In Brief

** SX-10, “Mad Dog American,” X-Ray/Latin Thug. The brainchild of Cypress Hill’s Sen Dog, this five-member rap-rock band delivers a decent blend of the two genres on its debut album. Sen’s rapping is more focused when he performs with Cypress partner B-Real. The normal force of Sen’s husky voice is sometimes drowned out by the wall of noise provided by his SX-10 partners. The band’s better moments come when it allows bass guitar to drive the song (“Gotta Get Away”) and delves into punk (“I’m Not Jesus”).

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Albums are rated on a scale of one star (poor), two stars (fair), three stars (good) and four stars (excellent). The albums are already released unless otherwise noted.