A weekly selection of recordings you should be listening to. By Chris Richards
If you need someone to hold your hand on the dance floor . . .
Kiev protests, Sochi gay cabaret, severe storms kill seabirds along the French coast and more.
Katy B deserves gobs of credit for bringing the sound of London’s electronic music underground to Britain’s pop charts, but her true talent is for narrating the dissonant emotions that come rushing into the club at 5 a.m. — like on her song “5 a.m.” when feelings of loneliness finally crawl out from beneath a euphoric house beat. Her splendid sophomore album, “Little Red,” has plenty of moments like that one, plus some ballads for slow-dancing and/or sobbing.
If you need an R&B song to convince you that texting under the influence is a bad idea . . .
Atlanta’s Miloh Smith is the latest R&B millennial to smear the lines between lovesickness, technology and psychotropic bewilderment. On “Intexication” — a highlight from her new terrifically trippy new mixtape, “Pulp Fiction” — she’s singing to the messages glowing on her phone like a dazed Erykah Badu: “I mean what I say even though it’s not what you heard.” Loud and clear.
If you’re interested in the memories of a coal miner’s great granddaughter . . .
The title track of Irene Kelley’s handsome new album, “Pennsylvania Coal,” pays tribute to her great-grandparents’ struggles in a mining town outside Pittsburgh. The veteran country songwriter has since relocated to Nashville where she’s penned songs for Trisha Yearwood and Alan Jackson, but on this bluegrass-tinged album she’s telling her own stories with great clarity and warmth.
