Taylor Swift's 'Midnights' mixes late-night dreaminess with steely control

Swift's new album, which chronicles 13 sleepless nights scattered throughout her life, includes a bracing amount of clear-headed thoughts about love and life as a pop star.

* This article was originally published here

Dawn Richard and Spencer Zahn find solace in color and motion on 'Pigments'

Pigments comes to terms with the aches that make us human and asks listeners to act in accordance with their bodies' instinctive reactions to change, fear, doubt and love.

(Image credit: Clifford Usher)

* This article was originally published here

MAVI's clearheaded songs of endurance

The Charlotte rapper's new album, Laughing so Hard, it Hurts, is more direct in thought and intention than his debut, more open and vulnerable, letting his observations guide his insights.

(Image credit: Wyeth Collins)

* This article was originally published here

On 'Blue Rev,' Alvvays finds euphoria in noise

The third album from the Canadian noise pop purveyors feels like a conversation between clarity and cacophony, creating an exhilarating tension.

(Image credit: Eleanor Petry/Courtesy of the artist)

* This article was originally published here

'The Loneliest Time' showcases Carly Rae Jepsen's versatility

Singer Carly Rae Jepsen has just released her latest album, The Loneliest Time.

* This article was originally published here

On 'It's Only Me,' stardom makes Lil Baby more anonymous than ever

The newly minted A-list rapper variously calls himself a legend, a hero and a boss on the album, but the songs never embrace that mythmaking or mold those labels into personas.

(Image credit: Photo by Kevin Winter/Getty Images for Coachella)

* This article was originally published here

In the haze of 'Midnights,' Taylor Swift softens into an expanded sound

On Swift's 10th and most challenging album, she and producer Jack Antonoff push her voice in new directions, rethinking the sonic rhetoric of first-person storytelling and shaking off old habits.

(Image credit: Beth Garrabrant/Courtesy of the artist)

* This article was originally published here

Saxophonist Bobby Watson brings the sparks on 'Back Home in Kansas City'

After decades in New York, Watson has returned to Kansas City. The core KC jazz values — a swinging beat, a personal style, and an earthy, bluesy sensibility — are firmly in place on this new album.

* This article was originally published here

Singer-songwriter Ashley McBryde gives voice to an imaginary town on 'Lindeville'

McBryde mixes passionate music with novelistic details on a concept album about the inhabitants of a small rural town, named after the songwriter Dennis Linde.

* This article was originally published here

Katie Crutchfield and Jess Williamson tell their truth plainly

Plains' I Walked With You A Ways, the collaborative debut from the Waxahatchee singer-songwriter and Williamson, combines wry wisdom with a classic country sound.

(Image credit: Miolly Matalon/Courtesy of the artist)

* This article was originally published here

Confronted with life's fragility, Wild Pink finds sanctity in stillness

The band's new album, ILYSM — made in the midst of cancer diagnosis — shares much with the genre of slow cinema: It asks the listener to lean in, pay attention and find providence in small details.

(Image credit: Mitchell Wojcik/Courtesy of the artist)

* This article was originally published here

'Searching in Grenoble' showcases the unique style of jazz pianist Mal Waldron

Nobody sounds like Waldron, a fact proved by a new 2-CD recording the artist made during a 1978 solo concert. Searching in Grenoble is a good introduction to the pianist's compelling sound.

* This article was originally published here

With '$oul $old $eparately,' Freddie Gibbs cashes in on his cachet

Forget what F. Scott Fitzgerald said about American lives and second acts, Gibbs is on his third or fourth. $$$ is a rewarding listen that sometimes labors under the weight of a forced progression.

(Image credit: Nick Walker)

* This article was originally published here

Fungi served as Bjork's latest muse in her new album, 'Fossora'

Bjork's Fossora peers down into the soil, in a love letter to fungi. "Bubbly and fun" is how she describes her new album.

* This article was originally published here