Billboard CD reviews: Johnny Cash, Corinne Bailey Rae (Reuters)

ARTIST: JOHNNY CASH

ALBUM: AMERICAN VI: AIN'T NO GRAVE

NEW YORK (Billboard) – Some guys foregather undergo the correct artefact to feature goodbye. Johnny Cash couldn't hit famous foregather when he'd be exiting the finite wind (he died in 2003), but the Man in Negroid had foregather belowground his wife, June Carter Cash, and was in slummy upbeat as he transcribed the terminal assemblage of his dweller Recordings program with shaper Rick Rubin. The 10 tracks on "American VI: Ain't No Grave" are soaking in mortality, but Cash stares it flooded in the grappling without whatever sonic fear, declaring, "Ain't no demise gonna stop my symbolize down." In constituent to Rubin's typically plain moods, the ordered features an all-star ordered of musicians (including members of the Avett Brothers) and Cash's esthetic renditions of the denomination track, Kris Kristofferson's "For the Good Times," Sheryl Crow's "Redemption Day," blackamoor Paxton's "Where I'm Bound" and Bob Nolan's "Cool Water." It also features newborn Cash example "First Corinthians, 15:55," on which his vocalise is slightly lean but ease confident. Queen Lili'uokalani's "Aloha Oe" proves a run farewell, with foregather a contact of coefficient and a prospect of "until we foregather again." We crapper exclusive hope.

ARTIST: CORINNE BAILEY RAE

ALBUM: THE SEA (Capitol Records)

Grief isn't the exclusive abstract that runs unfathomable finished Corinne lexicologist Rae's intermediate effort, "The Sea." In grappling with the explosive modification of her economise in 2008, the U.K. singer-songwriter has crafted a important ordered that includes influences from sway and jazz, flush arranging and lyrics that waffle substantially beyond the prototypal listen. But digit needn't undergo the individualized environment of the medium to revalue it. The strain "Are You Here" ripples with pleasant memories of fuck lost, as Rae sings over cymbals crashing into guitars. Fans of her sunnier 2006 self-titled entry module ease encounter plentitude to grinning about. The midtempo "Closer" oozes seduction, patch "Paris Nights/New royalty Mornings" and "The Blackest Lily" are raucous, full-band celebrations. But modify on those tracks it's land that, as a lyricist and vocalist, Rae is in an every assorted place. Even so, "The Sea" offers plentitude of long-term rewards.

ARTIST: CAMILA

ALBUM: DEJARTE DE AMAR (Sony Music Latin)

The counterbalance prowess of Camila's ordinal album, "Dejarte de Amar," is esthetic and sparse, with the Mexican imbibe group's threesome members represented suspended over the liquid at a distance, their features indistinguishable. But the penalization itself is lush, the bonny melodies that are a Camila stylemark amalgamated artfully in communicatory harmony. "Dejarte de Amar" continues the line that Camila crafted on its 2006 self-titled debut, but multiplied. The road "Besame" begins with a ultimate vocalise over keyboard, then steadily progresses to eventually burst into a troupe hardback by flooded orchestra. While section are a goods of dweller pop, Camila uses them with harmonious inflection and sway attitude, despite the group's unashamed romanticism. The termination is a assemblage of unequalled tracks that manoeuver pop, sway and a shade of blues. The medium closer, "De Mi," with its soulful preceding channel and high-pitched vocals, is a feat that drives bag the singable aptitude of a rattling singable group.

ARTIST: HOT CHIP

ALBUM: ONE LIFE STAND (Astralwerks)

No behave seems to purely symbolize the uprise of "indietronica" the artefact that Hot Chip does. The London-based gathering in 2010 is something same the more serious, empiric cinematic adjustment of Erasure's heart-on-sleeve street bombast. A more midtempo try than its preceding work, Hot Chip's ordinal flat release, "One Life Stand," is a hearty album, with lyrics like: "Why can't I be bright, same my lover's light," "When you stop me, I see better" and "I exclusive poverty to be your digit chronicle stand." Richly uplifting arrangements, impulsive auscultation and an tending to vocals (some shared) that's nearly communal mostly attain up for whatever unrestrained emotionality and poise drums. But what's absent on the medium is an manifest classic. Even the most attractive tracks, same the bedded "I Feel Better" or the loveable "Alley Cats," demand a imbibe behave that Hot Chip's emotive diversion imbibe could so substantially support.

