LISTEN UP

Brandy Clark has Big Day; k.d. lang's trio scores high

Album cover for Brandy Clark's "Big Day in a Small Town"
Album cover for Brandy Clark's "Big Day in a Small Town"

A Brandy Clark

Big Day in a Small Town

Warner Bros.

Brandy Clark's impressive 12 Songs debut in 2013 was one of that year's best; it established her as a writer and singer of substance and insight.

Big Day in a Small Town is even better. Like the work of Loretta Lynn, Merle Haggard and newcomer Margo Price, Clark's gritty songs feel like lived-in, eyewitness reports. In "Homecoming Queen," she tells a too-familiar story of life after high school: "28 shouldn't look this old/but the last 10 years sure took their toll" as a woman reflects on a life and marriage that "ain't so bad but it ain't so good."

In "Broke," a farm family hits the financial rock bottom but tries to keep their spirits up "sittin' on the porch, drinking generic Coke." In "Three Kids, No Husband," a single mom faces truth: a "pile of bills ain't gonna pay themselves" as she juggles the kids' homework, worries and dirty dishes. "Since You've Gone to Heaven" illuminates the heartache of loss and how it can devastate a family.

Tough, tender, illuminating, heartbreaking and sometimes funny, Clark's deeply personal songs radiate empathy for people in real-life situations. Classic country themes? Yes. But Clark, like Ashley Monroe, Kacey Musgraves and Price, gives her songs a modern viewpoint that pays homage to her roots but also feels timeless.

Hot tracks: the sassy "Girl Next Door," "Homecoming Queen," "Broke," "Three Kids, No Husband," the honky-tonk heaven that is "Drinkin', Smokin', Cheatin'"

-- ELLIS WIDNER

B+ Neko Case, k.d. lang, Laura Veirs

case/lang/veirs

Anti-

It started with an email from k.d. lang to a couple of singers she knew and admired, Neko Case and Laura Veirs. A few years later, the trio has its first album. The voices and songs are first-rate. Producer Tucker Martine gives each song exactly what it needs, with undulating acoustic guitars, electronic textures, strings, brass and bells. There's the woozy psychedelia of "Supermoon" and the noir cabaret of "Blue Fires."

On the torch ballad "Honey and Smoke," lang's luxurious voice sweeps to the forefront, but the answering harmonies evoke girl-group-era camaraderie. On "Delirium," Case delivers the memorable chorus; her accomplices provide vital color. Veirs steers "Georgia Stars," but it's the wordless backing vocals that underline the melodic hook. On "Atomic Number," the singers swap verses, as if to embody the three opening lines: "I'm not a freckled maid/I'm not the fair-haired girl/I'm not a pail of milk for you to spoil." That defiant self-determination returns on "I Want to Be Here," with the three sharing the melody line.

Pedigree only takes you so far in group projects. The songs and their organic presentation make case/lang/veirs resonate.

Hot tracks: "Honey and Smoke," "Delirium"

-- GREG KOT,

Chicago Tribune (TNS)

B Red Hot Chili Peppers

The Getaway

Warner Bros.

Thirty years ago, the Red Hot Chili Peppers formed an embodiment of punk values: insurgency, impertinence, the opposite of groomed and packaged. Those values linger mainly as a fond reverberation on their 11th studio album, a back-to-basics record with an asterisk: It doesn't sound exactly like classic-vintage Chili Peppers, but it might just sound like how you remember them.

Producer Danger Mouse smartly punches up the sinewy cohesion that still sets the Chili Peppers apart. "Dark Necessities" has all the trademarks: thumb-popping bass, chiming guitar, vocals that oscillate between rhythmic patter and a plaintive chorus. "Goodbye Angels" forms an even more perfect distillation, with mounting pressure and a hard swerve, after 3 1/2 minutes, into a polyrhythmic mosh-pit jam.

Anthony Kiedis writes lyrics with rhythmic cadence first and foremost, which means there will always be bursts of babble alongside his cosmic or tragicomic musings. Flea is better featured here than he has been for a while, and his hookup with drummer Chad Smith is as fine and rubbery as ever. Guitarist Josh Klinghoffer sounds fully vested now: The spidery arpeggios and echoey accents in "The Longest Wave" reflect the long shadow of his predecessor, John Frusciante, but that's to be expected. What's less expected is a collaboration with Elton John and Bernie Taupin on "Sick Love," a sauntering pop tune with a crooked charm. Doesn't that choice of guests underline Flea's recent indictment of rock "as a dead form"?

Hot tracks: "Dark Necessities," "Goodbye Angels"

-- NATE CHINEN,

The New York Times

A- Beth Orton

Kidsticks

Anti-

Twenty years ago, Britain's Beth Orton all but created cinematic folk-tronica with the loop-filled, singsong melodies of Trailer Park. Orton wielded an ethereal voice and a caustic, loving lyric, a sass and tenacity found in this, her first electronic-imbued album since 2006's Comfort of Strangers.

Having moved to Southern California, studied subtle folk guitar stylings with the late Bert Jansch and, now, working with nu-electronic music wildings Andrew Hung and David Wrench, Orton is at her weirdest best (and most expressive, vocally) without losing sight of her gauzy roots. The jazzy, kinetic "Moon" is sympathetic while maintaining a steely, synthetic feel. "1973" could be a femme-fronted Kraftwerk. There's a funky robot call-and-response moment called "Snow" that pulls together the dirty girl soul of Bush Tetras, but with a silvery sheen. All that, plus the simmering, folksy melodies and sensual vocals of "Dawnstar" and "Petals" rank Kidsticks as one of her most gorgeous offerings.

Hot tracks: "Moon," "1973," "Petals"

-- A.D. AMOROSI,

The Philadelphia Inquirer

Style on 06/28/2016

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