ALBUM REVIEWS

LORDE

Melodrama

Republic

Grammy-winning New Zealander Lorde created Royals and the rest of her debut album in her teen years. Now, at 20, she’s back with a sophomore release just as exceptional, and with a growing sound.

Melodrama finds Lorde partnering with Jack Antonoff, the FUN. guitarist and songwriter producer who worked on Taylor Swift’s 1989.

He helps Lorde expand her sound on the new album, keeping what was best about 2013’s moody Heroine, with a few extra layers.

Tracks such as Liability and Writer In the Dark are beautiful tunes, highlighted by the piano, that showcase Lorde’s overall growth — sonically, vocally and lyrically. Sober and Supercut are beat-laden winners; Hard Feelings/Loveless is revealing; and “Sober II (Melodrama) is eerie and epic.

JEFF TWEEDY

Together at Last

dBpm Records

With its paradoxical title, Together at Last features Wilco songwriter and lead singer Jeff Tweedy all alone with just his acoustic guitar and occasionally a harmonica.

There are no new compositions on Together at Last. Instead, Tweedy re-imagines 11 songs previously recorded with either Wilco or Tweedy’s other side projects Golden Smog and Loose Fur.

The versions Tweedy lays down are similar to how he plays the songs when he tours solo without Wilco. For anyone unfamiliar with those arrangements, it may be quite a jolt hearing Wilco standards like Via Chicago and I Am Trying to Break Your Heart laid bare.

By stripping the songs down to their essence, lyrics that may have got lost in previous fullband arrangements now shine through, allowing the listener to re-engage with a new perspective.

SAM BAKER

Land of Doubt

Blue Limestone

Baker makes elegant, original music. Nothing he does could be mistaken for anyone else’s work.

His career emerged from a remarkable life story. In 1986, he was on a train in Peru when a bomb set by terrorists exploded. Baker suffered brain damage, hearing loss and a hand injury that forced him to teach himself to play guitar left-handed.

The simple grace of his craft, on full display in his fifth release, Land of Doubt, emerged from that tragedy.

With a sound both soaring and sad, the Texas-based Baker sings in a raspy talk-whisper, the words sharp relief from a soundscape of restrained guitar, piano, strings and muted trumpet.

Baker has mostly veered away from the story-portraits of earlier albums and toward songs about heartbreak and loss.