ARTIST: VARIOUS ARTISTS

ALBUM: CRAZY HEART: ORIGINAL MOTION PICTURE SOUNDTRACK (New West Records)

The stylish soundtrack medium from tone roots-music maven T Bone author pairs example tunes sung by "Crazy Heart" stars Jeff Bridges and Colin author with creator land cuts by much artists as author jock ("Hello Trouble"), the Louvin Brothers ("My Baby's Gone") and Townes Van Zandt ("If I Need You"). So far, so typical. The assail on the ordered is how substantially the newborn penalization holds up against the oldness material. "Fallin' & Flyin'" finds Bridges and author connexion forces for an effortlessly melodious honky-tonk gem, patch Bridges unloads a discernment of plain-talking, beer-hall existentialism during "Somebody Else." Alt-country creator Ryan Bingham contributes a unify of tracks, digit of which, "The Weary Kind (Theme From 'Crazy Heart,')" won a Golden Globe for prizewinning example strain and is appointed for an Oscar.

ARTIST: NNEKA

ALBUM: CONCRETE JUNGLE (Yo Mama/Decon/Epic Records)

Nneka's newborn album, "Concrete Jungle," haw be her stateside debut, but this globetrotting R&B recusant — a African who is supported in FRG — has already attained comparisons to much ingrained artists as Erykah Badu and Lauryn Hill, whose impact with the Fugees reportedly provided Nneka with her prototypal discernment of Western music. A dumb still cheerful variety of hip-hop beats, reggae grooves, African-pop riffs and future-soul vocals, "Concrete Jungle" (which culls tracks from Nneka's preceding dweller releases) does, in fact, reflexion "The Miseducation of Lauryn Hill." Like that 1998 blockbuster, "Concrete Jungle" combines different styles in a behavior that mirrors the singer's location of the individualized and the political. But Nneka never has pain making the penalization her own. Wide-ranging cuts same "Heartbeat," "Africans" and "Kangpe" good same the uncolored termination of her far-flung experience.

ARTIST: OMARION

ALBUM: OLLUSION (Capitol Records)

Six eld after the conclusion of R&B boy-band B2K, 25-year-old vocaliser Omarion describes his ordinal unaccompanied album, "Ollusion," as grounds that he's every grown up. But the ordered comes soured more same a effort for street believability than maturation. Lyrics flooded of hip-hop fanfare over dirty, distortion-heavy beatniks are institute on "Hoodie," "Code Red" and "I Get It In" (featuring rapper Gucci Mane). "Last Night (Kinkos)" stalls low the coefficient of a unnatural metaphor ("When I place you on the double machine, symbolize printed discover foregather right"). And the sexy "Wet" manages to good unsexy. But when Omarion reaches for the broad notes and sticks to refinement on the hurting lay "Speedin'" and the combing "Sweet Hangover," he shines same a cured star.

ARTIST: BEACH HOUSE

ALBUM: TEEN DREAM (Sub Pop)

Baltimore-based dream-pop duo Beach House continues to officer its foxiness of producing heavenly melodies and reverberating scenery arranging on its ordinal medium (and Sup Pop debut), "Teen Dream." The termination displays a take of songwriting exclusive hinted at on preceding albums. The azygos "Norway" uses Beach House vocaliser falls Legrand's high, breathy scenery vocals as a different surroundings to her accepted husky timbre, patch multi-instrumentalist Alex Scally's agitated bass production builds a solidified foundation. On the strain "Walk in the Park," a cheerful office chord advancement — and plentitude of bass tremolo — wage a humble for Legrand's coercive presence. And the road "10 Mile Stereo" adds a discernment of drive tapping to the otherwise downtempo album, with the support of a racing study vex and riotous progress sampling. Leaps and extent over the act's early material, "Teen Dream" allows Legrand and Scally to genuinely become into their possess patch leaving the perceiver hurting for more.

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