POP/ROCK
Jason Derulo, "Jason Derulo" (Warner Bros.)
Derulo tackles an array of earnest trance-pop, glossy guitar rock and buttoned-down R&B over his debut's nine tracks. Weirdly, the post-genre pastiche works. Derulo gets a strong songwriting assist from producer J.R. Rotem -- one rarely waits more than a few seconds for something deliriously catchy to happen. He's a nimble vocalist who uses Auto-Tune the way T-Pain does -- as an accent to sharp melodies such as the churning "In My Head" or the fizzy disco-pop of "The Sky's the Limit." The Haitian-American Derulo also knows when to deploy his Caribbean lilt to ramp up a song's melodrama, and it's one of his best vocal tricks. The veering eclecticism of the album suggests that he's still figuring out his sound, though.
Nonetheless, it's a pleasure-packed debut.
AUGUST BROWN, LOS ANGELES TIMES
Peter Gabriel, "Scratch My Back" (Real World)
Gabriel covered songs by 12 artists, including David Bowie, Arcade Fire and the Magnetic Fields. He also invited them to plumb his own catalog for an upcoming response record titled "I'll Scratch Yours." Instead of highlighting what younger artists actually seem to love about his own work -- its cosmopolitan spirit, written in the rhythms of soul, qawwali and Afrobeat -- Gabriel has gone for a Western art song approach. No bass, no drums from the man who gave us "Sledgehammer"?
By turning these songs into Shakespearean soliloquies, Gabriel argues for their complexity and depth, their right to be considered as art songs. It's loving, and when it works, his interpretations take your breath away. Talking Heads' forgotten "Listening Wind" reveals itself as a taut tale of international intrigue. Neil Young's "Philadelphia" is restored to the status of a secular hymn. These songs deserve Gabriel's serious consideration -- there's not a dud among them.
ANN POWERS, LOS ANGELES TIMES
