Chainsmokers get stuck in nasty habit
C The Chainsmokers Memories Do Not Open Columbia
The Chainsmokers wowed with their infectious single “Closer” and gave Coldplay a trendy electronic dance music makeover on “Something Just Like This.” But high hopes for a whole album by Andrew Taggart and Alex Pall have gone up in smoke.
This 12-track collection not only fails to break new ground, it spins its tires into a deep hole. The songs usually begin with slow, moody piano that builds into monster synth beats, interrupted by a period of calm. That’s thrilling in a single dose. It’s formulaic and tiresome on a full album.
The Chainsmokers are best when they let others sing, like Emily Warren on “Don’t Say” and “Just My Type”, Jhene Aiko on “Wake Up Alone” and the lovely Coldplay collaboration.
Cynics might say this is just an attempt by a couple of musical hucksters — one approaching 30 and the other on the other side of that milestone — to appeal to teens with easily digestible, morose dance songs punctuated with expletives that give it an appearance of honesty. How else to explain lyrics that deal with cutting class, endlessly hooking up and drinking too much?
Standing still like this in EDM — like standing still in a club, for that matter — is a dangerous proposition. Other DJs are creating thrilling stuff — Calvin Harris’ “Slide” or Zedd’s “Stay” — so to hear The Chainsmokers blowing the same old smoke is a real disappointment.
Hot track: “Something Like This” — MARK KENNEDY The Associated Press
B Rick Ross Rather You Than Me Epic
There are many changes afoot for Rick Ross. Eleven years since
his classic Port of Miami, the baritone rapper/flashy producer has shifted labels (Def Jam for Epic), followed the more caramel-coated R&B muse that filled the moody majority of his last album, the shamefully slept upon Black Market of 2015, and crafted a new pro-black stance with politicized sidebars (“I’m happy Donald Trump became president, because we gotta destroy before we elevate”) far from his usual drugs-money-strippers-power mien.
Ross and co-producers Bink and Lil’ C take Thom Bell’s “People Make the World Go Round” for a swanky new ride (the corny but cool “I Think She Likes Me”). Ross joins with Philly pal Meek Mill and pensive R&B vocalist Anthony Hamilton for the product-placement-hop “Lamborghini Doors.” Then Ross pairs with new jack swing king Raphael Saadiq for the groovy, thought-provoking “Apple of My Eye” and some of that aforementioned Trump trash talking. That braggadocio and trash chat continue with “Idols Become Rivals.”
Hot tracks: “Apple of My Eye,” “I Think She Likes Me”
— A.D. AMOROSI The Philadelphia Inquirer
A- The Mavericks Brand New Day Mondo Mundo/Thirty Tigers
No band sounds quite like the Mavericks. Who else weaves such an audaciously big and broad musical tapestry that incorporates everything from Phil Spector Wall of Sound pop to Frank Sinatra swing, along with generous nods to the group’s country and Latin roots?
It helps to have a singer as gifted as Raul Malo, who has the pipes to match the Mavericks’ dense sound. Even at his most operatic Roy Orbison-esque vocals, he skirts the florid and the bombastic to make a direct emotional connection.
Malo co-wrote or wrote all the songs. On “Easy as It Seems,” he sings, “Building walls between us doesn’t fix a thing.” Of course, it’s hard not to read that as sly political commentary, but the Mavericks’ insistently joyous music also shows what can happen when barriers between musical styles are so skillfully and merrily shattered.
Hot tracks: “Easy as It Seems,” the banjo-driven and bluegrass-flavored “Rolling Along,” the romantic “I Will Be Yours”
— NICK CRISTIANO The Philadelphia Inquirer
B Colin Hay Fierce Mercy Compass Records
Colin Hay’s pop skills get a Nashville customization on Fierce Mercy, a frequently introspective album that ranks among the best by the former Men at Work frontman.
Hay’s songwriting elegance has no need for bells and whistles, but a graceful string section and classic arrangements blending folk, country rock and pop provide an attractive foundation for as strong a set of songs as he has recorded in a 13-album solo career.
Hay can adapt his voice to a wide array of settings and styles without losing character or emotion.
Whether eulogizing his departed mother on “She Was the Love of Mine,” relating the return home of a war veteran on “Frozen Fields of Snow,” Hay’s scenarios are never forced or artificial.
“Two Friends,” written by frequent collaborator Michael Georgiades, is about a couple of his pals who died in the same week. The Nashville sessions — several tunes were also recorded in California — provide a strong opening with “Come Tumbling Down.”
There are echoes of late ’80s R.E.M. in “I’m Inside Outside In,” an Elton John piano solo would fit snugly on “The Best in Me” and Roy Orbison could have contributed “Secret Love” to a Traveling Wilburys album. A distinguished bunch, as are Colin Hay’s songs.
Hot tracks: “Frozen Fields of Snow,” “She Was the Love of Mine,” “Secret Love”