The Winnipeg Free Press - Entertainment

Unsung Canadian singer-songwriter Mike O'Neill hasn't exactly been cranking out material since the demise of bass-and-drums duo The Inbreds, but The Owl proves his wellspring of melodies is still bubbling. This brief, sub-30-minute album trumps solo debut What Happens Now?, with smart, sweet pop songs that combine his Lennon/McCartney bent with a '60s R&B strut.

O'Neill is no vocal powerhouse, but his reedy voice is perfectly suited to his material. His robust melodies are memorable, whether they're supported only with bass and drums or ornamented with canny instrumental production (O'Neill produced and played everything on the album).

Despite all the bad blood and mudslinging surrounding their now-defunct co-headlining tour, R. Kelly and Jay-Z went ahead with a highly questionable sequel to their 2002 flop, Best of Both Worlds.

The allegedly retired Jay-Z delivers the requisite bragging and excess, while the youth-appreciative R. Kelly unapologetically ladles on the sexual cheese. The result is similar to previous collaborations like Fiesta, or Kelly's more recent work with Nick Cannon on Gigolo. The problem is, you have to really like those songs to take Unfinished Business from beginning to end, because nearly every track features the same lazy, mid-tempo beat and overused pseudo-Spanish guitar.

Though busy at work on the follow-up to stunning debut My Way, Montreal butcher-turned-producer Marc Leclair still put together one of the strongest mix CDs of the year. Known more as a producer, Leclair is no slouch behind the turntables as he smoothly rides the lines between precise micro-house and funky, minimal techno throughout this mix. Leclair may not have a Canadian flag tattooed on his shoulder, but he shows his hometown roots, packing his first mix CD with tracks from techno rookie-of-the-year candidates Crackhaus and other Quebecers. He shakes up the party midway through with some calculated risks, like Senior Coconut's infectious Latinized version of Deep Purple's Smoke On The Water and quirky tracks by American minimalist The Rip Off Artist and English sample maverick Herbert. The scissor-sharp beats make Fabric 17 a must-have mix for 2004.

MEASHA BRUEGGERGOSMAN * MANITOBA CHAMBER ORCHESTRA * ROY GOODMAN
So much to tell: Copland, Barber & Gershwin (CBC/Universal)

This beautifully ordered American program features the gorgeous voice, intelligence and charisma of fast-rising Canadian soprano Brueggergosman and tidy playing by the MCO. There's no sentimentality in Goodman's straight-ahead pacing of Barber's Knoxville: Summer of 1915. Some will find that a virtue, though many will miss the heat-hazed warmth necessary to paint all the pictorial elements of the James Agee poems. That's not a problem in Copland's Eight Poems of Emily Dickinson, here whistle-clean with the often acerbic score set out just right.

Barber's early Serenade for Strings is interesting. Adrian Williams' orchestrations of three Gershwin standards are resourceful, with diverting twists and an MCO sounding twice its size. Don't turn off your machine at the end, or you'll miss the fabulous bonus: A soaring Brueggergosman spiritual.

-- James Manishen

On his fifth album, 51-year-old Buddy Miller spreads his wings and builds on his already solid country-folk base with a trip to church. The soulfully angelic voices of Regina and Ann McCrary, daughters of Revered Sam McCrary of Fairfield Four fame, add to Miller's expressive guitar work and Brady Blade's intuitive drumming. The women provide the glue that bonds bluesy rockers to more introspective numbers.

Miller co-writes with his wife Julie, Victoria Williams and Jim Lauderdale. He also covers Mark Heard, the Louvin Brothers and Bob Dylan's With God On Our Side, a timeless track that sounds as urgent now as it did in 1963.

-- Bruce Leperre

VANESSA CARLTON Harmonium (A&M/Universal): Piano-pop chanteuse Carlton follows up strong debut Be Not Nobody with more classically tinged confessionals that range from inspired to mere rehashes of A Thousand Miles. Boyfriend Stephan Jenkins of Third Eye Blind produces. HHH -- B.K.

ELTON JOHN Peachtree Road (Mercury/Universal): A surprisingly soulful Elton John struts his stuff in a new collection of predictably sappy songs that still manage to show of his apparently indestructible voice. Not bad, considering this is album No. 43. HH -- B.K.

LOW MILLIONS Ex-Girlfriends (Manhattan/EMI): Leonard Cohen's son Adam displays his dad's ribald spirit in a bittersweet tribute to relationships past. His new band's jangly pop sound weds the atmospherics of The Church to the commercial aspirations of The Walllflowers. HH1/2 -- B.K.

ROLLING STONES Live Licks (Virgin/EMI): Despite what some critics say, you really can't have too many versions of Gimme Shelter. This two-disc set from 2002-03 has the classics and a few rarities; just skip over Keef singing Hoagy Carmichael. HHHH -- Chris Smith