C- Keith Urban
Ripcord
Capitol
American Idol judge Keith Urban throws everything against the wall with Ripcord, a collection of would-be superhits that will be received as ambitious or desperate, depending on how you're disposed to receiving facile, faceless country pop. Very little of it sticks, and that which does -- such as the reductive anthem "John Cougar, John Deere, John 3:16" -- can't withstand the barest scrutiny. Is Urban really so callow to believe that we are whatever brand loyalties we acquire? And can he really believe in the centimeter-deep determinism of "Boy Gets a Truck"? (Maybe not; he had no hand in writing either song; in fact he has fewer co-writer credits here than on any album in his career.)
With 10 producers spread out over 13 tracks, New Zealand native Urban seems to be content to supply vocals (and his trademark six-string banjo) to a series of big swings at the pop charts.
While he's an adept singer -- and his duet with Carrie Underwood, "The Fighter," actually brushes up against soulfulness -- the inevitable result is a scattershot, personality-free record full of glossy, generic productions. It reaches a nadir with his touted collaboration with the usually excellent Nile Rodgers and the always risible Pitbull, "Sun Don't Let Me Down."
As a record for people who don't really care for music, Ripcord is a fine entertainment product -- Eric Church sanded to velvet and denatured. And that's fine. Nobody who cares about music is going to bother with it anyway.
Hot track: "The Fighter"
-- PHILIP MARTIN
B+ Cyndi Lauper
Detour
Sire/Rhino
Cyndi Lauper, who has taken many a detour in her career (especially as the Tony Award-winning Broadway composer of Kinky Boots), takes one into country music with her latest album, Detour. A singer with great pipes, Lauper sings some of country's classics, solo and with duet partners.
She soars on the album's title song, a duet with the peerless Emmylou Harris. A hit in 1946 for Spade Cooley and in 1951 for Patti Page, the Western swing-flavored tune is a charmer. Lauper's "Girls Just Wanna Have Fun" persona fits a cool cover of Wanda Jackson's "Funnel of Love."
Lauper is a strong ballad singer who can bring real emotional depth to songs. She makes the most of Wilma Burgess' hit "Misty Blue" (brilliantly covered by soulful Dorothy Moore in 1976), Patsy Cline's "I Fall to Pieces" and Skeeter Davis' "The End of the World." On "Misty Blue," Lauper is wonderfully torchy and heartfelt.
Ray Price's hit "Heartaches by the Number" is honky-tonk heaven; Lauper and Vince Gill have fun with Conway Twitty and Loretta Lynn's "You're the Reason Our Kids Are Ugly."
Hot tracks: "Misty Blue," "Heartaches by the Number," "Detour," "I Fall to Pieces"
-- ELLIS WIDNER
B A$AP Ferg
Always Strive and Prosper
RCA
A$AP Rocky may be the boss of the A$AP Mob and a deeply credible and introspective rapper. Yet Rocky's closest cool lieutenant, A$AP Ferg (Harlem-born Darold Ferguson Jr.) has crafted an equally true -- and, perhaps, most thoughtful -- palette of hip-hop's hustle.
Using the title of a song performed among the Mob's members, Ferg has created a personal "Ghetto Symphony" that seems to have reached a gorgeous crescendo on his sophomore album with the Star Trek-sounding title.
Prosper is not without playfulness or bangers. The rapid-fire "New Level"; silly, creepy skits such as "Meet My Crazy Uncle"; and the techno-frenzied "Hungry Ham" with Skrillex show just how spirited and kiddish Ferg can be. Sometimes the party gets polite and the message positive (as on the bouncy, bizarre "Strive" with Missy Elliott).
Ferg finds his political edge on the buoyant "Beautiful." Though plainspoken, it's refreshingly gentle and rainbow-toned: "I want to empower people/White, purple and yellow, and all of my browner people/We can be positive, don't let negativity kill you." Saving the best for last, Ferg touches emotionally on notions of family, mentorship and harmony on "Grandma" in a way that shows his growth as a composer and a thinker. Bravo to Ferg for raising the game.
Hot tracks: "Grandma," "Strive," "Beautiful"
-- A.D. AMOROSI,
The Philadelphia Inquirer
A- Anohni
Hopelessness
Secretly Canadian
The last Antony and the Johnsons album, 2010's Swanlights, contemplated the Earth's environmental collapse. Hopelessness addresses the world with even more anger and pointed accusation. Antony Hegarty has rechristened herself Anohni, and Hopelessness rejects the piano-based chamber music of her former band in favor of stark electronic accompaniment, in collaboration with Hudson Mohawke and Oneohtrix Point Never. These are not disco anthems, as in her cameos with Hercules & Love Affair. They're art songs in the vein of Bjork's Vulnicura.
Hopelessness is a topical protest record. It derides President Barack Obama and condemns North Korea, Nigeria, Great Britain and America. It is full of self-recriminations and acknowledgment of complicity in unethical practices. The perkiest songs are called "Execution" and "Crisis."
Anohni's dramatic, crooning voice -- somber and soulful, earthy and ethereal -- can be beautiful even when she's singing about the ugliness of drone bombs. This is a complicated record, full of contradictions and tensions and unsettling beauty.
Hot tracks: "Execution," "Crisis"
-- STEVE KLINGE,
The Philadelphia Inquirer
Style on 05/17/2016