A- Charli XCX
Pop 2
Atlantic
Charli XCX has already exerted her influence on the sound of pop music.
The co-writer of Iggy Azalea’s “Fancy” and Icona Pop’s “I Love It,” Charli, who scored her own hit “Boom Clap,” likes combining exuberant synthesizer-filled dance music with simple, memorable choruses and a bit of hip-hop swagger. On her new mixtape, Charli and her pals, especially PC Music’s A.G. Cook, craft a future where that combination could rule the airwaves.
Because Pop 2 is a mixtape rather than an official album, Charli can focus on the songs rather than worrying about whether the album also serves as a proper vehicle for her blossoming career.
That means Tove Lo takes the lead in the catchy “Out of My Head,” with Charli not appearing until the second verse. It means she pretty much shares the gorgeous “Backseat” equally with Carly Rae Jepsen, disguising her own vocals in layers of Auto-Tune, while pushing Jepsen’s breathy vocals up in the mix.
And, most importantly, it means that Charli can take chances that she might not if the stakes were higher. It’s fun to hear her offer her twist on the Migos vibe with her own crew, including Cupcakke, Brooke Candy and Brazilian drag queen Pabllo Vittar, on “I Got It,” even working a bit of grime influence into it.
The poignant ballad “Lucky,” seemingly built mostly out of manipulated versions of stacks of her voice, and the lush “Tears,” which could make a run on radio right now, are both moving and memorable, a side of good-time Charli we don’t get to see very often.
Pop 2 shows what could be possible if radio was less uptight and more willing to experiment, something Charli XCX has quickly mastered.
Hot tracks: “Backseat,” “I Got It,” “Tears,” “Lucky”
— GLENN GAMBOA
Newsday (TNS)
B 2017 Broadway Cast
Sunday in the Park
With George
Arts Music
Annaleigh Ashford is a revelation as Dot in this outstanding recording of the cast from the 2017 revival of this Pulitzer Prize-winning musical by Stephen Sondheim and James Lapine.
Her voice makes Sondheim’s tongue-twisting lyrics glow and at the top of her range is superior to that of Bernadette Peters, who originated the role of the model/girlfriend of French impressionist painter Georges Seurat.
Peters and Mandy Patinkin gave indelible performances during the initial run that started in 1984, which is preserved on audio and video. Paired with Jake Gyllenhaal, Ashford has a more powerful and effortless top that soars in songs such as “Move On” and “We Do Not Belong Together,” and is more crystalline and less breathy in “Children and Art.”
Known more for his film roles, which include an Academy Award-nominated performance in Brokeback Mountain, Gyllenhaal conveys the introspective and tortured aspects of Seurat, a pointillist innovator who died at age 31 in 1891. The show uses his great A Sunday Afternoon on the Island of La Grande Jatte, which hangs in the Art Institute of Chicago, to focus on the meaning and place of art and artists in life.
Hot tracks: “Move On,” “We Do Not Belong Together”
— RON BLUM
The Associated Press
B+ Camila Cabello
Camila
Epic
Camila Cabello originally planned to call her solo debut The Hurting, The Healing, The Loving. It was going to be about her struggle since leaving Fifth Harmony and be built around the wrenching single “I Have Questions.”
As she worked on the album, buoyed by the success of her collaborations “Bad Things” with Machine Gun Kelly and “Havana” with Young Thug, the questions didn’t seem important anymore.
Cabello had answers. And on her debut album, she delivers songs with the confidence and power of an artist with far more than Cabello’s 20 years under her belt.
The sultry “Havana,” which pays tribute to her Cuban heritage and has now topped the pop charts, provides a solid foundation for the rest of Camila and its ambitions to establish her as a pop star as bankable as Selena Gomez or Demi Lovato.
Cabello is at her peak on the new single “Never Be the Same,” which shows off what sets her apart. The way her breathless voice breaks at the top of her register when she confesses, “Just like nicotine, heroin, morphine, suddenly I’m a fiend and you’re all I need” is the mark of an artist. That she can quickly switch to her full voice for the desperate chorus is the mark of a star.
There are plenty more hits to roll out. “She Loves Control” combines a Latin-tinged reggaeton groove and an irresistible chorus. The delightful “Into It” steps right into the sweet spot between Carly Rae Jepsen’s retro indie-pop and Sia’s unexpected phrasing, something that livens up the gorgeous ballad “Something’s Gotta Give.”
Hot tracks: “She Loves Control,” “Never Be the Same,” “Into It”
— GLENN GAMBOA
Newsday (TNS)