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Culling the fall CD harvest

As a bounty of pop recordings swirls into stores this season, Team Pop helps separate the wheat from the chaff.

It's the fall, which means everyone wants your cash: pop stars, record companies. Everyone, that is, except Team Pop. Notice a ridiculous number of CD releases in the stores? You don't have the time or energy to listen to all those new albums. You have lives, for goodness' sake!

But we don't. The Team Pop posse got our grubby little hands on every hot new release we could. We listened to each one so we could let you know if they stink or if they rock. We even put them in handy categories for your shopping pleasure.

Some (cynics, perhaps) would suggest that the glut of releases is simply the industry's move to rebound from a lagging year. But there's more than enough quality to go around.

Ready? Let's get this party started:

Not yet past their prime

THE BANGLES, DOLL REVOLUTION (KOCH) The Bangles is a criminally underrated band. Doll Revolution is filled with 1960s-inspired jingle-jangle pop and soaring, Byrds-esque harmonies. The band, which made its mark in the mid 1980s, does a faithful cover of Elvis Costello's Tear Off Your Own Head (It's a Doll Revolution), and it's pure fun. Some tracks seem like ploys for pop hits, and that we can do without. We love the soft grit of Susanna Hoffs' voice. So, why does Michael Steele sing most of the songs? Sept. 23

JOE STRUMMER & THE MESCALLEROS, STREETCORE (HELLCAT) Streetcore is an eclectic - posthumously released - album, but it's unmistakably Joe. Many songs are reminiscent of the Clash's vitality, despite occasional missteps such as the unfocused Get Down Moses, with its reggae drumming and bizarre cut-and-paste electronics. Long Shadow's folksie acoustic guitar nods to Strummer hero Woody Guthrie. Oct. 21

EDIE BRICKELL, VOLCANO (CHERRY/UNIVERSAL) Brickell's not the lyricist her husband, Paul Simon, is, but then again, who is? The former New Bohemian does have a lovely voice, which is nice to hear after a 10-year vacation from music to raise kids. Volcano is a pleasant enough album. The songs are occasionally mopey, but we dig the jazz-lite vibe Brickell dishes, especially on songs like Ohh, La La (no joke, that's its title). Fans of Norah Jones will eat this up. Oct. 14

EMMYLOU HARRIS, STUMBLE INTO GRACE (NONESUCH) Harris gets better every year. We dig her silver hair and gingery voice. Harris makes any territory her own: pop, country. Little Bird's strings have a slight Celtic charm. Other songs are delicate, like the ascendent Here I Am. The album's spare instrumentation gives it understated charm, fitting for such a peerless singer. Sept. 23

DAVID BOWIE, REALITY (COLUMBIA) Bowie bounded back from a dry spell with last year's Heathen. Reality is a mixed bag. A postmodern album, it favors propulsive guitar licks and eerie atmospherics (The Loneliest Guy in the World). But some songs wander. Looking For Water's insipid lyrics are downright vexing. But Bowie scores points on a cover of George Harrison's Try Some, Buy Some and for the zippy title track. Sept. 16

Silky-voiced gals

MESHELL NDEGEOCELLO, COMFORT WOMAN (MAVERICK) Subtitle this album "Songs to Shag To." Ndegeocello's soul/R&B music oscillates between free-form jazzy soundscapes and squiggly funk, buoyed by her bass playing. Body turns up the beat. The album's real gems are a trio of love songs (Love Song (#1,2,3)). Try not to melt as Ndegeocello sings: "I can't promise you love" on the stunning Liliquoi Moon with its rocking, electric-guitar fueled coda. Oct. 14

BETH GIBBONS AND RUSTIN MAN, OUT OF SEASON (SANCTUARY) Gibbons, lead singer for British trip-hop outfit Portishead, finally releases her divine solo album in the United States. Out of Season is naked, noirish and beautifully disquieting. Gibbons' songwriting and witchy, worn voice are anchored by sweeping string arrangements (the haunted waltz Tom the Model) and plenty of brass on some numbers: on others, simply acoustic accompaniment (Resolve). Oct. 7

Better than haggis

BELLE AND SEBASTIAN, DEAR CATASTROPHE WAITRESS (ROUGH TRADE) Scottish minstrels Belle and Sebastian make breezy, string-filled 1960s-influenced pop. The band's latest effort is peppier and poppier than earlier recordings. Let's hear it for band leader Stuart Murdoch's wry song titles and the jaunty swagger of Step Into My Office, Baby. The brasher Roy Walker, with finger snaps, suggests the Velvet Underground crossed with the Mamas and the Papas. Oct. 7

ISOBEL CAMPBELL, AMORINO (INSTINCT RECORDS) Craving a pastel pick-me-up? Former Belle and Sebastian member Isobel Campbell releases her first solo album on the same day as the new B&S disc. She might benefit from that. Not to say Amorino is lackluster, but Campbell's slight, breathy vocals, Astrud Gilberto influence and chamber pop leanings can get a little airy. Oct. 7.

