HIP-HOP

Rick Ross, "Hood Billionaire" (Maybach Music Group/Slip N' Slide/Def Jam)

Ross may never again reach the heights of "Teflon Don," the 2010 album that announced his arrival as one of hip-hop's essential characters: a mountainous man with a mountainous ego with the mountainous songs to match. He's never been quite so large since. He's tried introspection. He's tried a return to scraped-up street narrative. And now, on his seventh album, he's turned into a curator of eclectic sounds.

Maybe that was Ross' true weapon: an ear for the unexpected. But not all inspiring sounds are the right ones, and "Hood Billionaire" is a collection of beats that don't always suit his skill set. Mostly on this album, Ross turns slow and syrupy. The title track is a turned-down version of his old megahits. "Trap Luv" is velvety and calm underneath paranoid lyrics. On "Elvis Presley Blvd.," Ross shouts atop a flamboyantly slow soul beat. "Quintessential" creeps along at a snail's pace.

When the beat has attitude, Ross knows how to complement it, as on the staggering, clangorous "Coke Like the 80's," or on the weepy "Family Ties," which showcases Ross' aptitude for narrative, one of his skills that's sometimes overshadowed by his gift for boast. This is an ambitious album, but not always one with the right ambition.

JON CARAMANICA, New York Times

FOLK/ROCK

Thompson, "Family" (Fantasy)

Teddy Thompson, the impetus behind this project, wondered what a "Thompson family" album would sound like. Given the talents involved — including those of his bitterly divorced parents Richard and Linda, and siblings Kami and Jack — it obviously sounds pretty good. The individual members bring their own songs to the table, and if one thing unites them it's their distinct lack of sentimentality.

"I'm going to have to say that I'm not thrilled about you," Richard declares on his prickly folk-rocker "One Life at a Time," while Linda urges the listener to "take the sadness, take the pain, let it go" on the stately piano ballad "Perhaps We Can Sleep." Teddy opens with the acoustic autobiographical "Family" and also contributes the accusatory country-rocker "Right." Kami, working with her husband, James Walbourne, adds melodic pop to the mix with "Careful," and the pair punctuate this celebration of family on a deliciously ironic note with the country-folk lament "I Long for Lonely."

Nick Cristiano, Philadelphia Inquirer