• ROCK

ART BRUT

Art Brut vs. Satan

Downtown

***

You have to love any band that cops influence from the Fall, and even takes its name from French painter Jean Debuffet's outsider aesthetic. In his wonky, witty work, singer-lyricist Eddie Argos inherits the mantle of clever punk held by Johnny Lydon, Ian Dury and Damon Albarn, preserving the best qualities of each.

Yet fans of Art Brut's first hit, the bluntly caustic Formed a Band, are in for an odd treat. With Frank Black of the Pixies behind the board, the sound of Satan is raw and powerful, as if the mix were pushed into the red without losing clarity.

It's a musical and lyrical thrill ride, from the punch of What a Rush to the poignancy of Am I Normal? But don't let that touching moment fool you. Argos is a caustic everyman and goofball extraordinaire. Slap Dash for No Cash makes fun of Eno's belabored sonic endeavors, and an equally contagious Mysterious Bruises winks at the Bobby Fuller Four with the lyric ''I fought the floor and the floor won.'' And who but Argos can sing a love song to DC Comics and chocolate milkshakes and make it sad and sarcastic?

-- A.D. AMOROSI

The Philadelphia Inquirer

DAVE MATTHEWS BAND

Big Whiskey and the GrooGrux King

RCA

***

Sometimes inspiration comes during the darkest days. The Dave Matthews Band found it after the August death of founding saxophonist LeRoi Moore in an ATV accident.

Although the band has always been top-notch in concert, it had struggled in the studio in recent years with production issues and conflicting viewpoints. On GrooGrux King, which was Moore's nickname, motives are clear even while hearts are heavy.

No surprise -- much of the album is concerned with death and the weightier questions surrounding it. ''Doesn't everyone deserve to have the good life?'' Matthews asks in the love song Spaceman. ``But it don't always work out. Cry, cry, baby, if we must.''

Spaceman is actually a lighter moment compared with the funereal, nearly menacing Squirm, and it serves as almost a coping mechanism throughout the album, mixing pretty sounds with dark lyrics and vice versa. It works well in the horn-heavy, churning Shake Me Like a Monkey and the single Funny the Way It Is, which juxtaposes jazzy tinges with dark-hearted sentiments.

It's melancholy stuff, for sure. But its singular purpose also makes Big Whiskey and the GrooGrux King the band's best album in more than a decade.

-- GLENN GAMBOA

Newsday

VARIOUS ARTISTS

Man of Somebody's Dreams: A Tribute to the Songs of Chris Gaffney

Yep Roc

*** ½

Withe one or two exceptions, the artists paying tribute here to Chris Gaffney are all better-known than the late honoree. One listen to Gaffney's songs, however, and you'll realize why artists from Boz Scaggs, John Doe and Los Lobos to Alejandro Escovedo, James McMurtry and Dan Penn wanted to be part of this.

The set was organized by roots-rocker Dave Alvin, who employed Gaffney in his band, the Guilty Men, and delivers a touching spoken reminiscence before launching into Gaffney's poignant Artesia. The uniformly top-flight performances show just how good Gaffney was in styles ranging from Tex-Mex-spiced rockabilly (Lift Up Your Leg, by Joe Ely) to roadhouse R&B (Six Nights a Week, by Peter Case), classic country (King of the Blues, by Robbie Fulks), and accordion-laced border ballads (The Gardens, by Freddie Fender).

Gaffney himself makes a cameo at the end, but his performance, recorded just weeks before his death, only hints at the fact that he was just as good a singer as he was a writer.

-- NICK CRISTIANO

The Philadelphia Inquirer

KAT EDMONSON

Take to the Sky

Convivium Records

***

Every generation gets to reinterpret the Great American Songbook, and Kat Edmonson, 25, more than leaves her mark here, putting her kewpie-doll voice to a succession of standards, from George Gershwin's Summertime to Carole King's One Fine Day.

The singer, based in Austin, sang Peggy Lee's Fever on American Idol in 2002 and was dismissed, though not before prickly judge Simon Cowell compared her to Doris Day. Norah Jones is more like it. Edmonson is spookily delicate and a bit of an acquired taste, but her china-doll sensibility scores points in a jazz room. The settings with reedman John Ellis, bassist Eric Revis and producer-pianist Kevin Lovejoy give a rich finish to this accessible set.

KARL STARK

The Philadelphia Inquirer

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