COUNTRY: Dolly Parton, "Better Day" (Dolly)

Not quite halfway into "Better Day," Parton's resolutely cheery new album, there's a vow of principle called "Country Is as Country Does," all two-step rhythm and honky-tonk churn. This song, written with Mac Davis, lays out a string of contrasting pairs -- mansion vs. double-wide trailer, champagne vs. chocolate milk -- while neatly claiming dominion over it all. You could substitute "Dolly" for "country" in those lyrics without losing too much meaning. Parton has been making albums for more than 40 years now, and her persona -- a byproduct of her songbook and her image, both of which she has tended carefully -- no longer has the capacity to overturn expectations. Resilience, adaptability, stick-to-itiveness, devotion: They're her superhero traits, delivered without pretension. And "Better Day" captures them faithfully: It's Dolly to the bone.

Not that Parton hasn't made adjustments. She spent much of the past decade readdressing country's rootsier side, and with this album she puts it to good use in a commercial format, more effectively than on her 2008 studio effort, "Backwoods Barbie." The bluegrass group Dailey & Vincent shows up to sing background vocals on two tracks; Emmylou Harris and Alison Krauss do the same on a tender entreaty called "Somebody's Missing You," and the Isaacs lend their blended voices to a pledge of constancy, "Together You and I."

Of course Parton's is the voice that matters, and she sounds almost ageless: expressive even at a whisper, and glorious at full cry. The songs are all hers, and they cover a lot of ground: falling in and out of love, taking umbrage, carrying on. There's a simple note of uplift in the title track, and a slightly less simple one in the opener, "In the Meantime," which has Parton declaring that "the greatest days we've ever known/Are the ones we're livin' in."

If that isn't the lyric on this album that best illuminates Parton's worldview, it's probably a line from "The Sacrifice," an intriguingly steely testimonial. "Grindstones and rhinestones, that made up my life," Parton sings. "But I've shined like a diamond through sacrifice."

Parton performs July 27 at Mystic Lake Casino.

  • NATE CHINEN, NEW YORK TIMES

POP/ROCK: Jolie Holland, "Pint of Blood" (Anti)

Holland slurs and slides through her songs. She retains the drawl from her Texas youth, and she sounds like an old soul. Her first albums drew on early 20th-century styles -- parlor songs, blues, country -- but "Pint of Blood," her fifth, is less specifically time- and genre-bound than her past work.

Holland has said Neil Young's "Zuma" was an inspiration for this one, and that's evident in the loose, electric grooves of "Gold and Yellow" and "All Those Girls," and the dark, conflicted themes throughout the CD. "Only an angel sent from up above / can tell me if you're the devil or the one I should love," she sings in "The Devil's Sake," one of several songs with a jazzy, Billie Holiday-like subtlety. "Pint of Blood" is spooky and haunted -- and spellbinding.

  • STEVE KLINGE, PHILADELPHIA INQUIRER