YOUSSOU N’DOUR ***
Rokku Mi Rokka Nonesuch
For someone who has never shied away from major artistic statements, Youssou N’Dour’s Rokku Mi Rokka (Give and Take) seems like a minor work. The spirit of the album is summed up by its title. Lyrically, it’s full of dualities — themes of gain and loss, novelty and tradition abound, while the music addresses both local and international fans, attempting to balance youthful relevance with adult-contemporary smoothness. The bustling talking drums of Mbalax as well as some new-found Malian influences are subordinated by the cheeriness of the chord changes, but the jagged rhythm guitar of “Sama Gammu,” and Egyptian tinge to the dancehall inspired beats of “Baay Faal” introduce some much-needed tension to these grooves. The concluding duet with Neneh Cherry is crap, though. DD

TOOTS
AND THE MAYTALS ***
Light Your Light Concord
After winning a Grammy for revisiting his back catalogue for an album of duets (2004’s True Love), Fredrick “Toots” Hibbert and his most recent Maytals incarnation rework a few more classics to pad his newest release Light Your Light. Picking up where True Love left off, the album opens with guest spots by guitarist Derek Trucks and Bonnie Raitt. With his touring band in tow, the tunes are as tight as ever, though being so precise renders them somewhat sterile. Sure, “Love So Strong” is still a great tune, but there’s something far more satisfying about the original version — if only because it’s on a record called Pass The Pipe. CB

ARTHUR VEROCAI ***
Encore Far Out  
Arthur Verocai’s one and only album is a Brazilian cinematic pop classic. A 2003 recent reissue of that 1972 self-titled disc added to the mystique, and now he’s finally back with new material. With British label Far Out having given him carte blanche to recapture the magic, Verocai brings back some of his musicians from ’72 and teams up with labelmates Azymuth, Brazil’s premier jazz-funk band of the ’80s, but the sense of adventure from his first disc is missing in action. These arrangements are correctly rendered, but the musicians don’t sound like they’re pushing themselves all that hard. The sense of languor and all those pretty chord changes remain, but if the forward-thinking spirit of ’72 had been transferred to ’07, it could have been magical. DD

MEXICAN INSTITUTE OF SOUND **
Piñata Nacional
Some 10 years after the commercial peak of big beat Mark I acts such as Fatboy Slim and the Chemical Brothers, artists are still trying to wring new life out of the sample collage. Camilo Lara’s Mexican Institute of Sound breaks no new ground with its predictable strategies, introducing new loops like clockwork every four bars. Even more clichéd are the helium-voiced samples and the substandard turntablery — when will people learn that having a turntablist on a track does not inherently make it better/cooler/hipper? The successful tracks on this album are those that sound least like crazy quilts, such as the robo-boogie of “Para No Vivir Desesperado.” But overall, these cosmopolitan Mexican ingredients could have created something way more distinctive — this Piñata is beaten to a pulp. DD

KY-MANI MARLEY ***
Radio Vox Music Group
The 31-year-old son of Bob represents his family well on this disc, providing urban radio–friendly relaxed dancehall rhythms for a generation who weren’t born when his father was alive. With an accompanying reality show and a selection of guests including G-Unit soldier Young Buck and Mya, he could soon reside in pop’s upper echelons alongside his brother Damian. Songs about loving women and hustling keep the subject matter simple yet effective, and the production rarely stands out but also rarely grates too much. It’s well-executed stuff that, aside from the gift and the curse of Ky-Mani’s famed last name, stands on its own. NF