These Hip-Hop Partyers Are in a Darker Mood

* * * 1/2 TIMBALAND & MAGOO, “Indecent Proposal” Blackground

Does anyone work harder than Timbaland? In addition to co-producing two of the best hip-hop albums of the year (from Missy Elliott and Bubba Sparxxx), he has hooked back up with his performing partner, Magoo, for their first album since the duo’s intoxicating 1997 debut. On that album, “Welcome to Our World,” Timbaland played the straight man to Magoo’s trickster, finding the sweet spot where braggadocio and goofy kicks sparked hands-in-the-air mayhem.

After a four-year hiatus, the will to party is still strong, but the mood is a bit darker. As usual, Timabaland’s active imagination is hard at work, smearing sound effects like a finger-painting child across tracks already crowded with background vocals and syncopated beats. What other hip-hop producer would have a flute flutter over a rock-hard track such as “Considerate Brother,” or build “All Y’all” around a swatch of Arabic devotional music?

For an artist who would rather create new trends than ride existing ones, Timbaland succumbs to guest-star overkill on “Indecent Proposal” (due in stores Tuesday). There’s too much gruff stuff from Ludacris, Jay-Z, et al, and not enough of Magoo’s endearing, rap-on-helium vocals. Still, there are plenty of ways to get lost in “Indecent Proposal’s” hip-hop funhouse.

-- Marc Weingarten

* * * 1/2 MERCURY REV “All Is Dream” V2

Imagine a painting that moves, an undulating Catskill Mountains landscape that narrates itself and expounds on every emotion it evokes. That is the fifth album from these upstate New Yorkers whose ethereal, orchestral pop could be the soundtrack to our insecurities--a score to a movie for which there’s no film.

Far from the noisy psychedelia of the band’s first three records, “All Is Dream” expands the classical explorations Mercury Rev began with 1998’s “Deserter’s Songs.” Textured by Sean “Grasshopper” Mackowiak’s guitar, all manner of strings, woodwinds, horns and synths converge to frame Jonathan Donahue’s rapt poetry, delivered in a voice that makes Neil Young sound like a baritone.

From the majestic swell of “The Dark Is Rising” to the gentle piano of “Spiders and Flies,” Donahue is a folk singer serenaded by sopranos and coaxed by an army of strings into a world where all is dream. And all is not. Mercury Rev performs Dec. 3 at the Troubadour in West Hollywood.

-- Kevin Bronson

* * PINK “Missundaztood” Arista

After making a splash with her 2000 debut album and sharing the No. 1 hit “Lady Marmalade” with a bunch of other youthful warblers, what’s a junior R&B-pop; diva do next? Well, if you’re Philadelphia-born Pink, you inject more of your personality and tastes into your second collection (in stores Tuesday). Which, it turns out, wasn’t entirely advisable.

Abetted by such co-writers and co-producers as ex-4 Non Blondes leader Linda Perry, hit-maker Dallas Austin and the Roots’ Scott Storch, Pink offers an eccentric blend of R&B;, rock and dance styles that has its finer moments in the misfit-angst anthem “Don’t Let Me Get Me” and the new-wave-funky dance single “Get the Party Started.”

Despite the broader palette, the songs on “Missundaztood” share with Pink’s debut a tendency to sound vaguely familiar. She doesn’t help matters with such titles as “Respect”--not the Aretha Franklin classic, but similarly themed with its I-can-flaunt-it-but-don’t-objectify-me message.

Things get gooey when Pink turns sentimental, as in “Family Portrait,” a poignant but inelegant lament of parental strife. The overwrought, bluesy ballad “Misery” sounds a classic-rock note, complete with cameos by rock ‘n’ roll geezers Steven Tyler and Richie Sambora. And she too often vents the agony of wanting to be a star, with such numbers as the Perry-penned, operatic hard-rocker “Lonely Girl” and the languid “Eventually” adding little depth to the picture.

