DJ Khaled, Imagine Dragons, Prince and the Revolution among artists with new music out this week
DJ Khaled, “Grateful” (Epic/We the Best). Rihanna, Drake, Nas, Future, Alicia Keys and Nicki Minaj are the most eye-catching famous and infamous names on the guest list for the Palestinian-American DJ, producer and exec’s tenth studio full-length of hip-hop and R&B.
Jessica Hernandez and the Deltas, “Telephone/Teléfono” (Dead Owl Music/Instant). With one English-language and one Spanish-language version, the Detroit-area Hernandez’s second full-length with her Deltas is actually her second and third full-lengths , because she made each version distinct from the other, although both are garage-rock soulful.
Imagine Dragons, “EVOLVE” (KIDinaKORNER/Interscope). The third album from the massively popular Las Vegas pop-rock band is less turbulent than its predecessor, 2015’s “Smoke + Mirrors,” and more comfortable and assured, with a single, “Believer,” that’s already dominated mainstream rock charts.
Christian Scott aTunde Adjuah, “Diaspora” (Ropeadope). Ambitious New Orleans trumpeter follows March’s “Ruler Rebel,” the first volume in “The Centennial Trilogy,” with a second volume that maintains a through-line of bold jazz hybridization and subtly subversive commentary.
Algiers, “The Underside of Power” (Matador). Atlanta four-piece whose music can be described as experimental, post-punk and/or dystopian soul drops its second full-length, the title of which overtly indicates a theme of facing down the wrong end of institutional force.
Michael Andrews, “The Big Sick (Original Motion Picture Soundtrack)” (Varѐse Sarabande). A comedy written by Kumail Nanjiani and his wife and fellow comedy writer Emily Gordon tells the true(ish) story of how they fell in love, and “Neighbors” and “The Five-Year Engagement” soundtrack composer Andrews provides the notes and beats.
Banditos, “Visionland” (Bloodshot). By way of Nashville and Birmingham, Alabama, here come Banditos with their second full-length, and they seem to come straight off the road burning rubber and grain alcohol, because this is hot Americana rock for people who like gasoline, tumbleweeds and denim everything.
Bedouine, “Bedouine” (Spacebomb). Azniv Korkejian was born in Syria to an Armenian mother and father, but her first Bedouine long-player reflects how she’s settled down, somewhat in the Echo Park community of L.A. and immersed herself in amazingly detailed folk-pop music that feels as though it has been preserved between book pages since 1974.
Bent Knee, “Land Animal” (InsideOutMusic/Sony). Making the jump to a major label, Boston art-rock collective Bent Knee doesn’t stop itself from jumping among moods, styles and genres as it churns and swirls inventively, yet accessibly, around lead singer and keyboardist Courtney Swain.
Beta Days, “S.T.T.” (Beta Days). The name of the disc refers to the days it was recorded — Sunday, Tuesday and Thursday” — and Beta Days the mask for songwriter and player Bill Bierce, a Rhode Islander who’s recruited simpatico musicians for his first BD full-length of pensive indie rock.
Blue Glass, “Eleven Years” (Blue Glass). A member of Northwestern band Transient Songs, Michael Shunk is also Blue Glass, whose latest record he wrote in Luxembourg — not that this noticeably informs the rootlessly romantic and faintly post-punk pop-rock songs.
Cage the Elephant, “Unpeeled” (RCA). The nationally known Kentucky alt-rock band that isn’t My Morning Jacket follows an acoustic, “unplugged” tour for its most recent studio disc with 21 songs drawn from that tour done mostly stripped-down and sometimes with chorus and string quartet.
Captain, We’re Sinking, “The King of No Man” (Run for Cover). After a four-year wait having to do with the frontman’s desire to work toward an education degree, Scranton and Philadelphia band drops its second full-length and rocks all over the stylistic place.
Chimney, “Chimney” (Dine Alone). Behind the stonework name of “Chimney,” producer and creator Dan Molad — also a producer and/or drummer for Lucius, Here We Go Magic and many other bands — goes solo for the first long-playing time, crafting pop-rock songs that are not unlike Robert Pollard tracks given a second draft and a second take.
