Weary Confessions and Vital Emotions

**1/2

ALANIS MORISSETTE

“Under Rug Swept”

Maverick

Confession is good for the soul, and it’s often good for singer-songwriters. In her 1995 “Jagged Little Pill,” Morissette established herself at age 21 as one of the most absorbing pop arrivals in years by digging deep inside to share memories that were, by turns, raw, painful and cleansing. The collection sold about 30 million copies worldwide and won a Grammy for album of the year.

Morissette was staggered by the success, and in the 1998 follow-up, “Supposed Former Infatuation Junkie” she again dug deep to try to understand why all the good fortune hadn’t erased her long-standing lack of self-esteem.

The result was a wonderfully liberating collection of songs about inner peace that enabled us to identify with her feelings as easily as we had in the first album. In the magical “Thank U,” she reminded us that we can find strength from even life’s most difficult moments. “Thank you terror, thank you disillusionment, thank you frailty, thank you consequence, thank you silence,” she sang, recalling the inspiring grace of Peter Gabriel and Kate Bush’s most moving music.

Morissette--handling both the writing and production assignments this time after co-writing the first two with producer Glen Ballard--is again in a confessional mood on “Under Rug Swept” (due in stores Tuesday), but the results are mixed. The music’s textures remain in an aggressive pop-rock style, but they sometimes seem adrift rather than dynamically focused.

Morissette’s lyrics deal again with troubled relationships and matters of self-esteem. Some of it works nicely, including the tuneful “So Unsexy,” the idealistic, socially conscious “Utopia” and the introspective “This Particular Time.”

But too much of the album is more wearisome than revealing. In “21 Things,” she spells out just what she expects from a relationship, going through such a long list of complaints about former beaus that it’s almost comical.

It’s not a bad idea for a song, but the lyrics seem like something jotted in a journal rather than tailored for a song. “Do you have a big intellectual capacity but know that it alone does not equate wisdom?” might be a valid thought for the song, but there must be a more graceful way to express it. Morissette remains a major talent who understands the importance of exploring private feelings, but she needs to make the findings more universal.

Robert Hilburn

***1/2

... AND YOU WILL KNOW US

BY THE TRAIL OF DEAD

“Source Tags & Codes”

Interscope

Anyone who thought At the Drive-In was a budding savior of rock before it abruptly broke up last year can take heart. Trail of Dead, from the same Texas circuit that produced ATDI, more than fills the void with its major-label debut, making good on the promise of the raw energy and intelligence of its prior independent releases and a reputation for invigoratingly chaotic concerts.

The opening “It Was There That I Saw You” makes the case for the quartet’s growing command: Massive avalanches of sound envelop an engaging melodic sweep and lyrics nakedly romantic enough to make your average emo-rocker blush--then, suddenly, the tumult gives way to a passage of delicate beauty.

“Beaudelaire” is a philosophical meditation on the inner sins committed by an unexercised psyche, with music that churns like a lost ‘60s garage nugget filtered through Sonic Youth. “Monsoon,” another take on stormy emotions, sounds like Iggy Pop backed with Who-like majesty.

“Relative Ways” fits a bouncy rock melody to this thinking band’s existential crisis, as Conrad Keely sings, “All panic and struggle, pain and decay / Are coming together in relative ways / This electric guitar hanging at me knees / A couple of verses I can barely breathe.” A lot of bands are whistling in the growing darkness. Trail of Dead also wants to shine a light. The band plays April 5 at the El Rey Theatre in L.A. and April 6 at the Glass House in Pomona.

Steve Hochman

**

CHER

“Living Proof”

Warner Bros.

After getting all of that personal-statement stuff out of her system in 2000 with the Internet-only release “not.com.mercial,” an album featuring her poetry set to music, Cher has electro-bopped back to inspirational danceability in this follow-up to her 1998 blockbuster “Believe.” Just in time to dedicate the pulsing new single “(This Is) A Song for the Lonely” to the people of New York in the aftermath of 9/11.

Not that the veteran singer and actress planned it that way, of course. She’s just, again, suddenly in tune with the zeitgeist with an uncanny timeliness that rivals Madonna’s. Anyway, why mess with a good thing? She’s even reunited with “Believe” producers Mark Taylor and Brian Rawling to make “Living Proof” (in stores Tuesday) another neo-disco opus focused on lightweight-yet-uplifting sentiments as penned by such reliable fluff-meisters as Diane Warren.

