PASA TEMPOS

WEYES BLOOD Front Row Seat to Earth (Mexican Summer) On her fourth album, Natalie Mering (who performs as Weyes Blood) takes a tremendous step forward in her songwriting and production, crafting an album that is highly of the moment yet rooted in 1970s folkpop tradition. Her singing voice is pure AM Gold from that era — somewhere in the ballpark of Carly Simon — but her arrangements are more in line with British folk traditions of bands such as Pentangle and eccentrics such as Vashti Bunyan. Mering’s songs are long, and they unspool in a regal fashion that feels familiar and comfortable yet capable of small surprises. The subject matter folds heartbreak over the loss of love with that of a crumbling society and dying planet, beautifully blurring the lines. On “Generation Why” she sings, “Going to see end of days/I’ve been hanging on my phone all day/ And the fear goes away/I might not need to stay/On this sinking ship for long,” transforming rapper Drake’s millennial catchphrase YOLO (you only live once) from an excuse for partying into a resigned sigh of despair. “Seven Words” is a breakup song that grows gradually, as if one were slowly stepping from a dark room into warm sunlight. “Now I face tomorrow,” she sings at the composition’s peaks, infusing her voice with both optimism and melancholy. It’s a needed sentiment at this moment. — Robert Ker

AZIZA (Dare2 Records) Named for a mythological woodland creature from guitarist Lionel Loueke’s ancestral homeland, the Dahomey kingdom (now Benin) in Africa, this album features two compositions each from jazz bassist Dave Holland, saxophonist Chris Potter, drummer Eric Harland, and Loueke. “Aziza Dance” opens with Loueke’s synthy-funky guitar and a solid summer-festivalvibe drumbeat. After a six-minute rollick, the guitarist and Potter wrap it up with a stellar unison section. “Summer 15” features Potter’s fleet soprano over an African-tinged polyrhythm. Here, as on most of the songs, Loueke’s facility with guitar effects — such as the series of twangy choral string-bends he fashions in a bridge section in this song — lends an exciting, if fusionistic, quality to the proceedings. “We all share a respect for the tradition but at the same time the drive to try to create something personal and new out of it,” Holland writes in album materials. It is a treat digging into music by one of the best jazz bassists ever, with Holland’s playing on “Walkin’ the Walk” — a tune that’s also a standout for Harland, a magician of scattershot drum work. Potter’s playing on “Summer 15” (when the CD was recorded) is sometimes light and spare, almost celestial; his other composition, “Blue Sufi,” is a showcase for his more recognizably intense work on tenor. Everyone gets extra exuberant on the closer, “Sleepless Night,” on which Loueke adds vocals,with African click consonants. Great album. — Paul Weideman