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Alison Krauss sings up a storm on Windy City

Album cover for Alison Krauss' "Windy City"
Album cover for Alison Krauss' "Windy City"

A Alison Krauss

Windy City

Capitol

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Album cover for Migos' "Culture"

For her first solo album in more than a decade, singer/fiddler Alison Krauss embraces timeless country music in a retro/vintage-inspired collection of country and bluegrass classics representing another wonderful collaboration, this time with producer Buddy Cannon and a number of superb musicians.

Krauss' distinctive voice travels across genres with intelligence, beauty and emotion. She is a savvy musician steeped in bluegrass, country, folk and pop. Her albums -- often with her band, Union Station -- can feel like their own unique genres, particularly the 2007 collaboration with Robert Plant and producer T Bone Burnett, Raising Sand.

Windy City feels intimate and personal. Krauss' voice inhabits a song in a heartfelt way few singers can. It is as though she taps what you've felt or are feeling; add a keen sense of longing and you have a voice that connects on a soul-stirring level. She is a singer of uncommon musical and emotional depth.

The intensely sad Brenda Lee ballad "All Alone Am I" is devastating, while her approach to Willie Nelson's "I Never Cared for You" is a profound, rather bleak reflection on loss. She pays homage to bluegrass greats the Osborne Brothers on the stunning title song.

Musicianship is first-rate, with Ron Block and Barry Bales from Union Station; her frequent collaborator in Union Station and elsewhere, Dan Tyminski; singers Jamey Johnson and Hank Williams Jr., and others.

Hot tracks: "All Alone Am I," "I Never Cared for You," "Windy City," Roger Miller's "River in the Rain"

-- ELLIS WIDNER

Arkansas Democrat-Gazette

A- Migos

CULTURE

Quality Control/300

When Atlanta creator Donald Glover shouted out Migos -- the Georgian, experimental hip-hop trio -- during his win at the Golden Globes in January, it was the first time many heard the name. Mainstream anonymity didn't last long, as Migos' spare "Bad and Boujee," complete with weird breathy shooshes and mentions from Philly's Lil Uzi Ver, hit Billboard's No. 1 spot before month's end. For rap aficionados, however, Migos has been generating clever, oddball tracks with a genuine knack for the contagious since 2013's "Versace."

For Migos' mostly somber, full-length second effort, rappers Quavo (the quavering floaty MC), Offset (the edgy one), and Takeoff (the bass voice) have refined the jagged tips and jarring flips of 2015's Yung Rich Nation without losing its cranky, fringy funk. On the Auto-Tuned "Get Right Witcha" and "T-Shirt," the trio's texts flow through one another. Ruminative pianos stay Satie-still ("Brown Paper Bag") or grow grand on the theatrically orchestrated "Deadz" and "Big on Big." Yet Migos gets bigger still with what is 2017's first amazing album, whose memory should linger into 2018 and beyond.

Hot tracks: "T-Shirt," "Brown Paper Back," "Deadz," "Big on Big"

-- A.D. AMOROSI

The Philadelphia Inquirer

C- Original Motion Picture Soundtrack

Fifty Shades Darker

Republic

If "more" is the name of the game for new film Fifty Shades Darker, it shouldn't have been the case for its music. At a staggering 19 overwrought songs, the soundtrack committed itself to death by numbers and homogeneity. Too many stars and not enough spark is the problem that plagues this purportedly sexy and romantic offering.

Jewel of the crown, Zayne & Taylor Swift's "I Don't Wanna Live Forever," is catchy enough in itself, but the anthemy chorus spoils the illusion of sexual tension and drama. Contender for the hottest track instead goes to the Nick Jonas and Nicki Minaj's R&B sheet scorcher "Bom Bidi Bom."

Halsey's "Not Afraid Anymore" and Tove Lo's "Lies in the Dark" bring the atmospheric darkness, while Sia pulls a typical pleading sadness with "Helium." John Legend's piano in "One Woman Man" can only do so much to add a bit of romance, but Jose James' pipes and old-fashioned sax and piano in "They Can't Take That Away From Me" make a nice counterbalance to the avalanche of synth beats that often veer into cheesiness.

The tracks are glazed with the same brush dipped in a broth of conventional beats.

Hot tracks: "Bom Bidi Bom," "They Can't Take That Away From Me"

-- CRISTINA JALERU

The Associated Press

B Brandon Can't Dance

Graveyard of Good Times

Lucky Number

Brandon Can't Dance is the nom de indie rock of Philadelphia songwriter Brandon Ayres. In the manner of rising do-it-yourself stars like Car Seat Headrest and Alex G (with whom he has toured), Ayres has followed several self-releases on his Bandcamp page over a number of years with this official coming-out party on the Lucky Number label.

It's a bit of a jumble, with Ayres sometimes sounding like a collection of influences: vocals that alternately recall Elliott Smith, Wayne Coyne, and Ira Kaplan of Yo La Tengo, and songs that mix synthy dance-floor moves ("Smoke & Drive Around"), 1980s Europop ("Pop Queen of the Teen Scene") and tongue-in-cheek self-mockery ("So Deep, So Tortured, So Freak"). But the catchy tunes keep coming over the course of a 16-track album on which Ayres is too intent on enjoying himself to worry about the identity crisis he'll surely outgrow.

Hot tracks: "Smoke & Drive Around," "So Deep, So Tortured, So Freak"

-- DAN DELUCA

The Philadelphia Inquirer

Style on 02/21/2017

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