CD Report

OK Go
OH NO
Capitol Records
When the Chicago-based quartet OK Go began recording its second album, ''Oh No," the band was given a ultimate, no-nonsense musical directive: ''You will go into a room together and you will rock," said powerhouse Swedish producer Tore Johansson (Franz Ferdinand, The Cardigans). And they did just that. The album manages to maintain the playful, power-pop spunk of the group's 2002 self-titled debut, which topped Billboard's Heatseekers chart, while unleashing a more sophisticated sound that teems with swirling guitars and sassy sarcasm. From album opener ''Invincible," the sound abounds with loping riffs, manic vocals, and coy harmonies framing lyrics like ''that crushing, crashing, atom-smashing, white-hot thing." While ''Do What You Want" has a joyous glam-rock sparkle, with shimmering percussion and mischievously campy vocals, ''Here It Goes Again" has a taut, radio-rock bounce that recalls the Cars. Falsetto vocals and a stripped-down groove turn ''Oh Lately It's So Quiet" into a sexed-up, R&B-flavored love song, while the album's sultry first single, ''A Million Ways," features a throbbing bass line and electric guitar. The band skewers pop culture on the punk anthem ''Television, Television." On this triumphant sophomore outing, OK Go manages to sharpen its songwriting without ever seeming self-conscious about it.
SARAH TOMLINSON

JC Hopkins Biggish Band
UNDERNEATH A BROOKLYN MOON featuring QUEEN ESTHER
Tigerlily Records
Somehow, this contemporary big band missed the quickly sparked, quickly spent swing revival of the 1990s, but that's quite all right. The 14-piece New York-based band isn't really interested in dusting off old Louis Jordan or Louis Prima songs and adding an ironic postmodern wink. All 10 tracks here are originals, written or co-written by bandleader and pianist Hopkins, but they're so complete, they glitter with polish of songs crafted a half-century ago. And whereas most of the neo-swing bands preferred the easy giddiness of jump blues, this multiracial, coed group displays a greater versatility and musicality that's no less exhilarating. A big boost comes from a guest turn by modern blues singer Queen Esther. She isn't a traditional jazz vocalist, but on ballads like ''I've Got My Finger on a Star" (co-written by up-and-coming jazz chanteuse Madeleine Peyroux) and the mid-tempo ''One Never Knows" (co-written by Norah Jones) she evokes the charmingly off-kilter cadences of Betty Carter or the clean sophistication of Carmen McRae. The title song is a romantic duet between Esther and Lewis ''Flip" Barnes, and the trick here is how the song has a retro feel without being overwhelmed by it. On ''Small Town," the band gets a workout with an extended instrumental opening before Esther and Barnes jump in with their playful vocals, and that insouciant mood also fuels the frolicsome ''Show Biz'ness." Inviting and invigorating, this is a winning album that gets better with every listen.
RENÉE GRAHAM

Bob Dylan
NO DIRECTION HOME: THE SOUNDTRACK
Columbia/Legacy
Each new dip into the Bob Dylan archives is treated like the search for the Holy Grail. This one is especially hyped because it is meant to accompany a Martin Scorsese DVD documentary on Dylan that goes on sale Sept. 20 and airs on PBS on Sept. 26-27. The producers note that this is not a traditional soundtrack because it takes many songs from the documentary and replaces them with alternate takes and rare live performances -- which is a shorthand way of saying that this is a classic hodgepodge. It's a two-CD collection -- the first acoustic, the second electric (the much better of the two). A whopping 26 of the 28 songs are presented in previously unreleased versions, but it's mostly for diehard collectors. The first CD is fraught with some bad sound recordings, though it purports to have the first original song Dylan ever did, ''When I Got Troubles," laid down on a high school friend's tape recorder in 1959. There are also some great live tracks (''Masters of War" and ''Blowin' in the Wind") from an appearance at New York's Town Hall in 1963, as well as a poignant but miscue-filled demo of ''Don't Think Twice, It's All Right." The superior music is on disc two, which features alternates takes from the albums ''Highway 61 Revisited" and ''Blonde on Blonde." These are powerful, especially ''Desolation Row," with just a trio of Dylan, Al Kooper, and Harvey Brooks. Likewise smoking is a live version of ''Maggie's Farm" from the Newport Folk Festival in 1965 (with Michael Bloomfield on guitar) and a couple of British Isles performances with Dylan and the Band, keyed by a nearly eight-minute ''Ballad of a Thin Man." Beware of the hype, but know that disc two makes this set worth purchasing if you're a Dylan nut.
STEVE MORSE

Tony Yayo
THOUGHTS OF A PREDICATE FELON
G-Unit/Interscope
Yayo, the third protege from the 50 Cent G-Unit camp, drops the weakest disc of the lot by far. The MC, notorious for doing hard time, would be expected to drop hard rhymes with fresh observations as to where he's been and what he's seen. Instead we get warmed-over cliches of gang banging and street life that seem lifted from a Cliffs Notes to Ice Cube or early Cypress Hill. Joints like ''Drama Setter" (featuring a particularly lame production from Eminem), ''Eastside Westside," and ''We Don't Give a [Expletive]," with Lloyd Banks helping out, are standard issue hip-hop without personality or insight. How can Yayo be serious with a track like the worn-out ode to weed on which he waxes weakly, ''I'm So High." It sounds like throwaway West Coast funk from the early '90s. The production, by a number of artists, tries to fill in the holes by providing the usual G-Unit bounce, and some cuts like the single ''So Seductive" and the flavaful ''Love My Style" have a kick. But ultimately, unlike Young Buck, who brought a blunt authority, or Banks, who showed some verbal virtuosity, Yayo offers little to the G-Unit canon.
KEN CAPOBIANCO

Daniel Lanois
BELLADONNA
Anti/Epitaph Records
Producer/guitarist Daniel Lanois bathed his previous release ''Shine" in grand musical textures, just as he did on his classic solo debut, ''Acadie," and on albums for U2, Bob Dylan, and Emmylou Harris. But even with contributions from Bono, the lyrics on ''Shine" often sounded too precious and over-reaching. On ''Belladonna," Lanois circumvents such complaints by cutting out his singing altogether. Starkly arranged, the disc's 13 songs form like clouds, floating through spiked counterpoint and cinematic themes that yield a sad, gorgeous serenity. Lanois, whose organic playing shines -- especially his prairie-dog pedal steel guitar work on ''Desert Rose" and ''Panorama," is joined by New Orleans' Brian Blade (drums) and Daryl Johnson (bass), plus pianist Brad Mehldau, guitarist Malcolm Burn, and others. Together they immerse ''Belladonna" in muted Mexican horns (''Agave"), yearning cowboy melodies (''Carla"), shortwave signals (''Telco"), and ethereal percolations (''Sketches"). The gentle melancholy sparkle of ''The Deadly Nightshade" is a Lanois trademark. Equally beautiful, and more bleak, is the delicate ''Dusty," even if it is only a minute and half long. But the stunner is ''Flametop Green," a guitar-piano duet that swamps one's emotions. Listeners with short attention spans may treat ''Belladona" like musical wallpaper, but it's their loss. Lanois succeeds where lyrics often fail. One of his poems is worth a thousand words. Lanois is at the Somerville Theatre on Oct. 6.
TRISTRAM LOZAW