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Halsey goes for the art on new album

Album cover for Halsey's "hopeless fountain kingdom"
Album cover for Halsey's "hopeless fountain kingdom"

A- Halsey

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Album cover for Little Steven's "Soulfire"

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Album cover for Dan Auerbach's "Waiting on a Song"

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Album cover for Sir the Baptist's "Saint or Sinner"

hopeless fountain

kingdom

Astralwerks

Halsey’s second album begins with her speaking the prologue of Romeo and Juliet. Shakespeare is a tough act to follow.

Halsey stretches herself on an album that demands attention as the singer-songwriter explores new musical — often uncommercial — ground.

It’s a complex, sober, riskier album brimming with heartbreak.

Halsey is frustrated and broken on all 13 tracks, many of which are surprisingly spare. The gorgeous “Sorry” is mostly her and a piano. “Lie,” featuring Quavo of Migos, and “Walls Could Talk” are more song fragments. “Hopeless” is a whisper of a song.

She lets her rock voice out to great effect in “Bad at Love” and melds nicely with Fifth Harmony’s Lauren Jauregui on the techno-flavored “Strangers.” “Alone” marries anguished lyrics to a peppy Donna Summer-like arrangement. The Weeknd gets a songwriting credit on the ghostly “Eyes Closed” and Sia gets one for “Devil in Me.” Cellos, violins and choirs pop up all over the album.

Halsey rose to fame with “Closer,” her monster track with The Chainsmokers, and her excellent 2015 debut Badlands. The new album might not have huge anthems, but it’s just as satisfying.

Hot tracks: “Sorry,” “Bad at Love,” “Strangers”

— MARK KENNEDY

The Associated Press

BDan Auerbach

Waiting on a Song

Warner Bros.

Even though they’re a garage-blues duo, the Black Keys got big enough to sell out arenas because Dan Auerbach turned out to have a far greater facility and comfort level with pop hooks than your typical would-be blues guitar hero. The song craftsman aspect of his musical personality was emphasized to a certain extent with his 2015 side project the Arcs, but it really flourishes on this charming throwback pop record, for which Auerbach’s Nashville, Tenn., pals John Prine and Pat McLaughlin co-wrote the title track and legit guitar hero Duane Eddy dropped by for two cameos.

Some of the boppier numbers, such as the jingle-jangling “Shine on Me” and equally optimistic “Show Me,” recall the casual 1980s master craftsmanship of the Traveling Wilburys and Dire Straits. (Mark Knopfler also was a guest.)

Since moving to Nashville from Akron, Ohio, in 2010, Auerbach has thrived as a songwriter and producer, with Dr. John, Lana Del Rey, Bombino and many more. As long-time-in-coming solo albums go (Auerbach’s last was Keep It Hid in 2009), Waiting on a Song doesn’t play the usual confessional “this is the real me” card. Except in the sense that it does show the real Auerbach doing what he does best: making pop songs.

Hot tracks: “Shine on Me,” “Show Me,”

— DAN DELUCA

The Philadelphia Inquirer

BLittle Steven

Soulfire

Universal

If there’s something familiar-sounding about Bruce Springsteen sidekick Steve Van Zandt’s first new album in 18 years, it’s because none of the songs are new.

That’s not a bad thing: Starting with Southside Johnny & the Asbury Jukes’ first and best albums in the ’70s, Van Zandt has always written for others. Here, Little Steven covers himself, delivering soul-rock takes on tunes like the Springsteen co-written “Love on the Wrong Side of Town,” and “Saint Valentine’s Day,” which he wrote for Norwegian garage band the Cocktail Slippers.

Mixed in are touches of expansive Blaxploitation-era funk with the James Brown cover “Down and Out in New York City” and bold and brassy Chicago blues on the Etta James-associated “Blues Is My Business.” Van Zandt may be vocally challenged, but his true-believer rock ’n’ roll spirit and intelligence as an arranger won’t be denied on this full-of-fire album.

Hot tracks: “Love on the Wrong Side of Town,” “Down and Out in New York City,” “Blues Is My Business”

— DAN DELUCA

The Philadelphia Inquirer

BSir the Baptist

Saint or Sinner

Atlantic

Sir the Baptist, aka William James Stokes, is the son of a preacher. His major label debut has one foot on the street and the other in church. The spiritual-secular divide is a foundation for Sir’s personal life, from the choirs he sang in as a youth to his days as a homeless Lyft driver living in his Honda, which undergirds his mix of devotion and doubt, faith and transgression.

Sir is at his best when he merges gospel’s unwavering belief with the reality checks of hip-hop. The music embraces finger-snapping doowop, jazz-inflected horns and reggae cadences, but its core is the piano-organ chords and vocal harmonies of the church, flavored with rap cadences.

“Raise Hell” stomps its defiant message with gospel piano and rapid-fire hand claps. The album is strongest when it explores those deep roots. The wicked humor of “Prayers on a Picket Sign” sets up the ferocious “Raise Hell” and the uplifting “What We Got,” which testifies to the resilience of a black community.

The musical momentum hits a speed bump with a silly pot-smoking skit and homage, “Marley’s Son,” and then veers toward more formulaic pop. But on the closer, “Heaven,” he salts a choir’s sanctified shouts with an earthier view of what sort of afterlife awaits those who struggle to navigate the world outside the stained-glass windows.

Hot tracks: “Raise Hell,” “What We Got,” “Deliver Me”

— GREG KOT

Chicago Tribune (TNS)

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