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Rolling Stone | 85

GREAT GOTH Mackenzie Scott’s fourth

album is a rewarding collection of expertly

crafted, darkly emotive electro-folk rock-

ers; she can turn the simple act of falling

hard for a new lover into brooding magic.

Torres

Silver Tongue

Merge

STEELY DAN New Pornographers’ wild card

Dan Bejar’s New Wave-steeped songs can

seem as familiar as old MTV faves, and his

wry lyrics (“You’re looking good in spite of

the light”) add an uncanny whimsy.

Destroyer

Have We Met

Merge

WHIGGED OUT “Desolation, come and get

it,” the former Afghan Whigs singer offers.

His first solo work in more than a decade

reminds us why he was one of the alt-rock

era’s most compelling tortured romantics.

HOT WIRE More than 40 years after per-

fecting punk minimalism on Pink Flag, the

U.K. lifers are punk maximalists, creating

hypnotic, quavering drones as they sing

about Russian oligarchs and fascism.

ROOTS REBELS The Southern country

rockers have evolved into great political

truth tellers, as evidenced by mournful

songs like “Rosemary With a Bible and a

Gun” and “Thoughts and Prayers.”

SYNTH-POP SWEETS There are moments

of pop bliss on the Petties’ latest to rival

their Eighties hits, and the wistful beauty,

grace, and gravity of their music only gets

deeper as the decades pass.

SAME DIRECTION The One Direction

member tries some Oasis-inspired rock

moves, but the songs never quite take

off. Elsewhere, he gets stuck with so-so

versions of boy-band formula.

STRANGE SOUL The Edward Sharpe and

the Magnetic Zeros guy creates a screwy

soul opus, complete with stoner beats,

zonked rap-singing, and an uncomfortable

cover of John Lennon’s “Jealous Guy.”

PILOTS CRASH An unfortunate acoustic

album with former X Factor contestant

Jeff Gutt replacing the late Scott Weiland

evokes Jethro Tull and Andrew Lloyd

Weber more than Nineties grunge.

# # 3 @ @!

HOPPED UP The ace debut solo LP from

the singer-guitarist in Philly indie rockers

Hop Along can be folky or synth-y, full of

tunes and lyrics that follow a strange logic

toward rich epiphanies.

4

Frances Quinlan

Likewise

Saddle Creek

Greg Dulli

Random Desire

BMG

Wire

Mind Hive

pinkflag

Drive-By Truckers

The Unraveling

ATO

Pet Shop Boys

Hotspot

X2

Louis Tomlinson

Wa l ls

Arista

Alex Ebert

I vs I

Community Music

Stone Temple Pilots

Perdida

Rhino

CONTRIBUTORS: JONATHAN BERNSTEIN, JON DOLAN, BRENNA EHRLICH, KORY GROW

Drive-By

Truckers’

Patterson

Hood (left)

and Mike

Cooley

UPDATE

C

ARLY PEARCE delivered

2017’s most indelible

country single with

“Every Little Thing,” a pene-

trating ballad that meditated

on memory. Three years later,

she’s back with her self-titled

follow-up, which finds Pearce

teaming up with the finest

writers on Music Row (Natalie

Hemby, Shane McAnally) for

stately midtempo musings on

growing up (“It Won’t Always

COUNTRY

YOUNG GUNS

Promising artists

grow up inside

Nashville’s broad

middle ground

Dustin

Lyn c h

Tullahoma

3

Carly

Pearce

Carly Pearce

#

Be Like This”) and the relent-

lessness of heartbreak (“Love

Has No Heart”). Meanwhile,

another young hitmaker,

Dustin Lynch, has stepped up

his ambition for a concept LP

about his southern Tennessee

hometown. Alongside typical

dirt-road homages and back-

yard come-ons (see “Red Dirt,

Blue Eyes”) are unexpected

moments of tension from this

down-the-center traditionalist.

“I’d burn this whole town

down,” he sings early on, “if

it wasn’t for my momma’s

house.” JONATHAN BERNSTEIN