Dig These Discs :: CeeLo Green, Boots, Natalie Merchant, Ellie Goulding, The Neighborhood

CeeLo takes time from controversy to release his fifth studio album, "Heart Blanche," featuring 15 hip-hop & R&B tracks. Longtime alt-rock singer Natalie Merchant releases her first album since 2014s eponymous folk album, and it's a re-recording her 1995 smash hit, "Tigerlily." English singer Ellie Goulding follows up the success of her 2012 album "Halcyon" with this new release, "Delirium." The alt-rock band from Newbury Park, California, also known as THE NBHD, releases their second studio album, "Wiped Out!"

"Delirium" (Ellie Goulding)

English singer Ellie Goulding follows up the success of her 2012 album "Halcyon" with this new release, "Delirium." "A part of me views this album as an experiment -- to make a big pop album," she says. "I made a conscious decision that I wanted it to be on another level." She's had success already with her single, "Love Me Like You Do." The album's 16 tracks feature a number of anthemic pop songs, full of heart and soul, like the track "Aftertaste," as she sings, "I know there's nothing I can do to make you stay, but one thing I know that will always remain, and that's the aftertaste." The wording's a bit clunky, but the sentiment is clear. The music pulses like a heartbeat in "Something In The Way You Move," and is sly in the groovy "Keep On Dancin'." You'll love the catchy hook for "On My Mind" singing, "I don't understand it, you don't mess with love, you mess with the truth." Her fluffy "Around You" follows, as she sings, "I just wanna be around you, is that too much to ask?" In "Codes" she bemoans, "Man you make it hard; shouldn't need a riddle to unlock your heart." She ramps up the intensity in the 'shoulda known better' tune "Holding On For Life." She takes her sound right up to the stratosphere in the angelic "Love Me Like You Do," from the movie "Fifty Shades of Grey." In "Don't Need Nobody" she's just "a victim of the weapon in my hand," and in "Don't Panic," Goulding sings, "Why you wanna ruin a good thing? Can we take it back to the start?" Her "We Can't Move To This" draws a parallel between a bad dance cut and a bad romance. The quiet cut "Army" is a song about her best friend, Hannah, who is always there to support her. Goulding's "Lost and Found" comes across as a lullaby to the city, and "Devotion" is a funky dance floor cut. She finishes her sweet sixteen with "Scream It Out," promising, "I won't let you down." With this third studio album, she doesn't.
(Cherrytree/Interscope Records)

"Heart Blanche" (CeeLo Green)

CeeLo Green takes time from controversy and (allegedly) slipping women mickeys to release his fifth studio album, "Heart Blanche," featuring 15 hip-hop and R&B tracks. He kicks it off with an intro that sounds a lot like the instrumentals to a well-known Elton John jam, before launching into "Est. 1980s," singing about jamming to "Solid Gold," Billy Joel and Duran Duran, with the refrain, "I was made in the '80s." It was the good old days, when "Run DMC looked like me," sings Green. He gets funky in the deep bass track "Mother May I" and the up-tempo cut "Working Class Heroes (Work)." In the drama-laden "Tonight," Green sings, "I'm living the dream and I know what it means." He pays tribute to "Robin Williams," in a heartfelt song that Green says is a "homage to our humanity." His "Sign of the Times" uses the theme song from "Taxi" as its instrumentals. And he gets sad in "CeeLo Green Sings the Blues." Even in darkness, Green sings out full with "Music to My Soul," and ramps up the energy in "Race Against Time." He looks to rekindle an old flame in "Better Late Than Never," with its excellent peppy drums, and ramps up the heat in his next track, "Smells Like Fire," singing about dancing up real close to someone. "I brought home scars from the battle, but a woman's scar is worse than any war," Green sings in "Purple Hearts (Soldier of Love)." He tries to separate the rose from the "Thorns," and ends the album with "The Glory Games," promising to hunt the mountains and swim the seas for her love. Critics are already calling "Heart Blanche" one of Green's best albums yet.
(Atlantic Records)

"Paradise Is There: The New Tigerlily Recordings" (Natalie Merchant)

