Most Popular Stories

• Cuban coast the likely brunt of Hurricane Ike
• Miami Dolphins Pennington keeps it cool
• Shunned by Democrats, at ease with his beliefs
• No. 5 Gators prove too much for Hurricanes
• Crew: `I feel like I did the best I could'
• Miami Hurricanes throttled in fourth by No. 5 Florida Gators
• Miami Dolphins' Ricky Williams handled own negotiation
• Ike back to fierce Cat 4 strength as track shifts south
• Shutters can't save us from ourselves
• Miami Dolphins rebuilding a team - and a fan base

News On The Go

• News by Mobile
• News by Email
• RSS feeds
• Podcasts

ALBUM REVIEWS

Album reviews | Lively enough, but a bit short on innovation

mhamersly@MiamiHerald.com

• ELECTRONIC /DANCE

OSCAR G

Innov8

Nervous Records

** ½

Miami DJ Oscar G is perhaps best known for energizing the dance floors of the world's biggest nightclubs, including downtown's Club Space. But he's also a prolific producer, having a hand in anthems, including Funky Green Dogs' Fired Up and Dark Beat by Murk (his partnership with Ralph Falcon).

Now, Oscar breaks out Innov8, his first solo artist album. Like his compilation of mix CDs, Innov8's beats are lively and cohesive; however, most of the tracks fall short in originality and complexity.

After the sluggish, slow-to-develop Angel, the pace picks up quickly with the driving, minimalist funk of Pimp. Danceflow stays simple with an old-school, New York house vibe, featuring the chorus, ''Get up on the dance floor/Let's do it on the dance floor.'' A smooth segue into the synth-driven You follows, with a diva chanting, ''Only you love me the right way.'' Miami boasts a Latin tropical feel, peppered with bouncy, cascading piano riffs, but it's spoiled by lecherous male vocals in a cheesy Scarface accent, perpetuating all the negative Miami stereotypes.

Oscar finds a nice, dark groove on Lookin', but the repetitive lines, 'Searchin' for you/I've been lookin' '' grow old after six-plus minutes. He ends the hour-plus ride with the album's most appealing cut, the instrumental Anxious. It stretches beyond nine minutes, but the tribal beat is so compelling, it flies by.

Overall, though Innov8 is packed with solid beats and Oscar's mixes from track to track are seamless, it doesn't quite live up to its title.

Pod Picks: Pimp, Anxious.

-- MICHAEL HAMERSLY

LADY ANTEBELLUM

Lady Antebellum

Capitol Nashville

**

Usually, you have an album out before the Academy of Country Music Association anoints you with a Best Group nomination. What's next for Lady Antebellum? Lifetime achievement award on the heels of the follow-up CD?

When an act is overhyped by the industry and anticipation set so high, the pressure mounts. Lady Antebellum is hugely disappointing. The relentlessly mediocre eponymous album offers songs that are so slickly produced, ordinary and forgettable, nary a one commits to memory.

This is just another coed act -- Charles Kelley, brother of pop singer vocalist Josh Kelley; Hillary Scott (mom Linda Davis sang that woefully melodramatic Does He Love You with Reba McEntire a decade ago) and Dave Haywood -- that relies on the '70s soft rock blueprint but doesn't have the passion, distinct vocal harmonies, chemistry or songwriting ability to work.

The result? Well-played but empty filler. Lady Antebellum will sell initially, given the industry strong-arming, but don't expect Lady Antebellum to become anyone's favorite group -- with the exception of its breathless publicists.

Pod Pick:Slow Down Sister.

-- HOWARD COHEN

hcohen@MiamiHerald.com

HILARY McRAE

Through These Walls

Stone Road/Hear Music

TINA DICO

Count to 10

Defend Music

***

Two solo newcomers, one from Boca Raton (Hilary McRae), the other Denmark (Tina Dico), are worth your attention this week.

McRae, with crisp, confident production from South Florida songwriter Zach Ziskin (who is in the running in American Idol's songwriting competition), clearly has been listening to her parents' old Chicago and Earth, Wind & Fire LPs because Through These Walls' pop/bluesy tunes contain horn section arrangements that will have you checking the liner notes for a James William Guercio production credit.

That's not a slight to McRae. She's got a soulful vocal delivery that could appeal to fans of Joss Stone, but she's not not nearly as overwrought and overbearing.

Dico, meanwhile, similarly has a rich vocal delivery and comes armed with serious pop hooks, none catchier than the single On the Run, which has a late '70s classic rock vibe sewed into a modern pop sensibility.

Pod Picks: Only Light (McRae), On the Run (Dico).

-- HOWARD COHEN

ARIAS FOR RUBINI

Juan Diego Flórez

Decca

****

Last fall Juan Diego Flórez made a sensational Miami debut at the Knight Concert Hall in virtuosic bel canto arias by Rossini, Bellini and Donizetti, many popularized by the legendary 19th century tenor Giovanni Battista Rubini. That music is finally available stateside.

Flórez's high, vibrant lyric tenor and sterling technique are well-known qualities but the ease with which he throws off the pyrotechnics and stratospheric runs is jaw dropping. Flórez sails through the impossible complexities of this repertoire with remarkable facility and panache, throwing off high Cs, Ds and even E flats with vital attacks and faultless intonation.

In addition to Flórez's feats of tenorial derring-do, the disc offers some rarely performed music, including excerpts from Bellini's Bianca e Fernando, Rossini's Elisabetta, regina d'Inghilterra and Il turco in Italia, and Donizetti's Marino Faliero. Roberto Abbado and the Saint Cecilia Academy Orchestra and Chorus provide comparably fiery support, and this CD is an extraordinary example of bel canto vocal art from one of the most gifted tenors of our day.

-- LAWRENCE A.

JOHNSON

lajohnson@MiamiHerald.com