Billboard album reviews: Streisand, Bjork

ARTIST: BARBRA STREISAND

ALBUM: LIVE IN CONCERT 2006

NEW YORK (Billboard) - Including soundtracks, "Live in Concert 2006" is

Barbra Streisand's 60th album in 45 years. Showcasing 31 tracks, sequenced according to the set list for her box-office-busting '06 tour and recorded in New York; Washington, D.C.; and Fort Lauderdale, Fla., the double disc includes only a few hits that have appeared time and time again on previous onstage sets. Instead, it showcases 15 titles that have never appeared live on disc, including "My Shining Hour," "Carefully Taught" and "Unusual Way." Duet versions of "Evergreen" and "Somewhere" with Il Divo breathe new life into well-tread tracks, while Streisand's narration, often a distraction in concert recordings, showcases the notoriously hesitant live artist in a commanding comfort zone. Recording quality was obviously a priority, as it is utterly superb. Fans will revel.

ARTIST: BJORK

ALBUM: VOLTA (Atlantic Records)

Like

Tori Amos,

PJ Harvey,

Kim Gordon and all the other alt-whatever chicks from the mid-'90s freak sorority, Bjork has no heir. If she started out in today's homogenized climate, the Icelandic vocal acrobat might get lost in the shuffle amid the flavors of the month. But that's why all her material matters, including an uneven collection like "Volta." The follow-up to 2004's experimental "Medulla" and 2001's exquisite "Vespertine" has the usual complex drums (aided on some tracks by none other than Timbaland), throaty wails and unexpected poignancy, especially on the brass-filled, techno-traveler anthem "Wanderlust." But it has some stinkers, too. "The Dull Flame of Desire" sounds like a Shakespearean funeral dirge, and the speedy, blaring "Declare Independence" could make the most stoic criminal talk. But even Bjork's misses are more exciting than most of what we currently call hits.

ARTIST: BOBBY VALENTINO

ALBUM: SPECIAL OCCASION (Disturbing the Peace)

The leak weeks before its release of Bobby Valentino's intended new album was apparently no deterrent to the R&B crooner. On his re-created sophomore set, he returns with heartfelt ballads and midtempo tunes full of superlative production. On the Darkchild-produced "If I Had My Way," the Atlanta native pines for the true object of his desire -- never mind that both he and the woman are seeing other people. But Valentino keeps his wandering eye in check on tracks like the Tim & Bob-crafted "Make You the Only One," in which he proclaims he's "turning his player card in." Elsewhere, the crooning on "Where You Belong" and "Over and Over" ("I wanna play with your body like a drum") reminds us why we fell in love with Valentino's sound in the first place.

ARTIST: THE BAD PLUS

ALBUM: PROG (Heads Up)

When the Bad Plus launched on Columbia with 2003's "These Are the Vistas," the group made jazz enemies for breaking the rules of what a piano trio should sound like, but won over progressive-jazz buffs for its forward thinking. Rock rhythms trumped swing, angular deconstructions replaced predictable standards and avant dissonance married the melodic. Four years and three albums later, pianist Ethan Iverson, bassist Reid Anderson and drummer Dave King reach a new level of maturity with "Prog," their Heads Up debut. Coming from diverse rock and classical backgrounds, the threesome again dishes up a gourmet 10-course meal of the sublime (a gorgeous take on Tears for Fears' "Everybody Wants to Rule the World"), the rowdy (a raucous ride through the original "Physical Cities") and the eclectic (Iverson's "Mint," Rush's "Tom Sawyer"). Easily the most likable and listenable jazz album of 2007.

ARTIST: BROTHER ALI

ALBUM: THE UNDISPUTED TRUTH (Rhymesayers)

With a rubber-cement flow halfway between Slug's and Slim Shady's, and the ability to count himself as the planet's foremost albino Muslim rapper, Brother Ali is certainly a rare persona in the hip-hop universe. And though his singular identity doesn't translate necessarily into a singular sound, there's plenty in his road-tested formula for fans of soulful, organic hip-hop to like. Ali benefits from a plate full of typically banging tracks from Rhymesayers producer du jour Ant, whose funk- and soul-infused beats provide a great counterpunch to Ali's meaty vocals (the duo even finds some genuine melody in the horn-kissed "Take Me Home"). Those rhymes can be wicked -- "I'm like Howard Stern meets Howard Zinn" he drips at one point, and delivers convincing indignation on "Uncle Sam Goddamn" and "Letter From the Government." But on tracks like "Truth Is" and the old-school throwback "Listen Up," Ali packs a bounce that's hard to deny.

ARTIST: THE SEA & CAKE

ALBUM: EVERYBODY (Thrill Jockey Records)

Chicago indie standard-bearers the Sea & Cake don't diverge much from their usual breezy pop on their seventh album. Still, fans will notice a more organic, rougher approach to the formula of jazz chords, pretty dissonance and summery melody lines, with a lot of help from veteran producer Brian Paulson, taking over here for TSAC drummer John McEntire. Dirtier snare sounds and Sam Prekop's buoyant murmur occupy one of the strongest tracks, "Exact to Me," while some simple and affecting dueling electric guitars punch through "Crossing Line." The instrumental "Left On" is a dream-like prog jam that nicely sets up the album's lackadaisical closer, "Transparent." The quartet's collective instrumental expertise is obvious on "Everybody." The songs are just as solid, but even the most subtle change is welcome.

Reuters/Billboard