Popular Music CDs for Adults
Hundreds of CDs are added to the Library's collection each month. Here are the most popular Music CDs for adults.
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Cracker Island
Cracker Island marks something of a retreat for Gorillaz, moving the virtual group away from the excess of The Song Machine, a multi-part series of collaborations that sometimes threatened to collapse upon its own weight. Guests are still featured on Cracker Island -- collaboration is one of the chief reasons Damon Albarn launched the group at the dawn of the millennium -- but he sticks with Greg Kurstin and Remi Kabaka, Jr. as his main collaborators, giving the record an appealingly streamlined feel. Another element lending the album a sleek, unified vibe is how the guests are effectively used as extra texture. Bad Bunny may dominate the vibrant "Tormenta," but he's the exception to the rule: Stevie Nicks gives "Oil" a hint of harmony, and Tame Impala sets "New Gold" adrift in a neo-psychedelic haze, while Beck fades into the background of "Possession Island." All this means is that Damon Albarn is at the center of Cracker Island, a shift that underscores how the record is less an exploration of new sonic territory as it is a reaffirmation of his strengths. Balancing bright, colorful electro-pop with a slight air of melancholy is hardly a new trick for Albarn, yet there's a clean, efficient energy propelling Cracker Island that gives the album a fresh pulse. ~ Stephen Thomas Erlewine (syndetics)
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Atum: A Rock Opera in Three Acts
An ambitiously sprawling sequel to both 1995's Mellon Collie and the Infinite Sadness and 2000's MACHINA: The Machines of God, 2023's Atum finds Billy Corgan dipping into the sound of pretty much every era of Smashing Pumpkins' career. For fans keeping track of the concept, the album (presented over three discs) continues the story of "Shiny," the main character first introduced on Mellon Collie, though you'd have to dig pretty deep to pull any strong narrative threads out of the material. Conceptual conceits aside, these are some of the strongest melodic and heartfelt anthems Corgan has written since at least 2012's Oceania. Aiding Corgan in striking this balance are reunited OG Pumpkins bandmates guitarist James Iha and drummer Jimmy Chamberlin (having rejoined for 2018's Shiny and Oh So Bright, Vol. 1 / LP: No Past. No Future. No Sun. and 2020's Cyr), along with longtime Corgan collaborator guitarist Jeff Schroeder. Also contributing are backing vocalists Katie Cole and Sierra Swan, as well as pianist Mike Garson. The album starts in robust fashion with cuts like "Butterfly Suite," "The Good in Goodbye," "Hooligan," and "With Ado I Do" showcasing an almost perfect amalgam of the band's sonic palette, from shimmering sunburst synths and pummeling acid-rock guitar pyrotechnics to more introspective piano- and electronics-accented balladry. Yet more thrilling moments pop up elsewhere, such as the Gish-esque guitar riffage of "Empires," "Beguiled," and "Spellbinding." There's also the goth-accented Adore-style doom rock of "Moss" and synthy cuts like "Space Age" that nicely marry the sighing romanticism of the group's early work with Corgan's latter-career embrace of electronic pop. Over the course of the three discs, a pattern emerges as Corgan counterbalances the effusively over-the-top tracks with more diffuse, prog-influenced synthwave numbers, a vibe that certainly brings to mind the 1970s laser light show atmosphere of bands like Pink Floyd. Thankfully, there's a pleasing flow and emotional arc to the collection that draws you deeper in the further you go, in much the same way that Smashing Pumpkins' most beloved albums were such all-encompassing experiences. ~ Matt Collar (syndetics)
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The Love Invention
Alison Goldfrapp's voice, songwriting, and very name are so intertwined with her wide-ranging body of work with Will Gregory as Goldfrapp that it makes establishing her identity as a solo artist uniquely difficult. Fortunately, her first album on her own proves she's up to the challenge. Instead of striving to make a deeply serious set of songs -- as many bandmembers do when they go solo -- on The Love Invention, she offers her listeners a chance to dance their cares away with some of the most direct and euphoric music of her career. The record's ecstatic grooves celebrate her musical roots and dance music itself as much as any relationship. Disco has always been a vital element of Alison Goldfrapp's