Steve Earle - Townes
In his brief liner sketch on this album of Townes Van Zandt covers, songwriter Steve Earle writes: “I always read everything Townes told me to read. All of us did; we who followed him around, or simply bided our time in places along his migratory path, for we were indeed a cult, in the strictest sense of the word, with Townes at its ever shifting center.” While what it was he read isn’t worth spoiling here, it’s the last part of that long sentence that really matters. Van Zandt inspired a cult, and an even bigger list of pale imitators. Earle may lionize the man and the artist (hence the tribute record), and may have even begun as an imitator, but he became something else entirely — an iconoclastic (and iconic) artist and producer in his own right who can interpret these songs as such.

Green Day - 21st Century Breakdown
American Idiot was a rarity of the 21st century: a bona fide four-quadrant hit, earning critical and commercial respect, roping in new fans young and old alike. It was so big it turned Green Day into something it had never been before — respected, serious rockers, something they were never considered during their first flight of success with Dookie. It also ratcheted up high expectations for its successor, and Green Day consciously plays toward those expectations on 2009’s 21st Century Breakdown, another political rock opera that isn’t an explicit sequel but could easily be mistaken for one, especially as its narrative follows a young couple through the wilderness of modern urban America. Heady stuff, but like the best rock operas, the concept doesn’t get in the way of the music, which is a bit of an accomplishment because 21st Century Breakdown leaves behin d the punchy ’60s Who fascination for Queen and ’70s Who, giving this more than its share of pomp and circumstance.

Maxïmo Park - Quicken the Heart
Maximo Park worked with producer Nick Launay on Quicken the Heart, and he steers the band away from Our Earthly Pleasures‘ slickness and toward a slightly rawer, guitar-based sound that recalls A Certain Trigger. Yet Quicken the Heart isn’t as accessible as their debut — not because the band is taking experimental risks, but because too often, the hooks and melodies don’t jump out as they have before. “Wraithlike” is an exception, crashing in on sirens and emphatic drums, but other songs that aim for high drama fall short.

Paul Wall - Fast Life
Having launched his career with truck rumbling weekend numbers, Paul Wall learns on his third album that growing old gracefully is hard to do, especially when you’re considered more a party starter than a wordsmith. Fast Life opens and closes with two epic and reflective numbers that are admirable enough, but they don’t seem nearly as genuine as “Daddy Wasn’t Home,” the moving story of Wall’s broken family and the one time the rapper’s execution is right in step with his ambition. The drastic transition to the following bit of debauchery, “Pop One of These” with Too Short, points out the album’s difficulty in blending Wall’s good and bad sides, but the real problem here is with the plentiful B-plus material, which has no grand anchor of SwishaHouse perfection like “Sittin’ Sidewayz” or “Break Em’ Off” do.

The Amazing Rhythm Aces - Their Very Best
Anvil - Forged in Fire
Arctic Monkeys - At the Apollo
Better Than Ezra - Plays Paper Empire
Bricolage - Bricolage
Cam’ron - Crime Pays
Children - Hard Times Hanging at the End of the World
The Church - Untitled #23
The Stanley Clarke Trio - Jazz in the Garden
The Crystal Method - Divided by Night
James Luther Dickinson - Dinosaurs Run in Circles
DJ Vadim - U Can’t Lurn Imaginashun
Candy Dulfer - Funked Up!
Jeremy Enigk - OK Bear
Hanne Hukkelberg - Blood from a Stone
Kid606 - Shout at the Döner
Kiki - Kaiku
The Louvin Brothers - Tragic Songs of Life
Manic Street Preachers - Journal for Plague Lovers
Meat Puppets - Sewn Together
Alecia Nugent - Hillbilly Goddess
Ann Peebles - I Can’t Stand the Rain
Peppermint Trolley Company - Beautiful Sun
Prins Thomas - Live at Robert Johnson
Hikaru Utada - This Is the One
Wooden Birds - Magnolia
Various Artists - Kitsune Tabloid