THIS WEEK

Approach No. 4: Sex

Lowercase bree is from Nashville, and All American Girl (Werewolf Tunes) is her debut. As producer Justin Cortelyou recalls: “I was introduced to this young, beautiful redhead who spoke in a soft, almost baby-doll voice. My first impression was that we were going to hear some kind of pop country act. Then she straps on a Flying V, flips on her Marshall amp, and starts rocking out like Pete Townshend at Leeds with the spirit of Johnny Ramone flying around the room.” And as her press release further clarifies: “bree injects seductive, sexy soul into swaggering rock & roll.”

In her second turn as The Impossible Girl, Kim Boekbinder tells us that The Sky Is Calling (self-released, fan-funded; available June 21). The album is “a celebration of humans in space,” the songs are “packed with scientific themes and otherworldly sounds,” and the cover is more Metropolis than impossible.

For his fourth solo set, The Value of Nothing (Bloodshot), Supersuckers frontman Eddie Spaghetti knows the value of a provocative album cover — such as this decidedly blue one by Tim Gabor. Inside: “a 10-song hybrid of the Supersuckers’ lighthearted humor, Eddie’s rock-as-king mindset, and [co-conspirator] Jesse Dayton’s expertise with real-deal country.”

Kelly Rowland can Talk a Good Game (Republic). Yu Tsai can take a great photo. Inspirational title: “Kisses Down Low.”

And now for something completely different. The shot above is one of the nude photos of Simone de Beauvoir taken in 1952 by Art Shay at the Chicago home of author Nelson Algren, who was in a relationship with Beauvoir. But the album title For the Baby Doll (52 Recordings) refers to the Baby Doll Lounge, a topless bar in New York City. Defunct today, it was a former haunt of the Nicholas Tremulis Orchestra’s bandleader — and as such, it figures in this autobiographical album, whose music draws on blues, soul, R&B, and funk roots while staying grounded in the current quintet’s “timeless rock.” And it’s more than just an album: The CD is housed in a 6½ x 8½-inch, 36-page book, with a foreword by novelist Michael Thomas, song lyrics, and a memoir by Tremulis. “Hardly anything is worth buying in hard copy anymore,” he explains. “I like packages.”

Completely different again: the innocent days of 1966, when Manfred Mann released Pretty Flamingo (reissued by Sundazed). The title track was the band’s only U.K. No. 1 hit between 1964’s “Do Wah Diddy Diddy” and 1968’s “Mighty Quinn.” The album was the last of Mann’s first five U.S. releases; all have been remastered from the original tapes and are now on 180-gram vinyl. The others: The Manfred Mann Album (home of “Diddy”), The Five Faces of Manfred Mann, My Little Red Book of Winners!, and Mann Made.