Nathaniel Rateliff and the Night Sweats, Tearing at the Seams
The R&B revivalist’s second album “doubles down on roadhouse retro,” writes David Browne, adding the occasional electronic flourish and copious references to Leonard Cohen to their Southern-fried sound. “Even when he overshoots,” Browne writes, “Rateliff’s restless throwback sound feels like it’s moving toward real revelations. You’d have to think his mama would be proud.”
Read Our Review: Nathaniel Rateliff and the Night Sweats Bring Retro-Soul on Second LP
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Logic, Bobby Tarantino II
Installment Number Two in chart-topping MC Logic’s Bobby Tarantino mixtape series features a skit from Adult Swim favorites Rick & Morty. “I’m in the mood to turn some shit up, Morty/I’m not in a mood for a message,” says Rick insouciantly, perhaps in reference to the Maryland rapper’s massive suicide-prevention hit “1-800-273-8255.” Logic (who’s appeared on Rick & Morty as himself) obliges with a series of humblebrag freestyles – nearly all of which are set over trap hammers – featuring cameos from 2 Chainz, Big Sean and Marshmello. While Logic sacrifices the conceptual weight that bolsters his full-lengths, he sticks to a punchy directness that shows off his superior double-time flow on highlights like “BoomTrap Protocol.” Mosi Reeves
Read Our Feature: Logic Talks Suicide-Prevention Hit, Coping With Anxiety, Star Wars Fandom
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David Byrne, American Utopia
The iconoclastic artist “who’s long made a career of transforming uneasiness into bliss” takes on modern anxieties with the assistance of longtime collaborator Brian Eno, Oneohtrix Point Never’s Daniel Lopatin and Sampha/XX producer Rodaidh McDonald. The result is “some of the most exciting music Byrne has made in years,” writes Will Hermes.
Read Our Review: Review: David Byrne Throws a Weird Party in His Mind on ‘American Utopia’
Read Our Feature: David Byrne on Trump, Cultural Appropriation and Why He Won’t Reunite Talking Heads
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Various Artists, A Wrinkle in Time (Original Motion Picture Soundtrack)
Ava Duvernay’s blockbuster reimagining of the Madeline L’Engle children’s classic is led by a huge get: the first music from jazz-Quiet Storm masters Sade since 2010’s Soldier of Love. “Flower of the Universe” appears in stripped-down and pumped-up form on this soundtrack, with the original allowing Sade Adu’s voice to wander amidst acoustic-guitar latticework. No I.D.’s remix adds rumbling drums and moody flourishes that recall Soldier‘s best moments. The album’s other pop offerings have self-determination on their mind: Demi Lovato and DJ Khaled team up for “I Believe,” which features Lovato toasting herself over breezy late-2000s guitar&B and her tourmate adding the occasional Snapchat-length aphorism. Kehlani wrestles with her self-esteem over glimmering synths on the stomping “Let Me Live”; and sister duo Chloe x Halle combine their refracted, harmony-rich soul with rallying-cry refrains on “Warrior.” Los Angeles hip-hop collective Freestyle Fellowship’s 1993 jazz-funk rumination “Park Bench People” and Game of Thrones/Westworld composer Ramin Djawadi’s spectral, yet uplifting score round out the thoughtful, hopeful vibe. Maura Johnston
Read Our Movie Review: A Wrinkle in Time Is One Magnificently Weird, Messy Blockbuster
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Jimi Hendrix, Both Sides of the Sky
The third volume of selections from the storied guitarist’s vault is uneven but “still offers plenty of thrills, as, time and again, Hendrix pushes solos along the knife-edge that separates this world from another,” writes Joe Levy.
Read Our Review: Jimi Hendrix’s Both Sides of the Sky Mixes Treasures, Fool’s Gold
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Jonny Greenwood, You Were Never Really Here (Original Motion Picture Soundtrack)
Jonny Greenwood’s score to Scottish director Lynne Ramsay’s psychological thriller based on Jonathan Ames’ novel is less rooted in straight European classical orchestration than his uneasily lush soundtrack for Paul Thomas Anderson’s Phantom Thread. His guitar’s out of the case (alongside various electronics), and he’s joined by Oliver Coates and the London Contemporary Orchestra, who profoundly shaped Radiohead’s 2016 album A Moon Shaped Pool. For Radiohead fans, the result might be his most satisfying film music to date. Will Hermes
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Nap Eyes, I’m Bad Now
Well-enunciated post-collegiate ennui with understated second-gen Velvet Underground guitars is its own brand of classic rock now, and these Halifax gents have it down. The poetic inarticulateness is by design, and the instruments say what needs to be said. Object lessons include “White Disciple,” with its aspirational Afropop outro, and “Sage,” where notes careen like stinkbugs and a dude ponders the wisdom of timbre: “If you play guitar like me into the wind/ You might not always know where to begin.” Will Hermes
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Judas Priest, Firepower
The British metal lifers’ 18th studio album brings modern ideas of metal into their blazing sound. “For me, it’s making a statement about the relevance, purpose and importance of Judas Priest and heavy metal in 2018 – not some nostalgia trip from the past,” frontman Rob Halford told Rolling Stone. “This is the longest surviving working heavy-metal band in the world, and yet we’re making a record that is able to have its place and have its respect from the metal world in general in 2018. And that’s not a pompous thing to say. If we didn’t believe in this, if we didn’t have the self-belief and determination of the value and importance of this album, we wouldn’t release it.”
Read Our Feature: Judas Priest on Their Half-Century Heavy-Metal Odyssey
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Jeremih, The Chocolate Box
This snackable EP from soul smoothie Jeremih has love and lust on its four-track mind. (Rihanna, too; she’s name-checked as Jeremih’s girlfriend ideal on half its songs.) While the slinky ballad “Cards Right” and the showstopper-nodding “Forever I’m Ready” update classic R&B styles to better fit 2018’s bigger, blippier sonic ideals, the skeletal “SMTS” (acronymic shorthand for a late-night directive) uses trap snares and heavy breathing to set its low-lit mood, with Jeremih’s falsetto – tweaked so that at times it recalls an 8-bit character’s leap into the abyss – walking the fine line between coaxing and begging. Maura Johnston
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Various Artists, Thoroughbreds (Original Motion Picture Soundtrack)
Erik Friedlander, a cellist from the downtown scene/John Zorn orbit, cooks up a tense, minimal soundtrack for the black comedy/thriller Thoroughbreds. His short pieces are swirls of violent strings, gentle percussion and glistening drones, creating an atmospheric clatter of rattles, clacks, jangles and squeaks. His set is disrupted up by three dreamy indie-pop tunes that break the mood a little bit, but two songs featuring Tanya Tagaq’s visceral throat singing (both with her avant-rock band and dance crew A Tribe Called Red) and some floaty New Age from Bryan Lurie perfectly complement Friendlander’s atmospheric compositions. Christopher R. Weingarten
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