CD reviews: Pinetop Perkins, Unkle

Pinetop Perkins, "Pinetop Perkins and Friends" (Telarc)

At 95, Perkins doesn't have a lot of blues-playing friends who approach his age. Only the 82-year-old B.B. King, who cuts it up with Perkins on the latter's tribute to their native state, "Down in Mississippi," comes close to the great piano man here. The other guests, including Eric Clapton and Jimmie Vaughan, are decades younger. Perkins has no trouble keeping up. The selections are sometimes overly familiar ("Got My Mojo Workin'," "Sweet Home Chicago"), but the Muddy Waters sideman is in sharp, nimble-fingered form. Spry on the boogies and soulful on the ballads, he shows how a master can keep even well-worn material sounding fresh.

NICK CRISTIANO, PHILADELPHIA INQUIRER

Unkle, "End Titles ... Stories for Film" (Surrender All)

Unkle has always been a collaborative effort, with British DJ James Lavelle anchoring the project. Over its first three albums, Lavelle recruited such diverse artists as Radiohead frontman Thom Yorke, Mike D of the Beastie Boys, Josh Homme of Queens of the Stone Age and Metallica bassist Jason Newsted. In the liner notes for "End Titles," Lavelle dubbed it as "not a new album in the usual sense, but new music that has been inspired by the moving image." It's an apt description. Although there are 22 tracks, only 10 are proper songs, with the rest short, cinematic musical interludes (with the exception of "Trouble in Paradise," a cathartic, five-minute classical composition with strings, piano, dramatic horns and racing, plucked violins). Principal singer this time is relatively unknown Brit Gavin Clark, whose raspy, aching voice adds pleasant heft to Lavelle's songs. The atmospheric, orchestral "Cut Me Loose" recalls U2 and Bauhaus, while "Ghosts" and "Blade in the Back" borrow the bluesy swagger of Depeche Mode's "Personal Jesus." "Nocturnal" combines the expansive anthemic rock of Coldplay with David Byrne's otherworldly vocals; "Can't Hurt" throws a change-up with the blasé, bohemian cool of Beck. "End Titles" probably won't find much commercial success, but Lavelle has certainly succeeded artistically.