Slaid Cleaves, “Ghost on the Car Radio” (Candy House Media). D.C.-born, Maine-raised Austin resident Cleaves is 53 and still under the radar as Americana storytellers go, but his ability to consider beautiful and ugly losers from genuinely poetic angles and elegantly plain music makes his latest album another music box worth opening.
The Deslondes, “Hurry Home” (New West). A band from New Orleans is almost bound to be as eclectic as gumbo, but the second LP from a group named after the street where it coalesced gets more varied by using all five members as singers and songwriters, pushing electric instruments forward and sending cowboy melodicism into delta jazz and blues.
42 Decibel, “Overloaded” (Steamhammer/SPV). From Buenos Aires, Argentina, this rock group’s current release proves the worldwide power of AC/DC if it proves nothing else, and furthermore nods to Nazareth and other metal and hard-rock killers in the 1970s.
Gracie and Rachel, “Gracie and Rachel” (Gracie and Rachel/United for Opportunity). Berkeley high school friends reunited in Brooklyn, Gracie and Rachel are pop-minded women with classical training, and their debut album has the sensibility and tilted grace of Tori Amos.
Noah Guthrie, “The Valley” (MRI). Apparently a “social media phenomenon,” Noah Guthrie got on “Today” and the final season of “Glee” and into a singer-songwriter career, and his second long-player in that career hints that he’s able to get beyond being a “YouTuber.”
Guttermouth, “The Whole Enchilada” (Rude). Enjoying a reputation for offensiveness and rude humor since 1991, the California punk band issues a double-LP of live versions of old tracks, remastered recent EPs and previously unreleased songs.
Hollow Everdaze, “Cartoons” (Deaf Ambitions). Apparently, guitar bands are resurging in Australia, and just as apparently the Hollow Everdaze quartet, from Western Victoria, is atop that resurgence with Strokes-meets-Britrock-meets-surfer-high rock ‘n’ roll.
Jesse, “Hard Sky” (Uniform Group). Jesse Jerome Jenkins of the Austin stoner-rock group Pure X doesn’t especially increase the urgency on his first solo album, but he still knows well how to smear together electronica, C&W, soul and other sonic colors in a cannabis haze.
King Gizzard & the Lizard Wizard, “Murder of the Universe” (ATO). With increasing U.S. and UK attention, one of the most stupidly, wonderfully named bands in Australia, and in the neo-psychedelic scene worldwide, kills the cosmos on its second LP of the year, following “Flying Microtonal Banana.”
Lonesome River Band, “Mayhayley’s House” (Mountain Home Music). Mayhayley Lancaster, an activist and fortune teller in Georgia in the first half of the 20th century, is in the title and on the cover of the latest full-length from a Virginia contemporary-bluegrass band now in its 35th year of existence.
Meklit, “When the People Move, the Music Moves Too” (Six Degrees). Andrew Bird, the Preservation Hall Jazz Band and data from binary star system KIC 12268220 add their sounds to the considerable talent of Meklit Hadero’s latest disc, which refracts her Ethiopian heritage through African and American jazz and world pop.
Glen Morrow’s Cry for Help, “Glenn Morrow’s Cry for Help” (Rhyme & Reason). Morrow, in the Individuals during the golden age of Hoboken indie music and a key partner in the Bar/None label, puts together his first new band since the 1980s and rocks ‘n’ rolls both energetically and maturely.
Willie Nile, “Positively Bob: Willie Nile Sings Bob Dylan” (River House). In the early 1980s, Nile was a potential “new Dylan” before legal problems delayed his career, but with a steadier 21st century the singer-songwriter is now comfortable enough to cover the “old Dylan,” the original Bob, with eight of the ten songs coming from the 1960s.
Prince and the Revolution, “Purple Rain Deluxe” (NPG/Warner). This is not an anniversary year for what could be Prince’s best-loved album, the soundtrack for a less-loved movie, but a “Paisley Park” remastered version of it is welcome, and so is a second disc of vault selections and previously unreleased songs from the same period.
