SOUND CHECK.

QUEENS OF THE STONE AGE: "ERA VULGARIS" (Interscope) - Three stars

There's nothing stone age about this satisfying fifth set from one of the few long-running hard-rock/metal bands to retain the ability to surprise with each new album. QOTSA makes you believe in roaring guitars again on such dark stand-outs as "Sick, Sick, Sick" and the great "3's & 7's," based on a borrowed Nirvana guitar riff. Singer-guitarist Josh Homme's distinctive vocals are put to best effect on the fine opener "Turnin' on the Screw," a convincing bit of psychedelic hard rock that reveals the prog influences hidden at the heart of this consistently interesting Southern California outfit.

Among the biggest surprises here is "Make It Wit Chu," in which echoes of the Doors merge with fine vocals from Mark Lanegan, the former Screaming Trees frontman who helped out on QOTSA's 2002 classic "Songs for the Deaf."

The title "Era Vulgaris" is Latin for "common era," but there's nothing ordinary about this record.

-- Fred Shuster

PAULA COLE: "Courage" (Decca) - Three stars

Welcome back, Paula. Seven years between albums is a long time. As these 11 new songs suggest, Cole spent much of that time in turmoil, facing a stalled career, the birth of a child and a difficult break-up. Meditation helped, and there's some of that newfound calm in such strong material as the gorgeous "Lovelight," a bossa-nova-styled "Hard to Be Soft" and the tuneful "14." Other tracks we'll be returning to often include the delightful "In Our Dreams" and the melancholy "Lonely Town," driven by Herbie Hancock's piano. In collaboration with Bobby Colomby, a producer and the drummer from Blood, Sweat and Tears, Cole has produced her most evocative work yet.

-- F.S.

THE DYNAMICS: "First Landing" (Hacktone) - Three and one half stars

Soul music fans have reason to scream and shout with this reissue of Detroit's Dynamics, who turned their backs on Motown and went to Memphis in 1969 to cut this great, lost debut album. The quartet had Aretha Franklin's husband, Ted White, as their manager, and White enlisted the same American Recordings musicians that backed the Queen of Soul, Wilson Pickett and Elvis on his Memphis recordings.

Memphis r&b producers Chips Moman and Tommy Cogbill man the board, and the Dynamics turn out 12 songs that impeccably mix smooth soul harmonies and Southern roadhouse grit. The group had one minor hit -- "The Ice Cream Song" -- and was never heard from again. The time is ripe for rediscovery.

-- Glenn Whipp

SEAN HAYES: "Flowering Spade" (www.seanhayesmusic.com) - Three stars

Not the guy from "Will & Grace," this Hayes is a slightly Waits-ish, San Francisco singer-songwriter who builds rich sonic universes out of simple guitar-drum-accordion, repeat-chant lyric basics. This is his first studio album, though several concert discs have featured his distinctive, tremulous growl. Hear this earthy yet cosmic wonder live Saturday night at Largo.

-- Bob Strauss

THE TRAVELING WILBURYS: "Collection" (Rhino) - Three and one half stars

The story behind this spontaneous supergroup is widely known. It's 1988, George Harrison needs a B-side (don't ask, youngsters), calls up friend Jeff Lynne, who happens to be producing Roy Orbison. The three of them head over to Bob Dylan's garage studio the next day where they run into Tom Petty and - voila - the Wilburys are born.

The B-side, "Handle With Care," was so good, they made an entire album in 10 days, a good-timey, rocking record, made by friends for the pure hell of it. A second disc, "Volume 3," followed two years later without Orbison, who died shortly after the initial session.

Both records, long out of print and bootlegged to death, are included here, along with four fine bonus tracks and a home-movie-style DVD chronicling the band's off-the-cuff history. It's all impossibly and improbably charming from a group of legends who succeeded because they didn't try too hard.

-- G.W.

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(1) no caption (Queens of the Stone Age)

(2 -- 6) no caption (CD covers)