Two-fisted punch to the heart

Ryan Adams & the Cardinals

“Cold Roses” (Lost Highway)

* * *

Forget the Joneses -- in the realm of 21st century singer-songwriters, it’s all about keeping up with the Obersts.

Ryan Adams’ place as the new millennium’s critical darling has been usurped of late by Bright Eyes’ Conor Oberst, but on this new band outing, Adams answers Oberst’s recent one-two punch -- a pair of lauded, simultaneously released albums -- with a powerful double CD of his own.

Following several solo ventures, the former Whiskeytown frontman is working with a new, country-rock-leaning quartet that helps him zero in on the nexus of the Gram Parsons-era Flying Burrito Brothers, Grateful Dead and the Band. They lay down a moody, often melancholy yet stately foundation for Adams’ most focused offering in a long time.

Tracking the ups (few) and downs (many) of love, these 18 songs create a near-existential rumination on the struggle for happiness, an overarching but not overbearing theme he explores in scenarios tangibly temporal in some cases, ethereally allegorical in others.

Several songs open up into Dead-like jams, though most clock in under six minutes. It all leads toward a hard-won realization in the penultimate song, “Life Is Beautiful,” that pain and pleasure are but two sides of the same coin.

Randy Lewis

*

He continues to blossom

Robert Plant and the Strange Sensation

“Mighty Rearranger” (Sanctuary)

*** 1/2

Robert PLANT is a rarity: an epic classic-rock figure who’s less interested in his past than in the next new thing. So he has spent the last quarter-century mostly reaching beyond the margins of Led Zeppelin, championing young bands and working to create new sounds of his own. But he remains at his best when somehow combining both sides of his musical soul, stepping forward while looking back, still steeped in blues and mysticism while remaining an active man of tomorrow.

It’s no surprise, then, that “Shine It All Around” is the album’s most powerful and immediate track precisely because it is undeniably Zeppelinesque and bathed in rich postmodern textures both timeless and new.

Plant has his own band of young musicians now, and they’re far from immune to Zep’s old charms. The combination of youthful energy and historical awareness is a perfect fit for Plant, who returns again and again to the sounds of North Africa and the Mississippi Delta for infinite inspiration.

He has a lighter touch now, usually preferring the slow, emotional burn of “The Enchanter” and “All the King’s Horses” to outright explosiveness, though he remains an otherworldly blues shouter elsewhere, master of a searing hothouse wail. Plant had one of the most distinctive voices of the ‘70s. And albums like this should remind fans he’s worth hearing once again.

Steve Appleford

*

Staying soft around the edges

Dave Matthews Band

“Stand Up” (RCA)

** 1/2

The Dave Matthews Band has long been a joy for some, an irritant to others, musically gifted yet too often self-indulgent. The band’s albums tend to be less about songs than chops and Matthews’ persona of smoothness and warmth. But his 2003 solo album, the otherwise uneven “Some Devil,” still showed increased focus and power, even straying occasionally into darkness. Now the experience seems to have guided the bandleader to trim back on the noodling that’s hobbled DMB in the past.

The album opens with Matthews purring like Peter Gabriel on the promising “Dreamgirl,” and sounding right at home. Other arrangements are also more satisfying, beginning with a wailing sax melody on “Stand Up (for It).” That soon gives way to a lengthy instrumental intro to “American Baby,” which begins with a lonely piano melody set against the found sounds of gunfire -- a juxtaposition full of emotion and implication.

But Matthews is still inclined to soften the rougher edges, more lover than fighter (“The first time I kissed you, I lost my legs”), drifting into smooth R&B; or the island flavors of “Old Dirt Hill.” Pleasant enough for dinner music or your next jam-band fest, but anyone encouraged by the grit of “Some Devil” will find far less of it here.

S.A.

*

A heartbeat of uneven rhythm

Weezer

“Make Believe” (Geffen)

** 1/2

Few bands can claim the kind of rabid-yet-critical fan base belonging to this Los Angeles group. That’s surely both a blessing and a curse for the quartet when it comes to putting out new material.

