Listen Up!: Grace Vanderwaal, Sam Smith, Sharon Van Etten, Maroon 5, Tove Lo, Paloma Faith

English singer/songwriter Sam Smith releases his sophomore album, "The Thrill of It All," a collection of 10 songs showcasing his stellar voice, with its smooth lows and impossible highs. American pop band Maroon 5 release their sixth studio album, "Red Pill Blues," a collection of 10 songs. British singer/songwriter Paloma Faith unveils her long-awaited fourth album, "The Architect," a collection of 15 songs. Singer/songwriter Grace VanderWaal drops her debut album, 12 tracks of tropical acoustic songs, each of which she claims a writing credit on. Singer Sharon Van Etten re-releases her 2009 debut album, "because I was in love," remixed and remastered and given deluxe-reissue treatment, with two bonus tracks. And Tove Lo releases her third album, Blue Lips," meant to be a second-part companion album for her 2016 hit, "Lady Wood."

"The Thrill of It All" (Sam Smith)

English singer/songwriter Sam Smith releases his sophomore album, "The Thrill of It All," a collection of 10 songs showcasing his stellar voice, with its smooth lows and impossible highs. Though a relative newcomer, Smith won four Grammy Awards in 2015, and three Billboard Music Awards. He kicks the album off with his hit single, singing, "You must think that I'm stupid/ you must think that I'm a fool, you must think that's I'm new to this, but I've seen this all before." He loves you, but he's way "Too Good at Goodbyes." He's not used to this; he's used to emptiness in his heart, in "Say It First," a song with steady percussion and fine pacing. Smith just wants to know if he's in this alone. His "One Last Song" channels that Motown doo-wop vibe, as he sends a message to you and hopes it gets through. A similar vibe carries through to the emotionally-charged "Midnight Train," although the instrumentation is oddly reminiscent of Korn's "Creep." This flame on his chest is such a burden, sings Smith in his stunning a capella opening of the piano track, "Burning." He tacks a gospel intro to the double entendre-titled "Him," as he sings the heartbreaking lyrics, "Holy father, we need to talk. I have a secret that I can't keep./ I'm not the boy that you thought you wanted. Please don't get angry; have faith in me." Smith, who is openly gay and feminist, recently said he felt, "as much a woman as I am a man." In the song, he exclaims, "Don't you try and tell me that God doesn't care for us!" Smith gets a neo-soul vibe in "Baby You Make Me Crazy," one of the best cuts on the album. Deep bass and electro echo effects add a serious feel to "No Peace," featuring the female singer YEBBA singing, "Will you show me the piece of my heart I've been missing/ Won't you give me the part of myself that I can't give back?" It's a heartwrenching duet between two perfectly suited voices. The thrum of electric guitar strummed slowly underscores the soft vocals in "Palace," as Smith sings, "you're that one I can't ignore." Sometimes he wishes you'd never built this palace, he sings, but real love is never a waste of time. Smith sings about having forgone religion and education and being far from home. In his deep register, he sings, "maybe I'll 'Pray.'" Smith is an extremely talented artist, and this album just cements that. He'll kick off his tour in March 2018 in Sheffield and end up in mid-September in Canada. Catch him if you're headed north!
(Capitol Records)

"Red Pill Blues" (Maroon 5)

American pop band Maroon 5 release their sixth studio album, "Red Pill Blues," a collection of 10 songs. The band has already had to apologize for their title, which references a 'men's rights' movement that believes women actually enjoy being treated as non-equals. They say they named the album after the red and blue pills Keanu Reeve's character is offered in "The Matrix." They kick things off with "Best 4 U," a song about a couple who just can't get it together, with Levine singing, "I just want the best for you, but I'm just not the best for you." SZA lends a hand on the band's surprise hit single, "What Lovers Do." It's followed by the apology cut, "Wait." The slow track "Lips on You" follows, with instrumentation reminiscent of Chris Isaak's "Wicked Game," with Levine singing, "When I put my lips on you, you feel the shivers go up and down your spine for me, make you cry for me." The guitar melody is strong on "Bet My Heart," with Levine asking if he'd lose if he bet his heart on you? Levine sings in falsetto, and Julia Michaels lends her soprano voice to "Help Me Out." Birds chirp as LunchMoney Lewis provides the spoken intro on "Who I Am," and A$AP Rocky spits on "Whiskey" as Levine admits, "I never knew that love was blind until I was hers but she was never mine." They cut through lightning-fast backing guitar riffs in the rhyme-time tune "Girls Like You." Levine and company wrap up the album with "Closure" a creepy, misguided song that seems to equate a woman dumping him with her wanting to crawl back later for sex, singing "if you want closure, close that door, I know know know what you came here for." Based on the lack of regard the band seems to have for women as portrayed in these songs, the "Red Pills Blue" title feels about right, their apologies notwithstanding.
(Interscope Records)

