Billboard album reviews: Erasure, Jill Cunniff

NEW YORK (Billboard) - ARTIST: ERASURE; ALBUM: ON THE ROAD TO NASHVILLE. Erasure may have logged only three stateside hits over 20 years, but that has never slowed its ability to fill venues with steadfastly maniacal fans. Last year's acoustic tour proved once and for all that it is more than synths and camp that have made

Vince Clarke and Andy Bell an enduring force, with stripped-down and wholly reconfigured new versions that reveal melodic beauty and thoughtful lyrical messages often lost in the beat. That acoustic concert is lovingly captured on this set, which includes 18 tracks on CD and an accompanying DVD from a stop at Nashville's legendary Ryman Auditorium last May. Best among many pleasant surprises are the peddle-steel-enriched "Victim of Love," the stripped-to-sweet "Oh L'Amour," the folky "Piano Song" and a rollicking hoedown reading of "Blue Savannah." A dynamic, delightful rewriting of the book.

ARTIST: JILL CUNNIFF

ALBUM: CITY BEACH (The Militia Group)

Jill Cunniff, former lead singer of alt-rock group Luscious Jackson, returns after six years and two kids with a delightfully breezy and refreshingly hopeful chill-out solo disc. Cunniff's honeyed vocals, distinctive wah-heavy guitar and retro-fabulous canned beats on tracks like "NYC Boy" evoke New York circa 1994, when Luscious Jackson's debut full-length was released on the Beastie Boys' now-defunct Grand Royal label. The relentlessly strong hooks -- especially on the acoustic guitar-anchored "Eye Candy" and the swinging, slightly twangy "Exclusive," which conjures early

Sheryl Crow -- make it easy to embrace lyrical riffs on taking it easy and "enjoying the ride." This is a thoroughly made-for-summer album released in the dead of winter, and catching its musical waves guarantees instantaneous thawing.

ARTIST: EXPLOSIONS IN THE SKY

ALBUM: ALL OF A SUDDEN I MISS EVERYONE (Temporary Residence Ltd.)

It's impossible to listen to Texan instrumental rock act Explosions in the Sky without paying notice to texture. As each quiet-loud-quiet song cycles through its emotional peaks and valleys, the band considerately adds, subtracts and multiplies conflicting elements and melodies to complete the picture. Even the song titles -- "Catastrophe and the Cure," "Welcome, Ghosts," "The Birth and Death of the Day" -- indicate a struggle of polar opposites. On this five-song set, "It's Natural to Be Afraid" captures that back-and-forth best, not only in its girth (13 minutes) but in its perfect execution: The swirling guitars are at once rough and pretty, the percussion is pleading but soothing, the lyrical quality to each melody is grainy but accessible.

ARTIST: TRANS AM

ALBUM: SEX CHANGE (Thrill Jockey Records)

Trans Am's seven previous albums have walked the thin line between genuine homages to Kraftwerk, Rush and Led Zeppelin and are-you-serious? exercises that push the limits of hero worship. Still, there's something continually appealing about the trio's refusal to march to any drummer other than its own on "Sex Change," which revels in straightforward grooves augmented by Trans Am's signature blend of retro electronics and live instrumentation. Don Caballero fans will eat up the distorted riff-fest "Shining Path," and "North East Rising Sun" imagines a coked-up Kraftwerk careening down the Autobahn. Dare to sit still through the bizarre, Vocoder-enhanced "Climbing Up the Ladder (Parts III and IV)," and toe-tap with a smile during "4,738 Regrets," which is almost cinematic in its wistfulness. That this album could just as easily have come out in 1985 is no detriment to its consistently entertaining songs.

ARTIST: ANBERLIN

ALBUM: CITIES (Tooth & Nail Records)

"Cities" is a whirlwind tour through the world of driving rock act Anberlin, with producer

Aaron Sprinkle again serving as the guide to the band's adrenaline-fueled endeavors of the heart. The sheer force of first single "Godspeed" destroys the notion that a pop song can't kick some furious butt if it's recorded right. Anberlin's grandiose sound doesn't go in for excessive playing; even acoustic numbers ("The Unwinding Cable Car," "Fin") are crisp and precisely rendered. A softer touch brushes against "Inevitable," though, as pounding drums, jangling bells and strings abound for the album's most romantic track. These guys are hardly old, but their lyrics already reflect lost causes, long-ago youth and regrets. "Dismantle. Repair." unites these themes with a powerhouse production that elevates Anberlin to a plane far above the easier-to-digest boy bands of late.

ARTIST: DIR EN Gray

ALBUM: THE MARROW OF A BONE (Warcon Records/Free Will America)

Despite the fierce squalling Dir en gray kicked up on 2006's "withering to death," the Japanese sensation opens "The Marrow of a Bone" with the downtempo "Conceived Sorrow," letting sparse piano and sonorous bass lead the way. Instead of mixing brutality with pretty melodies, this time the band confines those elements to separate tracks -- you don't hear any more beautiful colors until eight cuts later on "namamekashiki ansoku, tamerai ni hohoemi." "The Marrow of a Bone" is also less chaotic than "withering," holding a tighter rein on the bristling, punk-infused rock. But Dir en gray still lets its wrath loose on the furious "grief," with singer Kyo mangling his English and letting out hysterical screams.

Reuters/Billboard