A- Chris Stapleton
Traveller
Mercury
This may be Chris Stapleton's debut solo album, but he's hardly a stranger to the country charts. He's the songwriter of Kenny Chesney's "Never Wanted Nothing More," Luke Bryan's "Drink a Beer," George Strait's "Love's Gonna Make It Alright" and Darius Rucker's "Come Back Song," all No. 1 hits. He has had more than 170 album cuts, including tracks on albums by Adele, Dierks Bentley and others. He's also the former lead singer of bluegrass progressives The Steeldrivers.
Stapleton is a magnificent singer; his bluesy country voice impresses throughout Traveller. The production is low-key, raw and uncluttered.
Especially memorable are "Nobody to Blame" (co-written with Barry Bales and Ronnie Bowman) and "Whiskey and You" (co-written with Lee Thomas Miller). "Nobody to Blame" is a tradition-soaked weeper about a man whose penchant to do all the wrong things and few of the right ones brings his relationship to an end. On "Whiskey and You," it's just Stapleton and his guitar and a song that is devastating and heartbreaking.
His striking cover of Dean Dillon and Linda Hargrove's "Tennessee Whiskey" convincingly turns the song into a '60s soul ballad. Stapleton evokes outlaw country on "Outlaw State of Mind," joined on the tune by Mickey Raphael of Willie Nelson's band.
Hot tracks: "Tennessee Whiskey," the rockin' "Parachute," "Nobody to Blame," "Whiskey and You."
-- ELLIS WIDNER
B Zac Brown Band
Jekyll + Hyde
Big Machine/Republic
Zac Brown names his new release after a famous, fictional schizophrenic, for few artists in this genre-focused era so openly embrace an eclectic muse.
Brown sets the tone immediately with an aggressively rhythmic "Beautiful Drug," his most electronic-driven track. He brings a Celtic melody to "Remedy," big-band swing to "Mango Tree" (a duet with Sara Bareilles) and a grunge-rock guitar crunch to "Heavy Is the Head" (a duet with Soundgarden's Chris Cornell).
That said, there's plenty of Brown's breezy, island-influenced rhythms and his acoustic, folk-derived style, both of which emphasize his voice and his lyrical smarts. This time, he includes a rare cover on a powerful interpretation of Jason Isbell's "Dress Blues."
Brown and his large band changed record distributors and producers for Jekyll + Hyde, but the album sounds like a logical next step by a talented band. As always, they make it all sound coherent. They're music lovers with a broad range of influences, and they don't let pre-determined musical genres limit their scope.
Hot tracks: "Beautiful Drug," "Mango Tree," "Dress Blues," "Heavy Is the Head."
-- MICHAEL McCALL, The Associated Press
B- Josh Groban
Stages
Reprise
There are few voices in American music more beautiful than that of operatic pop singer Josh Groban. The booming, high notes are strong, confident and ring with bell-like clarity.
His newest release focuses on songs from Broadway and film musicals, as recent as Charlie and the Chocolate Factory ("Pure Imagination") to as vintage as The Wizard of Oz ("Over the Rainbow").
There's a lovely "Try to Remember" from The Fantasticks, but "Old Devil Moon" from Finian's Rainbow is heavy-handed. "Over the Rainbow" could have used more restraint as well.
Fans will be particularly thrilled with three tunes: Groban delivers an abundance of dramatic power on "You'll Never Walk Alone" (Carousel). A duet with Kelly Clarkson on "All I Ask of You" from Phantom of the Opera is a show-stopper, as the singers move from power to subtlety and back again, delivering the song's musical and emotional depth. "What I Did for Love" (A Chorus Line) is almost its equal.
At times, Groban seems so focused on hitting the notes he loses some of the emotional context. But there's no denying his very impressive voice.
Hot tracks: "You'll Never Walk Alone," "All I Ask of You," "What I Did for Love."
-- ELLIS WIDNER
B Mumford & Sons
Wilder Mind
Glassnote
The hoedown is over while the sorrows remain on Mumford & Sons' third album. Led by singer/drummer Marcus Mumford, the band ascended to the arena circuit with foot-stomping songs topped by jaunty banjo picking. But with Wilder Mind, Mumford & Sons implies that the old-timey touches were nothing more than decoration. Behind them were the martial beats and inexorable buildups of arena rock, and those have surfaced fully here.
It's an album of mostly despairing love songs that have found an unexpected but fitting outlet: a mope-rock resurgence.
The banjo is gone and electric guitars reign, as announced in the keening, distorted solo that opens "Tompkins Square Park." Wilder Mind is full of echoing guitars and reverberant space; U2 prevails, while songs also recall Dire Straits, Big Country, Coldplay, Snow Patrol and, more than once, Don Henley's "Boys of Summer."
Mumford & Sons are just as strategic with tiers of electric guitars as they were with acoustic instruments. The music reaches for the sky boxes, but the songs go one-on-one. They're dispatches from the throes of one breakup or many: arguments, pleas, accusations, declarations of loyalty and bitter recriminations.
But the band's greatest skill -- strategic crescendos -- starts to feel like a formula. That formula is briefly interrupted by "Cold Arms," with Mumford accompanied only by a lone strummed guitar.
Hot tracks: "Cold Arms," "Tompkins Square Park."
-- JON PARELES, The New York Times
Style on 05/26/2015