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87
BRIMFUL OF FUN The first new album in
eight years from Tjinder Singh’s alt-pop
crew is as great as their Nineties high
points, a hazy, globalist British rock that’s
loose and optimistically eclectic.
4
Cornershop
England Is
a Garden
Ample Play
SWEET TRIP After the festival-ready R&B
house of 2014’s Our Love, Dan Snaith
packs a triple-LP’s worth of twisted disco,
sample-drunk collage, and psychedelic
warmth into a 45-minute thrill ride.
4
Caribou
Suddenly
Merge
DANCE THERAPY Disco self-care from
Toronto art popper Meghan Remy, with
stomping dance tracks and lush ballads,
interspersed with interviews in which peo-
ple give advice to their teenage selves.
CLASSIC COUNTRY One of Nashville’s
sharpest storytellers leans on her singer-
songwriter side, exorcising a breakup over
Sixties-style countrypolitan strings and
dueting with Randy Newman.
BACK IN BLACK Facing poor health, Ozzy
explores real-life terror, with help from
members of the Red Hot Chili Peppers and
Guns N’ Roses, plus Post Malone’s produc-
er. The results are surprisingly moving.
FOLKED UP The former Pavement leader’s
last solo set was quasi-electronic. This is a
mostly acoustic folk set, indebted to faves
like Fairport Convention and Bert Jansch,
and full of fireside beauty.
SAD SOUL Rateliff found success singing
big retro-soul tunes; his new solo album
is much more somber, influenced by the
death of musician friend Richard Swift,
and at times recalling Leonard Cohen.
BACK FOR MOORE Her first album in more
than 10 years settles on muscular, tasteful
adult pop that’s often autobiographical, in-
cluding “Fifteen,” a cleareyed look back at
her late-Nineties days as a teen pop star.
BETH COASTS Bethany Cosentino affirms
her new life since becoming sober, and
you can hear how much the change
means. But she’s traded her band’s catchy
guitar buzz for bland 1980s-rock retreads.
# # # 3 3 @
SOPHIE SOARS Indie-rock prodigy Sophie
Allison delves into darkness and vulnera-
bility while maintaining the same dreamy,
melodic drive that made her 2018 debut,
Clean, so memorable.
4
Soccer Mommy
Color Theory
Loma Vista
U.S. Girls
Heavy Light
4AD
Brandy Clark
Your Life Is
a Record
Warner
Ozzy Osbourne
Ordinary Man
Epic
Stephen Malkmus
Traditional
Techniques
Matador
Nathaniel Rateliff
And It’s Still
Alright
Stax
Mandy Moore
Silver Landings
Verve Forecast
Best Coast
Always Tomorrow
Concord
CONTRIBUTORS: JONATHAN BERNSTEIN, JON DOLAN, KORY GROW, ANGIE MARTOCCIO, CLAIRE SHAFFER, SIMON VOZICK-LEVINSON
Ten new albums you need to know about now
UPDATE
A
DD THESE TWO LPs
to a growing list of
albums by singer-song-
writers (including Sharon Van
Etten and Kacey Musgraves)
who’ve modernized their
sounds without sacrificing
craft. Margaret Glaspy’s latest
hits as hard as her rugged,
guitar-driven 2016 debut,
Emotions and Math — not in
spite of her music’s stark-
ly sleek new textures, but
NEW-LOOK
SYNTH-POP
Singer-songwriters
deepen their music
by embracing
sleeker sounds
Caroline
Rose
Superstar
#
Margaret
Glaspy
Devotion
4
because of them (see the
plaintive, vocoder-steeped
ballad “Killing What Keeps Us
Alive”). Caroline Rose used to
make alt-country. Her fourth
LP doubles down on Eighties
glitz. Rose’s ace narrative
writing occasionally takes
a back seat to her neon
keyboards and dance beats,
but when she stumbles upon
a fine groove (the Prince-in-
spired “Feel the Way I Want”),
it’s irresistible. “I feel as
though I need a change,” she
sings. The one she went with
works fine. JONATHAN BERNSTEIN
Ozzy