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TLC are back TLC, the iconic 90s-era girl group, is back after 15 years away and these women are clearly not wasting any more time. ‘‘We don’t need no introduction,’’ they boast on the first song of their new selftitled CD (★★★★). ‘‘No, we don’t need no instructions/We already paved the way.’’

They’re right. For those of you who have no idea who TLC is, we’ll wait while you go to the closest older person who can explain how important No Scrubs, Waterfalls and Creep were for a generation raised on the band’s mix of female empowerment and socially conscious lyrics.

The self-titled album is from the surviving members, Tionne ‘‘T-Boz’’ Watkins and Rozonda ‘‘Chilli’’ Thomas. Lisa ‘‘Left-Eye’’ Lopes died in a 2002 car crash. The new album heartbreakingly includes an old recording of Lopes’ voice as an interlude, a nice way to include her in 2017.

As for the album, funded in part by Kickstarter, it’s a kaleidoscope of sounds and moods, befitting an album with some 20 different songwriters.

It’s executive-produced by Ron Fair, who has worked with Vanessa Carlton and the Pussycat Dolls, while Watkins had a hand in almost every song.

It veers from the stripped-down acoustic of Perfect Girls – a sort of updated Unpretty – to the R&B flavoured Joy Ride.

You want coherence? Well, it’s overrated. This is TLC, after all. It’s just a joy to hear them again, and to have it be with a new, strong joyous album seems even better. We’ve waited long enough. What are you waiting for? – Mark Kennedy, AP Authentic blues I’ve suffered from so many bad blues albums these past few years that I have found myself retreating to my library of the tried and true.

So, it came as a wonderful surprise to find a genuine, authenticsounding Chicago blues album – The Cashbox Kings’ Royal

Mint (★★★★). More than just another Windy City band with touches of Jimmy Reed and Elmore James, they also flex their muscles by throwing in a few numbers in the style of Chuck Berry (Build That Wall), while Muddy Waters’ Rollin’ and

Tumblin’ gets a re-work in Traveling Riverside Blues.

Dig deeper and the song titles reveal a modern take, lyric-wise, especially If You Got A Jealous Woman Facebook Ain’t Your Friend and the tongue-in-cheek Build That Wall. Best new blues album of the year by far. – Colin Morris