‘Guilty Pleasures’ an uneventful CD

Barbra Streisand

“Guilty Pleasures” (Columbia) •• 1/2 stars

The first pairing of Barbra Streisand with Barry Gibb 25 years ago on her “Guilty” LP gave Streisand a landmark album in her career – commercially and artistically – and it gave Gibb a whole outside career away from the Bee Gees as a songwriter and producer for hire. So the news that they would celebrate that album’s silver anniversary with a reunion was exciting.

Alas, “Guilty Pleasures” is not nearly the peer of its predecessor. With a few exceptions, it’s not even appreciably better than most of the glossy, albeit pleasant, CDs Streisand has released since 1980.

Blame can’t be cast on Streisand, who sounds fine. Time has added color, warmth and richness to her pipes. This sequel’s flaws all center on the songwriting and production by Gibb; it’s too tame, synthetic and polished. And in his two duets with Streisand, his voice sounds shot.

“Stranger in a Strange Land,” the first single, is a pretty, Bee Gees-styled pop tune with familiar Gibb harmonies and a timely lyric about soldiers fighting on foreign soil. More songs like that would have made “Guilty Pleasures” a formidable follow-up as opposed to yet another well-sung, but uneventful album from one of the finest voices of a generation.

Howard Cohen, Miami Herald

Disturbed

“Ten Thousand Fists” (Reprise/Wea) ••• 1/2

Disturbed exploded onto the nu-metal scene with its debut “The Sickness” in 2000. The chunky, funky guitar riffs of Dan Donegan and the maniacal, spitting vocals of David Draiman set them apart from a mostly same-sounding crowd.

The 2002 follow-up, “Believe,” took a more mellow, introspective and, quite frankly, boring turn. The band’s third album searches for a happy medium and, for the most part, finds it.

“Ten Thousand Fists” takes the more mature songwriting of “Believe” and infuses it with the raw energy of “The Sickness.” The direction of the album is made clear by the first single, “Stricken,” which echoes the hit title track of “The Sickness,” right down to the monkey screams at the beginning.

But other tracks, like “I’m Alive,” do a better job of blending the best aspects of both previous styles, making this easily Disturbed’s best work to date.

Fred Phillips, The (Monroe, La.) News-Star

Various artists

“So Amazing: An All-Star Tribute to Luther Vandross” (J) ••

Nobody celebrated the everyday delights and disappointments of love with more epic R&B splendor than Luther Vandross, who died in July from complications of a stroke. So it makes sense that this homage to the singer-songwriter is strained to the limit, pushed hard by such drama-suffused numbers as Usher’s overripe “Superstar” and Donna Summer’s hands-above-your-head disco-glory take on Vandross’ 1991 hit “Power of Love.”

Comprising both Vandross originals and covers he performed, these 15 tracks by such modern stars as Beyonce and Stevie Wonder (“So Amazing”) and Aretha Franklin (“A House Is Not a Home”) do reflect his flair for the dramatic, but they’re generally overwrought enough to tire out even fans of heavily produced R&B-pop.

Despite Vandross’ tendencies toward the sweeping, at the heart of his best performances was … heart. Here, only Angie Stone’s wistful, lonesome take on “Since I Lost My Baby” – along with the heartfelt shout-outs offered by Wonder, Mary J. Blige, Wyclef Jean and others – transcends a sense of showy professionalism.

Natalie Nichols, Los Angeles Times

Coheed and Cambria

“Good Apollo, I’m Burning Star IV, Volume 1: From Fear Through the Eyes of Madness” (Columbia) •• 1/2

Get your No. 2 pencils ready: Is Coheed and Cambria a) an emo band, b) a metal band, or c) a prog-rock band?

The answer: d) All of the above. That is, the four-piece fronted by Afro’d auteur Claudio Sanchez is a progressive rock band that delivers a grandiose, multi-part sci-fi storyline with metallic force and the keen emotionalism of heart-on-sleeve emo acts.

The major-label debut by the California band is the third in a continuing saga about a dystopian future in which the parents must kill their children to stamp out a plague.

Though Sanchez is prone to bloated arrangements and his high-pitched voice is disturbingly reminiscent of Rush’s Geddy Lee, he also has a knack for tough-to-resist pop tunes. Before you know it, you’ll be humming along to a nifty little number called “Once Upon Your Dead Body.”

Dan DeLuca, Philadelphia Inquirer