Gordon Lightfoot Book, Music and More!

The Nashville-born singer-songwriter’s fourth release is a deliberately retro-sounding album steeped in mellow, early ’70s pop. The title track references Carole King and “Love Vibration” is an anti-hate anthem, while “Sunshine” preaches packing up the van and heading to the coast. But the album’s best numbers are the soulful “Come Back (Light Therapy)” and the autobiographical “Flight Attendant,” about the poignant struggles of a “pretty boy” growing up in redneck country. Well worth seeking out.

The album’s title and songs called “Horrible Day,” “This Old Heartache” and “When Will Happiness Find Me Again” leave no doubt about the former Pixie’s mood here. It’s pretty bleak stuff, with plenty of pedal steel guitar to underscore the hurtin’. But like any colorful depressive, Black knows how to keep it interesting, serving up post-punk Chuck Berry on the sexy “Nadine” and Neil Young crossed with Los Lobos on the hard-rocking “Jaina Blues.” Guests like Stan Ridgway and Van Dyke Parks ensure it all stays eclectic.

There’s obviously an audience for Usher’s brand of oh-so-sensitive pop: his solo albums, Little Songs and Morning Orbit have gone gold and platinum respectively. The Moist lead singer’s third album is more of the same, with pretty arrangements on “I’m Coming Down” and the string-laden title track compliments of David Gray producer Lestyn Polson. Those who find Usher’s sound too precious and laidback will be surprised by the exuberant groove of “Time of Our Lives,” which proves he may have a pulse after all.

Tribute albums bring out the best and the worst in their participants. The most successful contributors pay homage while remaining true to themselves. Others try so desperately for dramatic interpretations that they wind up doing the celebrated artist a disservice. Cline would be smiling at the classy tributes paid by Norah Jones, Diana Krall, k.d. lang and Michelle Branch, but she’d be downright horrified by the florid, brassy efforts of Lee Ann Womack, Terri Clark and Martina McBride, who commits acapella sin with Take 6.

Arden’s songs are so deeply woven into our cultural fabric that it’s almost unpatriotic to criticize them—not that there’s much reason to. Fact is, Arden’s a superb composer and the songs on her seventh album, including the elegiac “Anna Rebecca,” the stirring “Ruby Red” and the impossibly catchy “If You Loved Me,” rank with some of her best. Recorded in the basement of her Calgary home, the album shines with palpable warmth and undeniable beauty. Let’s just declare her a national treasure and be done with it.

For its major label debut, Dakona chose to work with producer Arnold Lanni, best known for his work with Toronto’s Our Lady Peace. Big mistake. The Vancouver quartet clearly emulates Lanni’s protégés and the producer merely succeeds in cementing the similarities. Tracks like “Waiting” and “Revelation” could be outtakes from Clumsy and Ryan McAllister sounds uncannily like Raine Maida’s clone. Although producer Rob Cavallo (Green Day) was brought in to rescue the album, the damage was already done.

At 21, Toronto’s Slate comes across like a wannabe Chrissie Hynde, or at least a tougher Sarah McLachlan. Her bio says she began musical life as a punk-rock chick with green, spiky hair before discovering Joni Mitchell and heading into coffeehouses. Slate’s big-time first album, recorded in part with producer Colin Cripps (Kathleen Edwards) and members of the Tragically Hip, ranges from peppy rockers like “Can’t Hold the World” to such dreamy ballads as “Blinding the Universe.” A brave and promising debut.

The “hick from Mount Uniacke” in Nova Scotia returns with another collection of unapologetically nerdy and totally listenable backwoods hip-hop. Whether rapping about his father (“Roses and Blue Jays”), shining shoes (“Craftsmanship”) or just road dogging (“Wicked and Weird”), Buck 65 mixes engaging stories with hook-heavy beats. Tom Waits remains a huge influence, but this time around King Tubby’s dub, harpsichords and even references to the Amazing Kreskin also crop up. Wicked and weird, indeed.

Are Diana Krall and Elvis Costello morphing into each other? While Krall inches further into pop, her future hubby has plunged headlong into jazz. Costello’s latest album sees him working with saxman Lee Konitz, the Jazz Passengers and the Mingus Big Band (along with usual suspects Steve Nieve, Pete Thomas and classical cohorts the Brodsky Quartet). Piano ballads like “I’m in the Mood Again” and “When Green Eyes Turn Blue” are tailor-made for Ms. Krall and good chemistry for a marriage made in musical heaven.

A graduate of Toronto’s St. Michael’s Choir School, which produced such hit vocal groups as the Diamonds and the Four Lads, the 24-year-old Dusk paid his dues studying opera, classical and choral music—lots of Latin. But it was at York University, where he won the Oscar Peterson Scholarship, that Dusk fell in love with jazz. Recorded with the 42-piece string section of the Royal Philharmonic Orchestra, his debut album announces the arrival of a singer with the voice and all the style and swagger of a young Sinatra.