Time for another round-up of exceptional new music releases that you can stream for free on HooplaDigital.com using your Livingston Library card!
Taylor Swift – The Tortured Poets Department
Variety raves: “The Tortured Poets Department feels like it comes the closest of any of her 11 original albums to just drilling a tube directly into her brain and letting listeners mainline what comes out. If you value this confessional quality most of all, she’s still peaking: As a culmination of her particular genius for marrying cleverness with catharsis, Tortured kind of feels like the Taylor Swift-est Taylor Swift record ever.”
Consequence writes: “There aren’t any real misses on Deeper Well, and the record feels more like a dreamy mood piece or conversation with a friend than an attempt to round up a collection of chart-ready singles or social media-friendly soundbytes. Musgraves was far more interested in asking the bigger questions — and it doesn’t even seem to matter too much which answers she found. The deep dive was the point.”
Spin says: “Taking his cue from predecessors like Clinton, Wonder, and Prince— consummate artists who defied genre and charted their own musical course— Clark relishes in his boundless freedom. His virtuosity throughout is commendable and often quite impressive.”
Allmusic.com calls it “an album that is at times campy, earnestly romantic, and endlessly listenable. Part of the fun and endearing aspect of Gray’s turn towards ’80s Euro-pop is just how well he and his production partners captured the studio textures and anthemic energy of the genre.”
Variety declares: “For listeners up for an adventure — for an album that reveals itself gradually, continues to surprise after several listens and takes you places you didn’t necessarily know you wanted to go — there are many rewards in store.”
HipHop DX proclaims: “Whereas a lot of listeners might be tempted to ask themselves if ScHoolboy Q’s latest offering was worth the wait, his remarkable growth also suggests that years of experience is perhaps what births the richest music, especially in a word-heavy genre like rap.”
According to PopMatters, this British band’s tenth studio album is “both a return to form and a step into new musical territory. The sound familiar to long-term listeners remains prevalent, while elements of funk and Eurodisco creep into the grooves.”
Maggie Rogers – Don’t Forget Me
Paste magazine says that Rogers’ third full-length major label album is her “most sonically and lyrically cohesive [project], featuring some of her most captivating, folkloric songcraft yet. Allowing the listeners to create a world around her words and sounds, Rogers is at her best when she keeps it simple and sweet.”
—Joe, Adult Services & Acquisitions