TRUE GRIME.(Run the Road)(Sound Recording Review)

Pop-music purists invariably tell the same story about their favorite music. Whatever the genre--R. & B., classic punk, dance-hall reggae, Celtic lullabies--a purist will say that it was better at its inception, when the sound was an expression of something local and unique, before the terrible money came, and strangers corrupted the music with their embrace.

The purists are not entirely wrong. When a new sound sprouts on pop's tree, invisible to passersby, it is a wondrous thing. But what happens next is often more interesting: the music begins to find an audience, record companies offer to pay musicians to make their sounds, and someone gives those sounds a ...