Some thoughts on Lisa Marie Presley: “Too bad she ain’t just like her daddy/Oh what a shame/She got no talent of her own/It’s just her name.”

No, that’s not our review. That’s Presley anticipating (or reviving) some of the conventional/cynical wisdom about her musical career in “Sticks and Stones,” a bonus track on the deluxe version of her new album, “Storm & Grace.” She even refers to her own possibly hereditary pout: “She looks bad, she looks mad … Why’s she so angry and mean?”

Why ask why? Although the “angry” part kind of holds true on...

Lest they take over Dick Clark’s old title as the “world’s oldest teenagers,” some of the “Glee” kids are finally graduating (from high school, if not the series). Lea Michele and cohorts will exit William McKinley High in May 22’s tassel-tossing season finale, but first comes this week’s release of “Glee: The Graduation Album,” a complete set of celebratory and/or valedictory songs.

Well, nearly complete. Unfortunately, these aging young ‘uns never get around to “My Way.” But the grads do cover sentimental life-lesson anthems ranging from Jason Mraz’s “I Won’t Give Up” to Madonna’s “I’ll Remember,” with a puckish time out for Puck to revive a token rocker, Alice Cooper’s “School’s Out.”

The song selection is, by and large...

There’s an old adage that goes “Leave ‘em wanting more,” and although that may not be a specifically Broadway or TV adage, it’s been adopted for the “Smash” soundtrack album, which solves the problem of whether to fill the disc up with pop covers or musical-comedy originals by not offering enough of either.

Another five-letter S-word would seem to apply: s-k-i-m-p.

For the first eight numbers on “The Music of Smash,” you get the “Glee” side of the series, with Katharine McPhee, Megan Hilty, and other cast members running through contemporary hits by the likes of Christina Aguilera,...

It’s a good thing you can’t judge a book by its sleeve art, because Carrie Underwood’s fourth album, “Blown Away,” arrives this week bearing one of the tackiest country music album covers of all time – a ludicrously airbrushed portrait that dares you not to focus on Underwood’s gleaming, Angelina-like right gam while the star gazes into the distance like a fembot on a romance-novel jacket.

It’s a relief to find the music inside is better ... sometimes, much better. Yet over 14 wildly disparate tracks, you may feel flummoxed trying to get a handle on just who Underwood is. Just when you think you might have a...