Longtime alt-rock singer Natalie Merchant releases her first album since 2014s eponymous folk album: a re-recording her 1995 release "Tigerlily." Fans will be relieved to learn that Merchant's fine, distinctive, mellifluous voice has aged well, having only improved by getting a bit deeper. She kicks off her album with "San Andreas Fault," singing, "Go west, paradise is there, you'll have all that you can eat of milk and honey over there." The opening piano strains of "Beloved Wife" will pull you in to this story of loss, "how I'll live my life, now alone without my beloved wife." Her uber-hit "Carnival" has a deeper feeling now that Merchant is all grown up, asking, "have I been blind, have I been lost inside myself and my own mind." She doesn't scream it like she did in her youth; her song is more resigned to the ugliness of the world, with just a stark guitar, bass and brushes on a snare drum to move it along. The classical arrangement in "River" suits it well, as she sings of the "young and strong Hollywood son," River Phoenix, who died of a drug overdose at 23. Similar instrumentation marks "The Letter," a short tune about the bitter letter a woman might write to the lover who brought her moments "precious and few." Accordion brings layers of sound to the folksy "Where I Go," as Merchant sings of the wind in the willow trees. The piano is powerful, but not as powerful as Merchant's voice, in "I May Know The Word," a tune about battling indifference in the face of the profound. Her voice breaks as she sings "Seven Years," recalling the divorce of her parents when she was seven years old. "He's a scoundrel, and she's no pearl, together they are two lovers cruel," sings Merchant in the country-tinged tune "Cowboy Romance." The horns and brass in "Jealousy" makes it feel like the '90s all over again, and Merchant cuts as she finishes with, "sometimes tell me, while she's touching you, just by mistake accidentally do you say my name?" She finishes with "Wonder," singing, "know this child will be gifted, with love with patience and with faith, she'll make her way." Just like Merchant has, through all these years.
(Nonesuch)

"AQUARIA" (Boots)

Jordy Asher, aka Boots, is an American record producer, singer, rapper and musician who has produced records by FKA Twigs and Beyonc�, but now turns his talents on himself. In this, his solo album, Boots takes some risks, and they pan out. He whips us into a frenzy from the first notes of "Brooklyn Gamma," singing, "It ain't as good as it gets if you got holes all over your chest/ my best day is your worst day, worst day is my best." The competition "ain't got shit on me" sings Boots in "C.U.R.E." Listening to Boots is kind of like digging a mash-up of Tricky with a dubstep cut. He slows things down in the droning "Oraclies," (pronounced Oracle Eyes) and "Bombs Away." Boots has been up all night, like "some spider sent from Mars/ I keep pushing all my chips into all the center of the table," but he's not so sure it's a safe bet anymore, in "I Run Roulette." His cut "Gallows" is a moody piece that meshes into the title track "AQUARIA," a spare tune moved by a clap track and bass, that is among the best on the album. You'll love the lines, "I'll make your heart stit-tit stutter." His foreboding "Earthquake" pairs Boots's high, sometimes shaky voice with aberrant, pounding percussion. "Only" is a musical soundscape that will transport you, and "Dead Come Running" is a bass-heavy song that sounds like some Chav trying to rap. The album wraps with the Pink Floyd-esque "Still." This Boots may not have been made for walking, but he'll take you places nevertheless.
(Columbia)

"Wiped Out!" (The Neighborhood)

The alt-rock band from Newbury Park, California, also known as THE NBHD, releases their second studio album, "Wiped Out!" And the quintet of vocalist Jesse Rutherford, guitarists Jeremy Freedman and Zach Abels, bassist Mikey Margott and drummer Brandon Fried are relieved that the album has made such a splash. They have done well with their single, "RIP 2 My Youth," and the group recently finished their "The Flood Tour" this fall. The band definitely has a sense of humor, making their first track, "A Moment of Silence," literally 30 seconds of silence. It's odd as an opener, but it will make you sit up and pay attention to their second cut, "Prey," with its catchy tambourine and refrain of "I don't wanna fight." Many of the tracks deal with falling in love. In "Cry Baby," Rutherford sings, "I think I try too hard: how I look, what I do, what I'm saying" before admitting, "I know I'll fall in love with you baby, and that's not what I wanna do." He doesn't want to be alone in the title track, "Wiped Out!" a tune that brings to mind the roiling sea that waits just off the Pacific Coast Highway. It could use a little editing to trim down its six-minute run time. But it bookends nicely with "The Beach," with impassioned guitar strings scoring lyrics like, "I've been calling you 'friend,' I might need to give it up." Love's a bitch! In "Daddy Issues," he sings about his own relationship with his father while also looking at his girlfriend's problems, saying, "If you were my little girl, I'd do whatever I could do/ I'd run away and hide with you. I love that you got daddy issues, and I do too." He sings about his daddy taking care of him, being on welfare and living in Section Eight in "Baby Came Home 2/Valentines." It ends with the sound of waves crashing on the shore. This merges in nicely with "Greetings from Califournia," a dark song with a lot of echo that has him admitting, "I've got a dozen insecurities but I don't think you should be worried for me." They amp up the masculinity with "Ferrari," singing, "I want a new yellow Ferrari from the '90s in the driveway, but I know you wouldn't like that." It's a metaphor for their busted relationship. Buried down low in the set list are two standouts, "Single," an acoustic guitar song that launches with, "I don't know if we should be alone together, I still got a crush, that's obvious." He's asking Dave (Her daddy? Her current beau?) if he will "let your baby be mine." They finish the album strong with "R.I.P. 2 My Youth," singing, "you can play this at my funeral, wrap me up in Chanel inside my coffin." Deep stuff for an album that's essentially a beach cut. You'll have to shake the sand out of your shoes and your head after listening to this one.
(Columbia/The Revolve Group)