Aqualung — “Words and Music”
Don’t let the somewhat pretentious, disguised-as-profound simplicity fool you. The musical alter-ego of Scottish multi-instrumentalist Matt Hales returns with supple brilliance.

An emotionally layered yet snappy song set over Paul Simon’s “Slip Sliding Away” sets the tone early.

The warm, low-tone of Hale’s voice only adds to the intimacy of the piano and organ swells. The tracks are personally revealing in a touching way, but the record never meanders into cheesy/lazy torch-song territory. For a soothing, yet non-drowsy experience, let the light shine in on “Good Goodnight.” He wishes his subject, irony-free, “peace in your heart/peace in your soul/peace in your head.”

Jolie Holland — “The Living and the Dead”
A member of the Vancouver, B.C.-based Americana trio Be Good Tanyas, though she emigrated from Texas, Holland flies the coup again for her third solo record.

Holland tried out jazz and delta blues on her first efforts, but the experience left her with debilitating panic attacks, fueled by self-doubt. On The Living and the Dead, she back to her roots of straight-ahead alt-country and finds a kindred spirit in Pakistani-born multi-instrumentalist Shahzad Ismaily (who worked with Tom Waits and Laurie Anderson).

The album kicks off with driving, jangly rock before sliding down an eastern-ambient embankment. On the trancey “Fox in a Hole”, Holland offers, “a fox in the city burrowed under the hive/You bees can buzz around all you want/You’ll never know my life/I’ll live just like a fox in a hole/And they’ll never know.”

The laughing-gas party that inhabits the sparse closer, “Enjoy Yourself,” makes this talent’s hellish journey seem almost worth the ride. She drunkenly leaves us with, “enjoy yourself, it’s later than you think.”

Annuals — “Such Fun”
I’m declaring this review a Polyphonic Spree-free zone.

Yes, the North Carolina collective that benefited from a mysterious benefactor who helped set them up with equipment and a mansion retreat to record. OK, it does sound a little cult-like, but at least they don’t wear robes, and Annuals have six members, unlike their robed Texas counterparts, who count the entire country as contributors. OK, I just broke my own rule!

Frontman Adam Baker mostly writes self-effacing, hopelessly romantic, hyper-percussive love songs. There’s also a bit of spiritual undercurrent running through Such Fun
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On “Springtime”, before the irresistible, jubilant chorus at the end kicks in, it’s easy to get lost in the words that set up the free-loving orgy of voices: “Through every living core/there tolls a chime/It tethers life and love/And every time it rings/It’s the promise that it brings you life.”
The band members play and trade off many instruments, but piano, strings and drums paint the canvas most vividly.

Check out the New Release show tomorrow at Noon with Rich Levinson on 89.7 WTMD, listener supported radio from Towson University. Visit wtmd.org

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