup to a breakdown, a cheesy, slow four-chord singing chant and a screeching solo. By the end of Temper Temper, if you can make it that far, you wonder why you didn’t just listen to a Metallica album instead. 

Artist: Bullet For My Valentine

Album: Temper Temper 

Label: RCA Records 

Songs to Download: “Livin’ Life (On The Edge Of A Knife)” 

The Wonder Years accurately capture the angst of an adolescent coming of age on their reissuing of old 7”s. The Pennsylvania band became a household name in the pop punk scene after 2010’s The Upsides, which was followed by the almost as strong “Suburbia, I’ve Given You All and Now I’m Nothing.” Listening to the older material reveals an impassioned beginning that shows another side of the band (albeit with an unsatisfactory synth player who was thankfully kicked out).

Artist: The Wonder Years 

Album: Sleeping On Trash: A Collection Of Songs Recorded 2005-2010

Label: No Sleep Records 

Songs to Download: “Through Two Hearts” “You’re Not Salinger, Get Over It” 

Between Batts and Mezes Halls sits a tiny metal sculpture by the artist Willard Boepple. On loan from the Metropolitan Museum of Art, the steel sculpture anchors the tiny courtyard, its curving metal pieces waving statically atop a concrete pedestal. Like most abstract sculpture, it is hard to tell what, if anything, the sculpture is actually depicting, and the title, “Eleanor at 7:15,” gives precious few clues. 

Last Saturday, I found myself staring at Eleanor, whatever she may be, along with 10 other sculptural pieces on the UT campus that are part of the Landmarks public art collection. My journey, which took me from the Main Building to the AT&T Center and back again, was part of an attempt to resurrect a Saturday afternoon date, the previous plans for which had been decimated by a look at the far-too-low number in my bank account.     

But, as a presentation I attended last Thursday night by Landmarks external affairs coordinator Jennifer Modesett reminded me, the UT campus has a lot to offer in the way of free art. Could touring the public art collection at UT be a cost-free date alternative to dinner and a movie? In any case, it sounded fancier than a day spent watching Hulu on the couch. I resolved to rope in my significant other and give touring the campus art collection a try.    

Our tour started in the halls of Main on a Saturday afternoon. A few lone tourists snapped pictures on smartphones, but none stopped to admire the two works of art my date and I visited in the tower. I don’t blame them: I barely noticed them myself.     

The first, “Harmonious Triad,” by Beverly Pepper, sits just inside the double doors of the Main Building. Like most of the sculptures featured in the Landmarks collection, the sculpture is abstract, and like many of the pieces, it is made entirely of metal. Upstairs in the Life Sciences Library, the striated marble of Walter Dusenbery’s “Pedogna” prompted a healthy debate between my date and I over which sculpture fit which space better. So far, so good. 

At “Eleanor at 7:15,” my date and I ran into the first potential problem with viewing public art: it may put you in another person’s campus hideaway. As we took guesses as to what Eleanor could represent (I said vagina, the landmarks application said a young child and my date remained purposefully noncommittal), I kept glancing at the lone guy reading by the base of the statue, hoping that our Saturday recreation wasn’t disturbing his. We ran into the same problem viewing the Landmarks piece in the AT&T Center, where we looked decidedly out of place roaming the courtyard while actual guests with actual cash on hand chatted with
the concierge.     

Our self-guided tour ended with the six Landmarks works housed in and around the PCL, not because we had viewed all of the pieces on campus (there are more than two dozen of them) but because the setting sun and a nagging laziness kept us from wanting to walk to the pieces housed in Bass Concert Hall. In the back reading room of the PCL, fluorescent lighting, torn magazine copies and students munching on fast food surrounded three haunting, hulking sculptures by the artist Seymour Lipton. The art, though intriguing and beautiful, was clearly not a priority for the students in the PCL, and my date and I couldn’t help but be brought down by the scene of students studying on a Saturday. 

The end verdict? Cruising campus saved us cash, but trudging through the Forty Acres with a map and an agenda felt like attending class. The Landmarks collection has some beautiful art, but it’s best enjoyed in a quiet moment between classes. Next time you see Eleanor, tell her I said hello — but don’t visit her for a date night. 

