Billboard album reviews: Richard Thompson, R. Kelly

NEW YORK (Billboard) - Richard Thompson on acoustic guitar is a treat. On electric guitar, he's sublime. That's why we're excited about "Sweet Warrior," a mostly plugged-in return after the acoustic discourse of 2005's "Front Parlour Ballads" and the soundtrack to the Werner Herzog film "Grizzly Man." The 14 tracks find Thompson in typical tasteful form, playing with understated flash that straddles the transatlantic divide to embrace Celtic soul and rootsy Americana, with bits of jazz and Jamaica ("Bad Monkey," "Francesca") thrown into the mix. The album's highlight, however, is one of the acoustic pieces -- ""Johnny's Far Away," a seven-minute-plus opus in which Thompson's guitar and mandolin intertwine with and dance around the fiddle work by Nickel Creek's Sara Watkins.

ARTIST: R. KELLY

ALBUM: DOUBLE UP (Jiva/Zomba)

Aside from radio-pumped singles "I'm a Flirt Remix" and "Same Girl," it's a very sexually explicit R. Kelly who greets fans on this outing. Opening with the short posturing track "The Champ" ("I've been through hell in the belly of the beast/You can hate me, I don't care"), Kelly isn't shy about quickly getting down to boudoir business. The title track with Snoop Dogg outlines a tryst with two females, while additional variations on sexual interplay abound on such cuts as "Tryin' to Get a Number" with Nelly and "Freaky in the Club." After describing lovemaking via two radically different motifs -- the jungle ("The Zoo") and outer space ("Sex Planet") -- Kelly downshifts into traditional mode on the heartfelt ballad "Havin' a Baby" and the Virginia Tech anthem "Rise Up." This jarring juxtaposition only underscores Kelly's Marvin Gaye-reminiscent struggle between the carnal and the spiritual.

ARTIST: JOAN OSBORNE

ALBUM: BREAKFAST IN BED (Time Life Records)

For a powerful singer like Osborne, having "One of Us" be your one career hit must really stink. The 1995 single placed her squarely in the bland, folky Lilith Fair category. She's tried to correct that perception since then, ably covering Aretha Franklin, touring with Phil Lesh and performing in the award-winning documentary "Standing in the Shadows of Motown." A VP at Time Life caught her virtuoso version of "What Becomes of the Brokenhearted" in the film and signed her to record "Breakfast in Bed," a combo of originals and similarly top-tier covers. The beauty of the album, though, is its small scope. Osborne tackles titles like "Ain't No Sunshine" and "Midnight Train to Georgia" with sparse accompaniment, slower tempos and schmaltz-free readings, using the inherent pathos of her voice to maximum yet subdued effect.

ARTIST: FUNERAL FOR A FRIEND

ALBUM: TALES DON'T TELL THEMSELVES (Atlantic Records)