THE GRASCALS

"Keep On Walkin'"

(Rounder)

The Grascals jumped to the top of the bluegrass world as soon as the six-piece band released its 2005 debut. The group won consecutive Entertainer of the Year honors at he International Bluegrass Music Association Awards, and each of its two previous albums earned Grammy nominations.

"Keep On Walkin'," the group's third album, deepens the Grascals' trademark blend of bluegrass roots and hard-country themes. Still a young band, the Grascals nonetheless are an experienced bunch. Terry Eldredge, Jamie Johnson, Jimmy Mattingly, Terry Smith, Danny Roberts and new banjo player Aaron McDaris, before starting their band, logged time with top bluegrass acts the Osborne Brothers and Larry Cordle as well as with country stars Garth Brooks and Dolly Parton, among others.

The Grascals put their spin on songs from the repertoire of Country Music Hall of Famers George Jones ("Choices") and Merle Haggard ("Today I Started Loving You Again") as well as bluegrass legends Flatt & Scruggs ("Rollin' In My Sweet Baby's Arms") and the Osbornes ("Can't You Hear That Whistle Blow").

But the group is at its best when drawing on favorite contemporary writers like Aubrey Holt ("Sad Wind Sighs") and Harley Allen ("Remembering"), which shows how strong this tight-knit combo sounds when building a repertoire of their own.

CHECK THIS OUT: The go-for-broke "Happy Go Lucky" breaks modern bluegrass' moral constraints with a song that celebrates drinking, gambling and loving as worthy, wild-eyed pursuits.

ALBERT HAMMOND JR.

"Como Te Llama?"

(Black Seal)

Tired of waiting for The Strokes to get around to that next album? Need a fix?

Strokes guitarist Albert Hammond Jr. leaps into the void with "Como Te Llama?," an offbeat march into very un-Strokesian territory (it's his second solo release since The Strokes last record 2006). You'll get the dose of jangly guitar and insistent drum lines you might expect in Hammond's latest, but he layers on strings and keys and ideas that don't fit neatly into a 31/2-minute box.

Songs on this follow up to 2006's "Yours to Keep" come in two types. Roughly half the album is long-form Guided By Voices, an homage to indie rock's prolific poet prince, Robert Pollard.

The threatening guitar line, pushed along by a ticky-tack snare on "Rocket," would fit right in on GBV's minimalist "Alien Lanes." And he echoes the vocal delivery and grandiosity of Pollard's later work in "In My Room" and "The Boss Americana."

In the uneven second group Hammond veers away into a strange land of reggae beats and introspective arrangements. These songs are far more experimental than anything you'd find on a Strokes album and even the weaker pieces have interesting accents.

For example, the instrumental "Spooky Couch" has some very nice interplay between two guitars, a forlorn cello adding atmosphere and a few piano flourishes from guest Sean Lennon. But it's overlong by half and feels out of place. It's followed by "Borrowed Time," which veers unsteadily between mock reggae and some impressive power pop guitar work that might have been reworked into something impressive but feels needlessly thrown away.

Overall, though, Hammond proves with "Como Te Llama?" he's relevant as a solo artist and worth our time.

CHECK THIS OUT: With it's syrupy drum machine beat, bouncy bass line, angular guitar and spacey keys, "Lisa" stands out. The song is layered lushly and Hammond skips along on guitar while laying down a reverb-drenched vocal that's among the album's most assured and gripping. And like most of the album it gets more interesting with each listen.

RANDY TRAVIS

"Around The Bend"

(Warner Bros.)

When '80s country star Randy Travis mounted a successful comeback in 2002, he did so by singing gospel music to a country beat, a gambit he repeated over several successive albums. Therefore, his solid new album, "Around The Bend," is being billed as his first country music album in eight years.

In truth, he doesn't completely abandon spiritual themes; "Faith In You," "Love Is A Gamble" and "From Your Knees" feature Christian messages, or at least can be translated as such. Even the playful "Every Head Bowed" spends a good amount of time in church, albeit from the point of view of a young boy who's grumbling stomach has him praying for preacher to adjourn so the family can head out to eat.