work, and it provides some of The Love Invention's most glittering highlights: "Gatto Gelato" is a saucy, Italo disco-flavored standout, while "The Beat Divine" takes a cosmic, slow-motion approach that's so hazily sensual, it seems to have its own fog machine. On "Fever," a four-on-the-floor house beat brings the track -- and the album -- to a pulsing peak. Though the styles and influences may be familiar, Alison Goldfrapp takes distinctly different vantage points on them here than she does with Goldfrapp. Neither as dramatic nor as animated as the extremes of her work with Gregory, The Love Invention casts a consistently transporting spell of rejuvenation and seduction on songs like the Claptone collaboration "Digging Deeper Now," where Alison Goldfrapp sighs "Your colors/Breathe life back into me" over a swelling synth bass. Despite contributions from producers that also include Richard X, Paul Woolford, and James Greenwood, the whole album flows as smoothly as an artfully mixed DJ set. Of course, a passing resemblance to Goldfrapp's work is inevitable. Some of The Love Invention's sleekly linear tracks, such as "NeverStop," could almost pass for dance remixes of the duo's songs. Hints of Supernature's and Head First's elated dance and synth pop make themselves known, most notably on "In Electric Blue," a radiant ballad that recalls "Number One" as well as Alison Goldfrapp's larger talent for grounding her sonic fantasies in real feeling. Similarly, she transforms the prosaic into the magical on the album's sparkling title track, which was partly inspired by her use of hormone replacement therapy for menopause. On "So Hard So Hot," she fuels its Donna Summer-esque disco inferno with climate change fears. As The Love Invention unfolds, she changes things up while upholding the album's gliding flow, adding narrative drama with "Hotel"'s tale of fleeting passions and balancing "Subterfuge"'s ethereal tones with trap-inspired beats. Goldfrapp's mix of everything and anything is a large part of the duo's charm, but the way Alison Goldfrapp focuses on her legacy as a dance and pop music innovator on The Love Invention feels just as authentic. Her respect for the power of the groove results in one of her most cohesive projects, and one that makes the dance floor that much classier with its presence. ~ Heather Phares (syndetics)
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Subtract
Even if - (subtract) wasn't the predestined title for the last of Ed Sheeran's mathematic titles, the name would suit the haunted 2023 album. Absence hangs heavy over the record, perhaps the inevitable result of the singer/songwriter coming through a period where he fought a plagiarism lawsuit over his hit "Thinking Out Loud" (he emerged victorious the day before - (subtract) was released), supported his wife as she discovered a cancerous tumor during her second pregnancy (it was successfully removed after her daughter's birth), and saw the death of his close friend Jamal Edwards. As a method of processing, Sheeran hunkered down to collaborate with Aaron Dessner of the National, thereby mimicking an introspective move Taylor Swift made a few years earlier in the 2020s. Dessner's work with Sheeran is as subtle and sympathetic as his collaborations with Swift, yet they don't bear a distinctive fingerprint; he doesn't force the songwriter to follow his lead, he fleshes out their ideas with taste and restraint. As Sheeran is naturally a laid-back performer, the pair fit almost a little bit too neatly: where certain hooks and melodic refrains would've been pushed into the spotlight on previous Sheeran albums, they're lying in the background here. That tender touch when combined with a preponderance of ballads turns - (subtract) into a curiously recessive album; its emotions are raw, but its execution is reserved. Listen closely and the record teems with grief and uncertainty -- and sometimes, as on the bonus track "Toughest," which explicitly mentions his wife's cancer, it doesn't take much concentration to note this turbulence -- yet Sheeran's musical instincts lead him toward resolution. Deep feelings are calmed within the music itself, either through the gentle sway of acoustic guitar strums or Sheeran's keening falsetto, recorded moments that offer reassurance in a way the songs themselves don't. Ultimately, that means - (subtract) provides a sense of comfort that's possibly accidental; even at his darkest moments, Sheeran steers himself toward the light. ~ Stephen Thomas Erlewine (syndetics)
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That! Feels Good!
