ShareThis"SHINE THROUGH IT," Terrence Howard (Columbia)After first hearing actor Terrence Howard's new music release, "Shine Through It," many listeners will start thinking about the great films he's appeared in -- like "Crash" and "Hustle & Flow."Anything to take their minds off the empathetic embarrassment they might feel from the over-the-top histrionics of his release.Howard comes on too strong from the beginning, his trembling rasp building in the flamenco-flavored showy arrangement of "Love Makes You Beautiful" as he delivers lines like, "Hell knows no fury like a woman's scorn when love is torn!" He's even more earnest on the hokey, overblown title track; he sounds as if he's in agony during his weirdly rushed lines on "Mr. Johnson's Lawn"; he offers a gratuitous bunch of chatter as an introduction on "It's All Gone" ...Basically, "Shine Through It" is explosive in all the wrong ways.But once the shock of overstimulation wears off, it's worthwhile to reconsider Howard's efforts and give him more credit than he might initially inspire. He wrote or co-wrote all the songs, which are anything but conventional, he serves as co-producer and he's also the lead guitarist through a diversity of orchestrations that have R&B, Latin and big-band implications. What's more, his husky voice is demanding and filled with soul, especially when he opts for a more straight-ahead delivery, as he does on the track "I Remember When."Rating (five possible): 3"ME AND ARMINI," Emiliana Torrini (Rough Trade)As Emiliana Torrini flits from one delicate flower of a song to another on her new "Me and Armini," there's no overt sense of the risks she's taking with her collection of pretty, subtle music.But surface impressions notwithstanding, Torrini's release is a series of gambles. First, she's taking the chance that her string of quiet tracks at the beginning of "Me and Armini" could enervate her audience, because even gorgeously understated songs need some nominal form of motivation to move matters along, and Torrini and longtime collaborator Dan Carey are quite stingy with the energy early on. They offer a loungey bit of textured folk in the opening "Fireheads," followed by the light reggae/pop of the title track, followed by an acoustic-based "Birds" that flutters off into a trippy break.By the time fourth track "Heard It All Before" punches in with irregular rhythm and emphatic delivery, Torrini and Carey may have already chased off a substantial number of impatient listeners. And those deserters will miss out on a substantial amount of experimentalism that slowly but surely works its way into the mix of the remaining tracks.Although "Me and Armini" rarely goes full-throttle and the half-Icelandic/half Italian Torrini generally sticks to her softly introspective persona, the release veers into unexpected territory: On "Ha Ha," quavering electronic resonance and a glowing vibe backlight Torrini as she practically whispers the vindication she feels toward a downfallen foe, and on "Jungle Drum" she reinvents Charo, singing "Hey, I'm in love!" along a vibrant, swinging arrangement.Rating: 3-1/2"THE GRIND," Aram Danesh and the Super Human Crew (Mammoth Entertainment)Aram Danesh and the Super Human Crew should consider a name change to Aram Danesh and the All-Too-Human Crew because their new release, "The Grind," is nicked with numerous flaws -- though none of them fatal.Danesh is an Iranian-born 30-something now working as a real-estate executive in the San Francisco Bay Area. He plays guitar for his collective, wobbling around in his own orbit as he sweeps through and brushes by jazz, blues, rock and R&B. Meanwhile, the vocals, mostly rapped and supplied by several folks, drift around on their own adventures.Many of the cuts hinge on well-intended messages of social relevance, anti-war and anti-consumerism stuff put forth in rather hackneyed fashion. For example, opening track "Fade to Black" stumbles into the trite trap of using a superficial vignette to detail the fall of a good soul. Once Danesh's gratuitous solo pierces through the cliched storytelling of vocalists Tommy Shepherd and Dan Wolf, the song just limps away.Listeners also learn that conspicuous consumption is bad, though irresistible, and that government and big businesses don't have the interests of the common people at heart.The musical hodgepodge isn't any more enlightening than the lyrics. The song "Get It in Gear" never does, for instance, and the title track is a perfectly named cut as Danesh indulges himself in aimlessness.Rating: 3(E-mail Chuck Campbell of The Knoxville News-Sentinel in Tennessee at Campbell(at)knews.com.)
Howard's overreaching effort isn't without merit
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