Recovery records

SHELBY LYNNE, IDENTITY CRISIS (CAPITOL) Lynne has been through multiple personalities and, frankly, we weren't sure we liked any of them. She wins us over with Identity Crisis. The "new" Shelby sounds like a cross of Lucinda Williams, Hank Williams and the Staples Singers. The songs are simple and sparsely orchestrated. Lynne's shattering delivery of If I Were Smart gives resonance to a simple lyric: "If I were smart/ I wouldn't have a heart." Sept. 16

RUFUS WAINWRIGHT, WANT ONE (DREAMWORKS) Wainwright, son of folkies Kate McGarrigle and Loudon Wainwright III, has been candid about his drug abuse. Want One (there's a second volume coming next year) is a fantastic document of his newfound sobriety. That may explain his voice, all world-weary and full of the ol' ennui. And is there a better arranger? Want One is astounding, with layered background vocals, grand piano, grandiose string arrangements and splashy color. Sept. 23

Slip into something more comfortable . . . like a coma

ELVIS COSTELLO, NORTH (DEUTSCHE GRAMMOPHON) More like "South." As in, going down, anyone? Zzzzz. . . . After last year's stellar pop blast When I Was Cruel, Costello returns to tepid experimentation with a chamber orchestra. Can we blame wife-to-be, somber jazz chanteuse Diana Krall? North is a drag. Elvis, you erred. Sept. 23

Let's hear it for the boy(s)

JOSH RITTER, HELLO STARLING (SIGNATURE SOUNDS RECORDINGS) James Taylor fans will love this young singer. Ritter's sandpapery voice and finger-picking on acoustic guitar is from the old school. Thoughtful, Dylanesque compositions, like the rollicking, organ-fueled Man Burning, remind us that talent still wins, at the end of the day. Sept. 9

MY MORNING JACKET, IT STILL MOVES (RCA) My Morning Jacket won us over with It Still Moves, a grandiose album of Southern rock gone all Radiohead-y. Singer Jim James sounds alternately like Thom Yorke and Neil Young delivering quixotic lyrics over lush, gothic soundscapes. Sept. 9

Albums influenced by discarded slide shows

TRACHTENBURG FAMILY SLIDESHOW PLAYERS, VINTAGE SLIDE COLLECTIONS FROM SEATTLE 1 (BAR NONE) New York's Trachtenburg Family Slideshow Players - yes, the trio is an actual family - takes slide shows recovered from thrift stores, Dumpsters and attics across America, and father Jason Trachtenburg composes vaudevillelike pop tunes to accompany the pictures. We guffawed at Fondue Friends from Switzerland and the bouncy, piano-driven Mountain Trip To Japan, 1959, aided by spare snaps by 9-year-old drummer Rachel Pina Trachtenburg. Think of very catchy, but very demented Cole Porter songs. Sept. 23

* * *

Some of the higher profile greatest-hits discs: REM's In Time: The Best of REM 1988-2003 (Oct. 28) features two new songs, Bad Day and Animal. Tori Amos' Tales of a Librarian - A Tori Amos Collection (Nov. 18) also boasts new songs (Angels and Snow Cherries From France) as well as remastered versions of old songs. Sheryl Crow's The Best of Sheryl Crow (Nov. 4) includes her take on Cat Stevens' First Cut Is the Deepest.

Team Pop couldn't preview every album, unfortunately, but here are some discs we're excited about.

Judging by first single 12:51, theStrokes still rock on Room on Fire (Oct. 21). Our favorite teen pop idol, Mandy Moore, releases Coverage (Oct. 21); it finds her, yes, covering Elton John, Cat Stevens and XTC, among others. Brits Travis (don't tell, but one of us likes the band more than Coldplay) releases 12 Memories (Oct. 14). We know Erykah Badu's latest, Worldwide Underground (Sept. 16), will be funky and fun. Sarah McLachlan's first album in six years, Afterglow (Nov. 4), features gorgeous first single Fallen. Our fave rappers, Outkast, return with a double-disc entitled Speakerboxxx/The Love Below (Sept. 23). Team Pop is eager to see what Courtney Love cooked up on her cheekily titled America's Sweetheart (Oct. 28). Alt-country rabble-rouser Ryan Adams has a new set, Rock 'N Roll (Nov. 4) primed for release.