Gordon Lightfoot Book, Music and More!

From her bare midriff and dark hair color to the dark musical tones inside, it’s clear that Miley is trying hard to distance herself from Hannah Montana. Now 17, the daughter of Billy Ray Cyrus sings over synth beats on “Liberty Walk” that she’s “not a prisoner anymore.” The rebellion continues on “Robot,” where she bemoans “Stand here, sell this, and hit your mark.” But her precocious sexuality and AutoTuned raps on tracks like the Ke$ha-style “Permanent December” suggest it’s all just a little too forced and premature.

There’s always been a freakish side to Macy, from her wild hair and squeaky voice to her towering height. But give the oddball soul singer credit: although she’s never had a hit as big as 2000’s “I Try,” she’s kept trying while single-handedly raising three children. Macy’s fifth album is at least partly successful. Forget the dreary, he-done-me-wrong numbers like “Still Hurts” and focus on such summer-ready tracks as the cool, Slash-supported boogie “Kissed It” and the joyous gospel-folk jam “Beauty in the World.”

With 30 Top 40 hits, including 13 Top 10s and four number ones, this amounts to the California pop group’s equivalent of the Beatles’ 1 or the Rolling Stones’ Forty Licks. Brian Wilson and his short-sleeved cohorts practically invented summer music with breezy guitars and carefree tunes full of mellifluous harmonies. The highlights of this collection include such pop gems as “I Get Around,” “Help Me Rhonda” and “Good Vibrations.” Only 1988’s Kokomo” sounds lame, although it too enjoyed massive airplay. An unrivalled—and impossibly sunny—body of work.

If the Beach Boys conjure up visions of surfing, California girls and a woody on the beach, R.L. Burnside’s buzzing, down-home blues brings to mind back-porch summer nights with crickets and bullfrogs and the gut-warming comfort of aged southern whiskey. Burnside’s Delta music rocks hard—even when it consists, as it does here, of just guttural voice and acoustic guitar. Tracks like “Skinny Woman” and “My Time Ain’t Long” give off a raw heat that leaves the listener sweating and thirsty for more.

Vancouver’s 54-40 proves they’ve lost none of the feistiness or melodic strengths that characterized much of the band’s best work in the mid-80s and early ‘90s. From the cocky guitar of the opening rocker “Ride” and the Little Richard-invoking screamer “Animal in Pain” to such tuneful romantic delights as “Take Me Out” and “Secrets,” this album captures a veteran rock band at the peak of its powers. And lead singer Neil Osborne’s vocals have never sounded so good. Hello maturity.

Farrar is one of the godfathers of alt-country, having forged a fusion of punk and country with Jeff Tweedy in Uncle Tulepo and then in his own band, Son Volt (Tweedy went on to form Wilco). Farrar’s solo work, however, is more folk than thrash or twang. His latest album evokes Harvest-era Neil Young on “California,” with its moaning vocals, and John Fahey on “Out on the Road,” with its dreamy flute and droning guitar. Too laid back by half, Farrar’s music could use a fresh injection of punk voltage.

A roots-rock supergroup, featuring Stephen Fearing, Colin Linden and Tom Wilson, BARK was formed initially as a Willie P. Bennett tribute band. But it expanded to pay homage to other great Canadian songwriters, including Bruce Cockburn, David Wiffen, Murray McLauchlan and Fred Eaglesmith. BARK’s latest features covers of Bennett’s “Willie Diamond Joe” and Cockburn’s “Tie Me at the Crossroads.” There’s also plenty of first-rate originals, including “If I Catch You Cryin’” and “Jackie Washington,” a rollicking nod to the unsung Canadian blues legend.

The 19-year-old Arizona native has emerged as one of the few teen sensations with real songwriting chops. Channeling inspiration from older label mate Alanis Morissette, Branch stretches out on her followup to last year’s The Spirit Room with soaring, emotional pop (“Tuesday Morning”), blues-inflected rockers (“Love Me Like That”) and confessional ballads (the finger-picked title track).  Featuring guest appearances from Sheryl Crow, Scott Weiland and Dave Navarro, Hotel Paper is hit-laden and destined to push Branch into Avril’s stratosphere.

Ex-members of Weeping Tile, the Kingston, Ont. band that spawned the wondrous Sarah Harmer, LW &TW defied the odds and made a damn good bluegrass version of Pink Floyd’s The Wall. Although Rebuilding the Wall was gimmick-free, the group’s latest is not without a little yodeling and a heap o’ hayseed besides, as evident on “Wish Me Well” and “Broken Heart,” a hurtin’ song punctuated heavily with expletives. And then there’s Wright’s duet with Harmer on “Milk & Honey,” a ballad of tender beauty.

Boasting the sort of left-of-centre, slightly rococo balladry of Rufus Wainwright or Hawksley Workman, Boy (a.k.a. Stephen Noel Kozmeniuk) is a wonder to behold in these days of formulaic pop. The 20-year-old native of Whitehorse, Yukon uses clarinets, strings and offbeat art-rock songs like “French Diplomacy” and “Rose-Marie’s Café” that could only come from someone removed from the commercial influence of big-city music scenes. With a voice that sounds either jaunty or jaundiced, Boy is surprisingly bracing—like an unexpected Arctic breeze.