5 new music releases we love: Whispery lo-fi, gender transition love songs, and Afrobeat vibes
GoldLink, Diaspora
[RCA, June 12]
GoldLink specializes in vibes. His music has an unerring sense of movement, whether it’s a sensuous R&B flow or a propulsive deep house rhythm. And over the course of four projects, he has slowly expanded his vision: the clubby hip-house of 2015’s And After That, We Didn’t Talk; the bittersweet love letter to his D.C. hometown that was his 2017 breakthrough At What Cost; and now Diaspora, which draws an international coterie of musicians into his woozy hip-hop world. British crooner Maleek Berry and German American singer Bibi Bourelly float over the Afrobeat arrangement of “Zulu Screams,” and Nigerian Afrobeats don Wizkid offers a hook for “No Lie.” Pusha T tries too hard to turn “Coke White/Moscow” into a sequel to Goldlink’s hit single “Crew,” but it still works. Khalid and Tyler, The Creator take bows. GoldLink anchors it all with a steady flow that tends to bounce and skip. He doesn’t have a distinctively magnetic voice, and his verses don’t shine as brightly as they did on At What Cost. But he keeps the party going. [Mosi Reeves]
Bill Callahan, Shepherd In A Sheepskin Vest
[Drag City, June 14]
Bill Callahan released an album every year or two from 1990 until 2013, first as Smog and later under his own name, evolving from a static-and-cacophony specialist into a songwriter with few contemporary peers. Six years of relative quiet was peppered with big life events, apparently, and they’re all over the gorgeous, gentle Shepherd In A Sheepskin Vest: Callahan got married and became a dad, and the album presents his version of domestic bliss and professional reawakening. The centerpiece and statement of purpose might be “What Comes After Certainty,” a sidelong-approach love song in which he sings, “I never thought I’d make it this far / Little old house, recent-model car / And I got the woman of my dreams.” If that all sounds a little direct for a guy known more layered turns of phrase, don’t fret: Even a stress-free Callahan uses his lovely baritone in the service of more poetic, nuanced ends. It’s a new side to him in some ways, but as welcome a turn as all those that have come before it. [Josh Modell]
Bat For Lashes, “Kids In The Dark”
[AWAL Recordings, June 10]
Bat For Lashes, a.k.a. Natasha Khan, this week announced the release of her fifth LP, Lost Girls, due September 6. She simultaneously released the first single from the album, also its opening track, the epicurean, ethereal “Kids In The Dark.” It’s impressionistic and, like much of Khan’s work, mines the fecund sonic world of ’80s film soundtracks, serving as a crepuscular yet romantic yin to the neon glow radiant yang of M83. Khan once hilariously described her songs as “tempestuous little teenage kind of moany little bastards,” but now is worlds removed from such fatuous frivolity. She’s clearly found her voice as a songwriter, and “Kids In The Dark,” with its magisterial keyboard swells and nutmeg-sweet vocals, evinces her at the peak at her formidable powers, yielding one of the finest singles released thus far in 2019. And as just a tantalizing opening volley, a small part of the jigsaw puzzle of her typically great start-to-finish LPs, it augurs that Khan may have made her masterpiece in Lost Girls. We’ll find out for sure in September. [John Everhart]