Leslie Gray Streeter

Stuff you mighta missed: Pharrell, Tracy Lyons!

Tracy Lyons, I Will (Mythic Records)

I'm never gonna hate on an acoustic sister for channeling Lilith Fair. My financial patronage of the late '90s all-female tour series, as well as of the music of the individual artists like Shawn Colvin, Sarah McLachlan and the Indigo Girls, could have paid off a sizeable chunk of my mortgage. So I welcomed the addition of Irish/Canadian songbird Lyons to my music collection...for the first three songs or so. The set opener, "Don't You Know," is particularly strong.

But somehow, right around the fifth track, "Save Me," all the emotional honesty, pouty-like song styling and oddly noisy production are overbearing and too samey-same. Lyons, who retains some of her
Celtic lilt, has a strong enough, Natalie Merchant-like voice, but it's too much like all the Shawn Colvin records I own (and I own them all) to make me want to listen more.

Pharrell, In My Mind (Star Trak/Interscope)

Uber producer Pharrell Williams' uneasy mixture of the word "nigga" and references to male genitalia starting with the letter 'D'" with mushy gushy songs like the Jesus-propping 'Our Father' remind me of all those rappers who get up on the Grammys or VMAs every year and say "I would like to thank my Heavenly Father for helping me write 'Slappin' My Ho.' Big ups, J!"

I just can't figure this out. The beats are fresh, but most of the lyrics on the star-studded set, featuring Gwen Stefani, Jay-Z, Nelly, Snoop Dogg and Lauren, are not only foul, but they're not even well written. "Can I Have It Like That," with phoned-in assistance from Stefani, boasts the kind of half-hearted call and response works that have gotten many a lame DJ laughed out of a club. "Flying like a bird like Nelly Furtado?" Shut up. I'm half surprised he didn't ask everyone to throw their hands in the air and wave 'em like they just don't care.

"Keep it Playa" and "Raspy S..." try to be hard-living party anthems, but are just obvious and tired in their manufactured thuggery. And as for "Our Father"..."Jesus is my daddy" is a nice sentiment. Why don't you play him your album and see if he doesn't ground you.

And Pharrell - If I agree that you are a slamming producer and a top manufacturer of beats, will you please stop using the word "Nigga?" Or "Niggas?' Or "My Niggas?" Yeah, we get that it's a term of endearment and familarity, blah blah blah. But its repeated use on In My Mind is not only disturbing in its blitheness, but is lyrically lazy. I know I get accused of using certain words over and over again. But it's never 15 times in the same column. Dag.