With ‘Colors,’ Beck paints upbeat soundscape
Leave it to Beck to make a perfect summer album and release it in fall. Unique in his catalog, “Colors” (Capitol) has no subtext or irony: It’s simply a shiny, happy pop album. Much of the shine comes from his main collaborator, producer Greg Kurstin, who worked on this between projects with Adele and Paul McCartney. They go for a throwback California sound; “Seventh Heaven” even borrows its groove from Don Henley’s “The Boys of Summer.” When Beck’s trademark freeassociative raps appear, they’re used as buildup to the sing-along choruses on “I’m So Free” and “Up All Night.” Using more falsetto than usual, Beck’s vocals sound friendly and even romantic. His lighthearted albums can be his worst ones — the Prince parody “Midnite Vultures” stands as the main offender — but Kurstin’s sonic know-how and Beck’s newfound warmth make this one work.
It takes five songs before Shania Twain’s comeback album, “Now” (UMG Nashville), even gets close to country music, but that’s no shocker. She committed to pop music on the “Up!” album 15 years ago, and this release picks up where that one left off, adding such modern touches as Auto-Tune (lots of it) and drum loops. While she’s denied that the album is her “Lemonade,” it sure sounds that way. At least half the songs reference her divorce from her musical Svengali, Mutt Lange, with Twain taking the role of a romantic victim who has survived. (Lemonade, the drink, even gets referenced on the bouncy “You Can’t Buy Love.”) The single, “Life’s About to Get Good,” gets docked a point for nicking its main riff from Berlin’s “Take My Breath Away.” Still, it’s the album’s upbeat moments — the playfully sexy “More Fun” and “Roll Me on the River” — that remind you why Twain became a star in the first place.
On his new album, “Carry Fire” (Nonsuch), Robert Plant may make sly references to his past — like naming one song “The May Queen” or using a Zeppelin-style mandolin on the title track — but he’s one of the few rock vets who’s still moving forward. His band, the Sensational Shape Shifters, keeps getting better at fusing blues-rock with triphop and Eastern music, with strong riffs and melodies to keep the experiments grounded. Plant’s lyrics here are some of his most topical (“Bones of Saints” asks, “Who sells the guns?”) and his vocals sound newly vulnerable at times (closing ballad “Heaven Sent”), but full of his old swagger elsewhere. The cover of “Bluebirds Over the Mountain” will be a real shocker if you only know the Beach Boys version. He and duet partner Chrissie Hynde turn it into heavy psychedelia. If you’re still waiting for a Zeppelin reunion, get over it ... and get into this.