Records are rated on a scale of one (awful) to four (classic) stars:

Mudcrutch 'Mudcrutch' (Reprise)

Don't be fooled by the name, which sounds like one of those bands that plays the morning shift at Ozzfest.

Mudcrutch was the country-rock precursor to Tom Petty and the Heartbreakers, a band that left Gainesville, Fla., in the early '70s to make a go of it in LA. When the first single flopped, they packed it in, regrouped as the Heartbreakers and the rest is history.

Until last year when Petty decided to tamper with that history and resurrect Mudcrutch, which features himself on bass and vocals, Heartbreakers Mike Campbell and Benmont Tench on guitar and keyboards, respectively, guitarist-vocalist Tom Leadon and drummer Randall Marsh.

The result is a self-titled debut that sounds like the best Tom Petty album in years. Recorded in 10 days last August, it's Petty and Campbell the way we've wanted to hear them -- kicking back and playing roots-rock without the crappy Jeff Lynne production. Think California country-rock a la the Flying Burrito Brothers and the Byrds, with a nice touch of psychedelia and Southern soul.

There's a whole mess of riches, most written and sung by Petty. He sounds grittier than ever on the rocker "Scare Easy" ("My love's an ocean/you better not cross it") and doing his best Dylan drawl on "The Wrong Thing to Do." They're instantly among my favorite Tom Petty songs. "Oh Maria," Petty at his gentlest, and the steel-guitar twang of "Orphan of the Storm" are country-rock gold. But Petty isn't the whole story, by any means.

Campbell ("right speaker") and Leadon ("left speaker") nearly steal the show with guitar work that ranges from tasty to jammy-ethereal to downright blazing, particularly on "Bootleg Flyer." Along the traditional country/bluegrass standards "June Apple" and "Shady Grove," Petty tears through the barroom boogie of "Six Days on the Road" and checks one of his biggest influences with a killer cover of The Byrds' "Lover of the Bayou."

And then there's the gorgeous "Crystal River." When have we ever heard Petty stretch out for 9 1/2 minutes on a country-psych jam?

"Mudcrutch" isn't just good. It sounds like a classic from 30 years ago.

-- Scott Mervis,
Post-Gazette pop music critic

Madonna 'Hard Candy' (Warner Bros.)

2 stars = Mediocre
Ratings explained

On "Candy Shop," the opening track on her new album "Hard Candy," Madonna invites listeners into her "store" (hint: It's a metaphor -- and a lame one, at that) by teasing, "I've got candy galore."

What she doesn't tell you is it's other people's candy she's peddling, since "Hard Candy" -- the Material Mom's 11th studio album, and first since 2005's rich "Confessions on a Dance Floor" -- marks the moment Madonna jumps from trendsetter to trend-follower.

From William Orbit (who helmed "Ray of Light") to Mirwais ("Music" and "American Life") to Stuart Price ("Confessions"), Madonna's work over the past decade has been marked by collaborations with cutting edge, left-of-center producers.

But on "Hard Candy," she enlists hip-hop mainstays Timbaland, the Neptunes and Danja. They're respected, sure, but they're also so overworked and nondiscriminating that several of them share credits on -- gulp -- Ashlee Simpson's latest album.

Call it a vie for commerciality: She could use a hit, and those certified hitmakers certainly know something about crafting 4-minute pop songs.

But "Hard Candy" is more trick than treat. Madonna has difficulty meshing with her producers and ends up being recast in what sound like remakes of their past hits. The Timbaland-produced "Devil Wouldn't Recognize You" sounds like Justin Timberlake's "What Goes Around ... Comes Around," which itself was a clone of "Cry Me a River," while "Spanish Lesson" and "Miles Away" both come off like retreads of Timberlake's latin-flavored "Like I Love You."

Timberlake -- who co-wrote five songs -- shows up on vaguely apocalyptic first single "4 Minutes," where Madonna ends up a guest vocalist on her own song. Madonna is lost in the mix somewhere underneath Timbaland's war tank rhythms and Timberlake's vocals, and seems content sharing a song with the duo rather than the other way around.

Similarly, a more clear-headed Madonna would have excised Kanye West's tepid, uninspired rap from "Beat Goes On," or at least ordered him to record something better.

This desperation is stifling and casts a cloud over "Hard Candy." Most all the tracks cast Madonna in full-on dance mode, but her thin vocals only skim the surface of the Neptunes' tinny beats and rarely penetrate deep enough to create a genuine groove. The exceptions are "Give It 2 Me," which hits a skittish high on breakneck synths that would have Lil Jon screaming, "Yeeaah!" and "Heartbeat," which has a reticence that serves Madonna well.

It would be silly to count Madonna out, since the 49-year-old has mounted more comebacks than John Travolta and Mariah Carey combined. But when she asks, "Who is the master and who is the slave?" on closing track "Voices," the answer is not as clear as it once was.

-- Adam Graham, The Detroit News

The Roots 'Rising Down' (Def Jam)

2 1/2 stars = Average
Ratings explained

Over the course of 15 years and seven studio albums -- "Rising Down" being their eighth -- The Roots have shown they're not here to party. Not to suggest that the Grammy-winning, critically revered hip-hop band is dreary, but even when they tackle a subject that seems to be frivolous, like girls, as on the iTunes exclusive "Birthday Girl" with Fall Out Boy's Patrick Stump, it takes a serious tone: On that track, Black Thought offers a conflicted view on jailbait.

On their most political -- albeit uneven -- CD to date, the Roots pull no punches, intelligently addressing pharmaceutical companies and global warming ("between the green house gasses, Mother Nature's spinning off its axis") on "Rising Down," and, on the undulating Fela Kuti-inspired "I Will Not Apologize," the quest for integrity.

The music matches the lyrical intention, thick with foreboding (even claustrophobic) droning synths, much like those anchoring "Get Busy." As usual, the Roots are motivated by drummer/ producer ?uestlove's boom-bap -- this is the lone rap act where the rapper isn't the star, which can be problematic. Although he's got much to say, Black Thought tends to say it with little inflection. Even his "solo" "75 Bars," which refers to him spitting for 75 bars straight, begins to drag, as if changing things up equals watering things down. It's not good when the guest stars -- fellow MCs Mos Def, Saigon and Dice Raw -- almost steal the show.

Ultimately, "Rising Down" will confirm what you like -- or for some, dislike -- about The Roots.

-- Amy Linden, The Associated Press

Ashlee Simpson 'Bittersweet World' (Geffen)

Too many cooks may spoil the stew, but in Ashlee Simpson's case, the more celebrity sonic chefs allowed to contribute to this bitterweet symphony, the better.

Simpson's third album may not qualify as a window into our red-hoodie-wearing artist's lip-syncing soul. And the, ahem, singer's ersatz Avril Lavigne act is still quite often laughable if you listen closely, as when she proudly revels in her rebellious ways in "Rule Breaker": "I just want to color outside the lines/I've been reprimanded about a thousand times."

But a team of producers (Timbaland, Kenna, et al) and songwriters have hooked Simpson up with a sugary-sweet array of retro-New Wave, faux Gwen Stefani confections like "Outta My Head (Ay Ya Ya)" and "Boys" that demonstrates that good pop music doesn't have to be good for you.

-- Dan DeLuca,
Philadelphia Inquirer