A Madonna
Rebel Heart
Boy Toy/Interscope
Madonna's 13th studio album beats with romance and rebellion. At 19 tracks, the deluxe version is an overstuffed triptych through the iconic performer's life, careening between uplifting dance tracks, like the percolating "Living for Love" -- her 44th No. 1 on Billboard's Dance Club Songs chart -- and corrosively bitter tunes such as the Avicii-produced "HeartBreakCity."
Songs such as the largely acoustic "Devil Pray" (which will stylistically remind many of "Don't Tell Me"), the achingly vulnerable "Joan of Arc" and the deceptively double entendre-filled, lilting "Body Shop" course with vitality and showcase some of Madonna's best singing in years.
While the majority of the material falls solidly in the positive, some of the tunes undoubtedly meant to sound fierce and liberating just feel tired, like the electro-clash braggadocio of "B**** I'm Madonna," featuring Nicki Minaj, and the tedious X-rated bump-and-grind of the Kanye West-produced "Holy Water."
Madonna seems determined to plant a flag for her 30-plus-year career, even giving a crash course in Madonna-ology on the self-referential "Veni, Vidi, Vici," featuring Nas, during which she playfully incorporates phrases and titles from past hits. At its best, Rebel Heart pulsates with a vibrancy that reveals the sour and the sweet in Madonna's complicated life and leaves no doubt that she still has a lot more to share.
Hot tracks: "Joan of Arc," "Devil Pray," "Body Shop," "Living for Love."
-- MELINDA NEWMAN,
The Associated Press
B+ Luke Bryan
Spring Break: Checkin' Out
Capitol
Luke Bryan opens his annual spring-break album with "My Ol' Bronco," a song about an aging vehicle that still gets the job done. The Bronco could be a metaphor for Bryan himself -- both were born in the 1970s and both have outgrown an affinity for kicking up sand at musical beach parties.
Checkin' Out is Bryan's seventh spring-break collection in as many years; that's in addition to four full-length albums since 2007. The 38-year-old Country Music Association Entertainer of the Year understandably feels ready to focus on something deeper than beach-party soundtracks. His maturity shows in the songs, too. He still celebrates the lighthearted joys mixing sand, sun and surf with liquor and women, as on the funk-dance rhythms of "Good Lookin' Girl" and "Like We Ain't Ever" -- the latter among the six tunes recycled from Bryan's 2014 release, Spring Break 6. This time he sneaks in youthful drama on "Games" and gets sentimental on "Spring Breakdown."
Furthermore, Bryan's musical collaborators, the father-son production team Jeff and Jody Stephens, reveal some new sonic tricks in the arrangements. Altogether, Bryan makes the best of his last spring vacation -- and shows that he is poised to add more depth and texture to his music in the future.
Hot tracks: "My Ol' Bronco," "Games," "Spring Breakdown."
-- MICHAEL McCALL,
The Associated Press
B+ Asleep at the Wheel
Still the King: Celebrating the Music of Bob Wills and His Texas Playboys
Bismeaux
For their third time around with the music of the great Bob Wills and His Texas Playboys, Asleep at the Wheel has different guest artists on the nearly two dozen tunes here.
The venerable Austin, Texas, band has won two Grammy Awards for previous Wills tributes, 1993's A Tribute to the Music of Bob Wills and His Texas Playboys and 1999's Ride With Bob.
So, what's different this time? The collaborators. Hearing Old Crow Medicine Show on the driving "Tiger Rag" is a lively treat that will have toes tapping. The Avett Brothers are superb on "The Girl I Left Behind Me" and George Strait shines on "South of the Border."
Wait until you hear the Time Jumpers on the classic ballad "Faded Love." Other guests include Carrie Rodriguez, Elizabeth Cook and Buddy Miller.
Wills is still the king, as Waylon Jennings famously sang, and Asleep at the Wheel proves the music to be timeless and timely.
Hot tracks: "Faded Love," "The Girl I Left Behind Me," "Tiger Rag."
-- ELLIS WIDNER
B Jacky Terrasson
Take This
Impulse!
Postbop jazz pianist Jacky Terrasson has always cultivated a touch of whiz-bang, but that doesn't mean he panders.
Since his self-titled major label debut 20 years ago, his art has communicated a deft intelligence sharpened by dynamic contrast.
Take This is a brisk showcase for an international rhythm coalition: bassist Burniss Earl Travis, from Texas; drummer Lukmil Perez, from Cuba; percussionist Adama Diarra, from Mali; and Sly Johnson, a French singer and beatboxer of African descent.
The album title derives from Paul Desmond's "Take Five," which appears in a pair of loosely funky interpretations.
Among other covers, reframed with a similar spirit of play, are Bud Powell's bebop touchstone "Un Poco Loco" and, less rewardingly, Gotye's 2011 hit "Somebody That I Used to Know."
The originals "Dance" and "November" offer variations on Afro-Caribbean pulse, while "Kiff" is the latest evidence of Terrasson's affinity for the groovy, mid-1970s Keith Jarrett.
Hot tracks: Miles Davis and Bill Evans' "Blue in Green," "Un Poco Loco," the original "Letting Go."
-- NATE CHINEN,
The New York Times
Style on 03/17/2015