New on CD: RZA, Alejandro Escovedo, Walter Becker

Hartford Courant

June 23, 2008

RZA Digi Snacks Koch These days, it seems every rapper has at least one alter ego, a character he can use to explore different sides of his personality.

It's a songwriting device that has its limitations, as few artists go beyond the simple comic-book psychology of Batman or the Incredible Hulk.

On his latest album, Wu-Tang Clan sonic sensei RZA revisits Bobby Digital, a role he has played throughout his career. The disc promises to be a meditation on Bobby's inner struggles, but a few songs in, it's clear that RZA doesn't have the discipline to pull off such an analysis.

Instead, he flings boasts and drops wordy nonsense, his kaleidoscopic rants sometimes leaving him breathless, as on 'Booby Trap.' He reveals himself to be an underrated emcee, a slightly less imaginative version of Ghostface Killah, the Wu-Tang member with the greatest gift for left-field lyricism.

Of course, RZA is more a producer than a rapper, and it's for that reason that 'Digi Snacks' truly disappoints. Stacked with would-be club and jeep jams, the album pushes a broad, populist hip-hop that has never been RZA's bag.

His strength lies in harsh beats and phantom piano, elements he has long used to conjure urban paranoia and alienation. Here, cast in a mainstream light, he's stripped of his powers - Superman in kryptonite bling.

Essential download: 'You Can't Stop Me Now'

- Kenneth Partridge VARIOUS ARTISTS Big Blue Ball Real World Between 1991 and 1995, Peter Gabriel hosted a trio of 'recording weeks' at his England studios that fostered collaborative environments for artists from around the world. The tapes from those sessions fell into disarray until producer Stephen Hague recently sorted out and completed selected pieces under the title 'Big Blue Ball.' The results are snapshots of a colorful landscape, an array of rich sonic patchworks from a palette so diverse that they are exotic to every ear.

Several tunes sport Gabriel trademarks in their sounds, among them the gravelly bluster of his voice on the chipper, funky duet with Joseph Arthur, 'Exit Through You,' and his spacious merging of vocals and instrumentation on the sweeping 'Whole Thing.' Those are vivid but conventional fare compared with the likes of 'Shadow,' which marries the flamenco guitar of Juan Canizares and clarion tones of Congolese vocalist Papa Wemba into a dazzling, comfortable synthesis.

There's a spectrum of sounds: Programmed drums complement Natacha Atlas and an Egyptian string ensemble on the percussive Middle Eastern tune 'Habibe,' and Sinead O'Connor simmers atop a dramatic Chinese foundation on 'Everything Comes From You.' The confluence of French, American, Irish and Congolese influences into the lavish, expansive 'altus silva' typifies the set's ambition: melding diverse elements into organic, exciting finished pieces.

Essential download: 'Exit Through You'

- Thomas Kintner ALEJANDRO ESCOVEDO Real Animal Manhattan Nothing scrambles the brains like a brush with death, which explains 'The Boxing Mirror,' the first album Alejandro Escovedo recorded after his 2003 battle with hepatitis C.

Released in 2006, that collection found Escovedo in a post-deathbed haze, using moody textures and vague lyrics to make sense of what he'd just been through.

Now that he has had time to process the ordeal, Escovedo is through stewing. 'Real Animal' is his celebratory musical memoir, the true story of a Texas boy who went west, turned punk, hung with Sid Vicious and eventually became an Americana icon. 'All I ever wanted was a four-piece band,' he sings on 'Chip N' Tony,' giving this tale its perfect tag line.

Tunes like 'Always a Friend' and 'Sister Lost Soul' are Springsteen-like encapsulations of Escovedo's brilliant and varied career, mixing the '70s punk of the Nuns, '80s roots punch of Rank & File, and journeyman-troubadour sound he has explored on his latter-day solo records.

It's heartening to hear him stomp his boots and pay tribute to Iggy Pop, the Chelsea Hotel and all of the other people and places that have shaped his life. On 'Sensitive Boys,' one of several standout ballads, he articulates the album's thematic truism: Done right, rock 'n' roll is a reason for living.

Essential download: 'Sister Lost Soul'

- Kenneth Partridge WALTER BECKER Circus Money Mailboat It will be easier for most to talk about what Walter Becker's second solo album (his first in 14 years) is not - an effort that sounds like another outing from pop's best-known and -loved sophisticates, Steely Dan - than what it actually is. It's as modest as Becker's admittedly limited vocals, yet 'Circus Money' also can be as slyly insinuating as his bass lines.

The sonic sheen that characterized the sound of his regular group is still intact; combined with the reggae groove that predominates, the vibe is ironically just as suggestive of the laid-back, coked-up '70s

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