Big Boi's killer solo debut Sir Lucious Left Foot will deservedly dominate the music press this week, but hopefully there's ink left over for a noteworthy new record from another urban iconoclast: Kelis, whose latest album, Flesh Tone, gets its American release this week. It's a complete departure for the R&B singer: a clubby dance-pop album crafted with electronic producers like David Guetta, Ammo, Switch and Jean Baptiste. At nine songs and just 37 minutes, Flesh Tone is practically an EP by today's standards, but it's purposeful, trimmed of all fat and filler. Dropping the sass of her past records, Kelis instead adopts a steely, determined persona that beautifully plays up the grit in her voice. For an album that sounds so lightweight on the surface, Flesh Tone packs an unexpected emotional wallop. Hidden behind these big, universal beats are some markedly personal songs, with Kelis singing about rebuilding her life in the wake of motherhood and divorce.
* For a much lighter dance album, turn toward Kylie Minogue's latest, Aphrodite, a likable collection of sweet nothings that make Madonna's recent records seem lofty by comparison. (The album is temporarily streaming here.)
* Karmically balancing out the smart new Big Boi and Kelis albums is Beast Mode, the unrelentingly dumb new disc from dirty-south goon Juvenile. The 35-year-old rapper still has a good ear for the timesthe album's beats are crisp and modernbut his raps are as slow-witted and stunted as ever.
* The incorrigible Guided by Voices frontman Robert Pollard releases a new album today, Moses on a Snail, his second (but quite possibly not his last) of the year.
* Bret Michaels also has a new record called Custom Built, though it's mostly a collection of leftovers compiled around an odd new duet with Miley Cyrus.
* And the self-titled EP from Trent Reznor's new band How To Destroy Angels gets its physical release today, so that the one Nine Inch Nails fan who does not have a computer can finally hear it.
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