Overlooked albums of 2017: Tinariwen, Lydia Loveless

A look at some overlooked albums of 2017 by The Associated Press. Tinariwen, “Elwan’’ (Anti/epitaph)

Tinariwen is a band on the run, forced into exile by political upheaval in their Northern Mali homeland. Nearly every song on “Elwan,’’ the Grammy-nominated album they released almost a year ago, reflects on their pains and yearnings of wanting most of all to get back home. It’s a poignant wonder.

Recorded in Morocco, France and, back in 2014, at the Rancho De La Luna studio in Joshua Tree, Calif., the Tuareg band’s mesmerizing brand of desert blues is presented in nuggets rarely exceeding four minutes, making it almost pop-like in its compressed efficiency.

Not for the first time, there are some rock and roll guests, including Kurt Vile and Matt Sweeney, whose electric guitars enhance the density of the already guitarheavy arrangements.

Mark Lanegan adds vocal to the ethereal “Nannuflay’’ (“Fulfilled’’), where the lyrics in Tamashek, the Tuareg language, talk about “pursuing memories built on a dune that’s always moving.’’

Other songs directly reference the conflicts on their native soil. – Pablo Gorondi (twitter.com/ Pablogorondi) Various artists, “Sunday in the Park with George (2017 Broadway Cast Recording)’’ (Arts Music)

Annaleigh Ashford is a revelation as Dot in this outstanding recording of the cast from the 2017 revival of “Sunday in the Park with George,’’ the Pulitzer Prizewinning musical by Stephen Sondheim and James Lapine.

Her voice makes Sondheim’s tongue-twisting lyrics glow and at the top of her range is superior to that of Bernadette Peters, who originated the role of the model/ girlfriend of French impressionist painter Georges Seurat.

Peters and Mandy Patinkin gave indelible performances during the initial run that started in 1984, which is preserved on an RCA audio recording and a video. Paired with Jake Gyllenhaal, Ashford has a more powerful and effortless top that soars in songs such as “Move On’’ and “We Do Not Belong Together,’’ and is more crystalline and less breathy in “Children and Art.’’

Gyllenhaal like Patinkin conveys the introspective and tortured aspects of Seurat, a pointillist innovator who died at age 31 in 1891. – Ron Blum (twitter.com/ronaldblum)

Lydia Loveless, “Boy Crazy and Single(s)’’ (Bloodshot Records) Lydia Loveless is her own brand of outlaw. The 27-year-old Ohioan is fearless and direct and, if you haven’t had the privilege of being introduced, last year’s reissue of her five-song “Boy Crazy’’ EP — updated with six more tracks recorded between 2012 and 2015 — is an excellent primer.

Loveless combines rock, country and honky-tonk with a punkish attitude that avoids artificial ingredients.

The 42-minute collection came out in October, just days after the passing of Tom Petty, and Loveless seems to possess his similar sort of unflinching candour and resilience. If, in contrast to some of her more high-sparkle contemporaries, she sounds much more real it’s also because she writes some of the funniest, down-toearth songs you’ll hear anywhere.

Loveless also has a sharp ear for covers and her interpretations of Kesha (“Blind’’) and Elvis Costello (“Alison’’) are fresh and unvarnished while her brilliant take on Prince’s “I Would Die 4 U’’ has echoes of Pat Benatar at her most rocking and intense. – Pablo Gorondi (twitter.com/ Pablogorondi)