Kathleen Edwards

“Asking For Flowers”

(Zoe/Rounder, March 2008)

Contemporary folk singer Kathleen Edwards brings some attitude and edge to her third effort, “Asking For Flowers,” with mostly good results.

Edwards, whose 2003 debut, “Failer,” won her critical favor, has penned some engaging tunes on this set. The best among them are those that show some vulnerability beneath the defiance, such as the title song, in which she sings, “Asking for flowers is like asking you to be nice. Don’t tell me you’re too tired, 10 years I’ve been working nights.”

In others, the tough-girl-born-from-adversity stance seems more like a pose she’s trying out, such as in “Sure As Sh–,” and “I Make The Dough, You Get The Glory,” which includes lines such as: “You’re cool and cred like Fogerty, I’m Elvis Presley in the ’70s. You’re the Concorde, I’m economy.”

The stellar backing musicians are just that – backing Edwards’ pleasant voice without really challenging it for center stage. Edwards might be nudged toward the Lucinda Williams end of the soul scale if she’d play with a looser, less-polished band that wasn’t afraid to rock out here and there. As it is, she often sounds closer to Karen Carpenter.

Still, “Asking For Flowers” is a cut or two above most contemporary folk and country because Edwards invests herself in her songs, even when her lyrics miss the mark. There’s no songwriting-by-the-numbers here. Instead, it’s clear the colors she chooses come from the heart, and that’s always worth listening to.

– TOM GROENING

Nine Inch Nails

“The Slip”

(Self-released)

Radiohead may have made the biggest waves in the brave new world of digital music distribution last year with its online, “pay what you want” release of “In Rainbows,” but it’s Nine Inch Nails mastermind Trent Reznor who has most fully embraced the possibilities of the Internet.

He releases multitrack files of his own songs for fans to take apart and remix; he put out a 36-song set of instrumental music called “Ghosts I-IV” through his own Web site, nin.com, earlier this year; and now he has surprised listeners with a new album less than three months after the release of “Ghosts,” a 10-song collection called “The Slip” which is currently available for free from the Nine Inch Nails site.

The excitement over Reznor’s enthusiasm for Net-based releases can often overshadow the music itself, so it’s fortunate that “The Slip” is one of the strongest Nine Inch Nails albums yet, combining the meditative instrumentals of the recent “Ghosts” project with some of the harshest guitar noise the band has cranked out since the “Broken” EP back in 1992.

A brief ambient sketch with chopped-up Reznor vocals leads straight into the vicious crunch of “1,000,000” and a triumphant return to live drums after the mostly programmed “Year Zero.” The lyrics drip with Reznor’s typical existential angst, but are delivered so forcefully that critiquing his writing style seems silly. NIN is here to rock you, not write rock poetry, and the band gets down to business on the frenetic thrash-along of “Head Down” and the twisted disco of “Discipline,” the latter being Reznor’s most danceable track since “Closer.”

“The Slip” is a satisfying addition to the NIN catalog, and hey, it’s free, so complaining would be sort of ungrateful. And at this rate, there should be another NIN record by August anyway. Right, Trent?

– TRAVIS GASS

The White Tie Affair

“Walk This Way”

(Slightly Dangerous/Epic)

At first listen, The White Tie Affair brings to mind The Knack, high praise indeed from any male who came of age in the late 1970s and early ’80s.

But that’s overly simplistic. Actually, the Chicago-bred quartet has managed to distill much of what is memorable about pop music over the past 30 years into this album.

The members of The White Tie Affair – vocalist Chris Wallace, guitarist Sean P, keyboardist-guitarist Ryan Hollywood and drummer Tim McLaughlin – are musical chameleons. Any new listener is going to be reminded of a different band, depending on the song and his or her perspective.

It’s hard to single out favorites from the uptempo “Walk This Way,” where sterling hooks abound and power ballads are absent. It’s got a good beat, and it’s easy to dance to.

The challenge comes now that the quartet has made this big splash with “Walk This Way.” The band has to develop its own distinct sound, which listeners can instantly identify as The White Tie Affair. Then it will truly have arrived.

– DALE McGARRIGLE

Portishead

“Third”

(Mercury)

Eleven years between albums is a long time (for anyone not named Axl Rose, at least). British trip-hop trio Portishead released its second album in 1997, toured the world, produced a stunning live album recorded in New York City, and then disappeared.

Burned out on the music industry and frustrated by the public perception of their dark, dramatic sound as chic dinner party or coffee shop music, vocalist Beth Gibbons, producer and multi-instrumentalist Geoff Barrow and guitarist Adrian Utley took an extended hiatus, working on individual projects before reconvening in 2005. Determined to move in a new direction, Portishead junked the jazz and hip-hop samples and scratching of its first two albums, replacing them with harsh electronics and noisy guitars.

The result is the stunning “Third,” a record that, much like Radiohead’s “Kid A,” successfully abandons the group’s trademark sound in favor of new sonic territory. The rumbling rhythm of opener “Silence” scarcely prepares you for the entrance of its mournful strings, droning guitar and Gibbons’ perennially wounded vocals. “Did you know what I lost? Do you know what I wanted?” she croons, as the song builds to a gorgeous but fraught climax and then abruptly cuts off, plunging the listener into the acoustic guitar melancholia of “Hunter.”

Portishead’s willingness to confound the listener’s expectations and take its songs in unusual directions, the defining feature of “Third,” is on full display in “The Rip,” which begins as a lo-fi lament with a sparse acoustic backdrop before blossoming into a beautiful electronic ballad.

By the end of “Third,” any preconceived notions you may have had about Portishead will be shattered. This album opens the doors for the band to go anywhere it wants, and it will be fascinating to see what it does next.

– TRAVIS GASS