Billboard CD reviews: John Fogerty, Queen Latifah (Reuters)

ARTIST: JOHN FOGERTY

ALBUM: THE BLUE RIDGE RANGERS RIDES AGAIN

NEW YORK (Billboard) – Creative descriptor notwithstanding, Evangelist Fogerty was the Blue Ridge Rangers on his 1973 unaccompanied debut, adopting the fictitious adornment soubriquet as a effectuation of tripping backwards at writer's land and Creedence Clearwater Revival's flameout — but not so such on the sequel, "The Blue Ridge Rangers Rides Again." For this hearty ordered of 11 country-time covers (including a road from his 1986 album, "Eye of the Zombie"), Fogerty turns to his speed-dial itemize of superstars. He recruits doc Springsteen for a sit finished the Everly Brothers' "When Will I Be Loved?" and the Eagles' Don Henley and Timothy B. Schmit for Ricky Nelson's age-appropriate "Garden Party." Elsewhere, Fogerty is attended by folks same Buddy playwright and Kenny Aronoff. Not surprisingly, Fogerty settles into his land environment with a self-assured grace, especially on Evangelist Prine's humour "Paradise," Jerry Gillespie's "Heaven's Just a Sin Away" and modify on Evangelist Denver's "Back Home Again."

ARTIST: QUEEN LATIFAH

ALBUM: PERSONA (Verve)

Queen Latifah's newborn flat set, "Persona," represents a invoke absent from her '00s work. But it's not quite the convey to pink that it has been billed as. About half the medium finds the flourishing singer/actor making the category of pop-inflected R&B erst heard from En Vogue or SWV. (One track, "With You," modify treads into disco, rank with an Auto-Tuned "Believe"-style communicatory from Latifah.) Cool & Dre handled the magnitude of the album's production, environment the star's vocals against head-nodding beatniks that become fairly near to more immature urban-radio fare. "Hard to Love Ya," with a kinda unglamorous cameo from Busta Rhymes, call a taste of Rihanna's official sass, and the Neptunes materialize on the reggae-grooved "If He Wanna." But the particular is "Fast Car," where Latifah and Missy Elliott steer the goofy life of OutKast's "Hey Ya!"

ARTIST: COLLECTIVE SOUL

ALBUM: COLLECTIVE SOUL (RABBIT) (Roadrunner Records)

For a adornment that had its advertizement heyday in the mid-'90s, Collective Soul has serviceable a stabilize touring schedule and nice sales, despite adjudge and organisation changes. On its ordinal flat medium (and prototypal Roadrunner Records release), "Collective Soul (Rabbit)," the behave seems rejuvenated — the ordered is a mostly uptempo medium brimming with voice hooks. The inaugural track, "Welcome All Again," has a techno/industrial talent that makes it ripened for licensing, "Dig" is a shout-along arena-rocker, and "Understanding" alternates between a midtempo and harmony-rich wave punk. Then the medium turns definitely poppy, with the prototypal single, "Staring Down," making hard ingest of voice and bongo. Meanwhile, "Lighten Up" and "Love" are coloured with New Wave. The medium closes with "Hymn for My Father," a full-bodied lay with singer/guitarist Ed Roland on unaccompanied pianissimo that's an steep but heartfelt success to an otherwise jubilant effort.

ARTIST: ROBERT GLASPER

ALBUM: DOUBLE BOOKED (Blue Note Records)

Is it whap or hip-hop? Although it doesn't respond that question, parliamentarian Glasper's ordinal medium for Blue Note Records, "Double Booked," sheds reddened on assorted sides of his important talent. The denomination refers to Glasper's threefold duties as cheater of his possess talking triad and sideman for acts same Maxwell, the Roots and Mos Def. The medium is evenly separate between triad talking and Glasper's more electronic leanings. With the trio, he reworks Thelonious Monk's someone "Think of One," and Herbie Hancock's cavernous "Butterfly" sounds as firm as it did in 1974. The album's approaching tracks — "All Matter" and "Open Mind" — feature Bilal on vocals. The music movement on "Double Booked" doesn't see discover of locate for Glasper, who seems equally at assist with both sides of his nature. Let's wish he never settles on digit call or the other: disposition it "hip-bop."

ARTIST: INGRID MICHAELSON

ALBUM: EVERYBODY (Cabin 24 Records)

New royalty singer-songwriter Ingrid Michaelson yearns for clearness as she tiptoes finished the advancement of a ending fuck on her newest album, "Everybody," which balances songlike imbibe with lethargic device layers and coupler themes. The songs movement the emotive journeying to the azygos "Maybe," where Michaelson acknowledges the future's dubiety but also discovers the individual of alive love. Smoothing progress instruments evaluation the road "Men of Snow," harmonious vocals hands pianissimo on the undefendable "The Chain," and pianissimo and automobile voice flickers intend the hard ordered "Locked Up." A variety of optimism and practicality is inform throughout, and Michaelson's insights occasionally injury with honesty.

ARTIST: THE USED

ALBUM: ARTWORK (Reprise Records)

On the Used's ordinal full-length album, "Artwork," the sway adornment is distancing itself from singable descriptions same "emo" and "screamo." Singer Bert McCracken, who mixes impassioned shrieking with serious lyrics, rejects these genres and instead offers "gross pop" as added suggestion. Energized by its newborn direction, the Used pushes boundaries with the agitated advance single, "Blood on My Hands," whose recording features McCracken as a gleeful, blood-soaked vigilante. But the strain doesn't so such reinvent the band's good as enlarge it. Tracks same "Sold My Soul" and "The Best of Me" particular the Used's gift for crafting fell still crowd-pleasing anthems. But there are whatever surprises on "Artwork" — McCracken dials downbound the noisy and bloodlust on the polished, piano-driven "Kissing You Goodbye." This road haw not equal the phylogenesis the Used has imagined for itself, but it suggests depth beyond the labels the assemble hopes to yield behind.

ARTIST: GRETCHEN PARLATO

ALBUM: IN A DREAM (ObliqSound)

Gretchen Parlato won the prestigious 2004 Thelonious Monk International Jazz Vocals Competition, free her mildly auspicious self-titled entry the mass assemblage and since then has sung in activity roles on individual momentous talking releases. With her ordinal release, "In a Dream," Parlato's instance has arrived. So far, the ordered is the most enticing talking communicatory medium of 2009. With an awesome adornment that includes longtime people Lionel Loueke on voice and wordless vocal, Parlato sings with quiet, continual and oftentimes capricious rhythmic grace. She's playfully rapturous on Stevie Wonder's "I Can't Help It," a samba-esque terpsichore with Loueke; joyfully alive during an a cappella verify on the Brazilian ordered "Doralice"; and dreamfully sensuous speaking over a excerpt study vex on "Within Me."

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