"The Architect" (Paloma Faith)

British singer/songwriter Paloma Faith releases her long-awaited fourth album, "The Architect," a collection of 15 songs. The album, her first in more than three years, features collaborations with Sia, John Legend, Jesse Shatkin, TMS, Starsmith, Tobias Jesso Jr., Eg White, Rag'n'Bone Man, Samuel L. Jackson and Owen Jones. Said Faith, "'The Architect' is a social observation record. I was adamant that I wouldn't write about love. I wanted to look outside of myself. I'm coming at politics from the perspective of the common man or woman, observing why people are suffering. Each song on the record is about a different pocket of the socio-political world that I've been delving into." She kicks things off with the intro "Evolution," with a spoken-word element by actor Samuel L. Jackson about being "the power, the winner, and the fighter." With her deep resonant voice, Faith then launches into her powerful title track, promising, "I'll give you heaven, I'll give you hell/ I'm raising my huntsman, I'm casting my spell." She'll forgive you, but she won't forget. She's channeling the grotty sounds of Amy Winehouse in the R&B-tinged "Guilty," singing about how she's shattered the dreams of the good girl you thought she was. The sprightly, percussion-studded "Crybaby" gets an upbeat, '80s girl band treatment. John Legend chimes in on the following track, "I'll Be Gentle," with the two crooning in unison, "I'll be there to hold you, there's nothing that I won't do cause we all need a little kindness." Faith takes a break midway for a talk about the "Politics of Hope" with Owen Jones. She follows with the upbeat pop cut "Kings and Queens," singing in the bridge, "but I don't look back, cause I wanna go forward." There's a hard edge to "Surrender," despite its intro of cascading bells, as Faith sings, "you've seen too much hurt and pain/ You say you won't love again/ But you will, oh you will." Don't go, she begs; surrender your love. Skilled songwriter Sia wrote "Warrior" for Faith, and it really shows. It has all the hallmarks of a Sia hit, which means it's an excellent, super-catchy track with the hook, "I am a wounded warrior, now that the enemy's closing in/ I am a wounded warrior looking for someone to let me in." Faith even includes a sizzling dance floor track, "Til I'm Done," a brazen, disco-inspired cut that you can really move your feet to. She changes speeds quickly in "Lost and Lonely," channeling Motown queens as she sings about her fall from grace, "the girl who everyone knew is now the one they look through/ say another prayer for the lost and lonely." Faith is sultry in the jazzy piano cut "Still Around." Baby N'Sola, Janelle Martin and Naomi Miller stop to deliver a spoken word break about how women are "Pawns" in the game, and then Faith unloads both barrels in her hard-edge cut "WW3," singing about the end of a relationship as a metaphor for war, how "these bombs keep dropping." She ends an excellent album with "Love Me As I Am," a song about coming to terms with being loved for who she is, rough edges and all. It may have taken her a bit longer to put this collection of music to market, but we're all better off for the wait. Next March, Faith will go on tour in the UK.
(Columbia)

"Just the Beginning" (Grace VanderWaal)

Singer/songwriter Grace VanderWaal releases her debut album, 12 tracks of tropical acoustic songs, each of which she claims a writing credit. She sang her raspy single "Moonlight" as the 2016 winner of "America's Got Talent." And she kicks the album off with that song, as tinny ukulele picks out the tune about a girl who's "the perfect poster child" but on the verge of falling apart, with the chorus "The light from your eyes made me feel like we were dancing in the moonlight." She gets a bouncy popping bass feel in "Sick of Being Told," as she rails against your authority. Her somber piano ballad "Burned" finds her a little more streetwise as she sings, "just blow out the candles, oh little boy won't you learn/ you don't play with fire unless you wanna get burned." He wants marriage and the whole nine, but as VanderWaal strums on her uke, she sings, you're "Just a Crush." Ouch! She goes for a modern pop arrangement, a la Demi Lovato, on "So Much More Than This" and uses lots of percussion to power through "Escape My Mind," singing "I tell myself I'm over you then I get a little unsure./ I wish I could get you out of my mind." She wonders why you can't see her side of things, and rues the things she didn't say when her "mouth was moving without thinking" in "Talk Good." She strums out a classical guitar line to sing her heart out in "Florets," and she sings slowly about tuning everything out and focusing on the music in the heartfelt "Insane Sometimes." She strums her ukulele in the slow tune "A Better Life," but ramps up the intensity and passion in "City Song," singing to "just keep moving and take it all in." She ends an excellent debut album with the acoustic strummer "Darkness Keeps Chasing Me," singing, "I try to fight, but I'm not strong enough./ I just want you here." VanderWaal is a creative songwriter with a unique, raspy voice. She's one to watch.
(Columbia Records/Syco Music)

