Gnarls Barkley, Flo Rida have new CDs

Ricky Skaggs & Kentucky Thunder, “Honoring the Fathers of Bluegrass: Tribute to 1946 and 1947”
The concept here is nothing short of brilliant and, as is usual with Ricky Skaggs & Kentucky Thunder, the picking and singing are outstanding. Skaggs wanted to introduce the music of the founding fathers of bluegrass to his fans and, hopefully, a new generation, so he and his band covered a dozen classic songs first recorded by Bill Monroe & the Blue Grass Boys during the years 1946-47. The period represents an important snapshot because Monroe’s band of that era included singer/guitarist Lester Flatts, banjo player Earl Scruggs, fiddler Chubby Wise and bassist Howard Watts. Skaggs and his crew treat the music with the respect it deserves, giving new life to old gems. Scruggs, the only surviving member of the pioneering band, guests on “Goin’ Back to Old Kentucky.”

Caribbean Jazz Project/Afro Bop Alliance, “Caribbean Jazz Project/Afro Bop Alliance”
The Caribbean Jazz Project, led by marimba and vibes wiz Dave Samuels, put together this album with Maryland-based outfit Afro Bop Alliance. The vibe here is a distinctly Latin, big-band trip on songs by John Coltrane, Thelonious Monk, Dizzy Gillespie and several Samuels originals. Nineteen musicians played on these tunes (most of them sax and horn players), giving the set a powerful brass/reed sound. Their stellar cover of Coltrane’s “Naima” comes our way via a highly syncopated arrangement, nicely layered horns and solid solos from Samuels and saxophonist Steve Williams. Another intriguing number is the Samuels original “Afro Green,” a more darkly colored piece with an interesting, dissonant dynamic at work, particularly between the horns and Harry Appelman’s piano.

The B52s, “Funplex”
The B-52s have always operated in a retrofuturistic galaxy where the watusi meets interplanetary synths. On their first album in 16 years, the “Love Shack” has morphed into a mall-like “Funplex.” Shellacked with Keith Strickland’s surf guitar, Kate Pierson and Cindy Wilson’s honeyed harmonies and Fred Schneider’s campy exclamations, just about every track’s obsessed with sex. Sex is dancing! Sex is a road trip! Sex is a cocktail party! Schneider’s horny hollering soon turns cringe-worthy. But the club-ready hooks are the real point here. Just like everything since 1979’s “Rock Lobster,” “Funplex” works best when the voices blend into the momentum.

Counting Crows, “Saturday Nights & Sunday Mornings”
“I’m just trying to make some sense outta me,” Adam Duritz tells us early on in “Saturday Nights & Sunday Mornings” — an angsty quest he’s stretched across five Counting Crows studio albums. Fortunately, Duritz and company know how to make that conundrum rock with anthemic ferocity or treat it with melodies so plaintive they positively shimmer. All those virtues are intact here, a concept piece of sorts on which the first, hard-rocking half of the album revels in sin, or at least sinful intent, and the second exhibits the contrition of Sunday morning. The band stretches out in some new directions on the trance-y “Washington Square” and incorporates psychedelic overtones into “Insignificant” and “Le Ballet d’Or.” “You Can’t Count on Me” sounds like the flip side of a Bruce Springsteen love song, and such tracks as “1492,” “Cowboys” and “Come Around” rock with sweeping dynamic energy.

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