LISTEN UP

Ocean conveys depth in R&B debut album

Frank Ocean’s new album is titled Channel Orange.
Frank Ocean’s new album is titled Channel Orange.

Frank Ocean

Channel Orange

Def Jam A

“You don’t know how little you matter until you’re all alone in the middle of Arkansas with a little rock,” Frank Ocean declares at the beginning of “Crack Rock,” a fairly harrowing account of a junkie’s descent that feels journalistically straightforward and kind of like a John Oates-sung Hall & Oates B-side from 1979. (That’s a good thing.)

All the recent drama aside, Ocean delivers on the promise of last year’s digital-only release with his official debut album, a back-to-the-futuristic romp that marries the conversational crooning of Marvin Gaye and Teddy Pendergrass to the cosmic production style of Pharrell Williams and Ocean’s good friend Kanye West.

Ocean’s not afraid to use all the weapons at his disposal, though lyrically he tends to understate and downplay and credit the idea that we’re all just broken children at the core. What he sounds like more than anything is a storyteller, a narrator with a great sense of timing and an eye for the meaningful detail. While he can be as cryptic as a koan (or Bernie Taupin), you never question the emotional truth of Ocean’s phrasing. If Raymond Carver had sung R&B, he might have made records like this.

Hot tracks: “Crack Rock,” “Thinkin Bout You,” “Bad Religion” and “Sierra Leone”

  • PHILIP MARTIN

Love & Theft

Love & Theft

RCA B

Here’s the second go round for this country duo that started out as a trio when it released its debut, World Wide Open, in 2009 on a different label. Love & Theft maintains the group’s striking harmonies, and country audiences have already taken a liking to “Angel Eyes,” the first single off the album.

This time the boys aren’t even going to hide the attempt to sex things up as pants and dresses come off in the first few songs. “Town Drunk” is the best here, a well-described, heart wrenching tale of the daughter of the title character. Too bad that like too many current country acts, Love & Theft leave their sense of humor behind when heading to the studio.

Hot tracks: “Angel Eyes,” “Town Drunk.”

  • WERNER TRIESCHMANN

Mary Chapin Carpenter

Ashes and Roses Rounder A-

A pulmonary embolism, a divorce, the death of a parent ... just one of those would knock the props out from under a person. Folk singer-songwriter Mary Chapin Carpenter was slammed with all three in a five-year span. Rather than crawl into a dark hole and stay, Carpenter used the pain as her muse. The result is 13 songs that take the listener along on her ride through the storm and out the other side.

Carpenter deftly wraps her solemn images and sad memories in melodies that convey hope. “What to Keep and What to Throw Away” is a tutorial on where to begin after the divorce papers are signed; “The Swords We Carried” warns that all the good-luck charms picked up along life’s path aren’t guarantees against heartache; “I Tried Going West” reminds that you can take bypasses, but the only road out of pain runs through it; “Soul Companion,” a duet with James Taylor, is an upbeat map to reconnecting with humanity.

The last three songs, “New Year’s Day,” with its bass drum thumping like a heart beating again, “Fading Away,” in which the ghosts are all but gone, and “Jericho,” in which Carpenter is accompanied only by a piano, convey the distinct feeling that the healing is in full bloom.

Those who have lived through similar hurts should find it refreshingly cathartic.

Hot tracks: “New Year’s Day,” “Soul Companion.”

  • DENISE DORTON

Michael Kiwanuka

Home Again

Cherrytree/Interscope B

The Brits are going crazy for Michael Kiwanuka, who wowed ’em as the opening act for Adele. It’s easy to understand why. His voice is supple and honeyed with the sweet sexiness of Marvin Gaye while showing echoes of Sting, Bill Withers and the great Chicago singer Terry Callier. Kiwanuka’s singing touches the heart as it pleases the ears.

Musically, it’s a likable and soulful folky-jazz-pop. Opening with the horn-accented “Tell Me a Tale” (think Blood, Sweat & Tears), Kiwanuka weaves an engaging spell throughout.

Hot tracks: “Tell Me a Tale,” “I’m Getting Ready,” the folky title song, the lovely ballad “Rest.”

  • ELLIS WIDNER

Chris Cagle

Back in the Saddle

Big Machine B-

What’s remarkable about Texan Chris Cagle’s return to country music is how unremarkable it is. Cagle was last heard from in 2008, when he was dropped from Capitol after a handful of albums. Back in the Saddle opens with “Got My Country On,” a guitar-heavy tune that could come straight from a Jason Aldean CD. The second, “I’ll Grow My Own,” is a righteous, get-government off-our-backs anthem that at least demonstrates that Cagle has some vinegar in him (though I wonder how many of the farmers who will identify with the sentiment also have farm subsidies).

The rest is pretty slow, soapy and country girl-centric, which only proves that Cagle hasn’t been out of the game long enough to forget his main audience.

Hot track: “I’ll Grow My Own.”

  • WERNER TRIESCHMANN

Style, Pages 27 on 07/24/2012

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