Gordon Lightfoot Book, Music and More!

Add Australia’s Vines to list of groups like Sweden’s Hives, Detroit’s White Stripes and New York’s Strokes who, if you believe the hype, are rock’s new saviors. Truth is, there’s something undeniably thrilling about any garage band that can conjure up magic from three chords and a kickass beat. All of these groups are doing that. Along with the requisite intensity, the Vines can also summon Beatlesque melodies and harmonies on songs like “Autumn Shade,” and the oh-so-sweet “Homesick.” Fookin’ brilliant.

Give Plant credit: he hasn’t succumbed to fans’ demands for him to reproduce Led Zeppelin’s sound. Instead, building on the global hybrid he and Jimmy Page forged on the No Quarter tour, he puts a new spin on classic folk, blues and psychedelic numbers using hypnotic Asian drones and complex Middle Eastern scales. Thus, Plant’s version of Bukka White’s “Funny in My Mind (I’m Fixin’ to Die)” would rock any casbah. And his rendition of Tim Buckley’s “Song to the Siren” boasts a transcendental eastern vibe.

Yet more good stuff from Down Under. Lloyd is a singer-songwriter who shares Neil Finn’s introspection and sensitivity. And while he lacks the unfailing melodic gifts of the former Crowded House frontman, he is still capable of coming up with a damn fine tune: just check out the mellifluous “Green.” Most of Lloyd’s material tends to be moodier, like the syncopated “Trigger.” Overall the album, produced by Magnus Fiennes (brother to actors Ralph and Joseph), seems destined to find a North American audience.

Not much has been heard from Baerwald, one half of 1980s duo David & David, aside from two critically acclaimed but commercially disappointing solo albums in the early 1990s. Now signed to roots label Lost Highway, Baerwald has been given a new lease on life. But despite the promise of the title and quirky numbers like the horn-drenched “Bozo Weirdo Wacko Creep” and the piano-driven “If (A Boy Whore in a Man’s Jail),” his new album sounds like lame Jackson Browne or Randy Newman.

"We're calling the white people, black people, Asian, South Asian, Hispanics, Natives, everybody,” Danko Jones sings on “Caramel City,” about his Toronto punk-soul trio’s multicultural hometown. “I like to see it when the worlds collide.” Mostly, though, Jones likes to see bodies colliding, singing about sexual tension in a voice thick with lascivious innuendo. He calls it his “lover call,” but that makes it sound as safe as Barry White. Jones’ brand of eroticism is sinister—and about as reckless as rock ’n’ roll gets.

If you buy only one album this summer, make it this one. How can you go wrong with a collection of previously unreleased songs by Bob Dylan, Brian Wilson, Elvis Costello, Van Morrison, Tom Waits and Nick Lowe, among others, sung by a pioneer of soul music and backed by Daniel Lanois and the Blind Boys of Alabama? Burke sings with deep soulfulness, enriching everything from the blues of Dylan’s “Stepchild” to the gospel of Lowe’s “The Other Side of the Coin.” An instant classic from a true legend.

Hip-hop crew the Rascalz enjoyed a taste of the pop charts with “Top of the World,” featuring Jamaica’s Barrington Levy. This time around, the Vancouver rappers are employing the same radio-friendly approach, mixing rock and reggae influences into their sound, but relying more on Canadian guests like k-os, who lends his distinctive vocals to “One Shot.” Says the Rascalz’ Red 1: “We’re at the level now where we don’t really need to go across the border because there’s a bunch of wicked MCs in Canada.”

Springsteen’s label has no news about it, but my reliable Bruce freak source reports that this promises to be grander than most Boss recordings, full of lush strings, gospel vocals and songs that tackle Big Issues. Recorded with the E Street Band and producer Brendan O’Brien (Pearl Jam, Neil Young), the album will include one epic (“Into the Fire”) about firefighters entering the World Trade Center on 9/11. It also coincides with a release by Philly hard-rockers Marah, featuring a Springsteen guest appearance.

Everything alt-country’s torchiest singer touches turns to gold, from her charming Corn Sisters duo with Carolyn Mark and her membership in power-pop’s wondrous New Pornographers to her own captivating solo albums. Although born in Virginia, Case spent her formative musical years in Vancouver, which makes her at least an honorary Canuck. And it means we can call her latest one of the best Canadian albums of the year, full of spooky ballads and beguiling waltzes sung in a voice that could melt glaciers.

Any band experiencing the hype that greeted Coldplay’s debut album, Parachutes, and the ubiquitous airplay that its dreamy single “Yellow” received must surely dread the sophomore jinx. But if the Britpop quartet group’s members are afraid of becoming one-hit wonders, they aren’t showing it. According to their website, the band is “on the verge of realizing their most high-spirited artistic ambitions.” With song titles like “God Put a Smile Upon Your Face,” perhaps Coldplay is hoping for divine intervention.