Legends of the Fall

I've had a chance to listen to some of this fall's most anticipated music releases. I haven't spent enough time with them to known which are the all-stars and which will be eternal dust gatherers, but here are my initial impressions.

PJ Harvey scores big points with White Chalk, an album steeped in haunting chamber music stylings instead of the grungier sounds from previous outings like Rid of Me and Uh Huh Her. So far "When Under Ether" is my favorite track.

Annie Lennox definitely means business with Songs of Mass Destruction, possibly the best solo album of her career. Ballads like "Dark Road" and "Fingernail Moon" are exquisite, and it's impossible not to shake your butt cheeks to the infectious pop concoction "Ghosts in My Machine." Madonna provides guest vocals on "Sing."

Talk about unholy alliances! Maybe they've been pals all along and I never knew it, but I was very surprised to hear that Led Zeppelin screamer Robert Plant and demure country/folk artist Alison Krauss teamed up for Raising Sand. They do an awesome cover of Rowland Salley's "Killing the Blues," but a few tracks stray into Bland Land.

I listened to my share of The Boss in the mid-1980s, particularly my cassette of Born in the U.S.A. At some point I concluded that he was too much of a man's man for me, but over the past few years I've come to appreciate his melancholy sensibility and his musical versatility (Nebraska being my favorite Springsteen album). The new CD, Magic, marks his reunion with The E Street Band. "Radio Nowhere," the leading track and the first radio single, is my fave.

Finally we come to Herbie Hancock's tribute to Joni Mitchell. Earlier this year Nonesuch Records released a tribute to Joni with tracks by Sufjan Stevens, Cassandra Wilson and other notables, and Joni herself just released Shine, her first album of new material since 1998. Herbie's entry in the Mitchell sweepstakes is an odd one, with an instrumental track of "Both Sides Now" that bears absolutely no melodic resemblance to the original. "Court and Spark," featuring Norah Jones on vocals, is much more satisfying, and the jewel in the crown is Tina Turner's hot-as-fuck take on "Edith and the Kingpin." I also like Leonard Cohen's beatnik, spoken word recitation of "The Jungle Line, " but found Corinne Bailey Rae's "River" and Luciana Souza's "Amelia" to be total snoozers.