Pop
Fall Out Boy
Folie à Deux
(Island)
****1/2
Only one band has ever put out an album with guest spots from Pharrell, Elvis Costello, Lil Wayne, and Debbie Harry. That band is Fall Out Boy, and that album is the superb Folie à Deux.
To be a Fall Out Boy fan is to constantly be arguing your way out from a corner, so here’s my argument: you’re entitled to hate lyricist/bassist/de facto frontman Pete Wentz. He writes awful lyrics and pulsates a manicured self-loathing.
Vocalist/guitarist/songwriter Patrick Stump, on the other hand, while largely anonymous in his own band, is in the very highest category of pop craftsman. He’s the one who wrote the searing guitar stomp of “I Don’t Care,” he’s the one who arranged the glitzy showtune horns and handclaps on “20 Dollar Nose Bleed,” and he’s the one who sings the tidal wave falsetto hooks — not to mention all of his own backups — on “The (Shipped) Gold Standard.” Stump’s melodies are criminally catchy, and he crams them into every available nook and cranny. These are songs with singalong verses, let alone choruses. So c’mon: admit you’ve been seduced by Fall Out Boy. You’re in good company — did I mention their last album featured Jay-Z? 
MICHAEL HINGSTON

Blues
Josh Rager
Time and Again
(Effendi)
***
Josh Rager is one of the new breed of Quebec musicians offering up a sweet, smoky, fast-paced brand of fusion and uptempo jazz. The pianist’s latest disc, Time and Again, is both new and traditional — the opening, “Side Eye,” is a wild, driving jam featuring Frank Lozano’s tenor sax and Al McLean’s alto sax trading leads before giving way to Fraser Hollins’ bass riffs, closing with Rager’s frenetic piano. “I’m Old Fashioned” cools the beat with a more traditional instrumental riff with ’50s overtones. It’s the perfect lead into “Indian Summer,” the bouncing horns and piano evoking images of unseasonable warmth and colourful autumn palettes. Rager slows down for the title tune, a misty, romantic number that evokes candlelit dinners and rekindled love and loss. While piano and sax feature big, Hollins adds a tinge of sadness with a teary bass solo. Only a single number features vocals, with Johnny Scott adding his dulcet tenor tones to the love ballad “Never Let Me Go.”
PAUL MARCK

Hip Hop
Clipse
Road to Till the Casket Drops
(Re-Up)
****
After Hell Hath No Fury’s dismal sales and the Clipse’s well-documented label woes, it’s nice to see that rap’s most talented duo, Push T and Malice, haven’t given up. Their latest mixtape, the prelude to the forthcoming Till the Casket Drops full-length, is the only place you’ll hear crack raps effortlessly delivered alongside Shakespeare references. Wordplay and clever similes come naturally to the Thornton brothers and when they’re spitting over carefully chosen production from current rap songs they put the originals to shame. In a mere 15 seconds of “Intro” they reference ancient Rome, the Bible, John McCain, David Blaine, and pushing coke. Over T.I.’s “Swagger Like Us,” they justify the critical reverence for their lyrics, and on “Big Dreams” you believe them when they slip in the brag about being “the best duo ever.” Though this mixtape is just over a half hour, the anticipation it builds for the full-length makes the road to Till the Casket Drops a long one.
MIKE DEANE

Rock
The Decemberists
Always the Bridesmaid
(Capitol)
****
To cleanse their palates for their forthcoming rock opera The Hazards of Love, Portland’s The Decemberists have released three internet-only singles grouped under the loose banner Always the Bridesmaid. And if these terrific songs are indeed Colin Meloy’s leftovers, we’re in for a real treat come March. They begin in top gear with “Valerie Plame,” a jubilant tuba-and-ukulele barnburner celebrating the betrayed CIA agent, seen from the perspective of the people she was infiltrating as they see her picture flash across the news. The songs are all strong, showing off Meloy’s literary prowess and bursting with simple melodies — the only real misstep is an overly cutesy cover of The Velvet Underground’s “I’m Sticking With You.”
Best of all, though, is “Raincoat Song.” Over a sparsely plucked acoustic guitar, Meloy sings the loveliest and saddest chorus I can think of in recent memory: “The raincoat that you wore / when it rained today / I think it only made it rain more.” The hazards of love, indeed.
MICHAEL HINGSTON