Albums of the week
Lana Del Rey
“Ultraviolence”
★½
The idea that Lana Del Rey’s cinematic retro-pop is unique conveniently ignores everything from Gnarls Barkley to Adele. Mostly, she offers blank, sullen fantasies of being glamorously screwed up — a narrow canvas that feels paint-by-number.
This follow-up to 2012’s “Born To Die” is even slower and more ponderous — an echo-laden, narcotic pastel slush perfectly matched by “are-you-kidding?” lyrics like “I’ve got feathers in my hair/I get down to Beat poetry,” from “Brooklyn Baby,” and “I can’t do nothing about his strange weather,” from “Shades of Cool” — the only decent song here (thanks to the music and singing).
Everything else just evaporates on contact.
Willie Nelson
“Band of Brothers”
★★★
What’s left for Willie Nelson to prove? At 81, the country-music titan has earned his legendary status too many times to count. But he’s still searching for something new with “Band of Brothers,” his first album of mostly original new material in ages.
Rather than a grand declaration, it feels modest and lived-in, from the deeply wry “I Thought I Left You” (“You’re like the measles,” he memorably complains), to the philosophical bent of opener “Bring It On”: “It’s written in the good book/That we’ll never be asked to take any more than we can/Sounds like a good plan.” Sounds good, period.
Downloads of the week
Maroon 5
“Maps”
★★
“The Voice” has put Adam Levine on TV so much, it’s easy to forget he’s got a band.
“Maps,” ahead of the September-slated Maroon 5 album “V,” is exactly what you’d imagine: mid-tempo pop-rock that lets Levine show off the top of his range — nothing surprising or unique about it.
Deadmau5
“Phantoms Can’t Hang”
★★★
Dance producer Deadmau5’s long-building tracks have often gone nowhere in particular. But this nine-minute highlight of his new double CD “While (1<2)” has a tautness and snap that immediately stand out, both from his earlier work and the rest of the EDM slush pile.
Glow sticks are purely optional.
David Gray
“Back in the World”
★★½
Englishman Gray’s been around for more than 20 years, but the single from his ninth album, “Mutineers,” sounds surprisingly spry for modest singer-songwriter folk rock.
“I’m naked like a tree/It’s the only way to be,” goes the chorus — it could sound goofy, but Gray gives it enough conviction to sway a skeptic.
Linkin Park
“Until It’s Gone”
★★
Linkin Park has stayed more relevant than fellow nu-metalers like Limp Bizkit because they sound not like bullies, but put upon and angry, as on this single from their sixth album, “The Hunting Party.”
Chester Bennington’s screech is great if you’re in high school, but not so much once past it.
Sam Smith
“Leave Your Lover”
★★
British soul singer Smith is best known as the voice behind sibling dance duo Disclosure’s hit “Latch,” so it’s not surprising he’s getting a solo push.
But the plaintive, spare ballad “Leave Your Lover” — from his debut “In the Lonely Hour” — is a little too studied to make much of an impression.