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

TOBY KEITH 'THAT DON'T MAKE ME A BAD GUY' (SHOW DOG)

3 stars = Good
Ratings explained

Say what you want about Toby Keith's politics -- whatever they are -- but it's hard to deny the big guy's talent for churning out solid product year after year.

Between that wretched movie, the summer touring and his visits to the troops he found time to write and record this new set of songs that roar out of the speakers with a big, beautiful wall of sound. Keith serves up his country rogue persona with catchy hooks, tight musicianship, clever-and-even-moving lyrics that avoid political grandstanding and, of course, one of the best pure country voices in the market.

Far from a one-trick pony, Keith is just as good on the country-rockers like the honky-tonk title track as he is on a stately ballad like "Hurt a Lot Worse When You Go" or a convincing departure into Chicago blues on "Missing Me Some You," where even the grammar is forgivable. Most impressive is the rollicking "Time That It Would Take" stuffed with a long tongue-twister of a chorus that's going to be a chore to remember when he plays it live.

Keith has that boot-in-your-ass cowboy side to him, but you have admire his ability to tap the tender side in the single "She Never Cried in Front of Me," where he sings, "And I'll always believe if she ever did cry for me/they were tears that you can't see/you know, the bad ones."

Even James Taylor and Jackson Browne wouldn't turn away a lyric like that.

-- Scott Mervis

ROCK

QUEEN + PAUL RODGERS 'THE COSMOS ROCKS' (HOLLYWOOD)

1 star = Awful
Ratings explained

Freddie Mercury, may he rest in peace, is looking down now and saying, "Paul Rodgers? Huh? Why Paul Rodgers?"

Queen was all about the out-of-this-world operatic flamboyance of Mercury combined with the sublime metallic guitar tone of Brian May. There had to have been quirky young talents beating down May's door for a piece of his guitar nirvana.

Of course, a Mercury soundalike would have been silly, but Rodgers, a second-string blues rocker from Bad Company, doesn't make good company at all.

Starting with a horrid Chuck Berry-style throwback "Cosmos Rockin'," the songs on their power-ballad-heavy debut evoke that soulless late '70s era when corporate rockers were just begging the punks to wipe them out.

It's hard to even appreciate May's guitar work with the cliches piled this high. Queen + Paul Rodgers prove they are the champions of pomposity.

-- Mervis

DEERHUNTER 'MICROCASTLE/WEIRD ERA CONT.' (KRANKY)

3 1/2 stars = Very good
Ratings explained

Fronted by lanky cross-dresser Bradford Cox, the now four-piece Atlanta band returns with a more lucid version of its damaged pop, melding saccharine melodies, Eno-esque flourishes and washes of fuzz.

After a brief intro sounding simultaneously in the clouds and underwater -- a tenable description of the band's overall feel -- a supple backbeat and chiming guitars propel "Agoraphobia," with guitarist Lockett Pundt singing lead about finding freedom in confinement.

The title track has the tender lull of an Alex Chilton ballad before it takes off toward the end, finally landing in a pile-up of instrumentation and smoldering discord. Drenched in distortion, delay and reverb, Cox infinitely repeats the mantra "To get older still" on the uncharacteristically hopeful "Little Kids."

Bluesy dirge "Saved by Old Times" detours halfway through courtesy of a cryptic vocal collage from the Black Lips' Cole Alexander. The album peaks with "Nothing Ever Happened" as ringing guitar notes trace figure-eights in and around a bulging bottom end.

With a lean toward droning instrumentals, the extra disc has more to do with sculpting sound than linear songs. The set culminates with the drifting 10-minute closer "Calvary Scars II/Aux Out," a dreamscape of filtered voice, swelling guitars and iridescent shadings reminiscent of minimal techno composer Gas.

The drum lead-in to "Vox Humana" approximates The Jesus and Mary Chain classic "Just Like Honey." If for nothing more than a similar affinity for deftly drowning melody in pink noise, Deerhunter appear a likely heir to the psych-candy throne.

-- Jake O'Connell, The Associated Press