Posted on Fri, Jul. 04, 2008

• DANCE

HERCULES AND LOVE AFFAIR

Hercules and Love Affair

Mute

*** ½

Disco will never die -- it just keeps reinventing itself.

Its latest incarnation comes from the oddly named Hercules and Love Affair, which consists of DJ Andrew Butler getting by with a little help from his friends' vocal cords. Butler's winning mix of driving beats, trashy glamour and melancholy melodies recalls the burgeoning, underground days of house music in Chicago and New York. Like a vintage sonic collage, the album is spilling over with old-school influences, each more pleasing than the last. But its strong songwriting lends coherence, making each nod to the past essential to the whole.

The sparse synth pulses and dramatic, drag-queen vocals of the opening track, Time Will, recall Bronski Beat, while the string-soaked Hercules Theme is a cross between Barry White's Love Unlimited Orchestra and Walter Murphy's underrated A Fifth of Beethoven.

The grinding, dirty bassline, shrouded female vocals and needle pops of Athene will make you think you've dusted off a '70s 12-inch single. Raise Me Up is buoyed by a playful, bouncy beat, then descends into a joyous vocal cacophony.

Blind, with a tribal beat that recalls Blondie's Heart of Glass, a crisp horn section and shimmering vocals by Antony (of Mercury Prize-winning group Antony & The Johnsons), is the album's high point. When he croons mournfully, ''When I find myself alone, I feel like I am blind,'' you might not be sure exactly what he means, but you feel his longing in your soul.

So many disco-revivalist acts never aspire past campy fun, but Hercules and Love Affair comes off as utterly sincere -- and as majestic as its name suggests.

Pod Picks: Athene, Raise Me Up, Blind.

-- MICHAEL HAMERSLY

• JAZZ

WILLIE NELSON/WYNTON MARSALIS

Two Men With the Blues

Blue Note

****

Nothing could be more appropriate for America's Independence Day than this flawless pairing of American musical icons Willie Nelson and Wynton Marsalis doing the most American of music forms, jazz. This album can stand up to anything in their vast catalogs.

Two Men With the Blues finds country's Nelson and trumpeter Marsalis on common ground at a live performance recorded in 2007 at Jazz at Lincoln Center. Nelson's behind-the-beat singing style has always owed an allegiance to the jazz idiom. His 1978 collection of jazz and pop standards, Stardust (recently reissued in a two-disc expanded edition), is among the finest of such collections. A couple of its tunes, the title track and Georgia on My Mind, get an updating here. The too-serious Marsalis has seldom sounded this relaxed, lively and, what might be a first for him, fun.

The song-oriented Two Men With the Blues swings hard, overflows with great melodies and spirit and boasts a top-shelf backing band, including Nelson on his familiar guitar, Trigger.

The one problem? Two Men With the Blues isn't out until Tuesday -- too late for your July 4th barbecue -- but it's worth ordering immediately.

Pod Picks:Caldonia, That's All, Bright Lights Big City.

-- HOWARD COHEN

hcohen@MiamiHerald.com

• ROCK

MOTLEY CRUE

Saints of Los Angeles

Motley Records/Eleven Seven Music

***

''Welcome to Los Angeles,'' a disembodied voice oozes out of the murk on L.A.M.F., one of those stylized creepy-crawly spoken-word interludes Motley Crüe often uses to kick-start albums. ``This city full of plastic angels will seduce you.''

And if you're a Motley Crüe fan, so will Saints of Los Angeles, the first CD since 1997's unlistenable Generation Swine to feature the original lineup of singer Vince Neil, bassist Nikki Sixx, guitarist Mick Mars and drummer Tommy Lee. Saints, thematically inspired in part by the group's decadent 2001 autobiography The Dirt, feels much more like the natural follow-up to 1989's Dr. Feelgood than the band's forced attempts at trying to fit their pop-metal sound into trends of the 1990s.

Saints, with its catchy hooks, finds the musicians -- ages 45 (Lee) to 57 (Mars) -- lyrically tracing their '80s rise from the underbelly of the Sunset Strip to the world of big time rock and roll and its drugs, drugs, booze, brawls and sex. The track White Trash Circus sums it up:

'Been livin' on the road about a year and a half / If we go another mile we're gonna kick each other's ass / Someone's gonna quit or someone's gonna die / And we don't give a s--- because we're busy gettin' high''

Though musically lacking a definitive, Motley classic single, trüe Crüe fans will probably love Saints as much as the band still digs its lifestyle.

Pod Picks:Saints of Los Angeles, This Ain't a Love Song, Face Down in the Dirt.

-- HOWARD COHEN

• LATIN

JULIETA VENEGAS

MTV Unplugged

Sony BMG/MTV Networks Latin America

*** ½

The MTV Unplugged franchise is a mixed bag. It can allow an artist to show new qualities (and sometimes remake their careers and images, as with Ricky Martin), but it can also squeeze their energy into a mannered, one-size acoustic style.

But it's a wonderful fit for Mexican singer-songwriter Julieta Venegas. While the former alternative darling is a wonderful musician who's upped the innovation and quality standards on Latin pop, she's not the most dynamic of live performers, and she's not always simple enough for pop and rock punch. Her appeal comes from subtler qualities, which this record showcases beautifully. Directed and arranged by Venegas herself, it's rich, thoughtful, deliciously and unexpectedly textured with instruments that range from marimba to cello, bringing out new aspects of Venegas and her music.

Check the way the tubas, that hokey norteño basic, add humorous oomph to algún día (Some Day), a duet with mega producer Gustavo Santaolalla (on banjo, of all things); and deepen the surface sweetness of Venegas' breakout pop hit andar conmigo (Go With Me). Strings and delicate instrumentation bring out the quiet yearning of mirame bien (Look at Me Well), until swelling horns, chorus and hand claps change the feeling to triumph. You can hear Venegas' voice both shaping and being carried away by her songs. There are terrific and surprising duets. Spanish rapper Mala Rodriguez adds gutsy female swagger to eres para mí (You're For Me), and Ilusion, one of four new songs, gets a silvery harmonic shiver from the marvelous Brazilian singer Marisa Monte. By the time Venegas waltzes wistfully out with me voy (I'm Leaving), you're ready to listen again: This is an Unplugged to keep plugging in for a long time.

Pod Picks: el presente, algún día, mirame bien

-- JORDAN LEVIN

jlevin@MiamiHerald.com