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The Cliks' pop-rock clicks, Cazwell dirties our ears

Chris Azzopardi
The Cliks, 'Dirty King'

We like a good split personality – Pink, Eminem and Beyonce can seamlessly morph from badass to wimp. Lucas Silveira, welcome to the group. The Cliks frontman, who's gained attention in the gay community for being a transgendered FTM, can boast all he wants about being an unshakable secret-keeper or an engine that keeps a relationship running, but love's pain? Even he can feel that. His self-assured nature established early – with the saucy, I'm-every-man title track – on the now-trio's sophomore LP, sets up a smugness that's eventually chipped away by some downbeat ballads. Take the waltzy "Red and Blue," a string-fueled slow burner where expectations aren't met and dreams crushed. It, like oodles of Silveira's words, sting and stick, but the musical arrangements don't quite sustain the first half's edge. Gutting some of the hooks, stripping away the garage rockers that really click ( hee-hee, get it?), and what's left is a dreary stream of semi-generic, mild meh. As much as their softer side might derail the band's knack for a strong melody, there's admirable growth between this LP and the mold they break on their largely rocking debut, "Snakehouse." More vanguard cuts like "Haunted," a guitar-riffed rocker that's smothered in Silveira's sexy teeter-tottering diction, wouldn't have hurt.

Grade: B-

Cazwell, 'Watch My Mouth'

The NYC-based rapper's songs are like babies: Harder than hell to hate no matter how icky – the crying! the drooling! the pooping! – they are. His PG-rated nuggets involve spotting a diva sucking down fast food – the absurdly hilarious "I Seen Beyonce at Burger King" – but his real bit, though it's often silly, is built on being a dirty-as-porn rapper. He's Eminem (especially on "Knocked Out") … with a thing for, uh, nice things. And giving facials. On the '80s-sampled "All Over Your Face," in which the gay oral-zealot demands that none of "it" – no, not mom's meatloaf – goes to waste. It's good aural smut, and actually has mainstream potential if people – and straights who don't mind hearing about a man butt-munching like Hannibal Lector – can stomach it. So does classic club joint "Tonight," an Auto-Tuned sing-songy cut that drops "girl" references, moaning, but still resists being strip-club sleazy (could be, though, that after a facial ode, everything else feels cleaner than The Jonas Brothers). Cazwell's major debut borrows the best tracks from his 2006 EP, like the inviting "Get Into It," featuring Amanda Lepore. Some of the newbies – like record-scratchy "Getting Over" – don't quite reap, but still, get this all over … your ears.

Grade: B

Editor's note: Cazwell's album, originally scheduled to drop on June 30, has been pushed back to Aug. 4.

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