POP/ROCK
Diana Ross, "Thank You" (Decca)
Her first album in 15 years (and the first since 1999 with original material) finds the diva aiming for both timeless familiarity and timely relevance, tapping a host of in-vogue collaborators including Jack Antonoff and St. Vincent. The collection is also the 77-year-old's most comprehensive songwriting foray yet: She co-wrote nine of the 13 songs.
The record frequently delivers more promise than punch. Tantalizing moments such as "Let's Do It" and the buoyant title track point to the album that could have been. The A-list producers seem torn between indulging expectations of vintage Ross and the boldness to muscle into new places.
There's a warm tenderness to "Just in Case," kissed with strings and an elegant solo from jazz trumpeter Keyon Harrold. Ross summons the lush midtempo feel of her mid-'70s work on "All Is Well," while lending a lovely vocal to the gentle "Count on Me," written by her eldest daughter, Rhonda Ross Kendrick. The Siedah Garrett-penned "The Answer's Always Love" is emblematic of a record that just doesn't dependably get there — one of the album's strongest vocals in the service of ham-fisted lyrics.
BRIAN MCCOLLUM, Detroit News
Jenny Lewis, "Puppy and a Truck"
"My 40s are kicking my ass, and handing them to me in a margarita glass" — how's that for an opening line? Something about the gentle country strum and laid-back croon of Lewis' new stand-alone single recalls her old band Rilo Kiley's great 2004 album, "More Adventurous." After chronicling the wreckage of a few recent relationships, the eternally witty Lewis arrives at a mantra of tough-talking self-reliance: "If you feel like giving up, shut up — get a puppy and a truck."
LINDSAY ZOLADZ, New York Times
