http://www.expressmilwaukee.com/articles.sec-204-1-cd-reviews.html   Milwaukee singer, songwriter and guitarist Bob Parduhn recently released his fourth album, Lost in the Times. Recorded at Milwaukee's Fly Studios and produced by local bass player Guy Fiorentini, the CD includes Parduhn's band mates from Bones of Contention, organist/pianist Scott Finch and vocalist Annie Perry, with whom Parduhn has recorded two albums; drummer Bill Backes, who recorded an album with Parduhn...]]>   The second solo album from Chris Barron sounds nothing like his old band, the Spin Doctors-which is reason enough to give Pancho and the Kid a spin. But more importantly, the dozen songs reflect the image of a much more thoughtful singer/songwriter than the one who penned "Little Miss Can't Be Wrong."That maturity is no doubt the result of Barron's full recovery from a paralyzed vocal cord, which back in 1999 left him...]]>    First, the good news: Death Magnetic contains Metallica's most sophisticated, energized and-yes-heavy material since its 1988 classic, ...And Justice for All. If you were hoping for a return to form, it's hard to deny the ways that Death Magnetic sounds like one. Finally, Metallica has revived the long-song format that it built a career on, and the guitar sound hearkens back to the monumental Master of Puppets, the last time James Hetfield and company were coming from an underground...]]> On this sampling of a decade's worth of work, Milwaukee interdisciplinary composer Mark Mantel offers a variety of modern classical/art music styles and experiments. Among other approaches, a suite of four works by poets is set to drones and percussive clanks and rumblings, sounding like post-punk industrial music with more tone...]]> Leave it to our reliable friends in U2 to respond to the music industry's structural implosion with a triple-shot of pricey extravagance-and the promise of more to come. Who could have foreseen that the guitar wailing of "I Will Follow" from the band's 1980 debut, Boy, was actually the first breath of a larger-than-life juggernaut. To be fair, even when listening with the benefit of knowing...]]>   A true elder stateswoman of country music, Emmylou Harris returns with her first album since 2006's Mark Knopfler collaboration, All the Roadrunning. On the nostalgic All IIntended to Be, Harris once again borrows buddy/superstar power for an updated bout of rustic shoe-gazing, Nashville-style.  Dolly Parton and Vince Gill contribute backing... ]]>   While Roy Harper was known to discerning American rock fans in the '70s as the subject of a Led Zeppelin song and the vocalist on Pink Floyd's "Have a Cigar," his own music was seldom heard. Counter Culture will hopefully bring the overlooked songwriter and singer to the attention of the acoustic underground... ]]> Milwaukee veterans The Invaders may be considered part of ska's third wave, but the group's sixth album is at its best when the band recalls the genre's '60s formative era in witty little story songs. The group achieves its own twist with the inclusion of harmonica and violin amid the requisite brass, keyboards and hyperactive rhythm section...]]> Incendiary slide-master Sonny Landreth cut his teeth and forged his way among John Hiatt's backing group The Goners in the late 1980s and '90s. And now, close on the heels of his former frontman's back-looking Same OldMan, Landreth offers one of his own reflective works of middle-aged pondering. Unlike Hiatt's effort, though, From the Reach borrows the guitarist's native post-Katrina sadness ("Blue Tarp Blues"), offers a number of superstar...]]>   "Essential" has become an overused word, like many words in our language. In the case of Otis Blue/Otis Redding Sings Soul, essential is, for once, applicable. It's one of the great LPs of 1960s soul, featuring classics such as "Change Gonna Come" and "Respect" (which Aretha Franklin later topped with her cover) plus a version of "Satisfaction" that left the Stones in the dust...]]>   Nicolas Chapel, a one-Frenchman band, lands somewhere between the progressive rock of Porcupine Tree and the alternative metal of Tool on Building An Empire, released under the moniker Demians. By adding color and depth to ambient electronica, he manages to sum up Demians' entire sound on the 16-minute track "Sand."]]>   Manze Dayila came to the United States from Haiti on a rickety boat, a refugee from the upheavals of her homeland. She brought memories of the Vodou ceremonies of her childhood, with their blend of African religion and Roman Catholicism. On her debut album, Dayila places the music of that tradition in a crisp contemporary context, blending reggae rhythms, the streamlined dynamics of rock and the weightless guitars of West Africa with the intricate polyrhythm of Haiti. ]]> The duo High Places defies categorization. This collection of recordings previously available on 7-inch vinyl or exclusive to the 'Net has the uncanny ability to not only get you dancing, but to also serve as suitable listening while reading a good book before bed . . .]]> The minor-key sound of the Middle East was long embedded in the Balkans and carried westward by the Crusaders, eventually making its way to Appalachia with the earliest British settlers. Meanwhile it traveled to the Islamic kingdoms of West Africa and was transported to the New World with the slaves . . .]]> The liner notes for Songs from Shows, a collection of musical pieces from Chicago performance artist Jenny Magnus, credit such instruments as leather gloves, a Kleenex box, a manual typewriter, a barrel rolling down the hall and a busted organ . . .]]> Cephas & Wiggins are among the most respected contemporary exponents of traditional blues and focus on a particular outcropping of that bedrock music. They steer away from the Mississippi Delta sound that influenced the development of rock 'n' roll and toward the Piedmont blues that flourished in Appalachia in . . .]]> During the 1970s, Gary Wilson was hanging around his hometown of Endicott, N.Y. He made small experimental films and played concerts that resembled performance art. In 1977, he took his creativity into his parents' basement, where he recorded You Think You Really Know Me. He and his band, The Blind . . .]]> Those XCleavers were among the most entertaining and substantial bands from Milwaukee's new wave scene, and probably the most enduring. A reissue of choice material from the 1980s reveals their streamlined super-charged sound as part of their era, yet delivered so winningly that the music has dated hardly . . .]]> Hanggai's leader got his start in a punk rock band as the Chinese Communist system loosened up. Later he turned to the traditional instruments of his Inner Mongolian homeland, including the horsehair fiddle and the two-stringed lute, and began singing his ancestral songs in overtones close to the famed . . .]]> Vocalist Nappy Brown's recent CD is appropriately titled, as it's been years since he released an album. But Brown is back, following the encouragement of Muddy Waters Blues Band's Bob Margolin to tour and record again. Long Time Coming includes many well-known musicians, including guitarists Margolin . . .]]>