B+ Ryan Adams
Prisoner
PAX-AM/Blue Note
From the days when he exploded out of North Carolina with the alt-country band Whiskeytown to his steady growth into one of America's great songwriters, Ryan Adams has always floated just below superstar status. If it's possible to be underrated through years of sustained excellence, he has pulled it off.
But the excellence continues on Prisoner, a fine collection of fresh songs and new takes on heartache that demonstrates as much mastery as anything Adams has done. It matches surprising melodies with brilliant arrangements and affecting, urgent lyrics, reminding listeners that this is a craftsman who turns just about everything he touches into gold.
Adams' fans will recognize the vibe. There are the fingerpicked electric guitar trills set against a backdrop of jangly acoustic power-chord strumming. There's the same harmonica he has been carrying around at least since "Cold Roses," now more than a decade old.
His familiar blend of muscle and vulnerability sparkles on "Do You Still Love Me?" And when Adams, on "Shiver and Shake," sings, "I reach out for your hand but I know it isn't there," it feels like he's practically bleeding.
If there is a flaw here it lies in familiarity -- Adams is hardly venturing beyond his comfort zone. But when you are this good that's not a significant problem.
Better to sit back and appreciate a songwriter at the peak of his evocative power, with plenty to sing about and the command to bring it home with authority.
Hot tracks: "Shiver and Shake," "Do You Still Love Me?"
-- SCOTT STROUD
The Associated Press
A- Dirty Projectors
Dirty Projectors
Domino
Dirty Projectors albums always seem to be the product of a hyperactive mind, with their arbitrarily juxtaposed genres, their unlikely themes, and their arrangements built on complex musical theory. Yale grad David Longstreth is the mastermind behind Dirty Projectors as well as, recently, a collaborator on albums for Bjork, Solange, and Kanye West. He's an unpredictable polymath equally capable of a knotty Black Flag deconstruction (2007's Rise Above) and a catchy R&B exercise (2009's Stillness Is the Move).
Dirty Projectors is a breakup album, explicitly detailing Longstreth's separation from musical and life partner Amber Coffman (although he produced her forthcoming solo debut). It's a maddeningly diverse, wonderfully fascinating album, full of vocals that get chopped and screwed into leaping, stuttering fragments and arrangements that can veer from smooth R&B and anxious synth-pop to starkly formal string orchestras. Songs such as "Keep Your Name" are accessible and disruptive, and the closer you listen, the weirder, and more rewarding, they get.
Hot tracks: "Keep Your Name"
-- STEVE KLINGE
The Philadelphia Inquirer
B+ THEY.
Nu Religion: Hyena
Warner Bros.
Los Angeles-based duo THEY. call their sound grunge 'n' b -- a fusion of R&B and hip-hop, mixed with rock. The label might sound gimmicky, but what the genre-benders do on their debut album makes it a highly enjoyable listen.
The 14-track set is sonically captivating, with Drew Love -- the duo's vocalist -- bragging like a rapper while singing in the tone of New Edition's Ralph Tresvant. Love sends his tenor over foreboding piano and grungy guitar on "Deep End," then raps alongside blazing guitar strings on "Say When."
On the standout "Motley Crew," he paints a picture of THEY.'s come-up: "Some might say we're armed and dangerous/Pay the price of a life every night but it ain't enough."
Heads will bop during the midtempo, organ-fueled "All" and "U-RITE." And fans of the late '90s TV series Dawson's Creek will recognize a brilliant use of Paula Cole's "I Don't Want to Wait" on "Dante's Creek."
Much credit should be given to THEY.'s other half, producer Dante Jones, who has created soundscapes that make Nu Religion sound cohesive even with such an eclectic range of musical styles. He's helping THEY. push the limits.
Hot tracks: "All," "Motley Crew," "Deep End"
-- MELANIE J. SIMS
The Associated Press
B Son Volt
Notes of Blue
Thirty Tigers
If Merle Haggard is the defining voice of country music, Jay Farrar might be the artist you'd turn to if you had to explain the Americana genre through the work of just one singer.
Farrar is the creative force behind Son Volt, a band he put together in the mid-1990s after he and Jeff Tweedy dissolved Uncle Tupelo and went their separate ways. His singing style calls to mind backroad landscapes and somewhere-in-Louisiana weariness with a style so distinctive that it helped redefine the contours of the genre.
Notes of Blue is a mature album that builds on previous milestones to explore new dimensions of the blues. And while the experimentation sometimes diminishes the band's power, there is a payoff in traversing the new territory.
The song order seems significant, though. The first two cuts, "Promise the World" and "Back Against the Wall," invite listeners in with an earthy blend reminiscent of Son Volt's powerful early work. After that the album grows more daring but less accessible, mixing blues stylings influenced by Mississippi Fred McDowell and Skip James with unorthodox tunings and other musical adventures.
In its best moments, Notes of Blue will carry you back to the old Son Volt material, evoking mountain ranges and backroads and lonely all-night drives.
Hot tracks: "Promise the World," "Back Against the Wall"
-- SCOTT STROUD
The Associated Press
Style on 03/07/2017