Album Reviews

*** X, “Unclogged,” Infidelity. Truly great songs assume lives of their own, growing and changing over time. That sort of evolution is evident in X’s repertoire, which is full of great songs--13 of which are featured on this acoustic album, recorded live last year at a church in San Francisco.

Minus their electric charge, these X classics are moodier and more twangy, imbued with an older-and-wiser feel. The maniac edge of “Unheard Music” becomes a haunting hush, reverberating with vibraphone and pulsing acoustic guitar. In “See How We Are,” the lyrics about the ebb and flow of social concerns seem more poignant now, 18 years later.

X, which plays the House of Blues on June 28, may have made its name back in American punk’s heyday, but its music is as vital now as it was then. *

*** Primus, “Tales From the Punchbowl,” Interscope. The tales in question find San Francisco’s kings of quirk metal further refining their clunky funky sonic concoctions. The lurid mini-dramas careen, heave, swagger and stomp around an eccentric cast of characters that includes airborne elephants and cheese-choked plagiarists. Primus’ sheer strangeness would be stifling if not for the trio’s formidable musicianship; no matter how dissonant or jarring the songs become, they never lose their coherence or momentum.

New albums are rated on a scale of one star (poor), two stars (fair), three stars (good) and four stars (excellent).