B+Ariana Grande
Dangerous Woman
Republic
One of the best things that happened to 22-year-old Ariana Grande -- inheritor of Mariah Carey's crown as soul-pop's youngest multi-octave vocalist -- was Saturday Night Live. The comedy show allowed the usually stiff live performer to loosen up and demonstrate another side of herself. Grande has opened her jazzier vocal sound and found more minimalist production values that make her lyrical emotionalism shine on her third album.
"All I want to do is fall in deep," she sings with a soft, strong quaver against a murmured syn-bass line and finger-snap percussion on "Into You." It's a torrid track whose chorus blossoms into full-blown electro-disco.
Grande maintains cool but mighty distance on the slick faux-blues of the title song, on which her quick-speak and multitracked runs are a highlight. "Side to Side" offers a dubby, dance-hall vibe and a naughty Nicki Minaj rap, and "Leave Me Lonely" is, weirdly, an even better pairing. The gruff-voiced Macy Gray and the usually smooth Grande go toe-to-toe creating sleek soul that's scuffed up like pricey patent leather after a mud storm.
Hot tracks: "Into You," "Leave Me Lonely," "Side to Side"
-- A.D. AMOROSI,
The Philadelphia Inquirer
A- Bob Dylan
Fallen Angels
Columbia
In these post-American Idol days, the drive toward vocal perfection is a powerful one. Bob Dylan's skill has always been in connection, in expression, in using his voice to capture the essence of a song.
With Fallen Angels -- the companion to last year's Shadows in the Night, where he also used Frank Sinatra's versions of classics from the Great American Songbook as inspiration for interpretations of his own -- Dylan shows how his connection to these songs and to his fans has only grown stronger.
Dylan infuses most of the songs here with a distinctively craggy beauty, instilling classics like "All the Way" and "It Had to Be You" with swagger and lament.
He is at his best on ballads like "Maybe You'll Be There," his world-weary vocals tinged with wistfulness and surrounded by a gorgeous, streamlined arrangement featuring Charlie Sexton and Stu Kimball's understated guitar work. The importance of Dylan's band -- Sexton, Kimball, pedal-steel guitarist Donny Herron, bassist Tony Garnier and drummer George Receli -- can't be overstated. They set an elegant mood in "Polka Dots and Moonbeams" before Dylan even makes a sound.
The only time Dylan can't quite match the band or the song is in "That Old Black Magic," where the quickening tempo has him rushing to keep up.
That slight misstep aside, Fallen Angels is the impressive work of a great singer.
Hot tracks:"Maybe You'll Be There," "It Had to Be You," "All the Way"
-- GLENN GAMBOA,
Newsday (TNS)
A- Chance the Rapper
Coloring Book
Apple Music
Mixtapes used to be casual, tossed-off affairs giving rappers a chance to stretch out and experiment between official albums. The "official" mixtape -- this is the Chicago rapper's third -- blurs those lines. It's silly to call Coloring Book, with its seriousness of purpose and guest appearances by Kanye West, Future and Kirk Franklin, anything other than an album.
And it is a mighty impressive one. Along with Franklin, Chance also guested on "Ultra Light Beam," which pointed West's The Life of Pablo in a gospel direction. Coloring Book starts in a similar fashion, putting a top-notch West verse to use on the irresistibly energetic "All We Got," a celebration of the redemptive power of music.
From there -- with boisterous horns, uplifting spirit, and Chance's varied vocal attack, as well as a guest list that includes Lil Wayne, Justin Bieber and T-Pain -- Coloring Book brings the gospel-rap-pop fusion to more consistent fruition. "I don't make songs for free, I sing for freedom," Chance raps on an album that at its heart is about pain and suffering endured by the poor in his native Chicago, and music's role in helping them rise above it.
Hot tracks: "All We Got"
-- DAN DELUCA,
The Philadelphia Inquirer
Style on 05/31/2016