Rhymefest

"Blue Collar" (J Records)

3 stars

Rhymefest may have peaked before he recorded his debut CD.

Prior to releasing "Blue Collar" last week, the Chicago emcee earned a Grammy (for co-writing Kanye West's "Jesus Walks") and beat Eminem in a rap battle.

There's no blueprint for a rapper who's been deemed a success before becoming a superstar, and Rhymefest isn't about to blaze a new trail.

Instead, "Blue Collar" is torn between making the 29-year-old sound like the polished, next big thing or the down-to-earth wordsmith perfectly sized for a niche. With his everyman persona, awkward stage name and fat-lip lisp, Rhymefest seems very much the latter, but here he goes the ho-hum route of rapping to a hook sung by heartthrob Mario ("All Girls Cheat"), bragging about his garage full of cars ("Brand New") and mining misogynist territory ("Stick").

Thank goodness for more creative cuts like "Devil's Pie," in which producer Mark Ronson slices up The Strokes' "Someday" for his rapper to caution against taking the easy way out, then slam Donald Rumsfeld.

Rhymefest gets help from West and bares his conscience on "More," discussing greed while using Milli Vanilli as a teaching tool (and completely contradicting "Brand New").

But the best track here is "Bullet," another morality tale with a powerfully anti-war first verse. Over muted keyboards and a chorus from Citizen Cope, 'Fest spits rhymes about a young enlisted man: "He ain't really a killer though / takin' a lot of risk / this is what a poor person do for a scholarship / then he turned around and got a face full of hollow tips," then adds the sarcastic tag, "But don't be mad, he died for the flag."

"Bullet" is a gutsy stand grounded in working man's emotion – a.k.a. the type of song that emphasizes the flimsiness of "Blue Collar's" lesser material.

Thom Yorke

"The Eraser" (XL Recordings)

3 stars

Unless you are unreasonably enamored of skittering beats and fuzzy guitar loops, you pretty much have to love Thom Yorke's voice to enjoy "The Eraser."

Even the most devoted Radiohead fans aren't all nuts about how the band's frontman sings – in an unintelligible falsetto, a dreamy mumble, a vulnerable drone. If you're on the fence about Yorke, be warned this is a real solo album, where Jonny Greenwood's guitar isn't going to rush in and save you.

With "The Eraser," it's just you, Yorke and his laptop.

That can be pretty cool, like when he coos his band's credo ("no more talk about the old days, it's time for something great") in "Atoms For Piece" and then flings his voice like a boomerang into the outer limits of his vocal range. I don't know what he's singing, but Yorke's voice sounds gorgeous as it flutters around in the wind, before deflating back to virtual terra firma planted with mechanical basslines and heartbreak beats.

Elsewhere, Yorke and producer Nigel Godrich add a few more instruments to give the Englishman's vocals something to float on or spar against. The very Radioheady "The Clock" sounds like it's receiving transmissions from a 12-year-old learning the electric guitar on Pluto. The title track employs a few ghostly piano chords for a foundation, while little bleeps, ticks and wah-wahs feast on "Skip Divided."

"The Eraser" packs more "Kid A"-style experimentation than even "Kid A" could muster. It holds tight to buzzing, altered instrumentation and makes Yorke's otherworldly voice sound earthly in comparison.

– Bryan Wawzenek