Mixing romance, restraint

Josh Groban

“Closer” (Reprise)

** 1/2

The young L.A. singer and his mentor, producer David Foster, struck a platinum vein two years ago with his 3.5-million-selling debut album, tapping an audience pretty much ignored by the music industry: fans of the heroic pop tenor.

Groban and Foster are smart enough not to fix what isn’t broken, and his sophomore album (in stores Tuesday) consists of another batch of richly orchestrated ballads d’amor, about half sung English, the others in such Romance languages as Italian, Spanish and French.

Singers in this field tend to pour on the syrup, so it’s refreshing that Groban opts for restraint as often as he does with his dark, pitch-perfect voice. Without reading translations, most of his audience won’t know the specifics of what he’s singing in the foreign-language songs. But that makes him even more effective as Josh Groban, International Man of Romantic Mystery.

The single “You Raise Me Up” is a magnificently sung message of thanks to one’s source of inspiration, though melodically it sounds like the shotgun marriage of “Danny Boy” and “Wind Beneath My Wings.” That’s one instance in which his song selection isn’t as astute as, say, Bette Midler when she’s on a roll.

Imagine what a voice like this might do with some really killer material by Leonard Cohen, Joni Mitchell or Bob Dylan.

-- Randy Lewis

Building blocks at work again

Al Green

“I Can’t Stop” (Blue Note)

***

The tricky thing about this album is that most of the pop fans who will be excited about this great soul singer’s reteaming with Memphis, Tenn., producer Willie Mitchell will be comparing it with standards that are almost impossible to meet.

All the building blocks of that team’s classic ‘70s singles such as “Tired of Being Alone” and “Let’s Stay Together” are back in this album, which will be released Nov. 18. In the opening track alone, Green shows off all the vocal licks that made him such a celebrated singer.

Without being unduly showy, Green is as fluid a vocalist as James Brown was a dancer. He’s teasing, then sensual, then gruff; moving with ease from a semi-whisper to a burst of falsetto.

But neither the material (written or co-written by Green) nor the arrangements come alive because the album tries to recapture a time rather than place Green in a contemporary setting the way, say, fellow soul singer Solomon Burke did in last year’s “Don’t Give Up on Me.”

Anyone hearing Green for the first time, however, may be impatient with any such criticisms. Even in these pale surroundings, Green is one of the wonders of the modern pop era.

-- Robert Hilburn

Sleepy Jackson dreams of old days

The Sleepy Jackson

“Lovers” (Astralwerks)

***

The retro movement continues as Luke Steele, the brains behind this Australian rock entry, takes us through all sorts of ‘60s and ‘70s touchstones in an entertaining and promising debut album. It’s as if he, like Jack White and the Hives, has become so weary of ‘90s rock that he went back to the pioneering days of the music to figure out what once made it so captivating.

The album sometimes echoes Steele’s tastes in fairly literal terms (the Mick Jagger snarl in “Vampire Racecourse” and the gently weeping George Harrison guitar on “Good Dancers”), but he also mixes and matches the influences (“Rain Falls for Wind” suggests how Leonard Cohen might have sounded if he had joined a psychedelic band rather than sticking with the solo role).

Mostly, though, Steele has been inspired by the country-rock movement, tipping his hat at various places in the album to Gram Parsons, the Byrds and the “Nashville Skyline” days of Bob Dylan.

The production work is so primitive and the songs themselves often so skeletal that much of album feels like demo tracks. If Steele sounds like a musician still searching for his voice, however, he’s looking in all the right places. The group plays the Knitting Factory Hollywood on Nov. 21.

R.H.

*

Quick spins

A glance at other albums of interest.

“The Very Best of Sheryl Crow” (A&M;): The singer-songwriter’s first career retrospective covers 17 songs, including her new recording of Cat Stevens’ “The First Cut Is the Deepest.”

Linkin Park, “Live in Texas” (WEA): A two-disc set, one CD and one DVD, featuring a full performance from the Lone Star state, backstage footage and other extras. In stores Nov. 18.

Robert Plant, “Sixty Six to Timbuktu” (Atlantic): A two-CD set with solo outings from Led Zeppelin’s singer includes album tracks, rarities and previously unreleased material.

Pearl Jam, “Lost Dogs” (Sony): Rarities abound in this 31-song, two-disc set of B-sides and non-studio album recordings for benefit collections and soundtracks. In stores Tuesday.

Bon Jovi, “The Left Feels Right: Greatest Hits With a Twist” (Island): Largely acoustic reworked versions of many of the Jersey band’s best-known songs.

“Pieces of April” soundtrack (Nonesuch): The quirky comedy features songs old and new by acclaimed indie auteur Stephin Merritt.

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.