Graham Parker Acid Bubblegum (Razor & Tie) Acid Bubblegum is meant to be a return to form for Graham Parker, a reprise of his classic Seventies days as a bitter, punky pub-rocker. The album is certainly filled with bitterness, and for a while that’s okay. The opening track, “Turn It…

RuPaul Foxy Lady (Rhino) Like gangsta rappers, RuPaul — a black drag queen/diva/talk-show host — is into beats and poses. And like all the best gangstas, RuPaul Charles is most interested in using his funky beats and flamboyant pose to get down to the heart of the matter. Unfortunately many…

The Louvin Brothers were country music’s best-ever brother team, and when they titled their greatest album Tragic Songs of Life, they weren’t kidding around. Over the course of that record, a woman wanders “this wide world all over,” leaving her abandoned lover to contemplate suicide; a man, rich beyond his…

Robert Bradley’s Blackwater Surprise Robert Bradley’s Blackwater Surprise (RCA Records) The late rock critic Lester Bangs once wrote that he would pay almost any price to hear Aretha Franklin sing; he didn’t especially care what she sang. That’s how it is with certain singers. Marvin Gaye, John Lennon, and Janis…

Utah Phillips and Ani Difranco The Past Didn’t Go Anywhere (Righteous Babe) On “Bridges,” Utah Phillips intones: “I have a friend, a good folksinger and song collector, who comes and listens to my shows and says, ‘You always sing about the past. You can’t live in the past, you know.’…

El Vez G.I. Ay, Ay! Blues (Big Pop) The world’s most popular Hispanic Elvis impersonator uses his latest album G.I. Ay, Ay! Blues to attack current anti-immigrant fervor, adding his usual mingling of music cultures and a broad spectrum of rock history that begins with the King. From the resounding…