On the black-and-white “Union,” Ford plays each part in turn as they feed back on endless loops, a single take that ends with him walking out the door of his one-room studio into the bleached-out sunlight. Don’t know if this will translate to the Colonies, but it’s undeniably powerful, with expletives not deleted.

Elan, Together As One (Kingsbury/Interscope)

Who would have thought that two of the great-white-hope reggae toasters would be a pair of Jews? The Hasidic, Ashkenazi, East Coast Matisyahu now has his Orthodox Sephardic equivalent in an L.A. graduate from Beverly Hills High of Moroccan and Israeli descent. Recording for No Doubt member Tony Kanal’s Kingsbury imprint, Elan Atlas is, like his landsman, evocative of Bob Marley, even fronting a version of the legendary Wailers on tour in the mid-‘90s.

In fact, “Nothing is Worth Losing You,” driven by its ska horns, Sly & Robbie backbeat and chants for “Yerushalayim” (Hebrew for Jerusalem), recalls “No Woman, No Cry,” while “I Wanna Yell” and the hip-hop beat of “We Won’t Stand For This” are Marley-esque songs of social injustice and rebellion. “Feel My Pressure” boasts a bass-driven dub sound, while “AllNighter,” a duet with Gwen Stefani, provides the requisite pop sheen. Aside from executive producing the project, Kanal co-wrote five of the songs and provides the keyboard programming that combines roots-rocks with the most up-to-date studio polish.

New York Mets

As a long-suffering fan, I know what it’s like to be the second team in town, like the Clippers, doomed to front office incompetence every year, like the Cubs, or simply the recipient of inordinate bad luck, like the baseball Giants. We won it all in 1969 and 1986, the former an unexpected pinch-me-I’m-dreaming second-to-last-to-first odyssey, the latter, a wire-to-wire run that almost ended in despair if not for doomed Red Sox first baseman Bill Buckner and a slow, bouncing groundball that kicked off his glove into short right-field hit by the improbably named Mookie Wilson.

I started off this year in typical skeptical fashion, watching as the team began to take shape. They got off to a good start, but are still subject to inopportune injuries, streaky hitting, and untimely slumps. This last week, during a dreaded June West Coast trip no less, the Amazins’ have picked up steam and started to pull away, with a line-up that challenges the ’86 squad, which won 108 games and the World Series.

It’s a blend of young superstars feeling their oats (Jose Reyes, David Wright, Lastings Milledge), peaking veterans (Carlos Beltran, Carlos Delgado, Paul Lo Duca, Billy Wagner), future Hall of Famers (Pedro Martinez, Tom Glavine), and unlikely role players (Endy Chavez, Jose Valentin, Chris Woodward) meshing at one time. There is no more joy than seeing a team win day after day. In baseball, there’s a game every day, and a chance for that feeling of fulfillment.

For a game based on individual skills, momentum is the key. Single at-bats lead to better at-bats lead to confidence in the field and pitchers suddenly given leads to work with. It’s a beautiful platonic ideal and I’m living it. Please don’t wake me up.