Lates Music Album Reviews.

RAY DAVIES

You can take the boy out of Britain—and, apparently, a good deal of Britain out of the boy. Ray Davies, the once (and future?) Kinks frontman, has long been among rock's most strident social commentators, with a decidedly British flip to his characters and observations. But on his second proper solo album, Davies drops any sense of U.K. jive and draws on a residential tenure in New Orleans earlier this decade for what is decidedly the most "American" work of his more than four decades of recording. "Vietnam Cowboys" bursts forward with a gritty shuffle and

ruminations about the impact of the global economy on these shores. "Hymn for a New Age" is an Americana-styled anthem calling for spiritual overhaul, while "Imaginary Man" has a rootsy richness that echoes Muscle Shoals. The net result is smart, personal and potent.

No Promises

CARLA BRUNI

Less than a minute into Carla Bruni's second album, you're just like the French president: hopelessly seduced. The former supermodel has the gossamer alto of so many other singing beauties—Bridgette Bardot, Marianne Faithfull, Francoise Hardy. But Bruni's source material isn't her own elegant malaise. It's 11 of the world's most celebrated English-language poems, set to her own simple, seaside folk. "Come let me sing into your ear/Those dancing days are gone," she lilts on the harmonica-laden opener, lyrics courtesy of William Butler Yeats. It's an achievement just to fit the heady verbiage into a verse-chorus structure. But to do it in a way that seems as natural as the paparazzi at her back is a show of artistic prowess. As mature as it is playful, this album is pure pleasure. —Kerri Mason

Kid sister

Kanye Helps Fellow Chicagoan Kid Sister Make Some Noise
Mariel Concepcion, N.Y.
Kid Sister's days of riding her bicycle to multiple jobs are long gone, and the hundreds of people lined up outside New York's Museum Of Natural History to see the Chicago MC's performance on Jan. 25 were a testament to that fact. Until recently, Kid Sister peddled her two-wheeler to a trio of jobs including one as a sales clerk at a baby clothing store, but on this night she held court on the museum's stage after hip-hop duo the Cool Kids warmed up the crowd. During their three-song set, the Cool Kids' Mikey, a 19-year-old from Chicago's south suburbs, and 22-year-old Chuck from suburban Detroit, performed the chopped-and-screwed "Black Mags" and "Gold And A Pager" which samples an NWA beat.Sporting fingerwaves in her blonde-highlighted hair, a black and white layered dress and matching acrylic nails, an animated Kid Sister hit the stage with her boyfriend/producer/DJ, A Trak. She started off the show with "Telephone" as the lights from Planetarium illuminated the small stage.Other crowd favorites like "Control" and "Let Me Bang," both produced by Chicago mixmaster XXXChange, and the juke track "SwitchBoard," followed. "I got a Coca Cola shape with an onion in the back," Sister rhymed on the latter as she popped her back to the techno-laden hip-hop beat.The set would not have been complete without her hit , "Pro Nails," which features Kanye West. Much to everyone's surprise, a mink-coat clad West actually joined her on the stage for his verse. "You remind me of my old chick / on that '84 shit," West rapped. "Oh shit / did you see how she got her toes did?" The enthusiastic crowd included hipsters of all races and even a couple of guys in suits and ties.Kanye West stayed on to perform a few more songs for his thrilled audience, including "Can't Tell Me Nothing," "Good Life" and "Flashing Lights," but not before promising to premiere a video for the latter in coming weeks and asking the throng of concertgoers to make some noise for Kid Sister and Chi-town. Much obliged.