ON CD > REVIEWING THE MUSIC.

MOTION CITY SOUNDTRACK

"Even If it Kills Me" Epitaph - Four stars

On its third album, the Minneapolis band perfects a sound that emerged on 2005's "Commit This to Memory." Every track shows the quintet's strengths: Justin Pierre's melodic vocals, Jesse Johnson's funhouse keyboards and a strong batch of tunes powered by industrial-strength hooks. Factor in crisp, clear co-production from Ric Ocasek (the Cars) and the duo of Adam Schlesigner (Fountains of Wayne) and Eli Janney (Clap Your Hands Say Yeah), and you have an unalloyed pop-rock delight from start (the ebullient "I Fell In Love Without You") to finish (the buoyant title track). Consistently excellent albums such as this should be cherished; they don't happen often.

>SAM GNERRE

RYAN BINGHAM "Mescalito" Lost Highway - Three and one half stars

Bingham has lived it: shuttled between relatives' desert ranches as a child, dodging landlords along the Mexican border, a stint riding bulls on the Southwest rodeo circuit. You can hear it all in the songwriter's authentic-as-worn-

saddles verse, his prickly pear old man's voice (though he's actually all of 25 years old) and his blistering guitar work, some of which is shared on this national debut album by producer Marc Ford of the Black Crowes. It's as if Stevie Ray Vaughan and Guy Clark abandoned an offspring at some dusty, West Texas truckstop, from which Billy Joe Shaver took him home in his pickup. In stores Tuesday; free record release show at King King on Wednesday.

>BOB STRAUSS

TERENCE BLANCHARD

"A Tale of God's Will (A Requiem for Katrina)" Blue Note - Three and one half stars

If you saw Spike Lee's Katrina documentary, "When the Levee Broke," you've already heard trumpeter Blanchard's brilliant score. This is the best thing Blanchard has ever done, a purposeful work that digs deeply into the hurt, anger and frustration felt in the aftermath of Katrina and yet leaves the listener feeling surprisingly hopeful about the future. The potently emotional music, written by Blanchard and members of his quintet, contains the power to heal, and that power grows deeper each time you listen. A masterpiece. Blanchard's sextet, by the way, ends its run at Catalina's tonight.

>GLENN WHIPP 

ANNIE LENNOX

"Songs of Mass Destruction" Arista - Three stars

Lennox has made some terrific music with and without the Eurythmics. On her fourth solo outing, 11 new songs reveal a tougher outlook and rougher sound, possibly due to rock producer Glen Ballard's input. Some instant standouts include the haunting opener, "Dark Road," which refers to both failed love and Europe's love-hate relationship with the U.S. Seems pretentious, perhaps, but the gambit works. The closing epic, "Fingernail Moon," has Lennox in soaring style, swaddled in a gauzy musical arrangement, and it's one of her best tracks ever. The headline-grabber is the anthem "Sing," in which 23 female singers including Madonna, Dido, Pink and Joss Stone join up to raise awareness about mother-child HIV transmission in Africa. Good intentions never sounded so good. Album in stores Tuesday.

>FRED SHUSTER

JOHN FOGERTY

"Revival" Fantasy - Three stars

Fogerty was never one for nostalgia and since the "Green River" dried up, he's kept creating worthwhile, topical music with heart and soul in rockabilly and rootsy American rock. His latest disc is one of his punchiest, a collection of rip-roaring anthems that make you wonder why artists half his age don't seem to have any opinion on the state of things. Fogerty does -- in the twin anti-war tirades "Long Dark Night" and "I Can't Take It No More," he weighs in on the current administration with a savage attack.

There are other tracks to revisit, especially the tunefully optimistic "Don't You Wish It Was True" and "Gunslinger," which has a Western theme that evokes vintage Creedence. The deliciously swampy "Creedence Song," meanwhile, sees Fogerty rightly concluding that "you can't go wrong if you play a little bit of that Creedence song." His reverb-drenched swamp-rock guitar puts the exclamation point right where it belongs. Out Tuesday.

>F.S.

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