A-
Blood Orange
Freetown Sound
Domino
In 2014, Devonte Hynes of Blood Orange wore a shirt to his set at Lollapalooza that listed the names of black people killed by police in recent years. Hours later, he claimed he and girlfriend Samantha Urbani were assaulted by security guards at the festival site.
That's the tension that drives Hynes' lovely, searing new album that weaves 2016 racial, sexual and political tension into an album of immaculate, Prince-inspired funk and R&B.
After a year when he released the singles "Sandra's Smile" and "Do You See My Skin Through the Flames" (each explicitly tackled racial injustice and the toll it takes on people's lives), Freetown Sound delves even deeper into the ramifications of societal cruelty.
"Augustine" uses the Catholic saint's writings to mine the tension between religious yearning, the disconnection of immigrants and the shock of Trayvon Martin's death. "Hands Up" alludes to the Michael Brown shooting but turns back toward the intimate, the primal fear for a loved one's safety.
The music is buoyant and pristine. Hynes is one of pop's smartest and most tasteful producers, but he saved all his best lockstep guitar lines, misty keyboards and falsetto runs for this, the defining album of his career. Hynes, a former Londoner, is a New Yorker now, but as the fallout from Brexit reveals ugly racial resentments in his home country, it's hard to imagine a better record to put on and imagine better, freer days to come.
Hot tracks: "Augustine," "Hands Up"
-- AUGUST BROWN,
Los Angeles Times
B+
MSTRKRFT
Operator
Last Gang
The Canadian duo MSTRKRFT is no stranger to the poppier side of dance music. Jesse F. Keeler and Al-P remixed Katy Perry's "California Gurls" and collaborated with John Legend on "Heartbreaker" for its last album.
However, on Operator, its first album in seven years, MSTRKRFT balances its melodic side with songs that are far more aggressive and challenging.
The result is a bit of a seesaw, as the duo moves from the catchy, elastic groove of "Runaway," which even extends to the way they process the vocals to make them sound stretched and twisted, to the dark, noise-filled "Little Red Hen," with its punishing beat that feels like a throwback to the heyday of industrial dance music.
In "Priceless," they combine the two ideas, with guest vocalist Sonny Kay delivering a memorable melody with a sneering vocal over a groove that is danceable and jarring -- like a fire alarm in the middle of the night. All of MSTRKRFT's juxtapositions make Operator a healthy reminder of dance music's rebellious, envelope-pushing roots.
Hot tracks: "Priceless," "Little Red Hen"
-- GLENN GAMBOA,
Newsday (TNS)
B
Candi Staton
It's Time to Be Free
Beracah
Candi Staton blends gospel themes and messages of redemption and caution with dance music, funk and soul, revisiting earlier hits and perhaps creating new ones.
Staton, whose career since the early 1950s has ranged from gospel and R&B to disco and back, takes a spiritual approach on the songs, nearly all her own, with mostly upbeat arrangements buffering any excesses.
Based on the first tracks -- "Shout Out, Hallelujah" and "You Got the Love," a new version of an old hit -- you may get the impression that Staton is solely targeting the dance floor, but the mechanical beats hardly show up the rest of the way.
Instead, while lyrics reflect higher inspirations and aspirations, the music stays simple and sweet.
The finger-wagging "What You Don't Master, Will Master You" is as much plead as reprimand, while "Put It Back" is about retribution the devil must pay.
Four slower songs close the album. "Behind the Veil of Silence" tackles domestic abuse, the five-times married Staton's testimony made all the more credible by her experiences in rough relationships.
Hot tracks: "What You Don't Master, Will Master You," "You Got the Love"
-- PABLO GORONDI,
The Associated Press
B
Snoop Dogg
Coolaid
eOne
Given his series of sleek, soul-pop albums produced with Pharrell Williams, fidgety g-funk stuff, faux mixtapes and thick reggae sounds recorded under the name Snoop Lion, it has been a while since Mr. Dogg has released a straight-out, all-rap project. Snoop's eel-astic cadence and oily flow have always been the sweet elixir that makes the melodic medicine of hard times go down smoothly.
Dogg has chosen reliable old friends to collaborate with here, such as Swizz Beatz, Just Blaze and the fast and furious Too Short, a rap elder with whom Snoop duets for an old-school gangsta pairing, "Don't Stop," that's more downbeat Dolemite than N.W.A. Dogg's liquid and high-minded tour partner, Wiz Khalifa, shows up for a paean to marijuana, "Kush Ups" that's silly yet heartfelt.
As for new friends, racy crooner Jeremih tackles "Point Seen Money Gone" with Snoop at the wheel, driving home that sexual-healing feeling.
Still, it is Snoop by his lonely, on clickity-clacking tracks such as the salty "Legend" and the surprisingly enraged "Super Crip" that prove the Dogg master hasn't lost his pound or his potency as a rapper and lyricist.
Hot tracks: "Super Crip," "Legend"
-- A.D. AMOROSI,
The Philadelphia Inquirer
Style on 08/02/2016