Billboard CD reviews

NEW YORK (Billboard) - Snoop Dogg's ninth album is perhaps his most progressive to date. It not only features a vintage '80s sound complete with old-school synthesizers and vocoders, but also finds Snoop pulling triple duty as rapper, singer (!) and one-third of production team QDT. "Sensual Seduction" is already a big hit that finds the 36-year-old harmonizing about being "a freak" and "playing in the sheets," while "Cool" reflects on his fame and posh lifestyle, both via a talkbox. But there's a refreshing sincerity to cuts like the nostalgic "Can't Say Goodbye" ("You can't take the hood out the homeboy," he instructs) and an ode to his wife, "All Around the World." Throughout, the focus is on Snoop and not on mic-hogging guests, although John Legend is a welcome presence on "Neva Hafta Wurry."

ARTIST: RANDY JACKSON

ALBUM: RANDY JACKSON'S MUSIC CLUB VOL. ONE (Dream Merchant 21/Concord Records)

So far the story of this genre-skipping disc has been Paula Abdul's comeback with lead-off club track "Dance Like There's No Tomorrow," and rightfully so -- it's a sexy and potent return to form. If not as headline-worthy, the Joss Stone-sung "Just Walk On By" is easily one of her best songs, a nasty, jostling slab of funk. "Vol. One" is less a cohesive album than the musical gestation of Randy Jackson's A-list address book. Among the artists delivering cameos are Elliott Yamin, Mariah Carey, Ghostface Killah and John Rich. If none match the sheer fire of Stone or the speaker-rumbling fun of Abdul, soul legend Sam Moore, Keb' Mo' and Angie Stone nail "Wang Dang Doodle," and the slack, Southern hip-hop of Crunk Squad and Ghostface's "Like A" has the goods to be a summer hit.

ARTIST: CHARLES LLOYD QUARTET

ALBUM: RABO DE NUBE (ECM Records)

Poet Charles Simic's verse for the liner notes of "Rabo de Nube," Charles Lloyd's latest CD, released the week of his 70th birthday, reads, "I hear someone whispering/'Without this music/ Life would be a mistake."' In essence, this sums up Lloyd's reflective jazz, presented here live from Switzerland in tandem with pianist Jason Moran, bassist Reuben Rogers and drummer Eric Harland. Lloyd's music is at once lyrical and vibrant, meditative and enthralling. His tenor sax combusts on the tumultuous "Prometheus"; his alto flute floats tenderly in his Booker Little homage, "Booker's Garden"; and his taragato (a Hungarian folk clarinet) sets "Ramanujan" into dance motion. After the band romps through "Sweet Georgia Bright," a Lloyd oldie from his 1964 recording debut, it eases into a sublime balladic rendition of the Silvio Rodriguez title track.

ARTIST: KAKI KING

ALBUM: DREAMING OF REVENGE (Velour Recordings)