Jimmy’s mantra: Just do it

Jimmy Eat World

“Futures” (Interscope)

***

The cover of the Arizona band’s latest shows a young man standing perplexedly outside a grimy phone booth. A reluctant Clark Kent? Someone too emotionally paralyzed to reach out and touch? Or just a kid from the cellphone age who can’t figure out what this structure is all about?

It might be all three, representing music that addresses an age in need of heroics but in which taking even a first step seems daunting, a time when everyone is wired but meaningful communication is hard to come by.

The message is simple: Make that step. Make that call. Do something! Whether it’s a big-picture matter (the title song alludes to the presidential election) or more personal (“You’re just across the street / looks a mile to my feet,” sings Jim Adkins in “Kill”), this is all about getting over yourself and rising above petty complaints.

That stance has always set Jimmy Eat World apart from the whining emo bands with which it’s often inaccurately associated. “Bleed American,” the band’s breakthrough album, made that clear in 2001. Emboldened by that set’s success, the band worked with producer Gil Norton to expand its range on this follow-up. At times there’s an almost U2-like expansiveness in lushly atmospheric settings (“Night Drive”), while “Pain” and the closing “23” have a classic power-ballad feel, without pandering to mainstream tastes.

In the grand scheme these may seem like small steps. But just taking steps at all can be a big deal these days.

-- Steve Hochman

When one plus one doesn’t add up

R. Kelly and Jay-Z

“Unfinished Business” (Jive/Rock Land/Roc-A-Fella/Def Jam)

**

It takes a special kind of nerve to celebrate a collection of outtakes -- er, previously unreleased songs -- from one of the most infamous commercial duds of recent years. But that’s what Jay and R. do in the pump-up-the-party opening track here, imagining the ladies lining up and reciting a good part of their concert tour itinerary.

Given that the album’s 2002 predecessor, “Best of Both Worlds,” sold fewer than a million copies after being touted as a can’t-miss blockbuster, all this excitement rings a little hollow. Besides failing to combine the substantial sales power of its stars into the expected mega-draw, that album somehow managed to neutralize them artistically. And this collection of benchwarmers doesn’t do much to improve the chemistry.

Jay-Z occasionally flashes the authoritative rap that’s put him at the top of the field, but Kelly doesn’t offer anything close to the warmth and spirit of the R&B; and gospel of his recent double album, “Happy People.” The tracks, produced mainly by Tone of the Track Masters, bring some dynamism to the record, but it’s hard to get worked up by the tired lotharios-on-the-prowl scenarios: “Somebody’s girl is in my mansion.... Somebody’s girl is in my hot tub.”

Feel their pain.

-- Richard Cromelin

In intimate voice, a mother marvels

Celine Dion

“Miracle: A Celebration of New Life” (Epic)

**

Dion keeps her familiar histrionics in check in this album, which is the audio portion of a multimedia production that includes a separate book of photos by Anne Geddes and a DVD chronicling the making of the project. That’s all to the good, given the album’s theme, which is underscored by Madonna-and-infant-style liner photos of Dion holding babies posed in Geddes’ trademark flower settings.

Singing with less Vegas intensity and a touching intimacy, Dion produces some of her more engaging performances, especially in “Miracle,” Ewan MacColl’s folk classic “The First Time Ever I Saw Your Face” and John Lennon’s moving “Beautiful Boy.”

Even so, the combination of idealized music and photos at times verges toward sugar-high preciosity. Anyone with the temerity to criticize an album in which Dion (who is a parent) celebrates the joys of mother and child runs the risk of being lumped with the Grinch.

Still, amid all the packaged sweetness and light of “Miracle,” it would have been nice to have included -- even humorously -- a song or two honoring the 3 a.m. feedings, colic and diaper changes that are essential elements in the real-world miracle of motherhood.

-- Don Heckman

On the path from pain to wisdom

Leonard Cohen

“Dear Heather” (Columbia)

***

At last, Canada’s rock poet laureate crafts a party album destined to ingratiate him with today’s feel-good youth generation....

Just kidding.

At 70, the longtime champion of the romantically dispossessed isn’t changing his stripes, and why should he?

Few do pain, regret and longing better than Cohen, and in his second album of the new millennium he remains a master of the genre.

He shares songwriting duties with heady company, Lord Byron at the top of that list. He gives Byron’s “Go No More A-Roving” a ‘50s R&B-cum-smooth; jazz musical setting in which to explore the toll that time can exact on the heart and spirit.

