Enemy back on form

No comebacks allowed, no hiatuses needed. Public Enemy has been cranking out albums with regularity for 30 years, ever since breaking out with the agitrap masterpieces Yo! Bum Rush the Show (1987) and It Takes a Nation of Millions to Hold us Back (1988). Besides breaking the invisible barrier for hip-hop longevity, Public Enemy has remained a vital touring group, notable for the power of its live performances at a time when many of its peers were still figuring out how to take their recordings to the stage. A string of erratic self-released albums has lowered the band’s profile, but Nothing is Quick in the Desert (★★★) – its 14th studio recording — flexes the group’s stadium-rap muscle. This was an album specifically designed to be played live, and some of the subtlety and nuance that informs Chuck D’s most incisive raps is missing. The dense collage-style mixes of the Bomb Squad are gone, replaced by rap-rock arrangements that clear out plenty of room for guitars and drums instead of loops and samples: If You Can’t Join ‘Em Beat ‘Em boogies like a 70s hippie band, and guitarist Khari Wynn splatters notes across the bumpersticker slogans of sPEak! and Yesterday Man.– Greg Kot, TNS