On the Record

TV on the Radio, Charlie Haden Family and Friends, Brightback Morning Light

Rating: Instant Classic, like Edgar Allan Poe.

TV on the Radio’s latest effort sounds at times like Tom Petty, Nelly Furtado, the Cure, Nine Inch Nails and the Black Eyed Peas. It’s a marvelous piece of work. Never sounding dated, lame or anachronistic, Dear Science transcends time, fads and genres. It’s uplifting, optimistic and beautiful. Even the intense, driving songs that sound an imperative call to action are written with a melodic urgency that leaves the listener with a sense of hope. Multilayered both musically and lyrically, it further endears itself with every listen. (Katherine Silkaitis)

Rating: Excellent, like John Oates’ mustache.

Jazz bass legend Charlie Haden was yodeling with the Haden Family Singers from age 2. Rambling Boy is a much-awaited look back, a summit with his four talented kids and a country-bluegrass dream team including Sam Bush and Jerry Douglas. Among the “friends” are Elvis Costello and Haden’s son-in-law Jack Black (!), who hams it up on “Old Joe Clark.” After a priceless clip of Haden singing in 1939, we hear him do “Shenandoah” in a fragile, 71-year-old voice while co-producer Pat Metheny serenades the angels on acoustic guitar. It’ll make you weep. (David R. Adler)

Rating: Solid, like the Liberty Bell.

Like the smoke drifting out of the woods behind school, slow-core roots duo Brightblack Morning Light’s languid, narcotized atmospheres are shrouded in hazy, lingering wafts of groove. The boy/girl vocals emerge as somnambulant mantras undulating like a sour mash’d Mazzy Star luxuriating in Daisy Dukes on a sultry summer day. They discover a little swing within the moody echo and reverb-drenched meanderings, hinting at jazzy late-night soul on the nearly 10-minute “A Rainbow Aims,” while revisiting the gothic backwoods with the slow-mo swagger of “Gathered Years.” (Chris Parker)