That! Feels Good! is an emphatic answer to 2020's What's Your Pleasure? in more than one way. The dialogue evoked by the titles translates to how Jessie Ware's fifth album relates to her fourth, as this moves the party into a bigger and more opulent disco with a laser focus on fevered physical gratification. Continuing to work with primary What's Your Pleasure? collaborator James Ford, Ware also pairs here with Stuart Price -- who reached out after helping Pet Shop Boys and Dua Lipa make other dancefloor bombs dropped in 2020 -- to assist in turning up the heat. Somewhat surprisingly, this set is considerably less electronic, more "Relight My Fire" than "I Feel Love." The dashing '70s flashback on the previous LP's "Step into My Life" was a kind of precursor to the wider use of robust brass and strings, and pianos skip and rollick through a few especially potent songs such as "Free Yourself" and "Begin Again." Ware and company cleverly twist tried-and-true lyrical themes present throughout the history of dance music -- rebirth, independence, communal celebration, the quest for release after being overworked and, of course, the desire for passionate intimate connection. Vocally, Ware has somehow found another gear, turning in her most commanding performances while having what sounds like a ball with her background singers. She isn't above supplementing her unmistakable smoldering and blazing leads with clear references to inspirations, recalling effervescent Teena Marie (again) and authoritative Grace Jones at points in the title song, and striking a pose like Madonna in "Shake the Bottle." The Ford and Price collaborations are almost evenly split and easily commingle, so it's only right that the producers each assist with a slower number. "Hello Love," modeled on lavish late-'70s soul with a warm zephyr from Chelsea Carmichael's saxophone, delights in an unexpected rekindling, while "Lightning," a spacious and pulsing slow jam, basks in a blooming romance. These two ballads don't have the feel of afterthoughts on an album fizzing with wholly liberated and exhilarating grooves. ~ Andy Kellman (syndetics)
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Now That's What I Call Music!: Disco
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Continue as A Guest
The New Pornographers segue into an interesting new phase on Continue as a Guest, their first record for Merge and ninth overall. As captain and primary songwriter, Carl Newman guides the veteran band into an uncertain future, celebrating its longevity while questioning its place in the modern landscape. In their trademark tandem vocals, he and Neko Case lay bare the realities of maintaining a beloved indie rock institution in its later years, singing "I found a place out on the plains, with some space to fall apart, with a long fadeout." The New Pornographers are something of a rock unicorn; a Vancouver indie supergroup formed in the late-'90s, they have not only retained most of their core players but operated at a consistently high level of quality for almost a quarter-century. Experimenting apparently for the first time with home recording, Newman injects some new sonic textures into this introspective batch of songs that touch on themes of societal ambivalence and isolation. Yes, Continue as a Guest is dark, but the band's inherent sense of craft gives even their moodiest cuts a sense of play and, at times, even mischief. Standout "Pontius Pilate's Home Movies" is a minor-key master class in tension-building with a Case-sung payoff chorus. Both "Really Really Light," a co-write with former/occasional member Dan Bejar, and the snakey "Last and Beautiful" pair low chugging riffs with woozy shoegaze patinas to great effect. Throughout the set, guest saxophonist Zach Djanikian adds an exciting sonic flair that really suits the album's mercurial nature. As reliable exponents of 21st century power pop, the New Pornographers bring their share of clever melodic twists and turns, especially on "Angelcover," a punchy all-hands-on-deck highlight featuring all three of the band's main vocalists, Newman, Case, and keyboardist Kathryn Calder. While Continue as a Guest may not have the immediacy of career standouts like Twin Cinema or even Brill Bruisers, it succeeds more subtly on its own terms and begs for repeated listens. ~ Timothy Monger (syndetics)
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This Is Why
