Rjd2

“Since We Last Spoke” (Definitive Jux)

Compare to: Odd Nosdam, Cut Chemist, N.E.R.D.

Since Rjd2 last spoke in 2002 with “Deadringer,” he has been the most hyped producer in underground hip-hop and the best secret unknown to the mainstream. Rj is to production what OutKast is to rapping.

It is the absence of rap that will first strike listeners. The hip-hop roots Rjd2 has grown from are still visible, but a whole new lifeform has developed.

Without his rapper friends, Rj finds himself alone and free to break his own mold. He turns the lights up from the dim, eerie feel of “Deadringer” and focuses his energy on the upliftment of music as a whole rather than turntablism and loops designed to support lyrics.

While much of the old-time and soulful beats remain, the electric guitar-driven tracks and electronica-based craftwork are impossible to tune out.

This new course will either be received by fans as a breakthrough in Rjd2’s maturity or a complete disappointment. Either way, it’s hard to deny this unexpected move into the light will bring Rj further out from the legendary darkness that is DJ Shadow.

Although “Since We Last Spoke” is technically his follow-up album to “Deadringer,” Rj has certainly been a busy bee in the last two years since that record’s success. He has since put out plenty of his own new sounds, sometimes under the moniker Soul Position (with rapper Blueprint), and even added himself to the ludicrous list of producers who’ve re-and-remixed Jay-Z’s “The Black Album.”

All of these releases have further developed Rjd2’s ability to combine dusty records with a fair amount of head-nodding beats. Some will say he has purged himself of hip-hop on this release, but it’s more likely that he’s actually carving the path for what hip-hop will be in the future.

Overall, “Since We Last Spoke” is music in a much broader sense of the word than previously employed. It doesn’t have the same whip-cracking effect he’s hooked listeners with, but those with an open mind will be able to appreciate the evolution. Love it or hate it, this album is a sure sign the fires of creativity in Rjd2’s mind have plenty of fuel left.

— Andrew Mabe

Morrissey

“You Are the Quarry” (Sanctuary)

Compare to: The Cure, R.E.M., The Wedding Present

Ready the Kleenex, emo kids — your daddy’s back in town. It’s been seven years since his last full-length release and a decade since his last good one, but Morrissey has finally made his comeback. Considering the number of singles and greatest hits discs he’s released in the meantime, some may have questioned whether the Mozzer still had any discontent left in him.

The good news is that he’s still got it. The bad news is that not everyone will appreciate what “it” is.

Throughout “You Are the Quarry,” there’s an epic, lonesome sensibility that echoes his later solo years, and the tender, heart-on-the-sleeve lyrics still tell the story of Smiths’ melancholy. What’s different, however, is a much more mature, political sound by one of the world’s most vocal and admitted hypocrites.

From the start, the Los Angeles-based musician admits his faults, with songs like “America Is Not the World” and “Irish Blood, English Heart” getting to the point with politically contradictory themes.

However, this is exactly the type of socially androgynous theme that has kept Morrissey on the tip of hipsters’ tongues for so many years. “You Are the Quarry” is a confusing legend in his top form.

Not every track is as vehement as the first two, but even the straight-ahead love — or loveless — songs strike a chord of irony. “I Have Forgiven Jesus” begs for attention while cloaked in pure ’80s synth-pop, while “How Could Anybody Possibly Know How I Feel?” keeps him distanced from his constantly encroaching fame and fans.

“I’m Not Sorry,” the album’s most musically poignant track, summarizes the mystifying nature of a man who’s thoroughly befuddled by his environment: “On returning/ I can’t believe this world is still turning/ The pressure’s on/ Because the pleasure hasn’t gone.”

This may not be a throwback to his early days as the voice of a revolutionary alt-rock band, but it is the sound of a weathered solo musician who’s carved his own initials into the face of rock ‘n’ roll.

Until a Smiths reunion teaches the world how to feel bad for itself again, Morrissey’s latest will have to do. — Aaron Ladage

Method Man

“Tical 0: The Prequel” (Def Jam)

Compare to: Redman, Busta Rhymes, Notorious B.I.G.

On his latest joint, Method Man (aka Hot Nicks, aka Johnny Blaze, aka Iron Lung, aka The Ticalian Stallion…) seems like a different person than when we last ran into him. Although a personality change might not be surprising, given his schizophrenic list of nicknames, the new Meth seems more obsessed with making it big than ever before. And how do rappers sell records? That’s right, sex.

Not that Meth hasn’t always touted the joys of philandering — along with smoking weed, drinking, and other general mischief — but even grass takes a back seat to groupies on “Tical 0: The Prequel.”

It’s still the Method Man we know and love, delivering raunchy, intelligent rhymes with precision, but apparently his mindset has shifted from the underground to the mainstream.

Not that he’s forgotten his Wu-Tang roots — fellow clansmen appear on several songs, including Rza offering props to his boy on “Intro,” the upbeat “Afterparty” with Ghostface, and “The Turn” with Raekwon, which sounds refreshingly like older Wu-Tang material.

However, more MTV rappers appear on this Method Man album than ever before: Busta Rhymes, Missy Elliot, Ludacris, and Snoop Dogg to name a few. Some of the guest-laden songs are simply mediocre, but two that stand out are “Rodeo” with Ludacris (yep, it’s all about getting laid) and “What’s Happenin’,” a tune featuring a lightning-fast flow from Busta.

Method Man’s longtime friend, collaborator, and general partner-in-crime, Redman, also appears on the album, rhyming on the club-friendly “We Some Dogs” with Method and Snoop Dogg.

It’s hard not to like Method Man, no matter what he does, if only because of his original, smooth lyrical style. The songs on this album are good, and the rapping is excellent.

But Meth seems more at home in the Wu-Tang underground than he does trying to get on MTV.

Oh well, like they say, “sex sells…”

— Aaron Butzen

Skinny Puppy

“Greater Wrong of the Right” (SPV)

Compare to: Ministry, Nine Inch Nails, Frontline Assembly

The two founding Skinny Puppy members have made good with each other and recorded a new album featuring an updated sound and an array of collaborators, including Tool’s Danny Carrey and Static X’s Wayne Static. With only half the band, Nivek Ogre and cEVIN Key returning, critical elements of Skinny Puppy’s sound are lacking. Most notably missing from this disc are the trademarked barks from Ogre, as well as the general anxiety and hostility of the music.

The absence of key members like Dave “Rave” Ogilvie and Dwayne Goettel is felt as Key and Ogre run wild and the band ends up with a poppier-sounding product.

To be honest, most of what is included on the album sounds more like one of Ogre’s solo efforts than stuff put out in the past. The addition of the click-and-cut style of experimentalists like Cyrusrex and Otto Von Schirach is an outstanding element.

Whatever the faults of the album, “Goneja” is a standout track. Building on a base of glitchy drum patterns reminiscent of the band’s earlier work, Ogre adds rapid-fire robot-speak lyrics over haunting synth lines, showing when the band actually focuses, it can turn out solid work that joins old with new.

One major track of interest for people that aren’t rabid fans is “Use Less,” which features Danny Carrey and Wayne Static, and is by far one of the more approachable on the disc. Ogre continues with his smoother singing style. The track sounds more like something Trent Reznor laments about at night, wishing he could write that well, but lends itself to much more of a pop sound.

The quality of the production shows Ogre and Key are able to keep ahead of their industrial contemporaries and once again make them irrelevant. Not once could members of Rammstein, Ministry or Nine Inch Nails bother to think up something as forward thinking as “The Greater Wrong of the Right” is. While they are out ruining industrial, Skinny Puppy is still pushing its boundaries.

— Josh Nelson