Pop Psychology
NEON TREES
(RCA)
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With Maroon 5 taking yet another detour into their "overexposed" pop, the Las Vegas rock band Neon Trees takes a familiar page from their notebook. Pop Psychology finds frontman Tyler Glenn suiting up as a glittery teen idol, hungry for his shot on a Rolling Stone magazine cover. The band, still uniformed and eager to contribute to Glenn's compositions, is playing some of their most personal work to date. The album still pays homage to their college punk rock, but it also features some of the year's best radio teases ("Sleeping with a Friend,” “Love in the 21 st Century,” “Foolish Behavior”). Think of this record as Duran Duran atop the Strokes. |
The Outsiders
ERIC CHURCH
(EMI Nashville)
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From the very start of The Outsiders, lumberjack country star Eric Church is passionate about his rebellion against the confining lifestyles of the Nashville empire and country industry. But he's part-rocker, and that's why his album revs with such conviction and aggression. He knows how to mellow out (“A Man Who Was Gonna Die Young”), and exactly when to kick things up (“That's Damn Rock & Roll”). On “Talladega,” his love for the South remains brutal – something to be expected in country steeped in machismo sweat. But he gets extra kudos for pulling off an album that plays with pop-minded songwriting (“Give Me Back My Hometown”), Hank Williams-twanged R&B (“Broke Record”) and remnants of bad-ass rock (“Roller Coaster Ride”). This is still country, but feels more free-flowing in the realm of genre experimentation. |
What Is This Heart?
HOW TO DRESS WELL
(Domino Recording)
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Chicago singer-songwriter Tom Krell takes Quiet Storm and fuses it into ambient electronica, creating a new kind of musical art for the bedroom. As if he's channeling Frank Ocean, Krell – who uses the stage name How To Dress Well since 2009 – sounds as if he's stuck between dimensions, trying to convey messages of the heart from a sexy Milky Way. On What Is This Heart?, songs like “Words I Don't Remember” and “What You Wanted” prove to be lovely examples of what love making may sound like in the future. Even when the album jumps into club-friendly territory with “Very Best Friend,” he doesn't lose the sex appeal or the creative ingenuity that makes his hipster R&B so special. |
Souled Out
JHENÉ AIKO
(ARTium/Def Jam)
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She sounds like Corinne Bailey Rae but with a wild streak of Aaliyah. After dropping a satisfying EP last year, Aiko followed things up with Souled Out – a futuristic R&B concept record marinated in Frank
Ocean experimentalism. She proves on this record to be the next breakout star of this genre, thanks to leading cuts like “To Love & Die” and the Isley Bros.-sounding “Spotless Mind.” Her choice of sounds – utilizing atmospheric templates, nebulous drum beats and synths – help Souled Out appear unique in a field now dominated by The Weeknd and newcomers like FKA twigs. Even though the album is bogged down by a singer-songwriter process, it's still a salubrious collection to the ear of the ravenous soul music seeker. |
Anybody Wanna Buy a Heart?
