The Broken West:
Team America,
they ain’t.

the grooves threaten to get really sensual, as if he’s afraid of sounding too trashy. For every brain-twisting delight like “Four Three,” in which guest singer Selena Cross and a real live string section add tantalizing warmth, there’s a track of pale electronica that wouldn’t even disturb Grandma’s afternoon nap. JON YOUNG

Cajmere vs. Green Velvet Ministry of Sound Sessions ⁵ AMAZON Caught in the middle of a dance-floor showdown

Akon

Hear the one about the house DJ with a split personality? He was so conflicted and confused that he decided to do battle with himself on record. So on disc one, Chicagoan Curtis Jones indulges his deep-house alter ego, Cajmere, with gospel-derived vocals and loping disco-funk grooves, while on the other half his snarling techno persona, Green Velvet, mocks trendy kids (on the club classics “Flash” and “La La Land”) over stark, harder-driving beats and spacier synths. The winner? You, the listener. MICHAELANGELO MATOS

Konvicted

ITUNES MYSPACE

Ex-con crooner balances
his macho tendencies

“Smack That” featuring Eminem) are undercut by thoughtful songs of remorse and vulnerability (“Tired of Runnin’,” written while he served a three-year stint in jail). Akon’s warm, nasal voice comes close to floating away in a wash of half-hearted machismo and cloudy thinking, but snatches of melodica, strutting piano, and lightly toasted reggae grooves keep the album firmly rooted. DAVID MARCHESE

All India Radio Echo Other ITUNES MYSPACE Attention, insomniacs, your cure has arrived

 

This sophomore disc from the Senegal-born/Atlanta-based singer, songwriter, and producer works like a backpacker’s version of a tough-guy hip-hop album. Played-out G-funk braggadocio and bedroom boasting (the hit single

Lonesome sagebrush guitar meets swirling deep-space technology during the high points of this Australian trio’s fourth album, suggesting a futuristic spaghetti western. But curiously, leader Martin Kennedy decides to retreat into New Age blandness whenever

The Broken West
I Can’t Go On,
I’ll Go On ⁵
ITUNES MYSPACE
Foot-stomping power pop,
straight from the recycling bin
When an album gets its title
from ultrableak playwright
Samuel Beckett, you expect
to suffer through the plaints of
a suicidal folkie or a bunch of
pathetic art rockers. Instead,
Los Angeles quintet the Broken
West (formerly the Brokedown)
craft good ol’ unironic pop on
their debut full-length, proudly
echoing everyone from the
Beatles to Big Star to Matthew
Sweet. Drunk on ringing
guitars, crashing drums, and
swooning harmonies, singer
Ross Flournoy and crew try to
compensate for their shortage
of fresh ideas with boundless
enthusiasm—and almost pull
it off. JON YOUNG

The Evens
Get Evens ⁵
ITUNES MYSPACE
Punk legend explores his
quieter, slightly off-key side
Now two records in, this lo-fi
duo—led by former Fugazi
and Minor Threat screamer Ian
MacKaye—continue to make
charming albums while simply
shrugging at their own limita-

Call Him Ishmael
Another chapter of hip-hop’s Great American Novel
If he snitches,
he’ll be sleeping
with the, um...
Ghostface Killah
More Fish
ITUNES MYSPACE
is “Stones From Greece,” a bizarre
account of a man who claims that
Jamie Foxx cheated him out of credit
for the script of Ray.

Though its title suggests a bunch of extras and alternate takes, More Fish is anything but an only-for-Ghostface-nerds toss-off. Released just nine months after the splatter-paint beauty of Fishscale, Tony Starks’ second album of 2006 is as lean and compact as its predecessor was expansive. It’s another dimension of Ghost’s genius and arguably his most consistent collection since 2000’s Supreme Clientele.

As always, Ghostface spits reams of pause-and-rewind color commentary, like “My P. O. is part Creole…I move from Dallas to Philly just like T. O.,” or random exclamations like, “I’m a fisherman, I own this lake!” The producers—MF Doom, Madlib, others—

As always, Ghostface spits
reams of pause-and-rewind
color commentary.

More Fish is, for the most part, an omnibus of story-songs, with the Wu-Tang MC spinning ornately plotted but tightly delivered tales about everything from global drug-pushing (“Miguel Sanchez”) to the glories of card playing (the Rounders-sampling “Pokerface”). The awe-inspiring peak

provide remarkably focused tracks, whether they feature in-the-red drum loops (the entire beat from Rakim’s “Juice [Know the Ledge]” gets sampled) or glistening R&B instrumentation that sounds straight out of The Best of Ashford & Simpson. They’re all a perfect canvas for Ghost’s staggering murals. CHRIS R YAN

FROM TOP: COURTESY MERGE RECORDS; COURTESY DEF JAM RECORDING

 

2 JANUARY 2007 WWW.SPIN.COM