Notable CDs

Friedman’s first album of new material in ages features acoustic renditions of compositions by his friends and heroes (the latter category of which he himself is an unabashed member) that allow him to say whatever he wants and thus to keep alive his unique brand of rugged individualism. The Tom Waits cover is a bigger deal than the Willie Nelson cover (and duet). The Warren Zevon song deserves an explicit-lyrics warning. The Friedman-composed title cut honors Tompall Glaser. The concluding pre-rock oldies set the tone.

Hollywood Vampires

Alice Cooper, Joe Perry, and Johnny Depp spearhead this rambunctious tribute to Cooper’s (mostly deceased) 1970s drinking buddies. “My Generation,” “Cold Turkey,” and “One/Jump into the Fire” tick the Keith Moon, John Lennon, and Harry Nilsson boxes respectively; Led Zeppelin, Jimi Hendrix, Spirit, Doors, Small Faces, T. Rex, and Badfinger remakes provide context. Paul McCartney, Christopher Lee (reciting Bram Stoker), and Brian Johnson make cameos. And “School’s Out” and “Another Brick in the Wall” get medleyed, providing head-banging homeschoolers everywhere with a long-overdue anthem.

Adrenalin Baby: Johnny Marr Live

Johnny Marr’s guitar, not Morrissey’s self-pitying lyrics or drama-queen singing, is what really made The Smiths the ’80s third-most-influential indie act after U2 and R.E.M., and that guitar is on prominent display on this 17-cut sampling of highlights from Marr’s 2014 tour. So are key tracks from Marr’s solo albums The Messenger and Playland and his more-than-adequate lead vocals. At no point do his melodies or his energy flag. The Electronic cut has sounded better. The Smiths cuts haven’t.

Still Got That Hunger

On the whole, this latest installment in The Zombies’ latter-day resurgence is less satisfying than 2011’s Breathe Out, Breathe In. Whereas that album’s weakest cuts never dipped below average filler, this album contains something called “New York” that with some tweaking would suit Barry Manilow just fine. That dud aside, however, Rod Argent and Colin Blunstone’s latest filler never dips below average Steely Dan. Not bad for septuagenarians. And “Now I Know I’ll Never Get Over You” might be the best pop song of the year.

Spotlight

Bill Pohlad’s Brian Wilson biopic Love & Mercy really is a good film—better certainly than Ray (as in Charles) and Get On Up (as in James Brown). The soundtrack isn’t bad either. Whereas Capitol’s numerous Beach Boys box sets inevitably overstate the case for Wilson’s genius, Music from Love & Mercy: The Life, Love and Genius of Brian Wilson (Capitol) clocks in at a mere 38½ minutes and distills that genius to its essence.

The linchpins are “Don’t Worry Baby,” “God Only Knows,” and “Good Vibrations,” songs that every Wilson fan already knows inside out. What justifies their being trotted out yet again is what they hold together: the actor Paul Dano’s utterly convincing cusp-of-breakdown Wilson impersonation and Atticus Ross’ Beach Boys pastiches with titles such as “The Black Hole,” “Losing It,” and “The Bed Montage” that quite possibly approximate what being Brian Wilson was like more than anything that Wilson himself has ever recorded. —A.O.