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Nas is a martyr of his own making, from his shortsighted proclamations about the death of hip-hop and his steadfast resistance to radio-friendliness on down to the original title of this album, which was to be a too-familiar racial epithet up until, inevitably, the needs of commerce trumped the whims of art.

Or maybe Nas has finally figured out commerce. Thanks to the name that never was, this album was a conversation piece long before anyone heard it.

Nas has a cause to match his temperament: his own suffering. And he hasn't sounded as vibrant as he does on this, his ninth album, in years. Moreover, Nas still has a gift for the telling detail.

As a thinker, Nas is more blatantly conflicted than even Kanye West. But unlike West, when Nas contradicts himself on record, it doesn't come off as self-examination; rather, it sounds wishy-washy. "Make the World Go Round" begins as a clever enough celebration of flash before devolving into laziness: "Lately, I burn so much trees, I keep environmentalists angry." And that's before the teenage R&B sensation Chris Brown inexplicably shows up for a verse. Nas goes on to talk about seeing a UFO on "We're Not Alone" and raps on "Project Roach" from the perspective of, um, a roach. For every moment of clarity on this album, there's an eyebrow-archer to match.

Worse, Nas is the least musical of the great rappers, with little sense of melody and little flexibility in rhythm and cadence. It spills over to his beat selection, which tends toward the stultifying. The ones here are reminiscent of the mid-1990s, largely rooted in gentle soul music. In short, these are beats that don't work harder than the rapper.

Only someone as stubborn as Nas would have chosen the tremulous, distant-sounding piano loops of "Queens Get the Money" to open his album. But then again, only someone as stubborn as Nas could find a way to deliver such a firm, arresting, if occasionally nonsensical verse atop it. Just two minutes long, it sounds almost accidental, and it is transfixing.

Perhaps not surprisingly, the best song on this album is barely a song at all.

— Jon Caramanica, New York Times News ServiceFastFax

You can almost hear the narrow-minded cries: "The Hold Steady have sold out!"

Hardly.

The Brooklyn-based five-piece has added plenty of polish and lowered the volume knobs — only slightly — to great effect on their fourth disc, "Stay Positive."

Dynamic arrangements, crisp production and added instrumentation have not diluted their hard riff inclinations or depth of storytelling. If anything, they seem more focused and mature — all the more welcome with the disc's theme of aging gracefully (the members are in their mid- to late 30s after all).

Singer/guitarist Craig Finn's voice is more poignant throughout, and his lyrical scope still appeals to the better angels in all of us.

"Constructive Summer" and "One for the Cutters" — the latter boasting a surprising harpsichord — rock hard and paint a somber picture of middle America, while "Both Crosses" offers a dark religious narrative.

They use contagious horn arrangements on "Sequestered in Memphis," keep the sing-along frenzy going with the ironic "Magazines" and offer melodic mid-tempo tracks with "Lord, I'm Discouraged" and "Joke About Jamaica."

Contrary to their name, The Hold Steady just keep getting better.

-- By John Kosik, Associated Press