Eric R. Danton | Sound Check

CD Review: 'Spirit' by Leona Lewis

Although she won the third season of Simon Cowell’s British TV talent competition “The X Factor,” Leona Lewis doesn’t actually stand out much on her debut. In fact, if you blank for a moment on who you’re listening to, it may take a minute to remember that it’s Lewis. She sounds very much like plenty of other latter-day R&B divas: There’s a little Mariah Carey, a bit of Christina Aguilera, maybe some Alicia Keys, even a hint of Whitney Houston.

What there’s not is a lot of originality.

That’s not to say “Spirit” (J Records) isn’t at times a beautiful record. The production is lush, the songs are well-written and Lewis can certainly sing. It’s just a boring record that hews too closely to the modern album template with a couple of hits and a bunch of filler.

CD Review: 'Great Vengeance & Furious Fire' by The Heavy

Let’s call it mega-soul: heady, visceral stuff that lives up to the name of the band playing it. These 10 songs are heavy, all right, like a chunk of molybdenum.

This British five-piece, fronted by a man with the pirate-sounding name of Swaby, starts with a classic-R&B template from the Screamin’ Jay Hawkins school and decks it out with modern touches that borrow from garage rock, hip-hop and funk. The result is a bass-heavy riot of deep grooves and lo-fi touches on the band’s debut (+1 Records).

CD Review: 'Attack & Release' by the Black Keys

After demonstrating over four albums a talent for playing raw garage blues, the Black Keys faced a tricky situation with their fifth release: how to freshen the band’s sound without losing the essence of what makes the Akron, Ohio, duo so electrifying.

The answer lay with Brian Burton, a.k.a. Danger Mouse, the producer who blended the Beatles with Jay-Z on his pirate release “The Grey Album” and then became half of the future-soul duo Gnarls Barkley.

Pairing themselves with Danger Mouse was an inspired choice for Black Keys singer-guitarist Dan Auerbach and drummer Patrick Carney. “Attack & Release” is a stunning extension of the pair’s sound, injecting an element of nuance into the bare-bones guitar-drums framework that remains the core of the band.

CD Review: 'Accelerate' by R.E.M.

It’s been years since R.E.M. flat-out rocked. The veteran band spent its past few albums exploring musical texture and gauzy atmospherics, and while it surely filled some creative need, the experimentation on “Reveal” in 2001 and “Around the Sun” in 2004 mostly felt aimless.

The group has refocused in a big way on “Accelerate,” turning itself into a brawny riff machine that makes the trio’s 14th album vibrant and lively. (Listen here to a podcast discussing the album.) R.E.M. worked relatively quickly on the songs, shaping them on stage with a handful of shows in 2007 and then moving immediately to the recording studio with producer Jacknife Lee. That sense of urgency comes through. Peter Buck plays molten guitar parts, his riff cascading like a rock slide through opener “The Best Revenge is Living Well” and pulsing behind Michael Stipe’s voice on “Mr. Richards.”

CD Review: 'Saturday Nights & Sunday Mornings' by Counting Crows

It’s been more than five years since Counting Crows released a new studio album, and frankly, 2002’s “Hard Candy” wasn’t all that memorable.

This time, they mean it.

In fact, Adam Duritz and company haven’t sounded so committed, so determined, so tuneful, in years. “Saturday Nights & Sunday Mornings” is a sprawling 14-song album divided between the two extremes in the title: The first half chronicles decadent, self-destructive behavior, and the second deals with emotional and physical recuperation in the aftermath.

CD Review: 'Volume One' by She & Him

When last we saw Zooey Deschanel sing, she was Will Ferrell’s reluctant duet partner in the 2003 movie “Elf.” She’s been singing off-screen, though, and writing songs, too, and she’s good enough at it to have enlisted indie-savant M. Ward as a musical partner. Together, they are She & Him, a duo comfortably ensconced in the classic sound of ’60s pop on their debut, “Volume One” (Merge).

Featuring 10 originals and three covers (including an unlisted version of “Swing Low, Sweet Chariot”), the album is a showcase for Deschanel’s pipes and Ward’s clever musical arrangements. Her voice isn’t classically pretty, and she sometimes sounds a mite self-conscious — no surprise, given that writing songs was a private indulgence she would probably have never made public without urging from Ward. Yet she sings with expressive warmth, layering her voice in sweet harmonies on “Sweet Darlin’” and letting her voice soar just a bit on “This is Not a Test.”

CD Review: 'The Odd Couple' by Gnarls Barkley

The first single from Gnarls Barkley’s first album, “St. Elsewhere,” seemingly came from nowhere. One minute, there was no “Crazy” and in the next the song was inescapable: It was on the radio, on TV, at Lollapalooza, at the Grammys.

No pressure, then, on the follow-up.

Yeah, right. The truth is, “The Odd Couple” is the most-watched sophomore album in a while, and there’s enough interest that Gnarls Barkley moved up the release date by three weeks, presumably to avoid leaks like the one that already loosed the first single, “Run (I’m a Natural Disaster).”

CD Review: 'Vagabonds' by Gary Louris

After nearly 25 years singing and writing songs with the Jayhawks and Golden Smog, and playing a role behind the scenes with acts including the Dixie Chicks, Black Crowes and the Wallflowers, Gary Louris finally found time to make his solo debut.

It’s an overdue disc, to be sure, but it’s worth the wait to hear what Louris does when left to his own devices. He writes subtle, yearning songs, lyrics scrolling by like impressionistic images as he searches for greater understanding of life and of himself.

CD Review: 'The Lucky Ones' by Pride Tiger

It doesn’t seem like there’s much left to mine in the Thin Lizzy lode — what do you do after twin-guitar rockers like “The Boys are Back in Town” or “Jailbreak?”

Pride Tiger has the answer on “The Lucky Ones” (Caroline): ditch the irony, write awesome riffs and crank the volume, just like Thin Lizzy did. That sums up the Canadian band’s full-length debut. It’s an earnest homage to lean guitar rock with bluesy underpinnings.

CD Review: 'Asking for Flowers' by Kathleen Edwards

Canadian singer Kathleen Edwards established herself early on as a storyteller with a sharp eye for detail, relating the perspectives of hard-luck women in love with criminals, older married men or hockey. For all her narrative skill, though, Edwards’ tales sometimes seemed contrived, as though she were more intent on establishing her literary credentials than writing songs that served her stories.

She’s at her best when she lets her songs unfold on their own, painting complete portraits instead of hammering home wrenching punch lines. She does it better than ever before on her latest. “Asking for Flowers,” her third album, collects 11 new songs that document Edwards’ growth from singer who writes songs to bona fide songwriter who has embraced the art of subtlety.