Loveless is Boy Crazy; Macklemore lightens up
A+ Lydia Loveless Boy Crazy and Single(s) Bloodshot
Ohio-based singer-songwriter Lydia Loveless has a special touch with stories about messed-up relationships, desperation and dead ends. In her songs there’s almost always someone doing something they shouldn’t and regretting it later. She’s a genius at capturing buzzed, latenight lust and the self-loathing that comes with the light of day.
But she’s just as good at extolling the thrills of young love/desire and good-looking dudes in baseball uniforms, which is the gist of “Boy Crazy,” the title cut from her fivesong, 2013 EP, which is included here in full along with six nonalbum B-sides.
For those who missed the EP the first time around, now is a good time to investigate. It’s a nice dose of Loveless’ strengths — heartache (“All the Time”), poppy vulnerability (“All I Know”) and joyful sexiness (the title cut). The rest of this collection, a sort of placeholder followup to last year’s excellent Real, gathers assorted Loveless nuggets.
The B-sides include the wickedly honest “Mile High,” the honky-tonkish “Falling Out of Love” and lovely versions of Kesha’s “Blind” and Elvis Costello’s “Alison.” Perhaps the best of the covers, though, is her pleading take on Prince’s “I Would Die 4 U.” Loveless injects an element of longing that strengthens her take on the classic.
Hot tracks: “Boy Crazy,” “I Would Die 4 U,” “Mile High,” “All I Know,” “Come Over”
— SEAN CLANCY
B Macklemore Gemini Bendo LLC
It feels wrong to say Macklemore’s latest solo album, Gemini, is better than This
Unruly Mess I’ve Made, his 2016 project released with collaborator Ryan Lewis. That album saw Macklemore reflecting on dissecting white privilege, addressing police brutality, confronting the music industry.
The end result was neither fun nor easy to listen to, but
Gemini is. That’s thanks in no small part to a long list of the new set’s featured guests, whose good-time vibes seem to put Macklemore back in the space that gave way to his and Lewis’ 2012 smash single “Thrift Shop.”
Undoubtedly, that song put Macklemore “in Obama’s iPod” as the rapper boasts on the delightfully off-kilter “Willy Wonka,” featuring Migos rapper Offset. There’s the sticky sweet “Marmalade” with Lil Yachty, with its “Chopsticks”-esque piano and playful lyrics.
Macklemore’s ruminating is limited to lighter fare, like on the guitar-driven “Intentions,” where he runs down a laundry list of to-dos he has been falling short on.
So as it turns out, Macklemore is a regular dude who misses his youth, as on the starry, piano-driven “Good Old Days” featuring Kesha. He notices when his ex deletes photos from Instagram “like history didn’t happen if we can’t see it,” as he raps on “Over It” featuring singer Donna Missal.
Macklemore may have stayed away from the heavy messages. But with everything going on the world, some fans might say Gemini is the perfect feel-good distraction.
Hot tracks: “Willy Wonka,” “Good Old Days,” “Over It”
— MELANIE J. SIMS AP
B Demi Lovato Tell Me You Love Me Island
On her sixth album, Demi Lovato is burning with purpose. Like her earlier efforts, the album collects a bunch of tunes she made with various writers and producers.
But the songs aren’t hackwork — they’re catchy, funny, sexy and daring. In “Sorry Not Sorry” Lovato blasts an ex over a malt-shop beat with a sweetness that only emphasizes her glorious lack of mercy; the unapologetically twisted “Daddy Issues” finds her cozying up to a guy who can’t commit.
One thread that connects several tracks is the interest in R&B that Lovato has shown in a handful of awards-show appearances (on last year’s Grammy Awards, she demolished Lionel Richie’s “Hello”). “Ruin the Friendship” is a sultry slow jam with horns that could’ve been borrowed from D’Angelo, while “Hitchhiker” closes the recording with Lovato working her falsetto over funky church organ.
Is anybody likely to think of Tell Me You Love Me as Lovato’s Voodoo? Of course not — we’ve been trained not to. And besides, the album looks in too many other directions: disco, EDM, gloomy electro-goth balladry.
So far that variety has kept us from thinking of Lovato as someone with a clear vision.
But she might have something more valuable — and that’s follow-through.
Hot tracks: “Sorry Not Sorry,” “Hitchhiker,” “Ruin the Friendship”
— MIKAEL WOOD
LOS ANGELES TIMES (TNS)
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Fergie Double Dutchess BMG
Why hasn’t there been more Fergie released since her solo debut (2006’s gazillion-selling The Dutchess)? Probably comes down to then-fresh family commitments. Her vocal talents are many. She can rough-ride hiphop’s rhythms, manipulate the nuances of glossy R&B balladry and belt out grand rockers with the power and emotion of Ann Wilson. She makes swagger sweet.
But Double Dutchess feels dated in spots. “L.A. Love (La La)” with rapper YG is a “London Bridge” retread. The acoustic strum of “Save It Till Morning” copies the shimmering blueprint of “Big Girls Don’t Cry (Personal)” to a T. “You Already Know” is too conscious in its hot pursuit of old school hip-hop, yet it sounds great. The gooey, gauzy New Wave of “Hungry” (sampling Dead Can Dance), the torrid, trophouse “Enchante (Carine),” and the Jamaican-inspired “Love Is Blind” give Fergie the necessary unique musicality for her breezy, buoyant voice.
Hot tracks: “Hungry,” “Enchante,” “Love Is Blind”