Continued: CD REVIEWS POP/ROCK

CD REVIEWS POP/ROCK

Street Sweeper Social Club, "Street Sweeper Social Club" (Warner)

Guitarist Tom Morello of Rage Against the Machine and rapper Boots Riley of the Oakland crew the Coup are longtime comrades in pop's committed left wing. Now, along with Stanton Moore, the scrappy drummer from jazz-funk outfit Galactic, they've excavated the sunken ship of rap-rock as a vehicle for revolutionary jams. For Morello, who helped create this bomb-dropping approach, the sound of Street Sweeper Social Club is well-loved home ground. For Riley, it's a step toward a different audience.

Marrying firebrand lyrics with massive, pedal-pushing guitar riffs, SSSC revels in the kinds of big, earnest gestures that emblematized 1990s alternative rock. It's hardly a new approach to rabble-rousing. But hidden within the band's infectious empire-toppling football chants, Riley wields a sharp little knife. He never crafts a rally cry without countering it with a sly joke and a poignant detail.

The downtrodden workers Riley evokes in "Somewhere in the World It's Midnight" and "The Oath" aren't abstractions. They like their liquor, sweat through the night shift and dream of an uprising partly because, if that happens, they might get a day off.

With Riley in front, Morello relaxes. His playing is what-the-heck spontaneous, complementing Moore's loose-elbowed drumming. SSSC can get very explicit about overthrowing the state. The disdain expressed toward police, corporate shills and even wealthy rock-rap fans (in the highly amusing "100 Little Curses") often has a violent edge.

ANN POWERS, LOS ANGELES TIMES

COUNTRY

Holly Williams, "Here With Me" (Mercury Nashville)

Among Hank Williams' clan, celebrating family tradition is a family tradition. Hank Jr. often has, as does his daughter, Holly. On her second album, the 28-year-old singer/songwriter extends the tradition of self-revelation she put forth convincingly in her excellent 2004 debut "The Ones We Never Knew," and this time she more openly explores the country music genes that are part of her estimable DNA. Williams doesn't go in so much for her granddaddy's perfectly honed use of language, but she does share his penchant for disarming vulnerability.

"Let Her Go," which she co- wrote, could be about any father-daughter relationship, but there's no mistaking exactly who is the target of this one. In "Mama," she's crafted a moving thank-you note to a matriarch who resisted the post-divorce temptation to demonize her ex to curry favor with her children.

There are more shadows than light in the relationship songs, whether her own ("Alone") or some well-chosen contributions from others (Neil Young's bittersweet farewell "Birds"). She does kick up her boot heels briefly in "A Love I Think Will Last," the jaunty two-step duet with the song's co-writer, Chris Janson, and the frisky "Three Days in Bed."

RANDY LEWIS, LOS ANGELES TIMES