Strong lineup from Philly

WE'VE CULLED strong sounds from here, there and everywhere for today's album roundup - our first for the new year!

A Homegrown Rocker: Best known as front guy of the Philadelphia progressive punk band Circa Survive, "Beautiful Things" (Photo Finish/Atlantic, B+) marks the second solo project from Anthony Green. It's a taut, tremulous, minor-keyed set of work, reflecting today's depression/trust-nothing mind set while nodding subtly to icons of the past (Robert Plant and Led Zeppelin). Especially ear-grabbing are the Eastern modalities of "Get Yours While You Can," anthemic "Can't Have It All at Once," electro-reggae "When I'm on Pills" and raga-flavored "Moon Song." More reason for hometown pride, Green is backed by fellow locals Good Old War and recorded in Avalon, N.J. Green headlines Union Transfer on Friday.

Philly Classics: Boasting frothy melody lines and intimate orchestrations, Baroque-era chamber music is the perfect entry drug to the world of classical. And nobody does it finer than the 22-member-strong Tempesta di Mare, the Philadelphia Baroque Orchestra. Just out, their premiere recording of "Orchestral Works, Volume 2" (A) by Johann Friedrich Fasch, an 18th-century Germanic court composer whose work bore such kinship to the better-known Georg Philipp Telemann that Fasch could pass his off as the other's, just for fun. Several local foundations - Pew, William Penn, Beneficial Foundation and the Musical Fund Society of Philadelphia - helped in making this sparkling, high-resolution recording, captured at the Presbyterian Church of Chestnut Hill.

Countrypolitan Times: We can understand Norah Jones' affinity to country music - she grew up in Texas. But her co-vocalist in the Little Willies? Richard Julian hails from Arden, Del. Nonetheless, they pair perfectly, and on an especially even plane on the latest Little Willies project, "For the Good Times" (Milking Bull, B+). The concept is country classics retooled for urban ears, mildly de-twanging (and de-yodeling) the likes of "Lovesick Blues," "Jolene" and "For the Good Times."