FRED ANDERSON & HAMID DRAKE
Life on the Fly (Drag City)
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On her third solo album, former Scissor Girls and Bride of No No leader Azita Youssefi continues her exploration of 70s left-coast jazz pop. For the opener, “Wasn’t in the Bargain,” she slips right into the snarkily cerebral tone and Bard College phrasing made famous by Messrs. Becker and Fagen as guitarist Jeff Parker does his best Skunk Baxter imitation. Elsewhere, jittery brass parts bring an agitated feel to “Just Joker Blues” and “Miss Tony,” while the twilight piano on “In the Vicinity” and the dolorous “Things Without Names” weaves a moody tapestry worthy of Carole King.
ROBUST
Home to neosoul divas like Alicia Keys and warhorses like Rod Stewart, Clive Davis’s J label may initially seem an odd place for these local nu-metallers, but they’ve got a very Clive-like aptitude for the winning commercial formula: their second major-label effort picks up where 2001’s Scars left off, with a leadoff track, “Pride,” cast from the anthemic mold of their earlier radio hit “Halo.” The band’s most valuable asset, though, is Ryan McCombs’s voice, which falls halfway between James Hetfield’s growl and Layne Staley’s yowl. Moving beyond the rote riffage of their last album with the funk-flavored title track and the raga motifs of “Deny Me,” Redefine succeeds often enough, despite the occasionally distracting sonic sheen applied by Disturbed producer Johnny K.
Nightfool (Southern)