K MICHELLE
(Atlantic)
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Besides exposing her magnificently shaped derri è re on an album cover worthy enough of Nicki Minaj's shade, the former Love & Hip-Hop: Atlanta star put just enough junk in her urban contemporary R&B suite, Anybody Wanna Buy a Heart? She goes for Beyonce-style midtempo joints (“Love ‘Em All”), Mr. Biggs soul (“Cry”) and brash hip-hop-meets-Brandy mash-ups (“Hard to Do,” “Going Under”). On the Linn-drum powered ballad “Drake Would Love Me,” she does something so slick that she puts a pathetic lover on blast as she echoes her admiration for sexy Aubrey Graham. At display is a voice that belts with confidence, although some of her whines need a touch of temperance. But smart songwriting, street swagger and cocky beats all help elevate this album over most of the collections coming from her closest constituents. |
In the Lonely Hour
SAM SMITH
(Capitol)
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No one has dominated the world of Brit soul quite like Adele, especially like 21 did. Sam Smith is a strong contender for that spot with his marvelous debut LP, In the Lonely Hour. The album moves so seamless that it feels as if Smith has been doing this for a decade. Rather than relying on Americana or roots music to sound artistically peculiar to the ear of radio, Smith's focuses on potent songwriting and the marvelous pipes to get his point across. The music doesn't reach Adele grandeur, but it's far from formulaic. He's learned one good lesson from the Brit soul queen: singing about the ups and downs of love, heartbreak and loneliness isn't all bad news. The upbeat “Money On My Mind” is just a tease to the interesting tales that fall inside “Good Thing,” “Life Support” and “Leave Your Lover.” When you get to the gospel-infused “Stay With Me” and the Southern-fried balladry of “I'm Not the Only One,” a bit of hope to the madness starts to enters the picture. Ending the album on a joyful note is the ‘80's-sounding jam “Restart,” which plays with gorgeous Luther Vandross soul. Still it's worth grabbing a tissue for this event. He sells this as a concept album about a modern-day broken heart, and it's probably one of the best scripts of 2014. |
High Hopes
BRUCE SPRINGSTEEN
(Columbia)
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As a follow-up to the critically-acclaimed Wrecking Ball, High Hopes sounds just right even if it's just a leftovers album. That's what rock king Bruce Springsteen said about the content inside the album prior to its release, that it was just lots of unreleased material from over the years. But it's more than just that. It's the Boss on very strong cover tunes (“High Hopes”), remakes and lost treasures from the ‘90s. “The Ghost of Tom Joad,” once covered by Rage Against the Machine, is beautifully executed and reaches a mighty climax with an adrenaline rushing guitar solo from guest Tom Morello. Even the old becomes new again: “American Skin (41 Shots),” originally meant for police shooting death of Amadou Diallo, was re-tributed for Trayvon Martin. Springsteen, even at 65, shows no signs of slowing down. |
Art Official Age
PRINCE
(Warner Bros.)
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The Purple One is out to prove he's still relevant to modern pop life, and with Art Official Cage – a hallucinating play of words on Artificial Age – he seems to still have caught up with the rat race. Nothing here is glossier as his series of '80s hits, nor monumental as Sign 'o the Times, but it's a refreshing musical update decked out with sexy New Power Generation funk ("Clouds"), panty-dropping slow jams ("This Could Be Us," "Way Back Home") and one bad ass rock/funk/hip-hop mutation with "Funknroll." Prince Rogers Nelson is also comfortable with showing off his sense of humor ("Breakfast Can Wait") and playing with religion. "You used to treat me like David, but now I feel like Saul," he laments like a scorned lover on "What It Feels Like." Even at 56, Prince is still evolving. |
Sonic Highways
FOO FIGHTERS
(RCA)
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There's a lot that makes up this Foo Fighters album – soundtrack album; all-new material; a duets/collaboration disc. Most of all, it's a new type of tribute to the variety of rock styles that cross-pollinates the country. In Nashville, they play up their power rock with Zac Brown on “Congregation.” A stop in Virginia allows drums, guitars and members of Scream to wail through a rushing sound of bad-ass adrenaline. Monstrous chord changes outline “Outside” before Gary Clark, Jr. jumps on a melodic “God As My Witness.” The different locales and various guests help give the Foo Fighters a different kind of album to play with. On paper, things start to look like the ho-hum soundtrack to last year's Sound City. But that doesn't happen here. Sonic Highways sports some of the band's finest compositions, with the Tony Visconti-guested “I Am a River” giving them one heck of an epic power ballad. It also shows a band eager to play hard, even if critics are quick to reduce the disc to just being a soundtrack. |
Run the Jewels 2
RUN THE JEWELS
(Mass Appeal Records)
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This rap duo made up of Atlanta-based Killer Mike and NYC's El-P may not have the popular grandeur of Kanye West and Jay-Z, but their sophomore LP proves they deserve it. Run the Jewels 2 is powerful in prose, aggressively dark and fired up with brute aggression at the establishment and the hypocrisies. Anyone or anything full of shit is in harm's way on this disc. It was first offered as a free mix tape. Clearly that was a big mistake; this powerful collaboration of two engaged rappers using both tag-team work and rap battle layouts are putting out a record for their generation. They are cognizant of the hard knock realities of today, like the already embattled Donald Sterling, fake cops and the injustice surrounding the death of Michael Brown. And they are spitting out diesel-powered rhymes with the goals of changing it. |
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