ME'SHELL NDEGEOCELLO

Ndegeocello's "Plantation Lullabies" was a startlingly ferocious and funky debut announcing the birth of a major talent. Unfortunately, this follow-up falls far short of the promise that previous effort held out. Gone are the freewheeling, celebratory and sensual raps, replaced instead by meandering, shapeless, quasi-spiritual ponderings. Not even the occasional echoes of the classic soul of Stevie Wonder ("God Shiva" borrows the descending riff from "Signed, Sealed, Delivered") and Gladys Knight (check out the strings on "Who Is He And What Is He To You"), nor the presence of sax wizard Joshua Redman and keyboard honcho Billy Preston, rescues "Peace" from sounding more like late-period Michael Jackson than James Brown.

WILLIE NELSON

Teatro (Island)

Producer Daniel Lanois, who has previously provided such service for Bob Dylan, Emmylou Harris and U2, once again builds a rootsy, stark soundscape against which he contrasts the essential aspects of the musical personality -- in this case Willie Nelson's ragged, jagged voice and phrasing, and his trademark Spanish guitar. Lanois drafts Harris to lend harmony to the effort, and other Lanois stalwarts including pianist Brad Mehldau and keyboardist Malcolm Burn mix it up with Nelson's road band. More than half of the selections are reworkings of earlier Nelson tunes dating to the early-'60s. Overall, if this isn't Nelson's "Time Out of Mind," it's an equally dark and depressing work that takes emotional decay and abandonment as its theme. [ 9/27/98 ]

WILLIE NELSON

Not since his landmark "Red Headed Stranger" has Willie Nelson made an album so stark and intimate as "Spirit." With the simple backing of Johnny Gimble's fiddle, longtime bandmate Jody Payne's rhythm guitar, and sister Bobbie Nelson's piano -- which in some ways is the true revelation of the disk -- Nelson's singular, conversational vocals and his ragged, off- kilter guitar take primacy on a collection of quietly personal songs about love and faith. It's no more country than it is pop or honky-tonk -- it's Willie Nelson music, the closest thing we have to pure Americana.

RANDY NEWMAN

Guilty: 30 Years of Randy Newman (Rhino)

The only thing better than a four-CD retrospective of Randy Newman's music could be a box-set boasting every single track the brilliant composer and singer-songwriter ever recorded. For now fans and others will have to make do with this fine, carefully-annotated set, which includes rare demos, outtakes and live cuts, a hefty sampling of material from all his officially-released solo albums, and an entire disk of his movie music. In sum, it's a good representation of the work of one of the late-20th century's most innovative and prolific song stylists. [ 11/15/98 ]

THE NIELDS

Play (Zoe/Rounder)

The long-awaited follow-up to 1996's critically-acclaimed "Gotta Get Over Greta" was worth the wait, for The Nields have crafted an equally provocative, intelligent, literate and catchy opus with "Play." From the opening cut, the breezy, pop-rock of "Easy People," to the closer, the futuristic rocker, "Tomorrowland," the album is informed by a road-hardened sensibility that doesn't succumb to world-weariness, but instead celebrates the joy of making music in a supportive community. The values are as old-fashioned as Woody Guthrie's and as contemporary as Ani DiFranco's, and The Nields give them their own stamp with this unique soundtrack to a rock 'n' roll drama. [ 9/27/98 ]

NRBQ

You Gotta Be Loose (Rounder)

More than just the greatest bar-band in the world - which it is - NRBQ elevates gut-bucket rock n' roll to an art form. As shown here on these 15 live tracks, NRBQ disguises its post-modern critique of American popular music in the guise of trash-rock. But as clear as the Sun Ra-like keyboard break on "Wacky Tobacky" or the Monk-like dissonant interpolations Terry Adams throws into "I Got a Rocket In My Pocket," there's a lot more going on here than meets the ear. What other band could totally undermine the entire oeuvre of the Rolling Stones with a single joke song like "Girl Scout Cookies"? If you haven't caught on to NRBQ yet, this is a great place to start. [7/12/98]