Artist: Alicia Keys
Album: Girl on Fire
Label: RCA
Songs to Download: “Girl on Fire,” “Fire We Make”

“It’s been a while, I’m not who I was before,” Alicia Keys sings on the first full track of her fifth studio album Girl on Fire, released Monday by RCA Records. The song is preceded by a somber, elegant piano intro that effectively sets the tone for the album’s 13 tracks.

“Brand New Me” is the 31-year-old Harlem-born neo-soul singer’s opening statement, a suggestion that Girl on Fire marks a new direction in her 12-year career as a major label recording artist. In reality, the album never ventures too far from Keys’ established formula of introspective Prince-meets-Stevie-Wonder soul-pop, which isn’t a bad thing at all.

Keys has made a living off writing songs that emphasize her subtle self-assuredness. Her determination has paid off in sustained stardom and critical respect, even if the songwriting itself does not always live up to the highest standards.

Fortunately, the album’s high points outnumber the lows. Title track and lead single “Girl on Fire” features the juxtaposition of a viciously rapped intro by Nicki Minaj over an iron-laden ‘80s drumbeat that somehow metamorphoses into a soaring doo-wop-influenced ballad that showcases Keys’ prodigious vocal talents.

Other highlights include the ominous fuzz-tone of “When It’s All Over” and the hypnotic space vibe of “Listen to Your Heart.” The latter, co-written with John Legend and co-produced with Rodney “Darkchild” Jerkins, comes from somewhere way beyond left field, transporting the listener into a futuristic ride through a set of neon lights and tunnels, with Keys’ soft croon serving as guide.

The second half of the album wanes somewhat, with an obvious nadir at the predictable, love-is-better-than-money piano ballad “Not Even the King.” “That’s When I Knew” comes across as equally trite, an overly maudlin love song that brings nothing new or interesting to the art form aside from the pleasant acoustic-guitar-and-shaker production.

The album closes out with three strong songs, starting with the world-music-inflected but oddly titled “Limitedless.” “One Thing” and “101” wrap things up with two strong ballads, notable for their collective sense of honesty and urgency. Finally, Keys reaches back for one last vocal climax on the unlisted outro, defiantly screaming “Hallelujah — kicked down the door!”

It’s an appropriate ending for an album that doesn’t necessarily mark a drastic change in direction, but rather represents a continuation of a steady and thoroughly enjoyable course.

Quick Takes

Artist: Great Big Sea
Album: XX
Label: Great Big Sea (self-released)
Songs to Download: “Run Runaway,” “Good People”

The Newfoundland folk rockers release the first compilation of their two-decade career, available as a box set or a double-disc album. The retrospective features 40 of the band’s most popular songs, including “Run Runaway” from 1996’s Up and “Good People” from 2010’s Safe upon the Shore.

Artist: Wu-Block
Album: Wu Block
Label: E1 
Songs to Download: “Pull tha Cars Out,” “Drivin’ Round”

American rappers Ghostface Killah and Sheek Louch team up to form Wu-Block, an allusion to each of the artists’ previous groups (Wu-Tang Clan and D-Block). The album features 16 tracks of hard-core explicit hip-hop, reminiscent of the days of Nas, 2Pac and Biggie Smalls.

Artist: The Pogues
Album: The Pogues in Paris: 30th Anniversary Concert
Label: Universal 
Songs to Download: “Streams of Whiskey,” “The Sicked Bed of Cuchulainn”

The English punk rockers celebrate three decades of bashing out Celtic-inspired, alcohol-fueled rock ‘n’ roll with a double live album that also serves as a summary of their career thus far. The album is available on CD, DVD, vinyl or as a comprehensive box set.

Printed on Tuesday, November 27, 2012 as: Keys smolders on new album as Girl on Fire

Jason Isbell and the 400 Unit – Live from Alabama
Artist: Jason Isbell and the 400 Unit
Album: Live from Alabama
Label: Lightning Rod Records
Songs to Download: “Outfit,” “Like a Hurricane”

Since parting ways with the Drive-By Truckers in 2007 to embark on a solo career, singer/songwriter/guitarist Jason Isbell has maintained a steady stream of quality album releases that has mirrored the consistency and prolific output of his former band. Sirens of the Ditch marked a promising solo debut for Jason Isbell. Jason Isbell and the 400 Unit hit a new stride in 2009, and Isbell displayed progression as a writer and performer on 2011’s Here We Rest.

