'Miles ... From India'Various artists (Times Square) 
Miles Davis always was finding ways of using various styles of music, whether show tunes or material from various decades of rock. The recordings on "Miles ... From India" makes perfect sense then. Producer-arranger and Miles expert Bob Belden decided to take Davis's music to the land of raga. To do that, Belden assembled a group of alumni from various Davis bands and teamed them with Indian vocalists and instrumentalists, The result is music that keeps true to its Miles heritage, but takes on an Indian flavor. Among the results are "All Blues" with a sitar solo and "So What" with a vocal introduction that replaces the famous bass lead-in. The 12 songs include such classics as "Jean-Pierre," "Blue In Green" and "In A Silent Way." Jazz stars on the collection include Wallace Roney doing a rather good Miles impression on trumpet, keyboardist Adam Holzman, guitarist Mike Stern and bassist Ron Carter. For a Miles Davis enthusiast, this is a near-must. It is available Tuesday.
-- Bob Karlovits
'Simply Kenia'Kenia (Mooka) 
Sometimes restraint is everything. On "Simply Kenia," the singer of that name presents 15 songs in laid-back arrangements by a Brazilian colleague who focuses on her singing and nothing more. No big string or horn sections. No crafty charts. The album is just as the title says and it works. She does versions of "Angel Eyes" and "Crazy" to provide a well known side, but most of the songs are from her South American birthplace. The Fox Chapel resident presents them all well with a voice that has alto richness. The group behind her features the always excellent work of Romero Lubambo.
-- Bob Karlovits
'Rabbit Habits'Man Man (Anti) 
Swaggering Philadelphia kitchen-sink carny barkers Man Man have made their most accessible and best album, whose title refers not to fuzzy bunnies' penchant for breeding but to their proclivity for eating their own young. Not that "Rabbit Habits" will be an easy listener's cup of herbal tea. Man Man main man Ryan Kattner is still leading his war-painted crew through cacophonous numbers that delight in black humor while pianos pound, tubas blow, bass lines quake, and surf-rock guitars rave. But "Rabbit Habits" tunes like "The Ballad Of Butter Beans," "Harpoon Fever (Queequeg's Playhouse)" and "Mister Jung Stuffed" deliver sizable ideas with jaunty glee, as they swirl, thump and infectiously insinuate their way into your consciousness.
-- The Philadelphia Inquirer
'Pretty. Odd.'Panic at the Disco (Fueled By Ramen/Atlantic) <
The last time we checked on Panic at the Disco, they had an exclamation point in their name, dressed like carnival barkers at a Spandau Ballet reunion, and made glamorous, dramatic songs with long names ("The Only Difference Between Martyrdom and Suicide Is Press Coverage") and sang lyrics about dead skin on linoleum. And they sounded like the Cure on a sugar rush. Now, the emo-licious Panic may have dropped the foppish clothes, the Cure obsession, and the big punctuation, but they haven't quite lost the spirit of constant exclamation or the schmaltzy contagion that went with it. Instead, warbling crooner Brendon Urie and lyricist-guitarist Ryan Ross refocus their glam mini-dramas and kiddish pick-up lines around Beatles-y chord changes, string arrangements and horn charts for a sound that's odd, for sure, but prettier than ever. While "She's a Handsome Woman" and "Northern Downpour" are charming, gorgeous and sprightly, Panic is equally capable of richly mature ballads like "That Green Gentleman" that never allow Urie to shy from Ross' dippy lyricism. Which is good; that's the kind of kink that makes the frenetic "I Have Friends in Holy Spaces" and the rest of Panic's fast tracks so fabulous.
-- The Philadelphia Inquirer
'Honoring the Fathers of Bluegrass: Tribute to 1946 and 1947' Ricky Skaggs and Kentucky Thunder (Skaggs Family)
Long a champion of classic bluegrass, Ricky Skaggs goes right to the source this time out. He and his excellent band, Kentucky Thunder, revisit 12 songs written or cowritten by Bill Monroe. They know this music inside out, and, as usual, they deliver everything beautifully: The thrilling instrumental virtuosity and stirring vocal harmonies bring out the music's enduring heart. The set, however, raises an issue that comes up often with tribute albums: If you're not going to do anything different with the material, what's the point?
-- The Philadelphia Inquirer
