HOT TRACKS

LISA ROBINSON

Ah, but I was so much older then,

I'm younger than that now.

—"My Back Pages," Bob Dylan.

I n with the old, out with the new.

Actually new: Lou Reed's fascination with Edgar Allan Poe (whom he describes as "not exactly the boy next door") has evolved into The Raven, a two-CD masterpiece of new songs and poems with guest artists that include Willem Dafoe, Laurie Anderson, David Bowie,

Steve Buscemi, the Blind Boys of Alabama, and Ornette Coleman. Whatever Jennifer Lopez is taking, doing, or seeing is working: on This Is Me ... Then, she wrote most of the lyrics, her voice is strong, and she does a terrific cover of Carly Simon's "You Belong to Me."

Patty Larkin's new album is the beautiful Red = Luck.

Former D Generation leader Jesse Malin's The Fine Art of Self-Destruction is heartbreaking stuff produced by Ryan Adams, who says, "Malin's songs are so good they hurt my feelings."

New to you: In 1975, Bob Dylan took Joan Baez, T-Bone Burnette, Bobby Neuwirth, Mick Ronson, Allen Ginsberg, Ronee Blakley, Roger McGuinn, and others on a historic, old-fashioned, traveling, medicine-show/circus-like tour; it's finally available on a two-CD set. Bob Dylan Live 1975—The Rolling Thunder Review. And welcome, too, is the extraordinary London Howlin' Wolf Sessions—on two CDs with bonus cuts and alternative versions of the original tracks done in 1970 by Eric Clapton,

Charlie Watts, Ian Stewart, Hubert Sumlin, and Steve Winwood, with the mythic Howlin' Wolf.

Formerly new: Have a cocktail and listen to Verve Records' Diva Series, with reissues from wondrous singers Anita O'Day, Ella Fitzgerald, Sarah Vaughan, Blossom Dearie, Billie Holiday, Nina Simone, Carmen McRae, and Dinah Washington.

The Grace EPs is a posthumous boxed set from Jeff Buckley, whose short, tragic life produced a surprisingly large body of recorded work. The Band's 1976 farewell concert gets yet another airing with a Robbie Robertsonautographed, three-album vinyl limited edition of The Last Waltz. Also out: live tracks, outtakes, and remixes from Fatboy Slim, the Smashing Pumpkins, Chemical Brothers, and Al Kooper and Mike Bloomfield; love songs from Marvin Gaye, Peggy Lee, and the O'Jays; and a two-CD set of Janis Joplin's work, alone and with Big Brother and the Holding Company.

New too: Phish went into the recording studio to rehearse for their (instantly sold-out) New Year's Eve shows and emerged with Round Room, an album of 12 new songs. On their psychedelic, rocking Evil Heat, Primal Scream practically channel the early Stooges. And T. Rex, the Beatles,

David Bowie, and Lou Reed have all unwittingly contributed to the exuberant new Life on Other Planets, from contempo U.K. rockers Supergrass.

Soulful ballads mark Jeffrey Gaines's Toward the Sun. John Medeski, Alison Krauss, and Bela Fleck join Dar Williams on her optimistic The Beauty of the Rain. System of a Down's Steal This Album takes heaviosity to creative nu outer limits. Smooth grooves mark Thicke's Cherry Blue Skies. Ry Cooder's collaboration with Cuban guitarist Manuel Galban—Mambo Sinuendo—evokes the 1950s mambo/cha-cha world of Perez Prado. And if you like that, you'll like Ibrahim Ferrer's Buenos Hermanos, the first album in four years from the Buena Vista Social Club star. Notable soundtracks include Adaptation, with original music from Carter Burwell, and Baz Luhrmann's Broadway production of La Boh'eme, with Puccini's greatest hits. Snoop Dogg displays a Bootsy Collins vibe on Paid Tha Cost to Be Da Bo$$, Swizz Beatz is alternately hard-core and hilarious on Swizz Beatz Presents G.H.E.T.T.O. Stories, and Wu Tang Clan's GZA's rhyming skills are breathtaking on Legend of the Liquid Sword. There's no BZA like show BZA.