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Rihanna brings the goods on 7th album

Rihanna
"Unapologetic"
(Island Def Jam Music Group)

There‘s something about Rihanna. And her producers.

The singer’s new album -- her seventh in as many years -- is like many of her other releases, full of songs that are catchy, fun and addictive. Her albums are almost like listening to a "NOW" compilation disc.

"Unapologetic" is no different. It‘s full of future hits, and not a single miss.

"Phresh Out the Runaway," which kicks off the album, does so with a bang. And there are more: "Pour It Up," which has Rihanna sounding like a female version of The-Dream, is appealing; "Jump" samples Ginuwine’s "Pony" -- and it‘s surprisingly good; and the David Guetta-helmed "Right Now" is European-flavored and upbeat.

Even Rihanna’s duet with her ex Chris Brown on "Nobody‘s Business," which samples Michael Jackson’s "The Way You Make Me Feel," will make you move your feet. Lyrically though, the song is somewhat dismissive. "Ain‘t nobody’s business," she sings. OK, then stop tweeting one another.

When Rihanna slows it down, she‘s still on point: Her duet with singer Mikky Ekko on the piano-tune "Stay" is touching; the mid-tempo first single, the Sia-penned "Diamonds," is enjoyable; and "What Now" builds nicely from its calming verse to its electrified hook.

(AP)

Kate Earl’s writing is iffy on ‘Stronger’

Kate Earl
"Stronger"
(Downtown)

Kate Earl admits to feeling a tad lost before completing her third album, "Stronger." Seems she was stuck performing someone else’s vision and only now has she begun to realize one of her own.

The trouble with "Stronger" is that Earl‘s vision is an ineffectual grasp at simple substance through song. The soft-rock tunes are too simple and the results too routine.

Earl gallops into view atop the horse trot cadenced title track, "Stronger," in which she lauds the hard road traveled to relevance and maturity. That would all be great fodder for a song if she’d come up with better lyrics.

It gets worse. "One Woman Army" sounds too much like 10,000 Maniac‘s "Like The Weather." "California" sounds way too much like The Steve Miller Band’s "The Joker" -- and you get the idea. Earl is too close to her reference material, which weakens her own vision.

She has a smooth, pleasing voice and when you sound (and look) like Earl you get a second and perhaps a third chance to make it in music. But even the deft hand of seasoned musicians like Brett Dennen and Blake Mills can‘t salvage this artistically tepid release.

(AP)

Paul Kelly’s song cycle of love

Paul Kelly
"Spring and Fall"
(RED Distribution)

After time spent exploring his catalog, Australian Paul Kelly has made his first new music in five years. "Spring and Fall" is a song cycle tracing the arc of a relationship from the rush of new love through disillusionment, a bitter end and finally to acceptance.

Recorded acoustically with a few embellishments in a rural hall, the story is told succinctly in 11 songs, none more than 3:50 minutes in length. The singing of Laura Jean Englert in the opening two tracks conveys harmony both musically and thematically. By the time things turn sour in "Cold as Canada," the music is icy, too.

Kelly is one of the world‘s most expressive and economical songwriters, one of the world’s best, period. Each song here stands on its own or as a chapter in a book. By the end, in "Little Aches and Pains," the old lovers are reunited as old friends and Kelly concludes the story with this sentiment: "I don‘t count my losses now, just my gains."

Or almost ends. There is an uncredited hidden track. Although sweet, it’s too slight to sum up the story and is a distraction.

(AP)