MUSIC AND CDs

Chaos and Creation in the Backyard (Capitol)

Is Chaos and Creation in the Backyard the album Paul McCartney fans have been waiting for him to make? Not quite. While it has much more edge than most of McCartney's usual lighthearted pap, it doesn't dive into the darker recesses explored by his former bandmate John Lennon. That said, Chaos and Creation is a good album, picking up in some ways where 2001's Driving Rain, McCartney's last collection of original songs, left off. Chaos and Creation is much more restrained than Driving Rain, and in that regard has more in common with McCartney's early 1970s records. Hearkening back to his first solo album, 1970's McCartney, Paul wrote all the songs and played most of the instruments on his latest. Aided by Radiohead producer Nigel Godrich, McCartney does show some emotional depth and vulnerability, which is usually hidden behind his aging mop-top facade. At the Mercy includes the very un-McCartney-esque line of "Sometimes my head is hanging low, but it's time to get on with the show.... I can think of nothing more to say." He sings of loss and friendship in How Kind of You and sadness and sorrow in Too Much Rain. Even with his darker side poking through, McCartney can't totally divorce himself from songs like English Tea. The catchy tune will burrow into your cerebral cortex, but your lyrical sense will cringe at lines like, "Do you know the game croquet, peradventure we might play, very gay, hip hooray." But as he approaches 64, Chaos and Creation gives McCartney fans another reason to still need him. Fans can only hope it's the sign of even better things to come. -Reviewer: Scott Bauder

Z
My Morning Jacket (ATO/RCA Records)

Jim James sings on the opening track of My Morning Jacket's solid new album, Z, "We are the innovators, they are the imitators." But are they? My Morning Jacket, who usually perform barefoot and headbang with their long brown hair, plays a '00s kind of southern rock -- what you might call a leaner, smarter Lynyrd Skynyrd. They aren't going to wow you with new ideas, but they'll rock just the same. The real difference of Z from My Morning Jacket's three prior albums is that the reverb, which typically draws out James's voice, has been tampered down. It's a welcome change from the previously suffocating, pristine vocals. It's immediately noticed on the first song, Wordless Chorus -- a striking, organ driven, soft groove that, true to title, has a chorus of only "ahhh." It sounds unlike anything My Morning Jacket has done before -- James even throws in some high, Michael Jackson-esque shrieks at the end. The other standout is Off the Record -- which is really three songs in one: a James Bond theme, an Elvis Costello single and a Portishead outro. The three parts, surprisingly, all work together to make a hell of a tune. My Morning Jacket still finds room for some reverb-soaked vocals and headbanging anthem (Anytime), but the band are easy to parody for such self-conscious rocking. Instead, they should keep the co-producer of Z -- John Leckie -- and stick to their new, more straightforward sound. -Reviewer: J. Cole