Miranda Lee Richards, “Existential Beast” (Invisible Hands). Reportedly given guitar lessons by Metallica’s Kirk Hammett, San Francisco-raised singer-songwriter Richards is no shredder, preferring to sing luminous pop-rock songs that take their musical guidance from day and night dreams and their words from the more woken reality.
Rozwell Kid, “Precious Art” (SideOneDummy). In a nice dissimulation of freshness, the fourth long-player from one of the few power-pop bands that can claim West Virginia as a home has the teenage-yearning kicks and snottiness of a first long-player.
Terence Ryan, “Don’t Panic” (3QTR). A remnant of the Boston working class, Ryan puts together his instantly likable first album from 808 rhythms, East Coast soul, street-level songs and a voice that can, in ragged moments, recall the sad rage of the late Chris Cornell.
Sons of the Palomino, “Sons of the Palomino” (BFD). Nashville cat Jeff Steele, who has written and co-written songs for LeAnn Rimes, Rascal Flatts and Miley Cyrus, gets a honky-tonk band going with Sons of the Palomino, recruiting Music Row instrumentalists and adding guests from Johns Anderson and Rich to Emmylou Harris and Vince Gill.
Vince Staples, “Big Fish Theory” (Def Jam). Long Beach, California rapper’s second full-length looks to make him more accessible and hipper at the same time, with hip-hop lifers like Juicy J, Rick Ross and A$AP Rocky bumping up against Bon Iver, Gorillaz’ Damon Albarn and Kendrick Lamar on the tracklist.
Stokley, “Introducing Stokley” (Concord). The lead vocalist for the R&B band Mint Condition for some 30 years or more, Stokley Williams has also worked with and recently filled in for the late Prince, so his new solo disc, his very first, promises to be laden with older-school soul and funk.
311, “Mosaic” (BMG Rights Management). Reggae- and ska-influenced Nebraska rock band is some distance away from its 1990s commercial peak but keeps up a good tour schedule and drops a new set of songs every few years, and the latest will not disappoint the fanbase.
Bryson Tiller, “True to Self” (TrapSoul/RCA). Louisville, Kentucky native Tiller jumped out as a hybrid of hip-hop and R&B in 2015 and got offers from Timbaland and Drake, so he’s careful on his second official album to keep the mic to himself and to hire on multiple producers to get all he can from his 1990s inspirations and current emotionalism.
Jeff Tweedy, “Together at Last” (ANTI-/Epitaph). Taking in just about every post-Uncle Tupelo group in his discography, Tweedy focuses primarily on solo-acoustic versions of his songs for main band Wilco but also includes one apiece from Loose Fur and Golden Smog.
UNKLE, “The Road Pt. 1” (Cooking Vinyl). While jumping from London to L.A. and many European continental locations, the fourth incarnation of Englishman James Lavelle’s increasingly less-definable UNKLE project drops its first full-length in seven years and revels in modern-pop, electronic and rock diversity.
UsLights, “Wæs” (Mind Over Matter). Central Massachusetts is not Psychedelia Central, thus locking in a niche for UsLights, but this long-player establishes that the trio takes pop rather than rock trips and gets higher on dancefloor-smooth production and opulent synthesizers than on unwashed fuzzbox guitars.
Various artists, “Baby Driver (Music from the Motion Picture)” (Columbia). With a protagonist who loves earbuds as well as fast cars, the newest film from wild-eyed director Edgar Wright needs a soundtrack with Sam and Dave, Blur, the Jon Spencer Blues Explosion and Danger Mouse adjacent to one another.
Yonder Mountain String Band, “Love, Ain’t Love” (Frog Pad). Ten years ago this month, the Colorado “jamgrass” act Yonder Mountain String Band played its thousandth show, so it’s well past other touring milestones as it’s added two new members and now issues a studio LP that subtly showcases just how many styles open-minded bluegrass can encompass.
— Jon M. Gilbertson,
Special to the Journal Sentinel