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Trace Adkins
"X"
Capitol Nashville

Despite the suggestive title, the only thing explicit about Trace
Adkins's 10th album is his. The country singer-
songwriter comes across once again as a good ol' bad boy with a
conscience. He's the kind of guy you might have shared a drink or
three with back in the day, but you're now more apt to run into at
an AA meeting. Or as Adkins sings it: "Sometimes a man takes a drink,
but sometimes the drink takes the man."

Adkins the ruffian emerges in rockers like "Sweet" (which
stutteringly celebrates a girl who's "Sweet like the diamond bling/
Dangling down from a b-b-b-belly button ring") and "Hillbilly Rich."
He also covers lust ("Let's Do That Again," "Hauling One Thing") and
divorce ("Better Than I Thought It Would Be," "Marry for Money"), but
they just seem like stepping-stones to the middle-aged peace of mind
displayed in the family-affirming "Happy to Be Here" and "All I Ask
for Anymore." In other words, he could just as easily have titled the
album "PG."


Femi Kuti
"Day By Day"
Mercer Street

Nigerian bandleader Femi Kuti plays Afrobeat, the volcanic blend of
rock, soul, jazz, funk, and West African rhythms invented by his
father, the late Fela Kuti. But where Fela specialized in 20-minute-long

instrumental excursions punctuated by passionate political
diatribes, Femi opts for economy: "You Better Ask Yourself," the
longest track on his seventh album, clocks in at a mere six minutes.

What this saxophonist, trumpeter, and keyboardist lacks in endurance,
though, he compensates for in variety. A Latin lilt lifts "Oyimbo,"
"Do You Know" offers a crash course in swinging Afro-jazz, and the
title track suggests an African lullaby. But head straight for
"Tension Grip Africa" in order to savor the intoxicating drums,
blaring horns, hectoring organ, and sassy female chorus that define Afrobeat in all its undiluted pleasure and rage.