Lana Del Rey
At times during Lana Del Rey’s eighth LP,
“you feel like you’re in the studio alongside her,” said Sam Sodomsky in Pitchfork .com. The 36-year-old songwriter has largely put aside the “Great Gatsby roleplay” of her early work to reflect on more-personal affairs. One early lyric—“I didn’t even like myself”—feels like her “barest, most wounded confession.” And yet “there is a sense of playfulness, unguardedness, and freedom to Blue Banisters” that makes it a fuller survey of Del Rey’s gifts than March’s Chemtrails Over the Country Club. Even here, though, she “remains monogamous to her themes: West Coast American Gothic, trashy glamour, doe-eyed bad girls,” said Katie Moulton in Consequence.net. And because so many tracks feature breathy vocals over quiet piano, Blue Banisters “can become monochromatic—apt background music for loitering in the bath.” There are interesting outliers, though. On the hypnotic “Dealer,” “Del Rey gets to let loose rare aspects of her voice—wailing, yelping, rebuking, mercilessly taunting.”
“Young Thug is a chameleon,” said Craig Jenkins in NYMag .com. The Atlanta rapper, 30, isn’t a thinker like Kendrick Lamar or a predictable hitmaker like Drake. He’s a playful iconoclast who “seems at ease in every setting,” and he has collaborated with everyone from J. Cole to Elton John. Despite its title, his sophomore album isn’t punk in the usual sense: It’s split 50-50 between trap bangers and gentle confessionals set to “plush, soulful” guitar, and though the result isn’t cohesive, “the range is impressive.” Even before Punk, Thug was hailed by many as one of the greatest musicians of his generation, said Kyann-Sian Williams in NME.com. With this curveball of a record, “he’s proved that to be true.” He’s at least a better singer and songwriter than skeptics allow, said Eric Skelton in Complex.com, and it’s interesting to hear him “peel away layers of his life” on songs like the opener, “Die Slow.” Still, with so many ballads, “the energy occasionally drags.” Punk should have been 15 tracks long, not 20.