Chris Willman
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Sara Watkins CD Review: Fiddling While ‘Sun Midnight Sun’ Burns Brilliantly
A Fiona Apple duet and songs by Willie Nelson and Dan Wilson help ex-Nickel Creek member Sara Watkins come up with the year's best Americana album
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‘Smash’ Soundtrack Review: Everything’s Coming Up Skimpy
The curiously short soundtrack is a sampler that particularly stiffs fans of the Marilyn Monroe-themed show-within-a-show "Smash"
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George Harrison Review: ‘Early Takes’ Puts a Gorgeous, Stripped-Down Spin on ‘All Things’
The ex-Beatle's demos and early takes from "All Things Must Pass" offer a stripped-down alternative to the Phil Spector treatment they got in 1970
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Carrie Underwood Review: ‘Blown Away’ Doesn’t Kick Up More Than a Breeze
Although she's in typically expert vocal form, Underwood doesn't offer much sense of a real emotional or musical personality on her scattershot fourth album
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Jack White CD Review: ‘Blunderbuss’ Spins Gold Out of Girl Trouble
White’s first solo album has a bit of a bad attitude about women, even as his all-female band helps drive the diversified rockers home
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Carole King Review: ‘Legendary Demos’ Honors a ’60s Recording Career That Never Was
King’s album of pre-“Tapestry” classics proves she could’ve ruled as a singer as well as songwriter in the ’60s, too
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Jason Mraz CD Review: Severely Laid-Back ‘Love’ Makes Elevator Music Seem Downbeat
Jason Mraz abandons all attempts at pop-rap playfulness in favor of trying to revive easy-listening as an artform
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Train CD Review: ‘California 37’ Derails With Wacked-Out Wordplay
Pat Monahan has gone off the rails since writing 2001’s “Drops of Jupiter”
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Bonnie Raitt Review: For World-Weary Fans, ‘Slipstream’ Arrives in the Nick of Time
On her first album in seven years, Raitt splits the difference between quiet covers of Dylan’s most depressing ballads and reviving that greasy, slide-guitar-fueled, “Thing Called Love” spirit
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Monica Review: ‘New Life’ Makes the Ex-’90s Teen Queen Sound Sleepy Before Her Time
It’s admirable that Monica wants to act her age (31) and eschew hip-hop for R&B. But just one up-tempo club banger wouldn’t have killed this collection of droopy ballads
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‘Locked Down’ Review: A Giddy, Vintage Sound From the Good Doc
Black Keys’ Dan Auerbach produced Dr. John’s “Locked Down,” an album rife with late ’60s flourishes and a Big Easy vibe
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Nicki Minaj Review: ‘Roman Reloaded’ Is a Hot-Pink Mess
Nicki Minaj’s second album is full of adventurous hip-hop for its first third. Then it turns into the season’s least interesting, most bloated dance-pop record
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All-American Rejects Experience Growing Pains on ‘Kids in the Street’
Reaching for maturity on an uneven fourth album, the former pop-punk band All-American Rejects sacrifices too much spunk
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Lionel Richie Goes Barely Country for ‘Tuskegee’
Only Sugarland’s Jennifer Nettles cuts through the smooth-pop clutter in their duet on “Hello”
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Madonna Review: ‘MDNA’ Has a Great Beat and You Can Pay Alimony To It
Madonna becomes the Material Matron on her latest album “MDNA.” It’s two-thirds disco thumper, one-third divorce diary