HIP/HOP

Snoop Dogg, "Ego Trippin'" (Geffen)

The title of Snoop's ninth proper album could be taken as a defiant boast, a dispassionate disclaimer or perhaps a hazy combination of the two. Actually, this sleek but noticeably insecure record finds Snoop Dogg obsessed with defining just who, or what, he is.

This isn't unusual terrain for a prominent rapper approaching his late 30s. Still, it's striking that Snoop Dogg can barely get half a minute into the album before defensively acknowledging his cartoonish television persona. Then, as one sultry, vintage sample (Marvin Gaye) segues into another (Isley Brothers), he lets loose with the first litany of boasts, in his laid-back yet shifty style.

Throughout "Ego Trippin'" Snoop Dogg tries to burnish his credentials as a party-ready high roller, a street-toughened gangster, an insatiable lothario and a nurturing husband and father. He never acknowledges the incongruity of all these attributes, except by juxtaposition: "Those Gurlz," a groupie-seduction vignette, leads into "One Chance (Make It Good)," an avuncular bit of relationship advice.

Aware of his reputation for misogyny, Snoop Dogg grouses momentarily about freedom of speech. He dedicates "Been Around Tha World" to his wife, but that track doesn't inspire much faith in his chivalry or fidelity. Naughtiness is still more his style, even if the album's explicit version of "Sensual Seduction," his current hit, is so clumsily suggestive that it verges on comedy.

NATE CHINEN, NEW YORK TIMES

Bauhaus, "Go Away White" (Bauhaus)

Sort of. "Go Away White" doesn't come near the wild creativity of Bauhaus' best work, including "Bela Lugosi's Dead." Instead, the album is flawed by formulaic, one-note compositions that only hint at the group's enduring influence.

The stilted "Too Much 21st Century" goes for the choppy punch Love and Rockets, a post-Bauhaus group minus Murphy, crafted, but never lets loose. "International Bulletproof Talent" and "Endless Summer of the Damned," the album's low points, are nothing more than Murphy moaning and warbling like a Bowie cadaver over backup singers chanting the songs' titles.

Fortunately, there are several highlights. Murphy's low, mysterious vocals work well overtop the fuzzed-out guitars on "Adrenalin;" a slinky, sexy bass line anchors playful harmonies on "Undone"; "Saved" is buoyed by a hypnotic, downtempo groove and more great harmonies from Murphy; and "The Dog's a Vapour," featuring Murphy howling at the moon, is simple but eerily compelling.