Trail of Dead’s new path

And You Will Know Us By the Trail of Dead

“Worlds Apart” (Interscope)

*** 1/2

When a rock band follows an album as spectacular as 2002’s “Source Tags and Codes” with equally thrilling live shows, you know it’s only a matter of time before it becomes the latest toast of rock, right?

Three years after Trail of Dead did that explosive album and tour, the Austin, Texas-spawned outfit is still waiting for the celebration to begin. “Sources” sold 100,000 copies, but that’s a ridiculously low number for a group with this much passion and imagination, especially in an age when most mainstream rock is so hollow.

What went wrong? Is the name too pretentious? Are radio programmers confused by the band’s art-metal underpinnings?

Rather than worry about all that, Trail of Dead returned to the studio and made an even stronger CD. “Worlds Apart” brings added focus and point of view to the fury and craft of “Sources,” exploring political and personal matters in ways that say goodbye to faded ideals while holding out for renewed hope.

“Remember all the bad dreams are not far from reality,” shouts guitarist-drummer and co-founder Conrad Keely in “Will You Smile Again for Me,” whose opening segment is so packed with Led Zeppelin-like assault that you’d think Jimmy Page and John Bonham had been reunited.

In the title track, the band employs a rowdy, new-wave/punk energy reminiscent of the Replacements to decry hypocrisy in the rock ‘n’ roll marketplace, including MTV. Next comes “Summer ‘91,” a look at youthful innocence with a melody as sweet as the best of Lennon-McCartney.

Not everything reaches these heights, but even Trail of Dead’s slightest moments speak with the purpose and ambition of genuine rock ‘n’ roll intellect and desire.

Even if the outlook is grim in places, including an unsettling portrait of the former King of Pop’s troubles, the album’s tone is balanced by the same sense of ultimate optimism and faith that has enriched great rock bands all the way back to the Who.

-- Robert Hilburn

A scattered and honed statement

Sage Francis

“A Healthy Distrust” (Epitaph)

*** 1/2

It’s cheeky of the Rhode Island rapper to start this album with a track titled “The Buzz Kill.” After all, it’s his own buzz that’s on the line with his first album with a high enough profile to test his stature as leader of the new rap underground. It’s as if he’s saying he knows the backlash is coming -- but also that he’s confident that he can beat it.

The confidence is justified. “A Healthy Distrust” (due in stores Tuesday) is at once stern and playful, wildly scattered and yet sharply honed by the artist’s sheer will and reach. Recalling such ‘80s standard-bearers as Public Enemy and KRS-One, he laments rap’s recent bling-blindness and mocks the knee-jerk rhetoric driving political dialogue. His wordy lyrics twist and turn down seemingly blind alleys before cohering into complex and compelling images that include a fanciful account of a celestial DJ battle, “Sun Vs. Moon.”

But this suburban product never affects black or urban postures. He quotes Bob Dylan and Neil Young in the liner notes, and the album closes with a sloppy, spirited tribute to Johnny Cash. The triumph may be “Sea Lion,” a collaboration with alt-country hero Will Oldham, whose downcast vocals accent Francis’ harsh soliloquy of self-doubt.

--Steve Hochman

Skill but not enough soul

Michael Buble

“It’s Time” (143 Records/Reprise)

** 1/2

Buble has the kind of good looks and smooth sound that could easily place him at the front of a Top 10 boy band. His choice to instead join the young revivalists of the Great American Songbook has earned him attractive record sales and a devoted following. But he hasn’t yet displayed anything that can be described as an authentic musical identity.

“It’s Time” (in stores Tuesday) is a case in point. It’s an album with a complete lack of focus, a collection that displays an extraordinary amount of vocal skill while almost never revealing the heart and soul of the singer.

Buble sounds like different performers on various tracks. His renderings of “A Foggy Day (In London Town)” and, especially, the karaoke-like version of “I’ve Got You Under My Skin,” are near parodies of Frank Sinatra, presumably included by producer David Foster to please the traditionalists in Buble’s audience.

Next time around he should focus on finding and revealing his own identity, as he does here in the sole original tune (written by Buble with Amy Foster-Gillies), “Home,” which in its country-style believability reveals more about his talent and potential than anything else on the CD.

-- Don Heckman

Clubbing through their starry lens

Erasure

“Nightbird” (Mute)

**

Plus ca change, plus c’est la meme chose. It’s been two decades since synthmaster Vince Clarke and crooner Andy Bell teamed up to bring gurgling, disco-ball-refracted micro-dramas to the world’s dance floors.

By consistently delivering romantic house and sparkly ballads, the British duo has maintained a presence on the dance charts (and occasionally grazed the pop charts). The shiny newness of their airy style has long worn off, but call it “electroclash” and it could be hipper than ever.

Well, almost. Erasure’s first studio album of originals in seven years is less erotically in-your-face than most electroclash, yet not as hard-hitting as modern house. “Nightbird” views the pleasures and pitfalls of clubbing through a starry lens that makes the sexual spiritual and the synthetic soulful.

The glassy pulsations of Clarke’s sonic machinery drive the music, but Bell’s soaring, sweet singing gives it heart -- and authenticity. He yearns eternal on such gauzy, throbbing numbers as “Here I Go Impossible Again” and “Breathe,” capturing the bliss of connecting and the heartbreak of isolation within that restless sphere of endless hookups.

But like any night of debauchery, however dreamily portrayed or recalled, things soon blur together. Each shimmering track lights a momentary spark, but the attraction proves fleeting.

Natalie Nichols

On the Web

To hear samples from Trail of Dead’s “Worlds Apart” and Sage Francis’ “A Healthy Distrust,” visit calendarlive.com/rack.

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.