"(it was) because i was in love" (Sharon Van Etten)

Singer Sharon Van Etten re-releases her 2009 debut album, "because i was in love," remixed and remastered and given deluxe-reissue treatment, with two bonus tracks. Van Etten is hardly the tentative naif she was back then, but the album remains timeless. "I wish I knew what to do with you, ah the truth is I ain't got a clue," she sings high and lonesome, kicking off the 15 tracks with "I Wish I Knew." Van Etten's voice pairs well with the plaintive guitar strokes of this tune, and leaves you all hollow inside with its story of heartbreak. In the cut "Consolation Prize," Van Etten warns, "the moral of the story is don't walk away again," because she'll never be your consolation prize. She drones through "For You," singing about "running home to you/ I was hoping that you knew I'd wait for you." The tricky finger-picking pattern of "I Fold" is reminiscent of an old Joni Mitchell track from her "Ladies of the Canyon" era. Van Etten slays when she sings, "'Have You Seen' what I once called my heart? Have you seen my life that's now falling apart?" You want to cry when she tells how her heart flies like a bird from the cold, into "the arm that will hold." She sings about her unworthy lover: "I'm a 'Tornado.' You are the dust, you're all around and you're inside." She croons through "Much More Than That," warning you not to take her lightly, because she means every word. You're not hearing her, so she reads deeply into all of your gestures, singing, "My toe hit your toe lightly / Your toe met my heel right back / And I don't think I need much more than that." In "Same Dream" she sings about meeting her love in a dream they both had, challenging, "Bet you don't remember how we met. That's okay, it hasn't happened yet." She's hiding her sorrows in "Keep" as she sings "Remember these moments; They're all we have." She starts to get her head above water in "It's Not Like," with the lyrics, "Take both my feet, tie them, throw me over. Will I still float? Will my heart sink?" She's "Holding Out" trying to find a lover like that again, but admits she'd go right back to you if she could. By the next track, however, she sings, "I'm Giving Up On You," vowing, "ten times the fool I was; not again." The two new tracks Van Etten adds turn this sad album into a victory. In the final track, the upbeat strummer "You Didn't Really Do That," she's countered all the bullshit and lies, and has moved on, singing, "Your hair is falling out as mine grays. The time is passing right before our eyes. The stars are dead, but they still shed light." Van Etten has already begun work on her new album, a follow-up to 2014's "Are We There."
(Language of Stone)

"Blue Lips" (Tove Lo)

Tove Lo releases her third album, Blue Lips," meant to be a companion album for her 2016 hit, "Lady Wood." The two albums combine to tell the Lady Wood story, with each album containing two 'chapters.' "Blue Lips" chapters "Light Beam" and "Pitch Black" describes the highs, lows and ultimate demise of a relationship, says Tove Lo. The first six tracks are arranged as "Light Beams," with a short intro track of that name. It's followed by her breakout hit single, "Disco Tits," that has her singing, "I'm sweatin' from head to toe, I'm wet through all my clothes, I'm fully charged, nipples are hard, ready to go." This bouncy dance track will take over the clubs this winter like her "Habits (Stay High)" did back in 2014. She even sings, "So wild now, high as fuck." She follows it with "She Don't Know But She Knows," a pulsing dance track singing about a woman who doesn't know what you're up to all night long. Or does she? "I see her heart break/ still she's keeping face," sings Tove Lo. She's breathy in the sex-positive cut "Shivering Gold," singing about "curious minds, lips, lick 'em, pupils grow wide." Tove Lo lets her fine voice soar in "Don't Ask, Don't Tell," with its lo-fi flourishes as she sings, "Already know you fucked up, and it's cool with me. My past -- don't ask and don't tell, no need to share too much." Dramatic piano chords and electric guitar open "Stranger," as Tove Lo is lonely in the dark, waiting for someone to take her home. She wraps up the first part with the short, sassy cut "Bitches," about kicking it with the ladies. Part Two aka "Pitch Black" kicks off with a short teaser track, then moves into "Romantics" featuring Daye, singing, "we could be romantics for life, like drugs make us feel, unreal...." Organ and spoken word open "Cycles," a simple song with basic instrumentals and basement beats; it pairs well with the electronic buzz of the following track, "Struggle," singing, "the struggle is real when you don't tell me how you feel." "We never had coffee tables books or dinner parties, we always had hazy nights and sex..." she sings, opening "9th of October," referencing a moment in time they shared before anything had gone wrong. She ends her saga with the bittersweet not-going-home song, "Hey You Got Drugs?" She just needs a pick-me-up; don't tell anyone she was with you. Along with the album, Tove Lo released a pair of short films, "Fairy Dust" and "Fire Fade," which mark her acting debut. Check them out; she's doing some interesting work here.
(Island Records)