CD REVIEWS POP/ROCK

The Black Crowes, "Before the Frost ... " (Silver Arrow/Megaforce)

In the past decade, brothers Chris and Rich Robinson have focused more on the live experience -- performing and releasing recordings of concerts -- than on sequestering themselves away in a studio, honing new material. They get the best of both worlds on this set of new songs recorded live this year in Woodstock, for the most part, in front of a hand-selected audience.

Using the home studio built by the Band drummer Levon Helm apparently inspired them to branch further than they characteristically have into the various tributaries of American roots music. Those explorations feed into the Southern rock that remains at the center of the Black Crowes' sound.

"Good Morning Captain," the leadoff track, taps the same kind of big-footprint backbeat and raucous interplay that Helm and his cohorts did so well. The Robinsons -- who are joined by the band's original drummer, Steve Gorman, plus guitarist Luther Dickinson, bassist Sven Pipien and keyboardist Adam MacDougall with guest assistance from multi-instrumentalist Larry Campbell -- move through a range of classic-rock reference points: Creedence-like swamp-rock, Tom Petty-ish Americana, Motown-style psychedelia and, in "Make Glad," an experiment in Southern prog-funk. There are examinations of rootlessness ("What Is Home," "Houston Don't Dream About Me"), the price musicians pay for so much time spent getting from here to there and one heartfelt meditation on the struggle for connection ("Last Place That Love Lives"). These guys still come up with meaty riffs for fans of guitar-driven rock, but also leave themselves plenty of room to stretch out in jam-band excursions.

"Before the Frost ... " comes with a code that allows purchasers to get a free, download-only companion album, " ... Until the Freeze."

RANDY LEWIS, LOS ANGELES TIMES

HIP-HOP

Pitbull, "Rebelution" (Sony)

Pitbull has a strong rhythmic pocket, laced with Spanish ad libs that could make a Minuteman blush. But he's a better party starter, and he knows it. His latest album is a lighter affair than 2007's "The Boatlift" and 2006's politically-tinged "El Mariel"; it's rife with aspirant bangers in every au courant flavor. Singles such as "I Know You Want Me" and "Hotel Room Service" have been as unkillable on radio as Michael Myers is in the "Halloween" franchise. That's a net positive for pop music -- both are saucy, absurd floor-fillers you can practically feel breathing down your neck. But the record's top-heavy, with the back end succumbing to sodden tracks such as "Juice Box" and the rote absent-parents lament "Daddy's Little Girl."

With "Rebelution," Pitbull has filled a rakish niche in pop-rap. "I ain't no thug, I ain't no gangsta, I'm a hustler," he rhymes. If he wants to hustle curvy ladies and expensive speedboats, well, that sounds like more fun than a '90s bi-coastal turf war.

AUGUST BROWN, LOS ANGELES TIMES