01:00 AM EDT on Sunday, May 28, 2006

Dixie Chicks

Taking the Long Way (Open Wide/Columbia)

When Dixie Chicks singer Natalie Maines said in 2003 that she was ashamed to come from the same state as our president, she encountered a polarizing fallout.

Maines addresses the incident on the powerful "Not Ready to Make Nice," the centerpiece of the Chicks' first new CD since her comment. It's a stunning piece of pop music and a testament to the brilliance of producer Rick Rubin. Every note, every instrument counts. "Not Ready to Make Nice" is as close to perfection as a pop song gets.

Taking the Long Way is intensely personal, and the first of the Chicks' seven albums to feature songs all co-written by the trio, but surprisingly it is not a partisan album.

"Not Ready to Make Nice" is not anti-Bush, doesn't comment on his policies, or name any individual. Rather, it addresses narrow-minded intolerance and hatred. Maines is unrepentant -- "It's too late to make it right" / "I probably wouldn't if I could" -- and she's shocked at how low some would go:

It's a sad sad story when a mother will teach her daughter that she ought to hate a perfect stranger

And how in the world can the words that I said

Send somebody so over the edge

That they'd write me a letter

Sayin' that I better shut up and sing

Or my life will be over.

Stung by the ban of their music on country radio, and unapologetically stubborn, the trio rips the threads out of the straitjacket parameters of Nashville and offers the barest hint of country through 66 minutes of music. Rubin enlists members of the Red Hot Chili Peppers, the Heartbreakers, the Jayhawks, Semisonic and Bonnie Raitt for a gritty pop/rock flavor.

The defiance is admirable but a few of the songs are lightweight and sound like Sheryl Crow songs. We could easily lose them. A sharp-written country song, or two, would have beaten the close-minded community at its own game. And the CD could use some patented Chicks sense of humor.

As a result, Home, the CD at No. 1 at the time of Maines' outburst, remains the Dixie Chicks' overall masterpiece. But with the bold Taking the Long Way, the Chicks prove they are in line to become among the all-time greats.

-- HOWARD COHEN

The Miami Herald

The Dixie Chicks are at the T.D. Banknorth Garden (formerly the FleetCenter), Causeway Street, Boston, at 8 p.m. July 29. Tickets, $47 to $75, go on sale at 10 a.m. Saturday. Call (401) 331-2211 or go to www.ticketmaster.com.

The Flaming Lips

At War With the Mystics (Warner Bros.)

Perhaps The Flaming Lips' most political statement in their 20-plus-year history, At War With the Mystics teeters on the line between satisfying and disappointing.

At times it shines like a distorted, funky beacon of freedom and free thought, an aural Statue of Liberty. Elsewhere it wobbles through the labyrinth, never quite finding the true end of a 7-minute, 20-second song such as "The Sound of Failure."

Granted, the Lips never fail to entertain, to provoke thought, to create work that challenges the mind, body, soul, feet. (How exactly do you dance to a song like "It Overtakes Me," which kicks off as a funk fire starter and devolves into a cloudy trip into neo-psych?)

But the Oklahoma City band is better with some styles (freak-out pop, Beck-like super-funk with the bomber melodies) than it is others (dreamy prog rock).

-- RICARDO BACA

The Denver Post

T Bone Burnett

The True False Identity (Columbia)

In the 14 years since he last released a collection of new tunes, T Bone Burnett has kept busy on several fronts, including producing the soundtrack for O Brother, Where Art Thou? and helping bring traditional acoustic music back into vogue.

He returns to recording with a flourish on The True False Identity, an insistently rhythmic, perspective-rich assortment of roots-rock tunes that brim with equal parts tuneful passion and biting dissatisfaction.

An array of guitars and drums probe reggae sway and fuzz guitar on "Zombieland," and ignite the measured, lounge-style jazz of "Fear Country," all while Burnett rails at the state of modern thinking. He mixes and matches moods and textures, seething over the acoustic pulse of "A Poem of the Evening: Hollywood Mecca of the Movies," and uses disparate sounds from roots and industrial realms to powerful effect as he howls on "Blinded by the Darkness."

His songs are meticulously layered and loaded with flavorful nuggets, such as the neo-rockabilly of "I'm Going on a Long Journey Never to Return."

Burnett makes frequent good use of repetition, including a mellow saunter through the almost hypnotic "There Would be Hell to Pay," making it impossible to miss the challenges of both the unsettling questions he asks and the aggressive ways in which he poses them.

-- THOMAS KINTNER

The Hartford Courant

T Bone Burnett is at the Somerville Theatre, 55 Davis Square, Somerville, Mass., at 7:30 p.m. Saturday. Tickets are $22. Call (617) 876-4275 or go to www.somervilletheatreonline.com.

The Wreckers

Stand Still, Look Pretty (Maverick)

Three years after her second solo album, one-time teen singer-songwriter Michelle Branch has joined with her former backup singer Jessica Harp to create a modern pop-country duo, The Wreckers.

The melodic, harmony-rich sound crosses the Dixie Chicks and Sheryl Crow for a smart, roots-based sound built around the duos' well-written tunes.

Branch was 17 when she released her first hit, "Everywhere." Five years later, she's still concentrating on songs about identity, emotional entanglements and making it clear why she's leaving a relationship or what it's going to take to get her to stay.

Pairing with Harp, who had pursued a solo country career until Branch offered to form a duo, The Wreckers merge the traditional and contemporary by seamlessly blending bluegrass instruments such as fiddles, mandolins and acoustic guitars with gently rockin' accents of slide guitar and pulsing rhythms.

Songs like "Leave the Pieces," "The Good Kind" and the title cut deal, not surprisingly, feature young women frustrated by lovers and those who would stereotype them or dismiss their ambitions or emotions. Branch's husky voice is effectively expressive, and the harmonies are richly beautiful.

Robert Pollard

The Fading Captain Series 40 and 41 (Fading Captain)

Guided by Voices is no more, but the group's driving force, Robert Pollard, continues to deliver new music as casually as most of us breathe.

Pollard's newest offerings, in the wake of his latest official solo release on Merge Records, are several installments in his long-running Fading Captain Series.

Each release (available at robertpollard.net) is catalogued by number, but the albums also come with distinctive personalities: Number 40, for instance, is credited to The Takeovers and titled Turn to Red; Number 41, by Psycho & the Birds, is called All That Is Holy.

The music might loosely be called rock, but otherwise defies easy description. There are legitimate songwriting jewels that rise and evaporate like a breeze; there are disjointed experimental vehicles that crash and burn; there are moments of inspiration fully realized.

All That Is Holy, Pollard's collaboration with longtime producer Todd Tobias, makes the oddest initial impressions. On songs such as the dissonant "Alibible," the lyrics are indecipherable -- buried underneath the song's rising chaos. Even prettier songs such as the acoustic "Jesus the Clockwork," are equipped with plenty of rough edges.

A more refined sound, very generally speaking, is offered on Turn to Red, which reunites Pollard with GBV bassist Chris Slusarenko and a host of other musicians. The rowdy "Insane/Cool It" combines a familiar Who-like punch with a loose Stonesy vocal attack reminiscent of Exile on Main St. Its harshness makes the soft acoustic touch of "First Spill is Free" even more effective.

To appreciate Fading Captain music one must have a high tolerance for strange filler, whether it's disembodied answering-machine voices or unfinished noodling. These albums are Pollard's Basement Tapes, which makes them a rare window into the world of a genius.

-- JIM ABBOTT

The Orlando Sentinel