Thank U, Next flaunts Grande’s emotional healing; it’s suffused with the joy of discovering that what didn’t kill her really did make her stronger. ... As eager as she sounds on Thank U, Next to embrace new ideas and attitudes, the album shows that she can still do the old-fashioned stuff--the big vocals that connect her back to Mariah and Whitney and Celine--when she wants to.

What arrives is a virtually seamless country rock album, with verses moving fluidly into choruses that travel unimpeded across sparkling, architecturally sophisticated bridges. ... Duffy doesn’t leave a single loose thread on “Placeholder.” Highly recommended.

Moses Sumney and Mike Hadreas have made the albums of our strange quarantine season — bleak but tender, sprawling yet intricately detailed, as suffused with the need for physical contact as they are alert to its dangers and prohibitions. ... Stunning art-soul record. ... Yet as busy as the music can occasionally feel, both albums keep close track of the singers’ voices, which always merit the attention.

Moses Sumney and Mike Hadreas have made the albums of our strange quarantine season — bleak but tender, sprawling yet intricately detailed, as suffused with the need for physical contact as they are alert to its dangers and prohibitions. ... Stunning art-soul record. ... Yet as busy as the music can occasionally feel, both albums keep close track of the singers’ voices, which always merit the attention.

The result of Apple’s self-imposed social distancing is the stunning intimacy of the material here — a rich text to scour in quarantine. Her idiosyncratic song structures, full of sudden stops and lurching tempo changes, adhere to logic only she could explain, which forces you to listen as attentively as though a dear friend were bending your ear.

Line by line, her lyrics deliver a staggering blend of the profound and the vernacular. ... At 77 minutes in length, “Ocean Blvd” risks tiring the listener’s ear, which is why Del Rey and her co-producers — Antonoff along with Drew Erickson, Zach Dawes and Mike Hermosa — keep folding unexpected sounds and textures into the album’s largely piano-based arrangements.

Maxwell’s transcendent falsetto and the soulful jazz, electronic and soul arrangements need no cohesive story line to make them resonate.

He’s back with a second deeply felt, imaginatively reworked batch [of songs from the Great American Songbook] on Fallen Angels.

A distinguished and captivating extension of, rather than a dramatic departure from, his rich body of work.

With deft, powerful strokes, the singer-songwriter chisels emotions, impressions, yearnings and regrets, giving these 13 songs exactly as much room as they need and no more.

Where Hester contributed rhythmic surprise and fleetness, Sherrod brings solidity and power that anchor the whole affair with a reassuring gravity.

The luminosity of her performance counters the album's tendency toward dry formalism. [5 Sep 2004]

Xscape offers a chance to once again be whisked back to his creative prime and recall the man before his flaws felled him, when he was untouchable.

Ayers' revealing account--his first album in 15 years--stands with his best '70s works of besotted, droll sophistication.

As this accomplished one-two punch attests, Gibbs boasts the rare ability to be both crude and refined.

"Once Again" seems almost monotone on first impression, diminished by the middling tempos that weigh down many a ballad-driven album.... But peel back the layers of this suburban soul, and you'll find … more layers.

The Suburbs is an accomplished love letter that radiates affection as much as bitterness.

She's a mediocre singer with a very interesting voice, a fan of classic handmade pop and the ways laptops can serrate it, and a writer obsessed with sex and with sexing up obsession.

The weird part is how well this stuff holds together, a delirious jumble of android psychedelia and Coyne's elliptical wordplay that goes down as easily as warm milk (spiked with acid). [26 Mar 2006]

Cassie Ramone sounds like a more confident guitarist, stretching out her leads, while the bass lines of Kickball Katy bubble out front to carry the melodies. And once again those melancholy harmonies are to die for, as Ramone chips off pieces of her heart in lamenting the boy who got away.

These songs contain O's most expressive singing yet, and the tension between her vocal performances and the band's playing results in music richer in emotion than anything the trio has done since 'Maps,' its breakout hit from 2003.

It's music that balances with uncommon elegance the desire to observe with the need to engage.

Overall, the album's humor level is a little lower than usual for Davies, but the reflective songs are among his most intimate and touching.

Producer T Bone Burnett and his ace crew of musicians help Earle with masterful skill and deft subtlety.

"Ice Age" is one of six songs on the group's fantastic new EP, and it stands out for singer Mariqueen Maandig's wisp of a voice.

Dismissing it as overly familiar obscures the point. Saadiq is a classicist of the best kind - one who not only carries on tradition but expands it.

As a whole, Sunbathing Animal sees the band adding more dimension to its wordy, sometimes abstract tales.

Here is a man unafraid to rep for the drippiest balladeer ever, Dan Fogelberg--and no one will call Edmonds on it, because his restraint and care eliminate any sense of the maudlin.