But the good news for country fans is that one of modern country's most effective translators of hurting songs once again tackles themes of heartache and loss. The album's most unforgettable tune, "You Didn't Have A Good Time," dresses down a man who has lost most everything except the empty bottles piled around his home. Hopefully country radio will embrace this secular triumph just as it did his spiritual ones.

CHECK THIS OUT: In the album's most surprising moment, this down-home country singer turns Bob Dylan's "Don't Think Twice, It's All Right" into a jaunty acoustic tune that would've drawn shout-outs amid a Greenwich Village hoedown 40-some years ago.

JOHN MELLENCAMP

"Life, Death, Love, and Freedom"

(Hear Music)

Induction into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame apparently incited John Mellencamp to obsess on mortality. He responds with "Life, Death, Love and Freedom," the most somber album of his 32-year career, offering bass-heavy, rumbling blues and dark-hued acoustic stomps that explore death, relationships and the dark clouds hovering over such ongoing concerns as liberty, equality and peaceful coexistence.

Working for the first time with veteran producer T Bone Burnett, Mellencamp moves away from the anthemic roots-rock and Midwestern soul music he's built his reputation on. Burnett envelops him in the same misty, reverberating twang used so well on Robert Plant and Alison Krauss' "Raising Sand." But Mellencamp uses that sound for an album of midnight ramblings that are less playful and more ominous.

The core songs address death directly: "Sometimes you get sick, and you don't get better," he sings in the opening "Longest Days." "If I Die Sudden" features lyrics as blunt as its title, while "A Ride Back Home" asks Jesus to deliver him once he's gone. Another song, "Don't Need This Body," starts with "This getting older ain't for cowards," then bemoans that he and his friends won't be around much longer.

Not everything is so bleak: "A Brand New Song" acknowledges life's difficulties while saying we all must work to find he best in ourselves and others, while "For The Children" is a prayer for a future of less suffering and more humanity -- after he's gone, of course.

CHECK THIS OUT: "My Sweet Love," the album's one true upbeat tune, is a paean to the enduring spirit and connection to his wife, photographer and model Elaine Mellencamp, set to a Buddy Holly beat and sung as a duet with Karen Fairchild of Little Big Town.

BLACK KIDS

"Partie Traumatic"

(Almost Gold)

The Black Kids are, with their debut album "Partie Traumatic," instantly the coolest "kids" in music. They've taken everything modern and relevant -- from Killers-esque vocals to non-retro synth work -- and rolled it into one of the best albums of the year without a sour track in sight.

They ought to sell iPods with this permanently burned into the memory so you'll never lose it. Who knew Jacksonville, Fla., could produce a band this fun?

The vocals on the title track, "Partie Traumatic" are smart without being smarmy. A jangled, funk-infested guitar supplies the energy while spooky synthesizer sounds dance around the aural foreground. "This jungle is massive/ So please don't be so passive/ Be impressive, impress us/ And they will get the message," goes the opening salvo of this charming track.

"Listen To Your Body Tonight" is in overdrive from the very beginning. The band digs in heavy from the first note and never lets up on this memorable songs about following your sexual intuition.

Part of the appeal of the Black Kids' approach is that they nail the technical delivery of each song on all fronts. The vocals, for the most part, sound like The Cure's Robert Smith on helium. If the music was understated, it wouldn't work as well, but the songs have a habit of coming to a crescendo nicely and giving lead singer Reggie Youngblood a platform on which to soar.

If they are to be faulted for anything, it's for being a little too hook-heavy. But at least the hooks are good. Most of the songs are about sex and love and sprinkled with randy language throughout, so tender ears beware.

CHECK OUT THIS TRACK: "Love Me Already" is a sweetest track on the disc thanks to Owen Holmes displaying ridiculous funky chops on the bass. He creeps and crawls and solos on the fretboard and outshines the singer, keyboardist and anyone else in the studio. Holmes is the new indie bass gold standard.

THE HOLD STEADY

"Stay Positive"

(Vagrant Records)

You can almost hear the narrow-minded cries: "The Hold Steady have sold out!"

Hardly.

The Brooklyn-based five-piece has added plenty of polish and lower the volume knobs -- only slightly -- to great effect on their fourth disc, "Stay Positive."

Dynamic arrangements, crisp production and added instrumentation have not diluted their hard riff inclinations or depth of storytelling. If anything, they seem more focused and mature -- all the more welcome with the disc's theme of aging gracefully (the members are in their mid-to-late 30s after all).

