POP/ROCK
Lizzo, "About Damn Time"
The disco revival continues on this new single, which features a rubbery "Get Lucky" bass line and a bridge overflowing with Diana Ross glitter ("I'm comin' out tonight"). More of a crowd-pleaser than last year's Cardi B duet "Rumors," this is the first official single from Lizzo's long-awaited album "Special," due July 15.
She hasn't switched up the formula too much, and at times — the Instagram-caption one-liners; the obligatory flute solo — it can feel a little paint-by-numbers Lizzo. But "About Damn Time" is best when she leans more earnestly into its emotional center, belting, "I've been so down and under pressure, I'm way too fine to be this stressed."
LINDSAY ZOLADZ, New York Times
Kurt Vile, "(Watch My Moves)" (Verve)
There's a song called "Fo Sho" on the Philadelphia guitarist's new album in which he boasts of his impressive longevity in music. "I know I'm right, and I've been doing this a long time," Vile sings in his signature drawl over a loping, hypnotic groove. "Since before I was born." The 42-year-old does make timeless music that's unmistakably his own while consciously drawing from his classic rock forebears.
This is a pivotal album for Vile — his first on Verve Records, where he now counts Jon Batiste and Diana Krall as labelmates. While Vile's music always has had an improvisational bent, that doesn't mean he's become a jazzer. What the disc does is emphasize the casually entrancing, semi-psychedelic, Zen approach to songwriting he's long been known for.
