B Maxwell
black SUMMERS' night
Columbia
Twenty years since the rounded corners of Urban Hang Suite and its aquatic follow-up Embrya, Brooklyn's Maxwell is still tapping warm, calm water from the cool R&B well. Unlike, say, D'Angelo's spiky contemporary release Brown Sugar, Maxwell's first albums were always on the stylized soul tip, albeit with a weird, elegant sheen. By 2009's BLACK summers' night (not to be confused with this similarly titled new release), Maxwell put on a well-tailored suit, found bittersweet romanticism, and made the moody transformation complete: He was a black Bryan Ferry.
Steamy and passionate without being Millie Jackson-nasty, black SUMMERS' night still finds its brooding loverman lost in a series of existential crises with but one way out: l'amour. "I was dazed, I was burned, I was lost/Deep in the storm of a grave/Had a bed as a coffin/You were only the one that made me fulfilled," he croons in his bruised baritone on the salty "Lake by the Ocean." On the stewing, atmospheric soul of "gods" and "Listen Hear," Maxwell makes that same empiricism oozingly personal, but wants you/her to share the blame.
The quiet-storming funk of "The Fall" might seem at first to rise from Albert Camus' final treatise -- until you realize it's about the close of a tortured relationship.
Unless it is Camus-inspired, and that finale is really sad.
Hot tracks: "Lake by the Ocean," "Listen Hear," "The Fall"
NOTE: Maxwell performs at 7 p.m. Saturday at Verizon Arena in North Little Rock.
-- A.D. AMOROSI,
The Philadelphia Inquirer
A- The Avett Brothers
True Sadness
Republic
In a letter announcing the arrival of True Sadness, Seth Avett writes about removing the lens that would "present themselves in the most favorable light possible" and crafting an album "as multidimensional as its makers."
They succeeded. The Avett Brothers' gorgeous harmonies remain intact, but they are deployed in a far wider range, using a variety of beats and styles to better serve the stories they are trying to tell.
There's a wild electronic bounce to "Satan Pulls the Strings" that gives the traditional-sounding bluesy lyrics some extra lift. Producer Rick Rubin adds a funky bass line and some Nine Inch Nails-styled distortion on the vocals to twist its traditional roots a bit further. On "You Are Mine," the gurgling synth lines and throwback keyboard effects make the silly love song sound like it came from some long lost Wings album.
When the Avetts decide to keep the accompaniment more traditional, they generally try to make the lyrics more unexpected. The bittersweet "Fisher Road to Hollywood" features some sweet Simon and Garfunkel-inspired harmonies that make the sometimes-painful tale of becoming increasingly popular musicians all the more poignant.
True Sadness feels truer than the Avetts have allowed themselves to be before, which lets their ambitious, still-tender natures shine through brighter than ever.
Hot tracks: "Fisher Road to Hollywood," "Satan Pulls the Strings," "You Are Mine"
NOTE: The Avett Brothers will perform at 8 p.m. Oct. 7 at Verizon Arena.
-- GLENN GAMBOA,
Newsday (TNS)
B YG
Still Brazy
Def Jam
Who is the real Keenon Daequan Ray Jackson, aka Compton's youngest gun, YG? Is he the bad news bear of West Coast rap, following in the gangsta footsteps of fellow Compton hip-hop gods such as NWA? Or is he all chill, laid back, and G-Funk like his Doggfather neighbor, Snoop? On his relaxed Still Brazy, an album that replaces all C's with B's, YG is a little bit of both and equally adept at either -- with a little room left over for additional adventures.
More sparse and economic in his words and flow than most, this new Hemingway reports on his shooting in June 2015 (on the bluntly titled "Who Shot Me?") and the simple elegance of burglary ("Don't Come to L.A."). "I go broke rob fools for their jewelry/Stick yo hand up like you guilty," he coolly intones on the latter track in a manner that would impress the icy Cary Grant in To Catch a Thief. Moments later, when he's not riding a sleep-lulling G-Funk pulse on "Twist My Fingaz" and "Why You Always Hatin'" (the latter with Drake), YG is acting the fool on the playful "Bool, Balm & Bollective."
Hot tracks:"Why You Always Hatin'," "Who Shot Me?"
-- A.D. AMOROSI,
The Philadelphia Inquirer
B+ Beth Orton
Kidsticks
Anti/Epitaph
Beth Orton's latest amalgamates electronic sounds with profuse references to nature, counterparts evenly matched in the intriguing mix.
With assistance from producer, co-writer and fellow Brit Andrew Hung, Kidsticks finds Orton following an experimental route, with nods to Talking Heads, Kraftwerk and Everything But the Girl.
Orton has been melding electronics with folksy vibes throughout her career. On Kidsticks, loops and synthesizers take precedence but the lyrics anchored to the environment and interstellar occurrences provide a beguiling contrast.
Song titles are concise -- "Snow," "Moon," "Wave," "Dawnstar," "Falling" -- but the emotions are intense. "I was crying out for you before I ever knew you ... Breathe me in," Orton pleads on "Wave," while sounding prematurely aged on "Falling," where her "phone book is filling up with dead friends."
Of danceable tracks, "1973" is catchy, like Lene Lovich singing with Yazoo.
The racket in "Petals" drowns a lovely melody and "Corduroy Legs" is spoken-word hodgepodge, two of the few missteps.
Hot tracks:"Wave," "Falling," "1973"
-- PABLO GORONDI,
The Associated Press
Style on 07/12/2016