But more than reveling in hurt, which can have its cathartic effect, Cohen uses the album to examine the wisdom that can accompany misfortune, for those who desire to find it.

Using the words of fellow Canadian poet Frank Scott’s “Villanelle for Our Time,” Cohen points the way to transcendence: “From bitter searching of the heart / Quickened with passion and with pain / We rise to play a greater part.... “

The closely miked recording also allows the listener to feel every sonorous breath and syllable that passes Cohen’s lips, that deep, rich bass-baritone somehow managing to remain audible even while dropping lower than Barry White’s.

-- Randy Lewis

A slick shot of ‘80s brash exuberance

Duran Duran

“Astronaut” (Epic)

**

When it comes to resuscitated ‘80s pop titans, Duran Duran is doing a lot better than Van Halen. Hey, at least this monster of blissfully silly new-wave rock got its original lineup back together -- first for a successful 25th anniversary tour and now for its first album in 21 years -- with singer Simon LeBon, guitarist Andy Taylor, keyboardist Nick Rhodes, bassist John Taylor and drummer Roger Taylor.

The quintet still packs that fey lyrical bent, pumping bass line and slick synth sound, but it maybe should have taken a cue from the Pixies who, despite a celebrated reunion tour, aren’t hurrying off to make another album.

“Astronaut” gets back to the group’s core blend of new wave, pop-rock and blue-eyed soul, but it isn’t likely to supplant earlier fan favorites. At a time when newer acts, from fringe to mainstream, are moving the band’s old ideas forward, Duran Duran needs to do more than just mix in the blips and bleeps of contemporary dance music to prove it has something to contribute.

Still, there’s a corny sweetness to the fluffy can-do anthem “(Reach Up for the) Sunrise,” the campy-sexy “Bedroom Toys” and the title track’s Bowie-esque sci-fi bop. The whooshing, midtempo “What Happens Tomorrow” even offers a timely reminder that optimism is powerful ... whether in love or in these uncertain days.

Natalie Nichols

Two wellsprings of inspiration

Various artists

“Norah Jones: Artist’s Choice” (Hear Music)

****

Various artists

“Emmylou Harris: Artist’s Choice” (Hear Music)

****

One of the intriguing things about Jones is that the exquisite young vocalist never took a singing lesson. So how did she acquire such taste and restraint in her handling of songs?

She did it by listening to other singers with taste, recognizing the value of understatement and subtlety. That realization runs all through the latest installment in the excellent “Artist’s Choice” series, which asks quality artists to select a dozen or so recordings that have touched or influenced them.

The series -- which also includes a new CD featuring recordings chosen by the equally captivating Harris -- works well because there is no need for commercial compromise. In picking the selections, the artists aren’t limited to music from a single record company or genre.

Jones’ list is wonderfully eclectic, touching on rock, country, R&B;, pop and jazz. The disc includes tracks by such artists as Ray Charles (“What Would I Do Without You”), the Band (“The Night They Drove Old Dixie Down”), Aretha Franklin (“Today I Sing the Blues”), Hank Williams (“Lovesick Blues”) and Billie Holiday (“What a Little Moonlight Can Do”).

In the liner notes, Jones tells how she first came across many of these records in her mother’s collection and recalls marveling at the songs or the singers’ voices.

Harris’ selections don’t define the country-based singer’s style as closely as the Jones album does hers, partly because Harris used her choices to salute some contemporary artists she thinks deserve more attention, including Gillian Welch (the only artist on both albums), Patti Scialfa, Steve Earle and Buddy & Julie Miller.

Still, it is wonderful listening. Harris, whose music evokes country, blues and rock influences, starts with Bruce Springsteen’s stark “Nebraska,” then proceeds through such colorful country tracks as Dolly Parton’s “Coat of Many Colors” and Merle Haggard’s “Big City” before touching on the gospel-blues of the Staple Singers’ “Uncloudy Day” and the choral rejoicing of the Ensemble of the Bulgarian Republic’s “Polegnala E Todora” (Theodora Is Dozing).

Both albums are remarkable artistic self-portraits, with almost every selection offering the emotional honesty that runs through the singers’ own music.

Hear Music is owned by Starbucks and the albums are sold through its shops, which means you can find them on just about every street corner. Harris’ CD is already in stores, while Jones’ is due Nov. 9.

-- Robert Hilburn

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.