Little Honey (Lost Highway)

IN LAST YEAR'S WEST, Lucinda Williams turned her grief to her advantage, crafting some of the most intense songs of her career following the loss of her mother and a failed relationship. Now she's in a new one, with co-producer Tom Overby (the other producer is Eric Liljestrand), and things are looking up: Little Honey is bubbling over with unrequited love, bliss and optimism. There's nary a trace of the depression and resignation that marked West. For much of Little Honey, she makes much out of little. "Real Love," the opener, cranks right into a Stones/Zep riff and a declaration: "I found my love I've been looking for, it's a real love." Sophomoric? Maybe. But then sometimes the best love songs needn't say more. cont. 

Rocking The Cradle: Egypt 1978 (Rhino)

Creedence Clearwater Revival

Bayou Country

Green River

Willy and the Poor Boys

Cosmo's Factory

Pendulum

(Fantasy) 

For a while there, 1969-70 to be precise, Creedence Clearwater Revival was the most popular band in America, and they reached that lofty height by flaunting just about every rule of the time that there was to to flaunt. When most rock bands were extending beyond the roots of rock psychedelicizing, if you will--singer/songwriter/guitarist John Fogerty (who, let's be frank here, was Creedence), his rhythm guitarist brother Tom, bassist Stu Cook and drummer Doug Clifford celebrated the simple, the tight and the succinct. They cranked out a string of hit singles, starting with "Proud Mary" and continuing with "Bad Moon Rising", "Green River," "Travelin' Band" and several other classic rock staples (four of which reached No. 2--they never topped the charts), while simultaneously appealing to the FM radio/Woodstock crowd. cont. 

Furr (Sub Pop)

Some bands announce their influences and obsessions too plainly. As impressive as it is, we don't need any more artists slavishly emulating The Beach Boys or The Stooges. That's what's amazing about Blitzen Trapper's fourth record: this sextet from Portland, Oregon, seems to have assimilated the classics. They've gobbled up and internalized the canon. The Hollies, Townes Van Zandt, The Beatles, Rod Stewart, The Band, Beefheart, Tom Petty, Stealers Wheel, The Flaming Lips, Dylan, T. Rex, Pavement, R.E.M. It's all in there on these tracks which can summon folk-rock and glam and indie rock all in one smooth and strangely un-jumbled mix. And when they throw a smidge of something that sounds like Brazilian organ funk from the '70s, it just feels as natural as could be. With its strange frontier folklore, Americana-tinged psychedelia and mystical storytelling--complete with giant birds, monkeys with midgets on their backs, the voices of angels and shootouts in border towns--it's a bit like The White Album expertly whittled down to 38 minutes.