Fueled by the inner struggles of enigmatic singer and lead songwriter Rivers Cuomo, the band’s subtly charismatic, consummately catchy and ironic pop-rock has vacillated between brilliant and bland since it first seeped into the hearts of pop culture geeks and angsty adolescents with its self-titled debut (known as “the blue album”) back in 1994.

The band’s gift for melody and quirky lyricism has seen its following grow beyond the emo-kid demographic, but Cuomo’s extended breaks from the band and his dabblings in moody atmospherics and metal/mosh madness didn’t always resonate with fans or on radio. Thanks to clean and insightful production from Rick Rubin, that won’t be an issue on the band’s fifth release, “Make Believe.”

Still, the result is uneven. Meandering between rhythm-driven grinds about relationships (“Pardon Me”), wimpy outsider laments (“Freak Me Out”) and off-the-wall anthems that don’t know whether to celebrate or denigrate success and excess (the giddy if cliched single “Beverly Hills”), “Make Believe” replaces much of the wit and rawness of previous albums with a more observational, heartfelt tone.

Cuomo groupies will probably love it, but those still waiting for the zesty pop magic that first made ‘em the kings of nerd cool will definitely have stuff to scoff at on the Weezer message board.

Lina Lecaro

*

Jonesing for listener feedback

Mike Jones

“Who Is Mike Jones?” (Swishahouse/Asylum/

Warner Bros.)

* * *

A single listen to this likable Houston rapper’s first nationally distributed album and one thing becomes clear: Jones believes in self-promotion. In the album’s “Intro,” for instance, he announces the title of his next album (“The American Dream”) and gives out his cellphone number (something he does in several of the album’s 15 songs), urging listeners to give him a call. Talk about a hands-on approach with fans.

The direct method has worked well for Jones, whose good-natured rap attitude and ability to pick a spectacular array of beats has allowed him to be one of the few Houston rappers ever to break nationally (this album just entered the national album chart at No. 3). Others from this Texas city often write sophomoric raps about materialistic pursuits and rhyme over cheesy synthesizer beats, a trap Jones stumbles into only occasionally.

The rest of the album demonstrates why Jones has become one of the year’s hottest rappers. “Still Tippin’,” also featuring fellow Houston rhymers Slim Thug and Paul Wall, is a spectacular slice of braggadocio served up over a mesmerizing beat accentuated by a whiny violin. Jones humorously addresses his rise to stardom on the catchy, organ-driven “Back Then” and gives hypnotic nods to the “screwed,” slowed-down music popular in Texas on “Got It Sewed Up (remix),” standouts on a superb album.

Soren Baker

*

Paying homage to ‘70s Britpop

Louis XIV

“The Best Little Secrets Are Kept” (Pineapple/Atlantic)

** * 1/2

Simple is good. Raw is nice. And this isn’t even punk rock. Louis XIV is a quartet of San Diego boys aping the sound of pure ‘70s swagger and riffraff lifted right out of T-Rex and Angus Young, strutting out of the garage and into some glittery platform shoes.

Jason Hill sings in a sneering Ziggy Stardust patois: taunting, flaunting, twitchy, bitchy, priceless, worthless and up to no good. Half the album is Hill shopping for chicks (“Finding Out True Love Is Blind,” “Pledge of Allegiance”), with the same sexual seething and borderline misogyny Mick Jagger once did so well. But while his women do come in flavors (“chocolate,” “vanilla,” “carrot juice,” etc.), the words fall just short of “Some Girls” outrage, which is wise in 2005.

On “Illegal Tender,” band members take the U.K. worship a step further by trading lyrics in exaggerated fey British accents. (If it worked for Green Day, it shouldn’t bother you now.) It’s the guitars that do the heavy lifting, with Hill and Brian Karscig riffing and gliding with the same ease and crunchy nastiness as the Hives or the Spiders From Mars. Rock this dirty and graceful is a rare and decadent indulgence. Cheap, tawdry and fun. (Docked half a star for being about nothing at all.)

S.A.

*

Albums are rated on a scale of one star (poor) to four stars (excellent). The albums are already released unless otherwise noted.