POP/ROCK

KATE BUSH

'AERIAL' (COLUMBIA)

Kate Bush is the kind of artist about whom people say, "She could sing the phonebook."

She doesn't sing the phonebook on "Aerial," she sings math, actually crooning the digits of pi on one song. Two songs later she's singing about the contents of a washing machine.

In such moments, you realize it doesn't matter what Kate Bush is singing about -- it's still going to be the aural equivalent of climbing into a warm, candlelit bath.

		Records are rated on a scale of one (poor) to five (excellent) stars:

Bush is back after having fallen off the face of the Earth for 12 years. During that time the likes of Tori Amos, Sarah McLachlan and Bjork filled that void. Having raised her son through early childhood, the British siren returns with a gorgeous and mystifying two-disc set divided into "A Sea of Honey" and "A Sky of Honey."

The opening track, a meditation on Elvis Presley's afterlife called "King of the Mountain," is the closest she comes to a single in the vein of her 1985 hit "Running up That Hill." The better part of it is more muted and atmospheric, filled with her sensuous vocals, the arrangements of Michael Kamen and the nuanced playing of such musicians as Peter Erskine, Gary Booker (Procol Harum) and Dan McIntosh.

"Sea" is an assortment of tracks -- an ancient folk song to her son ("Bertie"); a Peter Gabriel-esque ode to Joan of Arc ("Joanni"); a bit of witchcraft on "How to be Invisible," something she knows a good deal about.

The 9-track "Sky of Honey" is a conceptual piece about the movement of light through the day that culminates with Bush becoming one with the birds. It's the more musically rich of the two, moving from elegant piano fusion to Latin beats to pulsing rock. Bush's voice matches the beauty of lines like "This is a song of colour/where sands sing in crimson, red and rust/Then climb into bed and turn to dust."

Bush, so innovative early in her career, may not rewrite the book with "Aerial." But it's a lovely re-entry, and it might be the record you reach for to watch the snow fall on a winter's night.

-- Scott Mervis, Weekend Mag editor

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THE DIALS

'FLEX TIME' (LATEST FLAME)

The Dials play spunky, female-fronted New Wave like a young B-52s on diet pills with quirky keyboard riffs, quirkier vocals and raucous distorted guitars. If you've ever used "fun" as a positive adjective for music, chances are you'll eat this record up like the candy it's clearly intended to be, from the Farfisa-driven post-Mod kicks of "Dead Beat" to the sassy girl-group charms and chugging punk guitar of "Bye Bye Bye Bye Baby."

-- Ed Masley, Post-Gazette pop music critic

The Dials bring their infectious energy to Garfield Artworks Friday night with the Detachment Kit. The show begins at 8 and also features Life in Bed and Ice Capades.

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NEIL DIAMOND

'12 SONGS' (COLUMBIA)

Don't believe the hype. Neil Diamond plus Rick Rubin does not equal this year's Johnny Cash. It may be stripped-down for success, but Diamond's songs here are a long way off from "Girl, You'll Be a Woman Soon."

-- Ed Masley

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EURYTHMICS

'ULTIMATE COLLECTION' (ARISTA)

There aren't a lot of '80s hit machines whose records sound as good today as the better tracks on this collection, from the chilly techno-pop perfection of "Sweet Dreams [Are Made of This]" to the swaggering blues attack of "Missionary Man," where synthesizers take a back seat to some good old-fashioned blues harp.

Annie Lennox's videogenic androgyny may have grabbed more headlines at the time, but the key to this duo's enduring appeal has more to do with Dave Stewart's production. And Lennox's vocals, of course. An impassioned soul belter in techno drag, she even holds her own against the Queen of Soul on "Sisters Are Doin' It for Themselves," where Stewart proves he learned his funk moves from the early Talking Heads.

Two new songs can't compete, and closing with three ballads (of which only one, "I Saved the World Today," deserves a spot on any "ultimate" collection) probably wasn't the smartest idea. But the meat of this CD is flawless, from "Love Is a Stranger" to "I Need a Man."

-- Ed Masley

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THE TAH-DAHS

'LE FUN' (UNDENIABLE RECORDS)

These indie kids weren't joking when they named their hook-filled debut "Le Fun," which is kind of weird, because approximately nine times out of eight, they're joking here, kicking it off with the groan-out-loud punning of "Alcoholic" ("If you were a Cherokee, I might have reservations," they begin on their way to a chorus of "If you were booze, I'd be an alcoholic"). By the time they've had the last laugh 11 songs later, they've already hoped their mix-tape doesn't have a song some other boy included on the last one you received, immortalized a band so cute "Your face could make it easier to stomach this tune" and blamed their "damn optometrist" for it not being love at first sight. One could argue that it's all too clever for their own good, but there's clearly something to be said for any record that includes a song called "John and Yoko and Ted and Alice."

