New Recordings

Pop

Nearly 30 years after his last album released in America (1983's underrated Never Kick a Sleeping Dog), Mitch Ryder seems to have mellowed a bit, at least musically. The Promise, however, is still in the gritty, R&B-infused style of Ryder's '60s hits such as "Devil With a Blue Dress" that helped define Detroit rock-and-roll.

Produced by fellow Detroiter Don Was, the album has only one real vintage rave-up in "Get Real," but it comes close with the rocking soul of "Junkie Love" and the punchy defiance of "My Heart Belongs to Me." Mostly, however, the 66-year-old Ryder uses slower tempos, which are better suited to songs that sound more personal and revealing, such as the gospel-inflected "One Hair" ("I'm getting older . . . ") and the anguished "Everybody Loses" ("I'm lonely too").

"The Way We Were" shows that rap, or quasi-rap, is not Ryder's forte. He's a singer, still gloriously raw-voiced and powerful. And nothing underscores that more than his magnificent live version of the Jimmy Ruffin Motown classic, "What Becomes of the Brokenhearted?"

- Nick Cristiano

New Multitudes
(Rounder ***1/2)

Since Nora Guthrie opened her father's archives to select artists, we've been treated to several collections of newly unearthed Woody Guthrie lyrics set to new tunes, starting with the two volumes of Billy Bragg and Wilco's Mermaid Avenue. Like that project, New Multitudes is a collaboration, in this case of lead guys associated with alt-country bands. Son Volt's Jay Farrar, My Morning Jacket's Jim James, Centro-Matic's Will Johnson, and Varnaline's Anders Parker alternate lead vocals but share harmonies and guitar leads throughout.

It's no surprise that Guthrie's plainspoken lyrics, many penned during his Los Angeles years in the 1930s, make perfect songs. More surprising is how easily they're turned into what sound like great Son Volt rockers or My Morning Jacket acoustic ballads.

- Steve Klinge

Something
(Kanine/Sony ***)