COUNTRY
Loretta Lynn, "Wouldn't It Be Great" (Legacy)
More than five decades into her legendary career, Lynn remains a bracing breath of fresh air on her new album.
Long ago, she mastered the ability to sound genuine no matter what the situation. And Lynn continues that here, whether she is singing about secretly dumping an ashtray into a rival's beer in the honky-tonk "Ruby's Stool" or plaintively singing about longing for connection on "I'm Dying for Someone to Live For."
With the help of producers Patsy Lynn Russell, Lynn's daughter, and John Carter Cash, son of Johnny and June Carter Cash, she also takes songs from her past and gives them timelier readings. "Coal Miner's Daughter" has become prouder and more defiant than the original, while the traditional folk song "Lulie Vars," about a pregnant girl being murdered by her boyfriend, could be a MeToo anthem.
"Wouldn't It Be Great" was set to be released last year, but was delayed when Lynn suffered a stroke. Its release now marks the Queen of Country's recovery and proves that her reign is as strong as ever.
GLENN GAMBOA, Newsday
R&B
Macy Gray, "Ruby" (Mack Avenue)
Back in the day of neo-soul's gentle, jazzy sway, Gray — a raspy vocalist with a tactile grit that happily grated against the genre's smooth operations — made a hit with the stammering "I Try," and never looked back. She almost couldn't, as that sensuous tune's rep (and platinum sales) overwhelmed much of her strong catalog going forward. Yet, with her Billie Holliday-ish 2016 covers album, "Stripped," and her salty, sample-heavy, hard R&B-based "Ruby," Gray has outrun her pop past without eschewing it.
