Editor’s Note: In Sound Advice, the first Saturday of every month, veteran NEWS entertainment writer Dale McGarrigle, former British music-press writer Adam Corrigan, NEWS sportswriter and rock buff Andrew Neff and a revolving stable of NEWS writers review new albums from across the musical spectrum.

“Worlds Apart” (Interscope) – … And You Will Know Us By the Trail of the Dead

Wow, just typing in the band’s name takes up most of the space I have here to review them. Good thing the striking – albeit ominous – moniker pretty well sums up the Austin, Texas, outfit’s sound: brooding, arty, post-punk rock teetering between elegant melodics and apocalyptic guitar-fuzz. Oh, and did I mention pianos?

Certainly, it would seem almost impossible to pull this all together into anything close to listenable. But on “Worlds Apart,” the band’s second major-label LP, Trail of the Dead’s members (now pared down to the trio of Kevin Allen, Conrad Keely and Jason Reece) prove they have the smarts and skill to do it – and do it well.

Like their now-defunct Texas brethren, At the Drive-In, Trail of the Dead have all the energy, aggression and attitude of punk while bending the boundaries of the genre, transcending beyond just three-chord songs with a sneer.

The epic “Caterwaul” swirls with layers of guitars battling over piano and drums. On the short but sweet “To Russia My Homeland,” the guitars are ditched altogether in favor of a full-out violin-led chamber music piece. All the oohs and ahs of a female chorus on the piano-driven “All White” bring to mind shades of Pink Floyd’s “Dark Side.”

“Worlds Apart” is a sprawling album rife with violent-yet-beautiful songs and dark atmospherics. But then, given the name, what else could one expect? – George Bragdon

“Futures” (Interscope) – Jimmy Eat World

The ultimate test to determine an album’s overall solidity is whether you can listen to all, or most, of it. The more you skip or fast forward over selections, the less the album’s overall depth.

Although I’ve always liked Jimmy Eat World, my personal knock on them is that all their albums have one thing in common: one to three good or exceptional cuts mixed in among a bunch of “skippable” ones. Depth had not been a strong point, but Futures has ended that trend in a big way.

While travelling from Burlington, Vt., last month, I not only listened to the entire CD – all 11 tracks – not once, not twice, but three times. Of course, it was white-knuckle driving in the middle of a snowstorm and I wanted both hands on the wheel, but still, the last album I enjoyed that thoroughly might have been Foreigner “4” (yeah, I know, I’m dating myself).

Anyway, “Pain” and “Work” are the highlights, but there’s plenty more here to please the ears. Hopefully, “Futures” heralds the future direction of Jimmy Eat World’s sound. – Andrew Neff

“Dream” (Still Waters Recordings/TMG) – BeBe Winans

As a member of gospel music’s first family, who has won four Grammys and 10 Dove Awards, BeBe Winans doesn’t really need a breakthrough album.

Still, “Dream” is that recording, an uplifting blend of the secular and the spiritual, much of it issuing from Winans’ own pen.

“Dream,” his fourth solo album, was written during a time of upheaval for Winans (ne Benjamin), during which he got divorced, slimmed down and re-energized his acting career. He opened up and put his feelings from that period on paper, and the listeners benefit from this cleansing.

Winans wrote 10 of 12 cuts on the album and also offers his rendition of his friend Amy Grant’s “So Glad.” He also had an unusual collaborator on “I Have a Dream,” putting Martin Luther King’s landmark 1963 speech to music, with segments of the oration included.

Winans takes his silky baritone and steps outside the gospel box with a smooth blend of pop and old-school soul that will still appeal to his Christian fans and yet will help others find a new appreciation for his music.

Winans’ crossover dreams will come true thanks to “Dream.” – Dale McGarrigle

“All For Believing” E.P. (Reprise) – Missy Higgins

“We R In Need Of A Musical Revolution” E.P. (Reprise) – Esthero

Missy Higgins may have won Rolling Stone Australia’s artist of the year award and already has Australia’s equivalent of a Grammy on the shelf, but that doesn’t alter the fact that “All For Believing” is dull. The title track features vocals that breathily ebb and flow beneath a tiptoeing piano a la Tori Amos. Her pretty-but-unremarkable voice floats past, leaving an impression that you’ve been listening to music, but has offered nothing to hang on to.

Then, when she does cut loose a little, the result is “Scar,” which comes across as something Natalie Imbruglia might have played a couple of years back.

Meanwhile, Toronto-born Esthero is a sturdier prospect, you may remember her from last year’s club hit “O.G. Bitch.” And she does come out of the blocks quickly with “We’re In Need Of A Musical Revolution” – a demand for more diversity in the music world, with less Britney and Ashanti. However as the song wears on, you hope she doesn’t want to replace them with stuff like this.

But better times are available here on the Bjork-like “Amber and Tiger’s Eye,” and most notably on tracks co-written with Sean Lennon: the breezy, horn punctuated “Everyday is a Holiday” and the ubercool loose jazz of “This Lull-a-Bye.”

Esthero has a full-length offering slated for release later this month. – Adam Corrigan