Bonnie Raitt confronts mortality and grown-up love on new album

POP/ROCK

Bonnie Raitt, "Just Like That ... " (Redwing)

"Had the flu in the prison infirmary," Raitt sings in "Down the Hall," a folky ballad, with the plain-spoken diction of a John Prine song. Based on a New York Times story, the Raitt-penned tune is narrated by a murderer, who finds a kind of atonement in becoming a prison hospice worker.

"Down the Hall" is the somber finale to Raitt's first album since 2016. The music's style is familiar; blues, soul, ballads and reggae, with the feel of musicians performing together in real time.

Along with her usual insights into grown-up love, desire, heartbreak and regret, Raitt's collection directly faces mortality. The Rolling Stones-flavored rocker "Livin' for the Ones," with words by Raitt, draws a life force from mourning, countering petty impulses toward lethargy or self-pity with the blunt recognition of so many lives lost: "If you ever start to bitch and moan," she sings, "just remember the ones who won't ever feel the sun on their faces again."

Another kind of solace after death arrives in the quietly poignant title track, also written by Raitt. A stranger shows up on the doorstep of a woman who has never stopped blaming herself for the death of her son. The man has sought her out because he received her son's heart as a transplant: "I lay my head upon his chest and I was with my boy again," Raitt sings, with sorrow and relief.

The rest of the album features Raitt's more typical fare: songs about love lost and found, about getting together or drifting apart. Yet mortality haunts even the love songs. "Blame It on Me" is a bluesy, torchy, slow-dance breakup ballad that couches accusations in apologies.

Understanding that life is finite, the stakes are higher for every relationship, every moment. On "Just Like That," Raitt calls for compassion, consolation and perseverance to get through with grace.

JON PARELES, New York Times

NEW RELEASES