Elvis Costello & Allen Toussaint
“The River in Reverse”
NEW ORLEANS R&B|Verve, released today
With Costello and Toussaint sharing the songwriting and playing, this album is a shoo-in as a late-career bloom for both music legends.
Costello has waxed prolific lately, but this subtle work, laden with B3 organ, is his most significant project since 2002’s “When I Was Cruel.” Toussaint, who penned R&B hits “Working in a Coalmine,” “Get Out of My Life Woman” and “Everything I Do Gonh Be Funky (From Now On),” has performed for five decades, going back to his days with producer Dave Bartholomew laying down tracks at recording sessions for Fats Domino.
Their collaborations are special, including “Broken Promise Land,” an accomplishment as soulful as it is playful, and “The Sharpest Thorn.” But the most moving track on this sweeping, gospel-influenced disc is Toussaint’s “All These Things,” a lush homage to the music of his ’60s heyday. |Ricardo Baca
Drag the River
“It’s Crazy”
INDIE COUNTRY|Suburban Home Records, released today
The mournful steel guitars that wind through “It’s Crazy,” the latest disc from Fort Collins’ Drag the River, tie the album together like a barbed wire bow. Singers Chad Price and Jon Snodgrass expertly trade gruff, melodic vocals from song to song, often recalling John Hiatt or Big Head Todd & the Monsters. This is fairly straight-up, traditional country music that employs tight punk rock dynamics and experience gained from painful, whiskey-soaked nights. The band plays a CD-release show Friday at the Larimer Lounge. |John Wenzel
Rose Hill Drive
“Rose Hill Drive”
GUITAR ROCK|Megaforce Records/Sci Fidelity, released today
One of Colorado’s best bets to follow The Fray into the mainstream is Rose Hill Drive, a Boulder power trio that has performed at storied places like Bonnaroo and Austin City Limits without ever releasing a CD. Their eponymous debut EP contains exactly four songs, all of which sizzle with a distorted, bluesy soul. The interplay of bent notes and Jake Sproul’s sneering vocals on EP highlight “Man on Fire” should be enough to tide fans over until Rose Hill’s first full-length album drops July 22. |John Wenzel
Various Artists
“Cars: Original Soundtrack”
POP/COUNTRY|Megaforce Records/Sci Fidelity, released today
On the soundtrack to this computer-animated film about talking cars, grizzled composer Randy Newman again handles the score while pop-country luminaries Sheryl Crow and Brad Paisley provide new songs. The disc glides along smoothly until crashing headlong into Rascal Flatts’ insufferable cover of “Life Is a Highway.” |John Wenzel
Other releases today:
Zero 7, “The Garden” (Atlantic) Producers Henry Binns and Sam Hardaker are back with more lush down-tempo compositions. Vocalists this time are Binns, Jose Gonzalez and Sia Furler, who has worked with the duo on previous projects.
Cheap Trick, “Rockford” (Big 3) The champions of power-pop return with this, a record that is surprisingly on-point and faithful to the formula that made them (kinda) famous.