Live from Alabama, out Tuesday from Lightning Rod Records, captures the raw energy of the band’s live show in a hometown setting. Recorded during two sold-out shows, one at the WorkPlay Theater in Birmingham, the other at the Crossroads Cafe in Huntsville, the album features 13 songs that span Isbell’s career, from his tenure with the Truckers on up through the present day.

The 400 Unit, composed of keyboardist Derry DeBorja, bassist Jimbo Hart and drummer Chad Gamble, performs these songs with seemingly effortless precision, providing a sturdy framework for Isbell’s husky baritone. The songs themselves, like much of Isbell’s work, revolve around stories of growing up in the South and the angels and demons that hide in the shadows of Southern small-town America.

The set opens with “Tour of Duty,” the closing track from Here We Rest. It serves as an appropriate introduction for a band that has played hundreds of shows each year since its formation in 2009. Isbell then reaches back six years for “Decoration Day,” the title track to the 2003 Drive-By Truckers’ album.

After blasting through another DBT classic, “Goddamn Lonely Love,” the band then launches into a spry rendition of Candi Staton’s 1970 single “Heart on a String,” originally recorded by the Alabama R&B singer at Muscle Shoals Sound Studio.

“Danko/Manuel,” another holdover from Isbell’s Drive-By Truckers days, follows, featuring a guest brass section of trombone, trumpet and saxophone. “In a Razor Town” from Isbell’s 2007 debut, displays some of his trademark lines that parody life in the South: “In a Razor Town you take whoever you think you can keep around.”

The same can be said for the two subsequent songs, “Alabama Pines” and “Outfit.” The latter, which is another song culled from Isbell’s Drive-By Truckers output is a song he wrote for his father with trademark Southern wit: “Well, I used to go out in a Mustang / a 302 Mach 1 in green / till me and your mama made you in the back / and I sold it to buy her a ring.”

“Cigarettes and Wine,” “TVA,” “The Blue” and “Dress Blues” lead up to the record’s final statement: a blistering cover of Neil Young’s “Like a Hurricane.” Isbell’s voice sounds clean and raw, and the Alabama crowd clearly enjoys every minute of it.

Isbell keeps the between-song banter to a minimum, instead focusing on the performances of the songs themselves. The limited stylistic range is not likely to win over many new fans from outside the spheres of roots rock or country, but for fans of the genres, Live from Alabama captures one of the best singer/songwriter-and-band combinations doing what they do best.
 

Quick Takes

Kid Rock – Rebel Soul
Artist: Kid Rock
Album: Rebel Soul
Label: Atlantic
Songs to Download: “Chickens in the Pen,” “Let’s Ride”
 

After actually coming close to artistic respectability with 2010’s Born Free, the Detroit rap-rocker returns to what he does best: writing and recording songs about strippers, white trash and every kind of sleaze known to the back rooms of Heartland America.

Rihanna – Unapologetic
Artist: Rihanna
Album: Unapologetic
Label: Def Jam
Songs to Download: “Diamonds,” “Pour It Up”
 

The prolific pop diva releases her seventh album since 2005. Highlights include the bombastic “Diamonds,” the Mike Will collaboration “Pour It Up” and the dance-infused Chris Brown duet
“Nobody’s Business.”

Elvis Costello – In Motion Pictures
Artist: Elvis Costello
Album: In Motion Pictures
Label: Hip-O Records
Songs to Download: “Accidents Will Happen,” “Seven Day Weekend”

This compilation presents a set of 15 songs by the British pub-rocker that have been featured in films. The collection showcases Costello’s ability to write cinematic, theme-oriented music while also serving as a comprehensive survey of his ever-evolving 35-plus year career.

Printed on Tuesday, November 20, 2012 as: New release infused with Southern charm