POP/ROCK

The-Dream, "Love King" (Def Jam)

The-Dream, aka Terius Nash, depicts unchaste women for a living. He first got a leg up writing R&B for other people, particularly "Umbrella" for Rihanna. That was three long years ago, and now Nash is on his third solo album.

Lately he has been receiving some criticism for his extraordinary focus or, if you like, his lack of breadth -- so much that he recently threatened to quit making records. He's obsessed with surfaces, endless trysting, strings of brand names and concentrating his talent in pursuit of casual pleasures, so casual he seems to barely even feel them. Not everything he makes is great, but everything he makes is modern. (Even when he's copying Prince. Even when he's copying R. Kelly.) His best work feels quick and intuitive.

There are small-scale epiphanies in the title track, on which, over a luxurious, summery beat with a piano bass line rolling upward by half-tones, he catalogs his girlfriends by their preference in footwear, liquor, airlines and data plans. And in parts of "Turnt Out," on which he sings in falsetto about sexual positions for most of 4 1/2 minutes, he tries to beat Prince at his own game.

The epiphanies aren't there so much in "Yamaha," a much more studious Prince homage that's a few minutes too long, or "February Love," the ebb-tide slow jam. And even though he's trying -- with songs flowing into one another, and characters and phrases resurfacing from earlier records -- his album doesn't transcend its highest individual moments. The-Dream is best in four minutes or less, describing carriages and gazes and moving on. He's made some pretty seriously entertaining songs. And on some level it remains unclear why he should be making albums at all.

BEN RATLIFF, NEW YORK TIMES

world

Regina Carter, "Reverse Thread" (E1)

Violinist Carter has celebrated the songwriters from her hometown, Detroit; recorded with one of Paganini's violins; and paid tribute to jazz standards. Here, she focuses on old folk tunes from Africa in a small group that includes an accordion and a kora, a West African harp often played in one key. But the Mali-born Yacouba Sissoko adapts it rather magically to Western music. Among the many treasures are a couple of traditional melodies from the Abayudaya, the Jews of Uganda. The opening "Hiwumbe Awumba" is a happy, kvetch-free ditty that features a scintillating call and response between Carter and accordionist Will Holshouser.

The group is so light that it seems as if Carter has assembled a unique chamber music ensemble. The Mali influence courses through this session. Guitarist Habib Koite's blissful tune "N'Teri" seems to rise on tragic wings, while Boubacar Traore's "Kanou" could furnish the elements of a country hoedown. Carter's "world" recording is as marvelous as it is geographically diverse.

KARL STARK, PHILADELPHIA INQUIRER