Singer/guitarist Craig Finn's voice is more poignant throughout, and his lyrical scope still appeals to the better angels in all of us: "There's gonna come a time when the true scene leaders/will forget where they differ and get 'big picture'/Because the kids at the shows will have kids of their own/and the sing-along songs will become our scriptures," he wails on the shimmering title track.

"Constructive Summer" and "One for the Cutters" -- the latter boasting a surprising harpsichord -- rock hard and paint a somber picture of middle America, while "Both Crosses" offers a dark religious narrative.

They use contagious horn arrangements on "Sequestered in Memphis," keep the sing-along frenzy going with the ironic "Magazines" and offer melodic mid-tempo tracks with "Lord, I'm Discouraged" and "Joke About Jamaica."

Contrary to their name, The Hold Steady just keep getting better.

CHECK THIS TRACK OUT: "Yeah Sapphire" is an escapist rock anthem right out of Springsteen's how-to manual that should become a hallmark of The Hold Steady's manic live show.

NAS

"Untitled"

(Def Jam)

Don't be fooled by "Queens Get The Money," the bracing opener of Nas' now-untitled ninth solo album: It sounds like nothing else on the CD.

The Jay Electronica-produced cut -- built on a few simple piano twinkles and no drum track -- is by far the most left-of-center music the veteran Queens rapper has ever rhymed over. Calling himself "Nasty Nas-daq" and dropping oblique references to boxing greats and Huey Newton, Nas rhymes lines such as: "Bring back Arsenio/ hip-hop was aborted/ so Nas breathes life back into the embryo."

The song's a bold step for Nas, an MC continually caught between two mindsets -- his artistic ambition and commercial obligation. Until a few months before this CD's release, he dared to title the disc after the N-word. Despite initial backing from Def Jam honcho Antonio "L.A." Reid, public outcry (The NAACP, Jesse Jackson and the Rev. Al Sharpton all rallied against the title) forced him to change the album's name.

But Nas's attitude hasn't dulled. Though "Untitled" is a compelling yet uneven effort, he proves he's still one of the hip-hop's most eloquent and bitingly honest writers. On the booming first single "Hero," he addresses the title change: "Still in musical prison, in jail for the flow/ Try telling Bob Dylan, Bruce, or Billy Joel/ They can't sing what's in their soul/ So 'Untitled' it is."

As much as Nas decries being censored, he's no fool either. Perhaps that's why Nas has hedged his bets, couching some of his fired-up rhymes in radio-ready beats. The aforementioned anthem "Hero" is wedged between two other big productions with loud, full-bodied tracks and monster hooks. A nod to hustlers and gangstas, the Cool and Dre-helmed "Make the World Go Round" features Chris Brown, the Game and huge synths, while the grating soul-pop hook on "America" gives the track a solemn edge. Despite the overwrought beats, Nas offers lyrical gems. On the former, a cocky Nas spits: "I'm Alex Pushkin/ The black poetry-writing Russian."

That epic hip-hop trifecta precedes the album's polemical core. "Sly Fox," a guitar-crunching head-banger produced by Dead Prez's Stic.Man, rails largely against Bill O'Reilly and Fox News. Then there's the bluesy, revolutionary fantasy "Testify," before the album climaxes with the string-laden N-word song, on which Nas sounds hopeful: "Man, this history don't acknowledge us/ We were scholars way before colleges."

Given more judicious editing, that song should've been the album's impactful closing salvo. Instead the disc continues, and the energy dips. Songs built on dubious metaphors -- "Fried Chicken" and "Project Roach" -- waste a sturdy Mark Ronson track and feature an underwhelming cameo by The Last Poets, respectively. And the mediocre "Black President" juxtaposes a Tupac Shakur vocal sample with Nas's Barack Obama endorsement ("I'm thinking I can trust this brother").

At his best, Nas can be an insightful street disciple, cocky veteran MC, and rap's political and cultural conscience. But with better album sequencing and less filler, "Untitled" could have been the commercial and ideological statement he was shooting for.

