Bigger and better

Sugarland Bigger Universal

COUNTRY duo Sugarland’s latest release, Bigger, lives up to its name.

The duo returns after its members Jennifer Nettles and Kristian Bush took some time off to pursue their own solo projects beginning in 2012.

To mark their comeback in a big way, Sugarland recruits pop superstar Taylor Swift as a guest vocalist on the album’s second single, Babe. The track is quintessential Swift, leaning towards her signature light, breezy pop sounds (after all, it was initially written for Swift’s 2012 Red album), but Sugarland manages to put their country spin on it. The result is a catchy, toe-tapping number that has a country pop crossover quality to it.

But beyond just including a big-named artiste, the magnitude of the album comes from the breadth and depth of topics the songs touch on.

Besides songs about the usual romantic relationships (Babe, Let Me Remind You, Love Me Like I’m Leaving), Sugarland looks to the world around us for inspiration. Sugarland shines the spotlight on the aching loneliness felt by the outcasts and the underdogs in ballad Not The Only.

The most effective of all is the timely Tuesday’s Broken, which addresses the various school shootings making headlines. The emotionally-charged ballad takes the hot-button political issue and speaks to listeners on a more personal level.

Meanwhile, Mother, is a beautiful, moving tribute to all mothers and their unending sacrifices.

Still, Sugarland is best known for its uptempo, carefree hits like Stuck Like Glue and All I Want To Do. Still The Same, Lean It On Back and the title track are happy-golucky anthems that remind fans the duo hasn’t lost its identity.

The 11-track release is Sugarland’s first album in eight years. Melodically and lyrically strong, Bigger is worth the wait. – Kenneth Chaw

Dawes

Passwords HUB

JUST because Dawes’ plan for its sixth album, Passwords, is simple doesn’t make accomplishing it easy.

The Los Angeles band is steeped in the sound of ’70s California — of the Eagles and Neil Young — but the lyrics and singer Taylor Goldsmith’s delivery is completely modern. It’s a juxtaposition that makes Dawes far more interesting than just another retro act, but the lofty ambitions sometimes raise the stakes above their reach.

The idea of opening with a song called Living In The Future that so clearly calls to mind Crazy Horse’s past is bold, but then dropping in current references to Colin Kaepernick’s protests and the state of paranoia that comes with online life is nothing short of brilliant. It becomes more than an homage to the era. It transforms that specific sound into something timeless.

Dawes does it again on Feed The Fire, which may sound as soothing as America’s You Can Do Magic, but actually harbours darker feelings about achieving celebrity status.

But even when Dawes reaches for something it can’t quite deliver, like the epic plea for empathy Crack The Case, the band impresses you with the attempt. – Glenn Gamboa/Newsday/Tribune News Service

Panic! At The Disco

Pray For The Wicked Warner

PANIC! At The Disco’s Brendon Urie has never lacked ideas.

However, starring in Kinky Boots on Broadway in 2017 seems to have pushed him to new heights on Panic’s sixth album, Pray For The Wicked.

It’s not just his singing — which often climbs to new, more theatrical heights across the album’s 12 tracks, including one stellar note in the first single Say Amen (Saturday Night) — that has developed. It’s Urie’s whole approach to how much he can pack into a song. (Let’s not forget this is a guy who put songs like The Only Difference Between Martyrdom And Suicide Is Press Coverage on the band’s debut.)

He drops mentions of Edgar Allan Poe’s The Tell-Tale Heart and William Golding’s Lord Of The Flies as he deals with social awkwardness at a rooftop party in Roaring 20s. “Oscars and Emmys and Grammys, everyone here is a trophy,” he sings, over an intoxicating mix of Latin dance rhythms and big-band orchestrations.

Urie tries to reconcile his Mormon upbringing with his pop-star pursuits without judging either side in both the dramatic lead single Say Amen (Saturday Night) and the charmingly upbeat Dancing’s Not A Crime, where he hits Michael Jacksonesque notes from the Dancing Machine era. In Old Fashioned, he combines Imagine Dragons’ cadences in his delivery with trap rhythms and horn flourishes to pay tribute to his formative years.

The album’s closer, Dying In L.A. , may have the most Broadway influence, as a piano-driven ballad with plaintive vocal runs that could fit in Dear Evan Hansen. But it also shows Urie has learned how to find the right musical combination to suit his messages best. – GG