Heralded by the antagonistically funky title track, Paramore's sixth studio album, 2023's This Is Why, feels like the band is bending time, merging the emo-punk of their youth with the hard-won pop craftsmanship they've embraced as adults. Produced by Carlos de la Garza, the album arrives on the heels of a five-year hiatus for the group, following the exhaustive touring and recording schedule that took them from 2013's Paramore through 2017's After Laughter. Notably, it marks the end of the group's initial contract that singer Hayley Williams signed when she was still just a teenager. Darkly serendipitous, the group's hiatus also coincided with the COVID-19 pandemic, a period of bleak reflection but one which also gave the band's core trio of Williams, guitarist Taylor York, and drummer Zac Farro time to refocus. In Williams' case, it also gave her the space to record two solo albums. Those albums found her pushing the creative envelope of her sound, embracing an arty, experimental style that still made room for poetic, confessional lyrics. It's a balancing act she and Paramore also continue to perfect here, albeit with a much tougher, rock-oriented approach. If After Laughter, with its '80s Tom Tom Club-esque new wave synths, was a buoyant evocation of pop renewal, This Is Why is its dark, post-punk corollary. Williams has always been good at transforming her anger into pop catharsis, burning off high emotions like karma in the process. Back in the early aughts, it was a way of dealing with the tense creative and personal dynamics within the band. Here, she wrestles with her anxieties over our increasingly fractious political climate, as on the aforementioned title track, or takes aim at the sensationalist media cycle on "The News." These kinetic anthems are built around York and Farro's beautifully dissonant, percussively swinging guitar and drum interplay, a sound that brings to mind the angular late-'70s disco punk of Gang of Four (Bloc Party was purportedly another inspiration). There's a candid honesty to the album as Williams turns her gaze inwards, admitting to her own stubborn failings, as on the haunting "Thick Skull." This balance between aggressive punk dynamism and bold self-reflection can be thrilling, as on the driving "You First," a War-era-U2-sounding song in which Williams admits she might be her own worst enemy, singing "It turns out I'm living in a horror film, where I'm both the killer and the final girl." Yet more nuanced moments pop up elsewhere as on the languid "Big Man Little Dignity" and the euphoric "Crave," songs that marry '80s Fleetwood Mac romanticism with dusky shoegaze atmospherics. It often feels like every Paramore album marks a new beginning for the band. Just when you think they've hit an artistic plateau, they take another creative leap into the unknown, only to return with what feels like a deeper, more heartfelt statement of who they are. With This Is Why, Paramore underline that notion, pulling the artistic and emotional threads of their career into a cohesive, ardent whole. ~ Matt Collar (syndetics)
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Boygenius
Julien Baker, Phoebe Bridgers, and Lucy Dacus formed Boygenius after booking a tour together, but the trio had subconsciously been in the works for longer than that. Through a series of tours and performances together, and chance encounters that led to friendships including Bridgers' and Dacus' first in-person meeting backstage at a Philadelphia festival, greenroom hangouts that felt instantly comfortable and compatible, a couple of long email chains, and even a secret handshake between Baker and Dacus the lyrically and musically arresting singer-songwriters and kindred spirits got to know each other on their terms. (syndetics)
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Jazz: The Smithsonian Anthology
This lavish 111-track, six-CD box set attempts the impossible -- to tell the whole story of jazz. Essentially an updated version of 1987’s out of print The Smithsonian Collection of Classic Jazz, this expanded anthology is wonderfully diverse in the story it tells, with tracks from jazz artists across the stylistic board, from Stan Kenton to Sun Ra, Bill Evans to Chick Corea, Louis Armstrong to Cecil Taylor, with stops everywhere in between, and any conceivable branch of the genre is represented by at least one selection. That’s the good news. The bad news is that whole phases of jazz’s complicated history are treated like three-minute whistle stops so that the train can stay on schedule and on track. That said, it’s an impressive survey, and wonderfully assembled and annotated. ~ Steve Leggett (syndetics)
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