Albums of the Week
ARCADE FIRE
“Reflektor”
★★
Montreal indie-rock romantics Arcade Fire have been overblown from the beginning — it’s why their fans love them, along with lead singer Win Butler’s root-for-the-underdog lyrics. (In new track “Normal Person,” he sings that despite what people tell you, “There is no such thing as a normal person.”) On “Reflektor,” their first album since winning a surprise Album of the Year Grammy, they work with James Murphy of LCD Soundsystem, and though they’ll never be the rhythm machine of Murphy’s old band, they do expand their sound: “Here Comes the Night Time” is a Caribbean stomp, “Porno” is straight-up synth-pop. Still, the band’s too ponderous to cut loose.
BRANDY CLARK
“12 Stories”
★★★★
Brandy Clark has helped write some of country music’s smartest recent hits, including Miranda Lambert’s “Mama’s Broken Heart” and Kacey Musgraves’ “Follow Your Arrow.” But not only does her debut album show off a talented vocalist — recalling Rosanne Cash — it’s an astonishingly strong collection of songs. Clark hits on the country basics — cheating (“What Will Keep Me Out of Heaven,” “Stripes”), small-town life (“Pray to Jesus,” “Illegitimate Children”), the self-explanatory “The Day She Got Divorced”— with pin-sharp lyrical twists that resolve in ways you don’t see coming, and follow eagerly anyway; this is the most compulsively re-playable album of 2013, country or otherwise.
Downloads of the Week
SKY FERREIRA
“You’re Not the One”
★★★½
On this choice track from “Night Time, My Time” Ferreira’s first album after two well-received EPs, she lets loose a trashy Debbie Harry-Terri Nunn (of Berlin) side. Over a gnarly guitar riff and tinny pseudo-’80s synths, she emotes like the world is ending. It’s overblown — and addictive.
THE FLAMING LIPS
“Peace Sword”
★½
The title track of a six-song EP featuring music from the movie “Ender’s Game,” “Peace Sword” is the Flaming Lips in laid-back cosmic mode — big, arcing strings, gushing-affirmative refrain (“Open your heart to me”), plodding tempo. But the gosh-gee-willikers stuff doesn’t work from these guys anymore.
TOBY KEITH
“Drinks After Work”
★½
On the title single of country star Keith’s 17th(!) album, an officemate winks at his co-worker: “Tell me what’s it gonna hurt? Have a little drink after work.” The sprightly tune sounds like it was written for a Chevy ad, or for Jimmy Buffett. Neither are compliments.
BOY GEORGE
“King of Everything”
★★
From his first album of all-new material in nearly two decades, “This Is What I Do,” comes this U2-style power ballad. It’s melancholy and blowhard-like at the same time, but George sells it nicely; his voice has lost most of its top range from his ’80s heyday but still resonates.