SOUNDCHECK

Fountains of Wayne


Traffic and Weather

(3 1/2 stars)

After breaking through with the ubiquitous "Stacy's Mom," from their 2003 album Welcome Interstate Managers, Fountains of Wayne have thankfully not returned with a collection of songs about Stacy's sister or Stacy's second cousin. Instead, the band's fourth album, Traffic and Weather, continues their longstanding tradition of impeccably crafted pop songs that are also keen character studies, with each of their albums playing like a finely tuned collection of short stories.

It's hard to put a finger on why exactly Traffic isn't the masterpiece that Managers was, and it may simply be that after four albums, leaders and co-songwriters Chris Collingwood and Adam Schlesinger are just a little too good at what they do. They don't really stretch out here, but it's hard to criticize such catchy tunes as the Tom Petty-ish "'92 Subaru" and the synth-heavy "New Routine," which match sharp lyrics with indelible hooks nearly as well as anything Collingwood and Schlesinger have written in the past.

Those lyrics don't immediately jump out at you the way they have on earlier FoW albums, though; you might actually have to read the liner notes to notice all the clever turns of phrase, and nothing here sticks inescapably in your mind like "Stacy's Mom" did (and still might after you hear this album, even though it's not even one of the tracks). Collingwood and Schlesinger remain consummate professionals and expert pop chameleons, throwing hints of country, dance and new wave into their power-pop mix. And they're as observant as ever about middle-class life on the Eastern seaboard, and the telling minutiae of places like the DMV, the airport and the highway rest stop. So even if the album doesn't rise above the merely professional, that still puts it above 90 percent of the pop music other artists are churning out.

Hilary Duff


Dignity

(2 stars)

She's just asking for it, right? I mean, Hilary Duff might as well have called her third album Way Classier Than That Slut Lindsay Lohan. Instead, it gets the self-righteous title Dignity, and finds the maturing tween star leaving behind the sunny, guitar-driven sound of her early work and recasting herself as a dance diva, with about as much success as she had with her old rock-oriented style. The difference is that, at the advanced age of 19, Duff has become a jaded veteran of the celebrity life, and thus much of Dignity's lyrics are chastisements aimed at two-faced rivals (the awful "Gypsy Woman"), pesky stalkers ("Dreamer") and, well, that slut Lohan (the title track, which could also be aimed at Britney Spears, Paris Hilton or any of their ilk).

"Where's your dignity?/I think you lost it in the Hollywood Hills," Duff sings, and though her eschewing of partying antics is admirable, she sounds more like a dour spoilsport than, say, the confident woman of Pink's "Stupid Girls," a song with a similar message. Duff's producers have improved on getting her voice to approximate singing, and she actually sounds appealing on bubbly, '80s-style tunes "Never Stop" and "Between You and Me." If she weren't so concerned with preserving her dignity, maybe the rest of the album would be enjoyable, too.

Jarvis Cocker


Jarvis

(4 stars)

The debut solo record by former Pulp frontman Jarvis Cocker is, quite simply, one of the most beautiful records about desperation, negation and failure that you'll ever own. And by God, you should own this record. Even if he hadn't written three of the best records of the 1990s Britpop boom—His ‘N' Hers, Different Class and This Is Hardcore—he would still be the man who once attempted to catch Michael Jackson in a flying tackle. Any man with so strong a sense of propriety deserves some of your money.

And though the thread running through Jarvis is one of negation and abuse, Cocker isn't recommending that you take this stuff lying down. Like Joe Jackson and Elvis Costello before him, Cocker brings his world-weary truths home wrapped in lustrous melodies. The friendly piano ballad "I Will Kill Again" conceals its bloodlust in a tune fit for Elton John. The narrator of the jaunty rocker "Fat Children" is robbed and killed for his cell phone, but promises, "I'll be back to haunt them." And the haunting hidden track "Running the World" neatly encapsulates how you've been feeling lately: "Use your right to protest on the street ... but don't imagine that it's heard." Cocker's record of protest is more than worthy of your receptive ear. – Geoff Carter

Ozomatli


Don't Mess With the Dragon

(3 stars)

The multicultural musical tornado that is Ozomatli has often, in its 12-year career, seemed like a bunch of guys freestyling. This is a band that has patched together a decent career blending together rap, rock, salsa, jazz, funk and politically incendiary lyrics into a powerful but messy stew. So what's notable about the nine-piece Los Angeles group's latest album is that they're playing music as a unit more than ever before.

The press materials bill this album as their "most cohesive, polished and joyous" work to date, and this is one of those rare times when the PR hype is exactly right.

Opener "Can't Stop" is an ecstatic number that's every bit as rousing as the band's 1998 classic "Como Ves." "After Party" is a chill, swoony number perfect for summer block parties that involve fire hydrants, happy puppies, boom boxes and grilled meats. Even protest song "La Temperatura" is the sound of a band that's more delighted than defeated.

Ozomatli once implored listeners to "Embrace the Chaos." Now they seem to understand that bringing the calm can be pretty effective too.

Andrew Bird


Armchair Apocrypha

(2 1/2 stars)

For those of you unfamiliar with violinist-cum-alt-rocker Andrew Bird (and that could be a significant chunk of you), a quick peek at a list of musicians with whom he's toured and recorded can give you a taste of what to expect: My Morning Jacket, Magnetic Fields, Lambchop, Will Oldham, Ani DiFranco. Yes, this is art rock for art rock's sake, and it's also pretty darn tasty.

Bird's seventh CD—his first release for Fat Possum Records—showcases his unique violin talents and taste for quirky sound effects (whistling, birds chirping) that lighten these otherwise dense, heavily textured songs. Minneapolis folkie Haley Bonar chips in ethereal backing vocals on four tunes, the best of which is the opening track, "Fiery Crash," in which Bird envisions a worst-case scenario to calm his fears of flying.

He drops a slight Latin beat on "Imitosis," channeling Santana after a long night of Cuba Libres, and a cool jazzy feel carries "Plasticities" to a satisfying conclusion. Bird's relaxed, understated vocals often slip into falsetto and fade into the rich orchestration of his songs, but always rush back with lyrics that leave you reaching for the liner notes to figure out what he was saying between all that whistling.