CD Report

CHEMICAL CITY
Secret Brain/Fontana
Montreal-based Sam Roberts (sometimes credited as the Sam Roberts Band) is something of an anomaly: a classic rocker in an indie-rock world. "I Was Born in a Flame," the singer-guitarist's superb debut, was an invigorating blast of hard-rocking pop, awash in big guitars, chewy melodies, and smart arrangements that blew the cobwebs off of bands like Free, Thin Lizzy, and Humble Pie and polished the sound into something shiny and new. The expansive rock landscape of "Chemical City" takes the equation even further. In fact, with its recurring themes of travel and dislocation, and a million luscious sonic embellishments and details (intros, codas, tracks that dissolve into one another), Roberts's rewarding sophomore effort has the feel of a concept album of sorts. The psychedelic set piece "The Gate", which opens the disc, sets a high bar of intent and atmosphere, but Roberts and his cohorts keep pace with the breezy, folk-rock clap-along of ``Bridge to Nowhere" and the spiky guitar pop of ``With a Bullet." In Roberts's hands, a wistful, strings-drenched ballad like the sweetly gorgeous ``Uprising Down Under" feels effortless. Occasionally, the singer's penchant for dense, multiple-verse musing inflates otherwise sharp pop tunes to epic proportions, but that said, it is refreshing when a songwriter actually has something to say, as well as play. Sam Roberts is at T.T. the Bear's on June 17.
ESSENTIAL TRACK: ``The Gate."
span class="signer">JONATHAN PERRY

AMERICAN IDOL: SEASON 5 ENCORES
19 Recordings/Sony BMG
Like most things associated with ``American Idol," the companion album to the show's just-concluded fifth season is virtually critic proof. And like most things that are critic proof, ``Encores" isn't very good and couldn't care less. There's one song from each of the 12 finalists (and, for the first time in the franchise's history, no group performance) but no rhyme or reason to the selections or styles: Lisa Tucker's ``Signed, Sealed, Delivered (I'm Yours)" sounds like Radio Disney, Chris Daughtry's ``Wanted Dead or Alive" and Mandisa's ``I'm Every Woman" are strictly by the numbers, and the smart money says that when you want to hear ``When I Fall in Love," Kevin Covais's doe-eyed version isn't the one you'll be reaching for. Faring better are first-eliminated Melissa McGhee (stuck applying her pleasantly husky voice to Heart's ``What About Love") and Elliott Yamin, whose jazzy ``Moody's Mood for Love" revisits the moment when the designated everyman became a legitimate contender. But for a show that throws around the word ``karaoke" as a pejorative, the backing arrangements are astonishingly antiseptic, especially on Kellie Pickler's ``Walkin' After Midnight" and Katharine McPhee's pep-rally version of Aretha Franklin's ``Think." The only track that comes out sounding like an actual song is winner Taylor Hicks's straightforward take on the Doobie Brothers' ``Takin' It to the Streets." Looks like America picked the right guy.
ESSENTIAL TRACK: ``Takin' It to the Streets."
MARC HIRSH

STRANGE CONVERSATION
Signature Sounds
Many topics inspire songs: war, love, yellow submarines. For local singer/songwriter Kris Delmhorst, a chance encounter with a Robert Browning poem, and the fact that she had already penned the sultry blues rocker ``Water Water," based on Robert Herrick's 1648 poem, ``Scare-Fire," led to an entire album of poem-inspired songs. ``Strange Conversation" is the fourth album for Delmhorst, who came up in the Cambridge folk scene and recorded 2001's ``Five Stories" and 2003's ``Songs for a Hurricane" with Morphine's Billy Conway. As she did with Conway, Delmhorst creates a moody sound. Her sweet, sleepy vocals, which sometimes recall Lucinda Williams, keep the album fresh and relaxed, and without the pretense a less experienced songsmith might have brought to the project. ``We'll Go No More A-Roving," from Lord Byron's poem of the same name, has a bluesy melancholy laced with lap steel guitar. ``Invisible Choir," from George Eliot's ``The Choir Invisible" is a Dixie jazz romp. Delmhorst fully owns each poem she uses. So, even for listeners who don't know each song's genesis, the album is an assured model of sophisticated songwriting and heartfelt musicianship. Kris Delmhorst plays with the Wood Brothers at Somerville Theatre tomorrow night at 8.
ESSENTIAL TRACK: ``We'll Go No More A-Roving."
SARAH TOMLINSON

BLOOD MONEY
G-Unit/Interscope
Mobb Deep has always flown under the radar. Here is their stab at mainstream exposure as they drop their first disc as members of 50 Cent's G-Unit. It's a surprisingly flat affair. You'd think the duo of Prodigy and Havoc would come out with all verbal guns blazing to make the many new listeners understand why they are held in such esteem in some circles. Their power has always been in the visceral nature of their verse--no lyrical finesse for these guys--but here it's apparent there's a lack of inspiration in the rhymes. Prodigy especially seems like he's lost a step over the years as some of his couplets are downright lazy (check the supremely slack ``Capital P, Capital H"). This makes things more problematic because Mobb's subject matter has always been limited to dark street scenarios. Of course, 50, who executive produces, hauls out the G-Unit members to help, and they provide mixed thrills. Young Buck shows up to juice the obvious club banger, ``Give It to Me," but it's missing Mobb flavor. 50 mixes well with the duo on the sinister ``Creep," ``Pearly Gates" (finding the MCs negotiating their entrance to heaven), the blunt, bumping ``The Infamous," and ``It's Alright," which gets a shot of soul from Mary J. Blige. But when they are clicking, Havoc, who produces the best tracks here, and Prodigy are better than what they show on this disc. Folks getting their first dose of Mobb music need instead to pick up 1995's ``The Infamous" pronto."
ESSENTIAL TRACK: ``It's Alright."
KEN CAPOBIANCO

A HUNDRED MILES OFF
Record Collection
The Walkmen's third CD is a raw nerve of cold detachment and wrenching passion. Walkmen business as usual, perhaps, but ``A Hundred Miles Off" is no mere retread of the band's recent glories. The quintet broadens its familiar mix of hard drums and jangling guitars and keyboards to explore a broader palette. Singer Hamilton Leithauser's engaging raspy voice occasionally softens on songs such as the sweet and breezy "Louisiana," an unexpected Tex-Mex-flavored number with a finale that brings in bold blaring horns. But in more emotionally barren moments such as "Danny's at the Wedding" -- a ravaged beat poem with a despairing low pulse -- and the speedy "Tenleytown," Leithauser's tone is brittle. An instant standout in this solid set, ``Lost in Boston" matches a slinky guitar riff with a lilting lyric that rhymes "Boston" with "exhausted" to create a deliciously haunted urban anthem. The Walkmen play at Avalon on June 29.
ESSENTIAL TRACK: "Lost in Boston."
LINDA LABAN