Mindy Smith - Stupid Love
After the tasteful Southern-accented and acoustic-leaning sound of Mindy Smith’s first two albums, Stupid Love finds her dipping her toes into something closer to contemporary pop. Smith is a long, long way from transforming herself into Taylor Swift, but the snappy rhythms and percolating basslines on “Highs and Lows” and “Love Chases After Me” are a good bit more radio-friendly than Smith’s earlier work, and “What Love Can Do” recalls the muscular grace of classic era Fleetwood Mac, suggesting that she’s eager to play to a broader audience than she has in the past.

Cobra Starship - Hot Mess
Cobra Starship would likely be the first to agree if you were to call them a joke band. The goofball lyrics, the kitsch-en sink approach to the music, and the day-glo visual images they portray are the work of a band that doesn’t take itself seriously at all. The only point of contention would be whether the joke is funny and worth telling repeatedly, or if it’s an annoying one that may have been funny once but is now wearing itself thin. If you are in the latter camp, then Hot Mess will hold no appeal for you at all. The silly dance pop, lightweight emo pop, and generally irreverent approach to music will make you want to break the disc in half. On the other hand, if that list sounds good to you, then Hot Mess is just what you’ll want to be spinning on hot summer nights, late-night dance parties, and girl/boy’s nights out.

Jessie James - Jessie James
Forget all the marketing bluster and sampled banjo loops: Jessie James is in no way a country singer, she’s a Christina Aguilera wannabe in tight blue jeans and tall cowboy boots, belting out songs co-written by Kara DioGuardi and Katy Perry and constructed in ProTools. Like the girl-kissing Perry, James revels in creating the perception that she’s a sexy bad girl, leaning hard on single-entendre flirtations and shopworn jokes, stooping so low to pull out the classic “is that a gun in your pocket or are you just happy to see me” on “Bullet,” one of two cuts co-written by Perry. Jessie James manages to create some heat, but not enough to disguise how she, like her idols Xtina and Katy, is a complete show biz kid doing whatever she can to be a star.

The Rumble Strips - Welcome to the Walk Alone
For their second album, Welcome to the Walk Alone, the Rumble Strips hired Mark Ronson to produce. While it may have been a good idea from a commercial sense due to Ronson’s rep and track record, musically it did the Rumble Strips no favors, as he flattens the buoyant and rambunctious sound of their debut into something much slicker and reserved. He’s not all to blame, since the songs singer Charlie Waller and the rest of the band wrote are more thoughtful and melancholy and less bursting at the seams with energy and life.

George Strait - Twang
Tempting as it may be, Twang cannot be classified as a thematic counterpart to 2008’s Troubadour, an album that followed through on its rugged journeyman title. Once the opening title track twangs out of view, the album quickly veers toward the comfortably weathered balladeering that Strait has made his stock in trade for the better part of three decades now, quick enough to suggest that Twang might be little more than another reliably steady Strait record. To be sure, this is recognizably within his comfort zone — as always, when you do it as well as he does, there’s no need to change — but beneath that supple exterior there are a few surprises, chief among them the re-emergence of Strait the songwriter.

Various Artists - Woodstock: 40 Years On: Back to Yasgur’s Farm (Box Set)
In a year filled with them, Rhino offers its own homage to Woodstock’s 40th anniversary by rolling out this lavish six-CD box set. It can be argued that this is merely a cash-in, but a number of things should be considered when critically looking at a set of this size, covering one of the most important events in rock music history. Perhaps the most significant aspect of this set is that it contains tracks by almost every single artist who appeared on the Woodstock stage in their proper sequence. (The exceptions are the Band and Ten Years After as well as the introductory speech by Swami Satchidananda.) This challenges the assertion of the original soundtrack recording.

After Midnight Project - Let’s Build Something to Break
Gato Barbieri - Tropico
The Bottle Rockets - Lean Forward
Box Elders - Alice & Friends
Randy Brown - Welcome to My Room/Midnight Desire
Dave Brubeck & Paul Desmond - 1975: The Duets
Rodney Carrington - Make It Christmas
Cavo - Bright Nights Dark Days
Dead Swans - Sleep Walkers
Destroy All Monsters - 74-76
Devil’s Anvil - Hard Rock from the Middle East (Bonus Track)
The Dry Spells - Too Soon for Flowers
Fanny - Rock & Roll Survivors
Sue Foley - Queen Bee: The Antones Collection
Robben Ford - Soul on Ten
Marcia Griffiths - Play Me Sweet and Nice
The Jimi Hendrix Experience - Live 1968 Paris/Ottawa (CD)
The Herbaliser Band - Session 2
The Housemartins - London 0 Hull 4 (Deluxe Edition)
Tom Jones - Somethin’ ‘Bout You Baby I Like/Memories Don’t Leave Like People Do
Tom Jones - The Body and Soul of Tom Jones/Tom Jones Sings She’s a Lady
Tom Jones - Close Up/Tom
Dave Liebman & the Manhattan School of Music Jazz Orchestra - Sketches of Spain Live
Liverpool Scene - Amazing Adventures Of…
John Martyn - Solid Air (Deluxe Edition) (Bonus Tracks)
Imelda May - Love Tattoo
Malcolm Middleton - Waxing Gibbous
The Mojos - Everything’s Alright: The Complete Recordings
Willie Nelson - Lost Highway
New Christs - Gloria
Nisennenmondai - Destination Tokyo
The Proclaimers - Notes & Rhymes
The Reigning Sound - Love and Curses
Sailor - Third Step/Checkpoint
Buffy Sainte-Marie - Running for the Drum
Anna Ternheim - Leaving On a Mayday (Verve Bonus Track)
Hank Thompson - The Quintessential Hank Thompson 1948-1979
Merle Travis - Merle Travis Guitar/Walkin the Strings… Plus
Jim Turner - Jelly Roll Blues: A Tribute to Jelly Roll Morton
Grover Washington, Jr. - Reed Seed (2009)
Patrick Wolf - The Bachelor
Zap Pow - Revolution (Bonus Tracks)
Original Soundtrack - Bandslam (Original Soundtrack)