CHECK OUT THIS TRACK: On the guitar-crunching "Sly Fox," Nas sounds like a lost member of lefty rap group Dead Prez (that's a good thing): "Watch what you watchin'/ Fox keeps feeding us toxins/ Stop sleeping/ Start thinking outside of the box and/ Unplug from the Matrix doctrine."

STEP UP 2 THE STREETS

(2008, 98 min.)

Dir.: Jon M. Chu

Are you ready to rumba? This follow-up to the 2006 teen mini-hit "Step Up" again mingles the raw world of street hoofing with the refined circles of formally trained dancers. This one lands a rough but talented street dancer (Briana Evigan) at the Maryland School of the Arts, where she tries to blend in with snooty classmates and teams up with a hotshot student (Robert Hoffman) to compete in an underground dance competition. The DVD and Blu-ray releases come with deleted scenes, two behind-the-scenes segments and five music videos, including tunes by Flo Rida and Missy Elliott. DVD, $29.99; Blu-ray, $34.99. (Disney)

COLLEGE ROAD TRIP

(2008, 83 min.)

Dir.: Roger Kumble

Martin Lawrence makes life miserable for Raven-Symone as they hit the highway in this family comedy. Lawrence plays a well-meaning but meddlesome dad who butts into his daughter's hunt for the right college, accompanying her and her friends on their mishap-laden trip. The DVD and Blu-ray discs have an alternate opening and alternate endings, plus deleted scenes with commentary from director Roger Kumble. The full movie has commentary with Kumble, Raven-Symone and the screenwriters. Raven-Symone also pitches in with a music video and a video diary of her experiences on the set. DVD, $29.99; Blu-ray, $34.99. (Disney)

THE BANK JOB

(2008, 110 min.)

Dir.: Roger Donaldson

Jason Statham makes an unauthorized withdrawal in this solid heist flick from director Roger Donaldson. Statham stars as a car dealer who meets up with a beautiful woman (Saffron Burrows) from his old haunts and gets in way over his head after she lets him in on a robbery of cash and jewels from a London bank. Two-disc DVD and Blu-ray editions come with extended footage, a making-of featurette and a segment on the 1971 Lloyd's Bank job that inspired the film. Both releases also include a digital copy of the movie for portable video players. The movie also comes in a bare-bones single-disc DVD. Single DVD, $29.95; two-disc DVD set, $34.98; Blu-ray, $39.99. (Lionsgate)

SHUTTER

(2008, 90 min.)

Dir.: Masayuki Ochiai

This horror tale centers on a photographer (Joshua Jackson) and his new wife (Rachael Taylor) who are exposed to a vengeful spirit from beyond on a trip to Japan, where the photos that result contain ghostly images of a woman on a haunting mission. The movie is available on DVD in the theatrical version or an unrated cut, both containing a couple of background featurettes. The unrated DVD and Blu-ray releases also have deleted scenes and an alternate ending, five more behind-the-scenes featurettes and commentary with Taylor and some of the filmmakers. DVD, $29.98; Blu-ray, $39.98. (20th Century Fox)

PENELOPE

(2008, 89 min.)

Dir.: Mark Palansky

Christina Ricci is the fairest pig-faced girl in the land in this contemporary twist on fairy-tale romance. The comic tale stars Ricci as a young woman afflicted by a family curse -- the snout of a pig -- with James McAvoy as a suitor who may hold the key to lifting the curse. Ricci and McAvoy are backed by a great cast that includes Catherine O'Hara, Peter Dinklage, Richard E. Grant and Reese Witherspoon, who also is a producer on the film. The scant DVD extras include a making-of featurette and a sneak peak at this fall's teen vampire tale "Twilight." DVD, $25.99. (Summit)

TRAFIC

(1971, 97 min.)

Dir.: Jacques Tati

French filmmaker and actor Jacques Tati returns to his Monsieur Hulot persona one last time with this 1971 comedy about an automotive designer who encounters endless troubles while taking his gadget-loaded camper to a car show in Amsterdam. Highlighting the extras in the two-disc set is the 1989 two-part documentary "In the Footsteps of M. Hulot," made by Tati's daughter, Sophie Tatischeff. The set also includes a 1971 interview with cast members from French television, the 1973 TV show "The Comedy of Jacques Tati" and an essay by film critic Jonathan Romney. DVD set, $39.95. (Criterion)