-- Ed Masley

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THE LONG WINTERS

'ULTIMATUM' (BARSUK)

As the wait continues for a proper follow-up to 2003's "When I Pretend to Fall," the Long Winters offer a mellow odds 'n' sods EP. The title cut appears twice -- as a fully realized gem of haunting chamber-pop and as a stripped-down EP-closing live performance by John Roderick alone on acoustic guitar. There's also a solo acoustic performance of "Bride and Bridle" from "When I Pretend to Fall." But the full-band arrangements are more intriguing, from the mesmerizing ache of the lead-off epic, "The Commander Thinks Aloud," to the trip-hop-flavored "Everything Is Talking."

-- Ed Masley

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T. REX

'THE SLIDER' (RHINO) 'ZINC ALLOY AND THE HIDDEN RIDERS OF TOMORROW' (RHINO) 'THE T. REX WAX CO. SINGLES A'S and B'S, 1972-77' (RHINO)

'Dandy in the Underworld' (Rhino)

America was too uptight to revel in the hook-filled glam-rock swagger of Marc Bolan's greatest U.K. hits. He only had one charting single here and only after he'd retitled it from "Get It On" to "Bang a Gong," which apparently seemed less sexual. But in the U.K., he was only getting started by the time we stopped paying attention, having traded his acoustic for a Les Paul and his Donovan-like folk for retooled three-chord rock 'n' roll and girl-group innocence with otherworldly Wall of Sound production (by Tony Visconti), surreal if nonsensical lyrics ("I have never kissed a car before?") and worlds more sex appeal than almost any hard rock classic of the day.

His biggest U.K. hits, post-"Get It On," are all on "Wax Co. Singles A's and B," from the "Get It On" boogie of "Telegram Sam" to "Children Of The Revolution" (a string-fueled teenage anthem hippies hated) to "20th Century Boy," a harder-rocking update on the classic T. Rex sound. Not every track here is a gem, but most T. Rex contemporaries couldn't touch his B-sides.

The album that should have elevated T. Rex to superstar status in the states, "The Slider" captures Bolan in his glam-rock prime, from the over-sexed swagger of "Telegram Sam" and the steamy, string-fueled title track to the majestic old-school rock 'n' roll of "Metal Guru" to tracks as explosive as "Buick MacKane," revisiting his roots in psychedelic folk on understated gems as inspired as "Ballrooms of Mars," "Spaceball Ricochet" and "Mystic Lady."

He was going through an R&B phase, repositioned as "The Groover," by the time "Zinc Alloy" hit the dance floor too early to cash in on disco. This is "Interstellar Soul" or "space-age funk," as Bolan liked to call it at the time, a weirder brand of plastic soul than David Bowie's (which came later), with a quirky art-rock vibe a world removed from "Young Americans." The hit was "Teenage Dream," a sweet, majestic, doo-wop-flavored ballad that finds Bolan wondering "Whatever happened to the teenage dream?"

That teenage dream was in its final stages by the time he got to "Dandy in the Underworld," released the year a car crash took his life. But while the album lacks the focus of "The Slider" or "Electric Warrior," Bolan hadn't lost his knack for crafting timeless pop hooks, from the title-track (another old-school sock-hop ballad) to the string-fueled dance moves of "Visions of Domino."

This first batch of Rhino reissues features lyric sheets, extensive, reader-friendly liner notes by Mark Paytress, the author of "BOLAN: The Rise and Fall of A 20th Century Superstar," and a bonus disc featuring alternate versions of most tracks. But it's the proper albums here that make it worth your while -- "The Slider" in particular.

-- Ed Masley

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RAP

FATLIP

'THE LONELIEST PUNK' (DELICIOUS VINYL)

Once the most interesting part of alternative hip-hop sensations the Pharcyde, Fatlip rocks the mike here like a slightly less absurd Ol' Dirty Bastard. His rapping style is conversational and full of personality, but it's his raspy, unhinged singing voice that most resembles ODB, especially when he starts screaming on the chorus of "Today's Your Day," a track that rocks its Funkadelic-worthy groove with extra rubber in the bass and an electric sitar adding to the not-your-average-hip-hop-record charm.

The hooks are massive, from "Today's Your Day" to the electro-flavored chorus of "First Heat" to the old-school G-funk grind of "Freaky Pumpz" with Humpty Hump -- yes, Humpty Hump -- comparing notes on stripper's bottoms. Other tracks are more reflective, taking stock in failed relationships, bad lifestyle choices and the state of his career. He even sets the record straight on where he's been keeping himself with "Writer's Block." -- Ed Masley