New Albums

* Dixie Chicks, “Home,” Open Wide/Monument. The Chicks aim for music that offers a message as well as entertains, and the female country trio blends those objectives engagingly. There is a modern sensibility that runs through the album, chiefly in the way various songs (a third of them written by the trio) reflect on the complexity of relationships. The range is a little too scattered for the album to have the searing impact of Willie Nelson’s “Phases and Stages” or Vince Gill’s “The Key,” two of country’s best looks at romance. But the song “Long Time Gone” confirms the Chicks’ place in the Haggard, Cash and Williams tradition.

Also:

Bastard Sons of Johnny Cash, “Distance Between,” Ultimatum

BBMak, “Into Your Head,” Hollywood

Blind Boys of Alabama, “Higher Ground,” Real World

Coldplay, “A Rush of Blood to the Head,” Capitol

Division of Laura Lee, “Black City,” Burning Heart

Eve, “Eve-Olution,” Interscope

Gordon Gano, “Hitting the Ground,” Instinct

Bob Geldof, “Sex, Age & Death,” Koch Progressive

Gusgus, “Attention,” Moonshine

Aimee Mann, “Lost in Space,” SuperEgo Records

Carla Olson, “Ring of Truth,” Smile Records

Queens of the Stone Age, “Songs for the Deaf,” Interscope

Duncan Sheik, “Daylight,” Atlantic

Seconds to Mars, “Seconds to Mars,” Immortal/Virgin

Silverchair, “Diorama,” Atlantic

Uncle Kracker, “No Stranger to Shame,” Lava/Atlantic