Her ruminations on love lost and found, real and not, universal and erotic, are all very smooth and soaring, but even given the context, the inch-deep revelations quickly wear thin. Such variants as the mournful, acoustic-flavored ballad “Rain, Rain” don’t do much to keep the songs’ thoroughly modern two-step rhythms, throbbing house beats, shimmery synths and Vocoder effects from blurring together into one endlessly vibrating mechanism, with Cher the gooey human center. But not even her throaty, over-enunciated sincerity can make the repetitive points of feeling lonely/being happy/getting cosmic very interesting.

Natalie Nichols

***1/2

X-ECUTIONERS

“Built From Scratch”

Loud

People often forget that rapping is just one of hip-hop’s pillars. Breakdancing, graffiti and DJ-ing have been largely overshadowed by rappers in the culture’s move into mainstream society.

Performance DJs, who probably stand as the second-most-recognized hip-hop expression because of their dexterous turntable tricks, are still integral to many live rap shows and are often included in rap-rock groups for credibility’s sake. The X-ecutioners, however, are no gimmick. With their second album (due Tuesday), Rob Swift, Roc Raida, Mista Sinista and Total Eclipse deliver a sonic gem that illustrates the vibrancy that can radiate through hip-hop recordings.

Composed of sonic collages that cut and paste vocal snippets from LL Cool J, KRS-One, Mobb Deep and others, songs such as “3 Boroughs” acknowledge hip-hop’s history and make their own statement via deft scratching. “Let It Bang” with M.O.P. and “It’s Gon’ Down” with Linkin Park show how hard-core rock sensibilities can be melded into credible, scratch-laden hip-hop. The genius of groups such as the X-ecutioners is best displayed live, where they can mount a hip-hop symphony of sorts. When that’s not possible, “Built From Scratch” is the next best thing.

Soren Baker

In Brief

*** Neil Finn & Friends, “7 Worlds Collide,” Nettwerk America. The New Zealander may be the most Beatles-esque of all post-Fab Four singer-composers, and he gets more than a little help from his friends on this live set. Eddie Vedder, Radiohead’s Phil Selway and Ed O’Brien and others come along for this infinitely melodic ride through a happily-rarely-after land of romantic disillusionment. The emphasis is on gorgeously elegant pop balladry spanning Finn’s various group and solo projects, with detours into the Pearl Jam and Smiths songbooks. The CD also includes new material from a solo album due in April. Proceeds from the album (and an accompanying DVD) go to Doctors Without Borders to help the group’s work in Afghanistan. Finn plays March 12 at the Galaxy Theatre in Santa Ana.

Randy Lewis

**1/2 Various artists, “Roswell: Original Television Soundtrack,” Nettwerk America. There’s nothing exactly out of this world, but this collection spun off the alien youth soap weaves previously released songs by strong yet ethereal women (Dido, Sarah McLachlan, Sheryl Crow) and the new crop of English romantic rock acts (Coldplay, Travis, Doves) to create an aura of mystery. Two versions of Dido’s “Here With Me” (the show’s theme) frame the disc, with Zero 7’s future-soul “Destiny” and Doves’ electronic-decorated version of the Beatles’ “Blackbird” the gravity-defying highlights. Show-related CD-ROM features are a bonus for fans.

S. H.

*** Nappy Roots, “Watermelon, Chicken & Gritz,” Atlantic. Add Kentucky to the list of states producing quality hip-hop music. Bowling Green’s Nappy Roots introduce a distinct brand of low-income rap with their first major-label album (due Tuesday). Skinny DeVille, Big V, Scales, Ron Clutch, B. Stille and R. Prophet are, as they put it, “Ballin’ on a Budget,” injecting a frankness and a sense of pride about their country lifestyle that make for an enticing package.

S.B.

** The Mockers, “Living in the Holland Tunnel,” One Eye Open. Passionate fans of ‘60s and ‘70s pop-psychedelia might regard the second album by the Virginia foursome as a classic painting, to be displayed and revered forever. To the less zealous, however, the 12-song collection merely blends into the scenery, despite its snappy lyrics and clever wordplay. The Mockers, who perform Tuesday at Spaceland in L.A., show they are masters of their forebears’ destiny but, not yet anyway, their own.

Kevin Bronson

*

Albums are rated on a scale of one star (poor), two stars (fair), three stars (good) and four stars (excellent). The albums are already released unless otherwise noted.