POP/ROCK
Mac DeMarco, "Another One" (Captured Tracks)
DeMarco sets the stage for his "mini-LP" of love songs right from the start. "The Way You'd Love Her" has all the hallmarks of the New York singer-songwriter's recent work. It's guitar-driven and clever, with a loping, laid-back drumbeat that pushes the song forward without any urgency. The main difference, for this album's purposes, is that it's directly, almost naively, about love. There's a trembling effect on the guitar work that makes the whole song sound a bit woozy, as if love has taken away his ability to focus.
The title track offers the other side, with lyrics spelling everything out over a spare synth backdrop.
DeMarco bounces between these storytelling techniques throughout "Another One." Sometimes, he focuses on a feeling, like in the super-simple, repetitive, almost jam-band-ish "Just to Put Me Down." Sometimes, he focuses on the explanation, as in the story-driven "A Heart Like Hers." Sometimes, he experiments by recording the sounds of Jamaica Bay for "My House by the Water" and then giving out his home address just to see what happens. Probably even more love — of his music.
Glenn Gamboa, Newsday
Grace Potter, "Midnight" (Republic)
There's no greater indication of Potter's desire for solo stardom than this album that finds her name alone on its banner with no sign of the Nocturnals otherwise sharing the marque. Soundwise, it's an appropriate move; Potter's assertive style and forthright delivery would make equal billing with what would essentially become simply a backing band seem ludicrous and impractical. Likewise, it's also clear that these songs serve mainly to project Potter's presence and define her essence as a prime blues belter pure and simple.
Lee Zimmerman, popmatters.com
Night Beds, "Ivywild" (Dead Oceans)
The reference points for the first Night Beds album, 2013's very good "Country Sleep," came from the world of alt-country: Fleet Foxes, Bon Iver, Horse Feathers. "Ivywild," the second album from the project helmed by Winston Yellen, draws from different wells: the contemporary R&B of the Weeknd and Rhye and the so-called chill wave of Washed Out and Neon Indian. Yellen has aptly called these songs "sad sex jams": They build on slow beats and — although densely layered with keyboards, strings that drift in and out of the mix and Yellen's reverb-laden vocals — the atmosphere is airy and gauzy.
Yellen's yearning tenor voice is the center of "Ivywild." He tweaks it with Auto-Tune, overlaps lines to turn it into a choir and bolsters it with female harmonies. Songs such as "Love Streams" and "Tide Teeth" are full of desperate longing, mostly sexual. Although "Ivywild" differs radically from "Country Sleep," Yellen's new persona is persuasive.
Steve Klinge, Philadelphia Inquirer
