”Something to Be” well-crafted effort

Rob Thomas

“Something to Be” (Melisma/Atlantic) •• 1/2

Rob Thomas’ solo career is off to a fast start with his debut album’s catchy first single, “Lonely No More,” which departs from the Matchbox Twenty formula and touches down in boy band terrain: dance beats, infectious pop hook and a “whoa-oh-oh!” refrain.

Memo to songwriters: When struggling to bait a hook, just throw in a few “Whoa-oh-ohs!” Works every time.

It certainly worked for Jon Bon Jovi, and Thomas is nothing if not the second coming of Bon Jovi. Both are surefooted craftsmen of rather lightweight music, both are popular with the masses but not with the critics, both aren’t hard on the eyes, and both have reedy voices.

On the DVD side of this new-format DualDisc, we get to see a chain-smoking Thomas laying down a vocal track in the studio – which is about as much fun as watching cars move during rush hour.

But the well-crafted, if unexceptional, “Something to Be” still trumps his band’s best efforts. Thomas steps outside the Matchbox to adopt some exotic instrumentation and reveals more colors than his group managed.

Howard Cohen, Miami Herald

Eels

“Blinking Lights And Other Revelations” (Vagrant) ••••

Don’t be put off by the length or the subject matter of Eels’ latest release. It’s a two-CD set that totals about 90 minutes and deals with some big topics: birth, love, pain, confusion, death and the understanding and acceptance of all of the above.

The results are an immensely personal and highly listenable pop masterpiece – a glimpse into the fertile mind of Eels leader Mark Oliver Everett.

If the pervading mood is often a mixture of melancholy and anxiety, it’s more than understandable; over the space of five years, Everett lost his mother to cancer, his sister committed suicide and a cousin died in the plane that hit the Pentagon on 9/11.

What makes “Blinking Lights” a joy, not a downer, is the skillful and cathartic way Everett writes about his brightest and darkest moments. A judicious sprinkling of strings, horns, celeste and mellotron creates tons of variety and atmosphere throughout the album, which includes guest appearances by Tom Waits, R.E.M’s Peter Buck and the Lovin’ Spoonful’s John Sebastian.

Martin Bandyke, Detroit Free Press

Amerie

“Touch” (Sony) •••

Amerie’s light but supple soprano brings to mind the kind of adjectives you might hear in a commercial for citrus-scented shampoo: silky, tangy, lustrous.

It’s the kind of voice that a less-savvy singer might have wasted on sappy ballads, but on her sophomore CD, Amerie applies it to more groove-driven material.

Not every number approaches the feral, funky heights reached on the title track or “Talkin’ About,” but this budding diva knows how to make even a little lather go a long way.

Elysa Gardner, USA Today

Loudon Wainwright III

“Here Come the Choppers” (Sovereign Artists) •••

Martha Wainwright

“Martha Wainwright” (Zoe) •• 1/2

After ransacking his own family for material for decades, Loudon Wainwright III gets it right back at him on daughter Martha’s self-titled debut album, in a song that he inspired – but whose title can’t be printed in a family newspaper.

But Wainwright, also the father of Rufus and ex of Kate McGarrigle, is not deterred. His own “Here Come the Choppers” is a predictable LW3 affair, full of sharply observed songs both wry and unstinting.

There are touching remembrances of his grandparents, an analysis of his motive in winning his daughter’s love (“Make Your Mother Mad”) and a hard-eyed look at the fallout of divorce in “When You Leave” (“The skin you save is growing slack /Those you left don’t want you back”).

Martha, 29, inherits the family frankness. Her album is rife with songs such as “Ball and Chain” that brandish raw wounds. But while she has a lovely voice, her folk-based songs need to get over on their lyrical content – and sometimes don’t succeed as a result of her outlandish operatic ambitions.

Still, “Martha Wainwright” is a promising start, one which might seem even more impressive were it not faced with such formidable competition from within her own bloodline.

Dan DeLuca, Philadelphia Inquirer