CD reviews 1/29: Tim McGraw; the Internet and Mike G

COUNTRY: Tim McGraw, "Emotional Traffic" (Curb)

The first single from "Emotional Traffic," McGraw's 11th studio album, is "Better Than I Used to Be," which may as well be a shrugging answer to Toby Keith's "As Good as I Once Was." Here is the fighter in decline, "Standing in the rain so long has left me with a little rust." What could keep him in contention, though? That's right, a little of your love.

Admitting that you can't go it alone is no great insight, but all throughout this often tepid album, McGraw is conceding. A woman gives him only a fraction of her love on "One Part, Two Part," and he grins and bears it. The same is true on the Eric Carmen-esque "Halo."

The older McGraw has gotten, the more resistant he has seemed to grit. Texture has been all but absent from his voice since the mid-2000s era of songs such as "When the Stars Go Blue." "Only Human," a new duet with Ne-Yo, is a smooth slice of '80s whimper-soul but isn't as alluring as "Over and Over," McGraw's 2004 duet with rapper Nelly. At some points on this album, as on "The One" and "Right Back Atcha Babe," McGraw appears to be channeling the endless youth of a Kenny Chesney. Even though he's never been a true stoic on the order of Alan Jackson or George Strait, McGraw has never sounded this casual; it doesn't suit him.

After a listless several-song run toward the end of the album, McGraw closes with the bold, invigorated "Die by My Own Hand," a cover of a song by Halfway to Hazard. It's a statement of sly regret about how even the sort of love he was leaning on elsewhere on this album isn't nearly enough.

HIP-HOP: The Internet, "Purple Naked Ladies" (Odd Future/Sony)

Mike G, "Award Tour EP" (Mike G)

Before dropping his full-length "Gold," rapper Mike G (cousin to G-Funk's Warren G) releases the humbly mumbling "Award Tour" with production from several Odd Future-ists. Unlike his collective, Mike goes for laid-back grooves and moods sketched in few words. "Chanel" makes him into a romantic hero through its Euro-disco ambience. Like his work within Odd Future, Mike sounds too content to blend into the background, with free associations that often miss the mark.

Syd the Kyd (the beat-making girl of the group) and Matt Martians hit the mark and then some. As the Internet, they forge their own jiving, jazzy target and pummel it. More P-Funk than G-Funk, this rough-edged take on spacey R&B can be noisy and mean, with its four-letter odes to lady parts, and tracks such as "Cocaine" and "Gurl." But when Syd sings the gently poetic "Fastlane," it's as if she and Martians appropriated the spirit of Nina Simone at her sultriest.