HOT TRACKS LISA ROBINSON

Are you taking over or are you taking orders / Are you going backwards or are you going forwards?

—"White Riot," Joe Strummer & Mick Jones.

he worse the state of the world, the better the state of the art.

Lucinda Williams has made the record of a lifetimepart Hank Williams, part Bob Dylan, part Keith Richards circa Exile on Main Street, her new World Without Tears is a profoundly chilling, heartbreaking, important record.

Ben Harper's wonderful reggae/blues/funk/soul-fueled Diamonds on the Inside opens with the claim "I can change the world with my own two hands," and one can only wish him the best of luck. The Jayhawks' Rainy Day Music is a beautiful disc that evokes the best of the Burrito Brothers and the very early Jayhawks themselves.

Despite all the obvious marriages, baggage, and heritage that could so easily work against her, Lisa Marie Presley sings for real (somewhere to the left of Cher and the right of Chrissie Hynde) on her surprisingly hard-edged debut.

Rosanne Cash is back in glorious voice on Rules of Travel. From the state that brought you Bruce Springsteen comes a strong, emotional album from Val Emmich (Slow Down Kid). Paloalto's luxuriant, melodic new one is the Rick Rubin-produced Heroes and Villains.

London Calling: British quartet the Music are still in their teens—hence, bored enough to come up with something great; their psychedelic, guitar-loaded, self-titled debut lives up to all the fuss (comparisons to Led Zeppelin, Stone Roses, Jane's Addiction) bestowed upon them by the U.K. press. Massive Attack's 100th Window is dreamy, dramatic, sexy, intense, and well worth the five-year wait. "It's a wonderful life if you can find it," sings Nick Cave, who sounds unconvinced on the elegant Nocturama, from Nick Cave and the Bad Seeds—which ends with an astonishing, 15-minute, 40-verse, raging jam. Ms. Dynamite (Niomi McLean-Daley), who nabbed England's Mercury Prize last year for her socially conscious lyrics and reggae-inflected hip-hop, releases A Little Deeper. The Coral are a bunch of young cigarette smokers and college dropouts whose self-titled, wacky, inventive debut is marked by startling tempo and key changes and no one discernible style. Also coming: that much-rumored Led Zeppelin three-CD (and two-DVD) set—including concert footage from 1969 and 1975.

Career Opportunities: On the liner notes for #1, groovy electro-rock-pop performance collective Fischerspooner thanks a cast of hundreds—including Lisbon, Hedi Slimane, and Kiehl's. There's no denying the talent of Dr. Dre and Eminem protege 50 Cent on the infectious, hard-core Get Rich or Die Trying. Lizzie West, who trekked cross-country to find Leonard Cohen (he took her into his house, then directly to a Zen monastery), releases Holy Road, Freedom Songs. Billy Corgan's new band, Zwan, displays a love of layered guitars on Mary Star of the Sea. Pop-rock singer Lucy Woodward makes an impressive debut with While You Can. Lil' Kim is full of sex and braggadocio on the long-overdue La Bella Mafia.

Garageland: Now Denmark is getting into the dirty, fuzz-tone rock scene with the fabulous Roveonettes, the utterly delightful boy-and-girl duo whose songs on Whip It On are all in B minor and use the same three chords. Former Clash guitarist Mick Jones produced the Libertines' Up the Bracket. American Hi-Fi's terrific The Art of Losing has a buoyant, Green Day-like spirit. Stiffed's Sex Sells is rough, minimal fun. Sonny Vincent's The Good, the Bad, the Ugly has a lineup of famed punksters including Wayne Kramer, Javier Escovedo, Scott Asheton, and Richard Lloyd. On their new, eponymous CD, the Buzzcocks still kick out the jams 27 years after they first toured with the Sex Pistols and the Clash.

And Were a Happy Family: A Tribute to the Ramones has contributions from—among others— Garbage, U2, Rancid, the Chili Peppers, as well as a fabulous, sick one from Tom Waits. Gabba gabba hey, Joe.