B Jamie Foxx
Hollywood: A Story of a Dozen Roses
JB/RCA
This Hollywood story has nothing to do with Jamie Foxx's film career, seemingly on pause since 2014's Annie, Horrible Bosses 2 and The Amazing Spider-Man 2. Perhaps Foxx slowed his film work to concentrate on this deep and occasionally danceable tale of love, sex, loss, sex, travel and sex.
Foxx's voice is exquisitely suited to the subtle shadings of romance and the loud pronouncements of sensuality. He takes love slow and nasty on a tune like "Text Message" and makes the party impolite on humorous cuts such as "Socialite." There are the standard, smooth R&B/rough-rap pairings: the thrumming "Like a Drum" (with Wale), the smoky "On the Dot" (with Fabolous) and the buoyant "Baby's in Love" (with Kid Ink).
Mostly, Foxx is a soulful, baritone lover man who does his best when paired with like-minded singer-speaker Chris Brown (a charming "You Changed Me") or high-pitched vocalist/producer Pharrell ("Tease"). He is also good at taking love's rough ride all on his own during the reflective ballad "In Love by Now."
Hot tracks: "Like a Drum," "In Love by Now"
-- A.D. AMOROSI,
The Philadelphia Inquirer
B+ My Morning Jacket
The Waterfall
ATO/Capitol
The sixth studio album by the Kentucky band fronted by Jim James again displays a singular blend of stirring stadium guitar-rock and ghostly alt-country-tinged hippie mysticism. On The Waterfall, recorded with producer Tucker Martine, My Morning Jacket is particularly focused.
That could be the result of a breakup: The point to be gotten in "Get the Point," whose fingerpicked flutter recalls Harry Nilsson's "Everybody's Talkin'," is that love has left the room. The rousing chorus in "Big Decisions" details a domestic squabble; the closer, "Only Memories Remain," ruminates on all that's lost with the passage of time. A taste of the bitter along with the sweet is beneficial to the band's sound. The jammed-out Neil Young guitars are here, too. James' cool, vibrato-free, often otherworldly voice is what truly sets the band apart.
Hot tracks: "Get the Point," "Big Decisions," "Only Memories Remain"
-- DAN DELUCA,
The Philadelphia Inquirer
B Boosie Badazz
Touch Down 2 Cause Hell
Atlantic
In just three years, Boosie Badazz has gone from facing the death penalty at Louisiana's notorious Angola State Penitentiary (he was found not guilty on murder charges) to releasing a major-label album with Young Thug, T.I. and Rick Ross. In the interim, his music became an ad hoc soundtrack to the protests on the streets of Ferguson, Mo., and he has ascended to the current vanguard of weird Southern rap with tales of post-prison life that add essential new layers to today's music of police protest.
Touch Down feels especially considered; he clearly spent his time inside thinking deeply about what this comeback album should mean. Singles "Like a Man" and "Retaliation" nail the gothic and narcotic sounds ruling Southern rap today, but his lyrics have the harrowing air of a man who saw death slinking closely.
More unexpectedly, he shines on gentler material as well. "Black Heaven" imagines an afterlife in which Michael Jackson and Marvin Gaye team up to make posthumous classics. Badazz might not be at their caliber, but for this moment in American life and hip-hop, he's as visceral a voice as we're going to get.
Hot tracks: "Like a Man," "Black Heaven"
-- AUGUST BROWN,
Los Angeles Times (TNS)
B+ Mariah Carey #1 to Infinity
Epic/Legacy
Eighteen No. 1 hits and a new single ("Infinity") make this update of her 1998 compilation a souvenir of sorts for Mariah Carey's Las Vegas show, a place that is becoming a haven for fading pop stars to camp out.
More than that, these 18 No. 1 hits are a striking reminder of how Carey dominated the 1990s, a mega-juggernaut of hit after hit of glittery, lavish pop-soul. Eleven of her 18 No. 1's were in a five year window, 1990 to 1995. She's second only to The Beatles for the most No. 1 hits ever. Hard to imagine anyone closing in on her any time soon, save Rihanna, who has 11.
Carey's music is sleekly executed; her songs mix gospel, pop and soul with flourishes of hip-hop. Powered by her dramatic, powerful voice and multi-octave range, Carey's interpretive skills are sharp, though sometimes overshadowed by her vocal presence.
"Infinity" shows how time has narrowed her vocal range. It hasn't joined these other tunes at the top of the charts, but the recording reveals a confident voice that's not giving up. Nor should she.
Hot tracks: the heartbreaking "We Belong Together," the bubbly "Emotions," "Vision of Love," "One Sweet Day" (with Boyz II Men)
-- ELLIS WIDNER
Style on 06/02/2015