-- Natalie Nichols

* * * RADIOHEAD “I Might Be Wrong” Capitol

In which Thom and the boys take their weird little puppies out for some air. Radiohead’s live album is devoted to the songs from their last two collections, the laboratory-bred concoctions that turned the band from contenders for superstardom into the cult band they seem to want to be.

The striking thing is how, well, accessible the “Kid A” and “Amnesiac” music sounds. Maybe familiarity has made these atmospheric pieces more endearing. The vitality of the performance and the intensity of Thom Yorke’s singing, along with the mix of catchier tunes with more amorphous ones, also contribute to the appeal.

Yorke is an especially forceful presence, sending his voice through eerie electronic processing in “Everything in Its Right Place,” spilling gasps of desperation to bob like flotsam in the instrumental turbulence of “Idioteque.” The one previously unreleased song, the much-bootlegged “True Love Waits,” is a stately, aching distillation of loneliness.

Radiohead’s third release in little more than a year is officially called a “mini-album,” and at 40 minutes it’s a modest and tantalizing glimpse of the group’s prowess on stage. But given the band’s aversion to touring, it’s the best that most fans will do.

-- Richard Cromelin

* * ENRIQUE IGLESIAS “Escape” Interscope

“HERO,” proclaims a sticker on Iglesias’ new CD, in letters four times as big as either his name or the album title--and no wonder. “Hero,” the love ballad that’s the first single from the album, was originally meant to signal the singer’s reach beyond his trivial pop of the past, and now in the wake of Sept. 11, the mere title has infused it with extra meaning.

But taken purely on its own merits and removed from current events, the song is little besides trite sentimentality, suggesting another four-letter H word: hack. Iglesias wants badly to show range and depth, but both elude him and his several teams of co-writers and producers, who prove high on craft but low on art as they ply variations of ultra-current pop styles (“Escape”) and neo-new wave beats (“If the World Crashes Down”--another love pledge now invested with post-Sept. 11 overtones).

The supposed range is mere ornamentation--urban vernacular here (“She be the one, she be the bomb,” he sings at one point), token Latin elements there (Iberian guitar on “Love to See You Cry,” bonus Spanish-language versions of three songs). Worse is the studio gimmickry sometimes employed on his voice--a shame since his unaffected singing is his strongest musical asset. But that kind of bad choice is at the root of the overall failure to define Iglesias on this album as either a personality or an artist.

-- Steve Hochman

In Brief

* * Fabolous, “Ghetto Fabolous,” Elektra. Fabolous is as self-assured as they come. The 21-year-old protege of DJ Clue keeps his vocal delivery cool and calm; his raps lay in wait, demanding the listener sit up and pay attention. There’s a menacing allure to the Brooklyn native’s approach, but this album of shop-worn street conceits and sparse, anemic arrangements doesn’t do him justice.

-- M.W. * * 1/2 Rob Zombie, “The Sinister Urge,” Geffen. The ghoulish grunter behind White Zombie is back with another solo effort full of horror metal schlock, this time boasting big-name talents Ozzy Osbourne, Tommy Lee and Slayer guitarist Kerry King. “The Sinister Urge” is a rhythmic ride, but like its predecessor “Hellbilly Deluxe,” it lacks the fresh feel and addictive hooks of Zombie’s early Geffen material. Ominous cuts such as “Sinners Inc.” and “Feel So Numb” come close, but the rest is about as engaging as a bad monster movie.

-- Lina Lecaro * * 1/2 Cliff Hillis, “Be Seeing You,” Not Lame. Of all the artists in the power-pop garden of this Colorado independent label (https://www.notlame.com), Hillis bears the lushest fruit. His ‘70s-style melodies spring from earthy guitars and breezy harmonies in three-minute blooms grafted from bits of McCartney, Squeeze and the Beach Boys. If the distorted simmer of “Coming Out Alive” is any indication, there’s promise of future growth.

-- K.B.

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Albums are rated on a scale of one star (poor), two stars (fair), three stars (good) and four stars (excellent). The albums are already released unless otherwise noted.