David Banner
The Greatest Story Ever Told
SRC/Universal Motown

David Banner’s fourth official album arrives with an earth-shaking title, The Greatest Story Ever Told, plus a record label promise that this “country boy is finally connecting on a larger scale”. When the Mississippi rapper attacks both the government and today’s apathetic society with equal venom, the albums lives up to these claims, but a lethal dose of misogyny and some standard issue gangster tracks throw things off course, leaving the listener frustrated by what could have been.

Dirty Pretty Things
Romance at Short Notice
Mercury

On Romance at Short Notice, Carl Barat and the rest of Dirty Pretty Things seem all too happy to move on from the Libertines-ish guitar pop of their debut Waterloo to anywhere. While they succeed at sounding very different than they did before, spanning punk-funk to whispery acoustic ballads, they also end up sounding like several different bands over the course of the album. Track for track, the band does some interesting things on Romance at Short Notice, but it doesn’t really hold together as a cohesive set of songs.

The Hold Steady
Stay Positive
Vagrant

With Stay Positive, the Hold Steady's debut album for Vagrant, they want you to know they've "arrived" and just may become one of the most popular bands in the country. The sonic transition from banner waving, garage punk scenesters with heady aspirations, to full blown slick rock band, one wonders if being an arena rock band --albeit one with earthy lyrics and catchy melodies--wasn't their desire all along.

Nas
Nas
Def Jam

Nas uses the "N" word as a mere jumping-off point for his self-titled album. It's his most purposeful album; nearly every verse goes beyond talking trash and recalling exploits to address the change of his album's title, the "N" word, race relations, stereotypes, the long arms and legs of Fox, love for his people and country, and the United States from slave ships through the possibility of a black president. The MC has never made an album as engrossing or as necessary as this one.