A-J. Cole
4 Your Eyez Only
Dreamville
J. Cole's latest unfolds like an old journal that has been unearthed and shared with an audience of one -- you, or, more importantly, the daughter of a friend whose shooting death ties the rapper's latest set together.
"Bloodshed done turned the city to a battlefield/I call it poison, you call it real," Cole raps on "Change," before narrating the final moments in the life of James McMillan Jr., whose life was cut short at 22. The fragility of life -- particularly that of young black men who too often are felled by violence -- shapes the frustration and desperation that permeates the album.
Cole's latest is low on frills and rich with introspection. If sincerity and storytelling matter more than sensationalism, fans will find 4 Your Eyez Only to be solid, if sometimes slow-moving.
It opens ominously, with Cole facing his own mortality on "For Whom the Bell Tolls." On the powerful "Neighbors," Cole raps that any black man can be "a candidate for a Trayvon [Martin] kinda fate/Even when your crib sit on a lake."
But for all the looming dangers, Cole has hope. He's unguarded and in love on the delicate "She's Mine, Pt. 1" and "She's Mine, Pt. 2."
Over the course of nearly 9 minutes, the title song relays a heartfelt and frank message from McMillan to his daughter. The meandering, jazz-tinged track is tragic, touching, wise -- and a little bit sleepy -- everything that Cole's album is.
Hot tracks: "Neighbors," "She's Mine, Pt. 1," "Change," "4 Your Eyez Only"
-- MELANIE SIMS
The Associated Press
A-Various artists
The Hamilton Mixtape
Atlantic
Hamilton creator Lin-Manuel Miranda says The Hamilton Mixtape is the first of at least two in which he and a star-studded cast of collaborators ranging from The Roots to Sia and Miguel employ a variety of strategies to bring the show's music and message into the mainstream.
"Immigrants (We Get the Job Done)" uses the line from the show's "Yorktown (The World Turned Upside Down)" as a jumping-off point for a full-fledged, multilingual appreciation of immigrants' role in building America. The song, which features K'naan, Snow Tha Product, Riz MC and Residente, doesn't shy away from controversy, opening with a spoken-word piece stating, "It's really astonishing that in a country founded by immigrants, 'immigrant' has somehow become a bad word." Snow Tha Product takes it a step further, rapping, "Racists feed the belly of the beast."
Another way The Hamilton Mixtape tries to expand the musical's influence is by trying to make some songs feel more universal. Kelly Clarkson's wrenching version of "It's Quiet Uptown" rolls various characters' parts into a simpler narrative, removing names and references to make the story less specific. Usher does the same on his lush "Wait for It," which makes both songs more radio friendly.
The best of these is the reworking of "Helpless" from Ashanti and Ja Rule, who Miranda has said inspired the original. By stripping out the plot elements and adding a bit more swagger, the dynamic duo may have created the surest hit of the Hamilton-related bunch.
Hot tracks: "Helpless," "Immigrants (We Get the Job Done)," "It's Quiet Uptown," "Wait for It"
-- GLENN GAMBOA
Newsday (TNS)
BHope Sandoval & the Warm Inventions
Until the Hunter
Tendril Tales
Hope Sandoval is best known for her work as half of Mazzy Star, known for the dreamily slow-moving hit "Fade Into You."
On her first solo album in six years, Sandoval and Warm Inventions collaborator Colm O Ciosoig gather sparse guitar melodies as a tapestry behind her alluring voice.
For "Let Me Get There," Sandoval teamed with Philadelphia singer and guitarist Kurt Vile. Like "Somethin' Stupid," Frank Sinatra's duet with his daughter Nancy, or Leonard Cohen's work with choirs, the combination of refined and unrefined voices makes for interesting tension.
Elsewhere, Sandoval revels in echo as O Ciosoig, best known as the drummer for My Bloody Valentine, offers delicate support.
Hot tracks: "Let Me Get There," "Into the Trees"
-- RANDALL ROBERTS
Los Angeles Times (TNS)
BDawn Richard
Redemption
Our Dawn
Wearing a gleaming headpiece falling past her shoulders like some futuristic deity, Dawn Richard could pass for Sun Ra's spiritual cousin on the cover of her latest album.
The singer was part of pop group Danity Kane, but the music she has been making on her own flirts with the avant-garde, as it keeps one Afro-futuristic space boot on the dance floor. With a supple but never-showy voice, Richard is an artist with far bigger ambitions than rushing the pop charts.
Redemption dials down the beats to strike a more reflective tone. "Love Under Lights," which gestures toward the glow-stick bombast of electronic dance music raves, turns pensive and morphs into what could pass for a field recording from the Middle East or the Sahara with cowbell percussion and chanting.
With producer Machinedrum (Travis Stewart), Richard creates soundscapes as much as melodies, and turns dance tracks into protest music. The New Orleans-born artist of Creole and Haitian descent champions society's underdogs.
The album folds a recurring question inside music that melds machinelike cadences with organic virtuosity. On "LA," a poignant plea -- "We just want to know if we really matter?" -- plays out over a suitelike track that links lean electronic rhythms, a big guitar solo and a trumpet coda by jazz great Trombone Shorty.
The album's ambitions reward long-haul, continuous listening.
Hot tracks: "LA," "Love Under Lights"
-- GREG KOT
Chicago Tribune (TNS)
Style on 12/27/2016