B Kacey Musgraves
Pageant Material
Mercury
Singer-songwriter Kacey Musgraves made an impressive, stunning debut when Same Trailer, Different Park came out in 2013. The songs, often provocative, told often painful stories of life and poverty in rural and small-town America. On songs like "Merry Go Round" and "Follow Your Arrow," she pushed buttons. With Musgraves (along with Brandy Clark and Ashley Monroe), it seemed country music was suddenly getting something real, rather than the standard bro-country nonsense.
Musgraves won a pair of Grammy Awards and garnered much critical and popular acclaim.
However, her second album seems to retrench and consolidate her career a bit. Though she still co-writes with Luke Laird and Shane McAnally, Pageant Material feels at times like a holding pattern.
The melodies are strong and engaging, though lyrical edges seem smoother. But on "Pageant Material" and "This Town," Musgraves' rather prickly side comes out swinging. Her sense of humor comes through best on "Family Is Family," as she sings about how relatives can be annoying ("They own too much wicker," goes one line). A good, if mildly disappointing, album.
Hot tracks: "Pageant Material," "This Town," "Family Is Family."
-- ELLIS WIDNER
A- Girlpool
Before the World Was Big
Wichita
"Do you feel restless when you realize you're alive?" Cleo Tucker and Harmony Tividad of Girlpool ask that musical question in unison on "Chinatown," a standout track on what will almost certainly be the best coming-of-age album you'll hear in 2015.
These Los Angeles natives (18 and 19, respectively) are very good at what they do, which is writing unflinchingly honest punk-folk songs that explore twisty emotional terrain in entwined, rough-cut harmony.
Caught between girlhood and adulthood -- "My mind is almost 19, and I still feel angry/I'm searching for the reason," they sing on "I Like That You Can See It" -- they deliver their steely self-inquiries with a lack of guile that rings true as the stuff of real life.
Hot tracks: "Chinatown," "I Like That You Can See It."
-- DAN DELUCA
The Philadelphia Inquirer
B Third Eye Blind
Dopamine
Mega Collider
It has been a few years since Stephan Jenkins pulled together some new musicians to call themselves Third Eye Blind.
But regardless of what the band was during its megahit heyday and what it is now, Jenkins remains a consistent and capable leader.
The title track is a catchy reminder of how the power-jangle sounds of Third Eye Blind can catch the ear in all the right ways. The song's chunky cadence melds perfectly into upbeat moments as Jenkins sings about relationships that turn into addiction more than affinity.
On "All the Souls," Jenkins hits plenty of high notes as the pace builds, proving he still has plenty of vocal chops.
It's one of the better tracks on a solid album. Whichever incarnation of Third Eye Blind you prefer (and for many it's the era of the band's hit "Semi-Charmed Life"), this version is tight and the songwriting is clean and captivating.
Hot tracks: "All the Souls," "Dopamine."
-- RON HARRIS
The Associated Press
B Franz Ferdinand and Sparks
FFS
Domino
FFS brings together Scottish rockers Franz Ferdinand and Sparks, a Los Angeles synth-pop duo whose experimental theatrics have made them cult figures in Britain for 40 years.
The groups share a verbal playfulness, a fondness for a good hook and a jagged energy that can verge on the histrionic. The voices of Franz Ferdinand's Alex Kapranos and Sparks' falsetto-loving Russell Mael -- half of Sparks with brother Ron -- entwine gorgeously.
The collaboration's high point is "Johnny Delusional," about a guy who thinks he has a chance with a girl who's out of his league. It's an irresistible blend of catchy hooks and disco beats. It's almost matched by "Call Girl," another synth-and-beats confection whose title is typically misleading (the chorus asks, "Why don't you call, girl?").
The album is wordy and playful, bravura and glam, and self-referential to the point of self-indulgence.
Not everyone will embrace its retro synth sounds and operatic vocal harmonies, which wouldn't feel out of place next to Queen's "Bohemian Rhapsody." But it's hard to resist any band that rhymes "martyr" with "Sartre" and "Hugo Boss" with "dental floss."
Hot tracks: "Johnny Delusional," "Call Girl."
-- JILL LAWLESS
The Associated Press
Style on 06/30/2015