Dig These Discs :: James Taylor, Finding Neverland, Ryn Weaver, Joy Williams, Third Eye Blind

An all-star lineup of singers including Ellie Goulding, Jennifer Lopez and Christina Aguilera share their talents in "Finding Neverland: The Album." Joy Williams releases her solo album "Venus" this month, her first since forming the folk duo The Civil Wards, a partnership that ended in 2014. Third Eye Blind releases their fifth studio album, the first in six years. Five-time Grammy winning singer/songwriter James Taylor drops his first album of new songs in 13 years, and it's already gone straight to number one for the first time in his career. And 22-year-old Ryn Weaver debuts her new album "The Fool" this month, inspired by a tarot card reading.

"Finding Neverland: The Album" (assorted artists)

An all-star lineup of singers including Ellie Goulding, Jennifer Lopez and Christina Aguilera share their talents in "Finding Neverland: The Album." All songs feature music and lyrics by Gary Barlow and Eliot Kennedy, with executive production by Harvey Weinstein, Victoria Parker and Dana Sano. The 15 tracks are a fusion of pop and Broadway, like Elton John and Tim Rice's "Aida" album was. Zendaya kicks things off with the sparkly ballad "Neverland," showcasing a high vocal range. Kiesza adds drama to the empowerment anthem, "Stronger" and Nick Jonas lends his sprightly pop voice to "Believe." The ballad "When Your Feet Don't Touch the Ground" is given a light hand by the honey-throated Ellie Goulding. The theatrical drama is at full tilt in "Circus of Your Mind" by Paloma Faith, and Trey Songz and J-Lo create a beautiful harmony in "What You Mean to Me," as they sing, "Just take the second star on the right straight ahead to the morning light." Rita Ora and Sage The Gemini team up for the hip-hop-influenced "Are We Gonna Play." Sound the alert: Ora don't want no scrubs. Aguilera takes things down to a crawl in the ballad "Anywhere But Here," and shows us that time has only made her voice stronger. Jon Bon Jovi gives an odd Neil Diamond treatment to "Beautiful Day," and Pentatonix wraps us up in dreams in the bouncy, "Stars." John Legend lends his serious pipes to "My Imagination" and Gary Barlow goes full show tune with "Something About This Night." "Glee" star Matthew Morrison serves up a gypsy-music sound in "We Own the Night," and Christina Perri exercises her high soprano in the piano ballad "All That Matters." The Goo Goo Dolls finish the album off with "If The World Turned Upside Down." If you're a fan of Broadway scores sung by the biggest pop stars of the day, this is the album for you.
(Republic Records)

"Venus" (Joy Williams)

Joy Williams releases her solo album "Venus" this month, her first since forming the folk duo The Civil Wars, a partnership that ended in 2014. After that, she had a child, found her marriage in hot water and was reeling over her dad's terminal cancer diagnosis. Instead of letting it bring her down, she wrote almost 80 possible songs for her solo album, including the single, "Until the Levee." Her new sound is nothing like the old; it's a more intense, fresh pop sound, and one that is very much about female empowerment. She shows off her vocal chops from the get-go in "Before I Sleep," an intense, melancholy tune, with lyrics like, "Carry my body across the frozen ground." The intensity of even simple songs like "Sweet Love of Mine" will assure listeners that Williams has something to share, and nothing to prove. "Woman (Oh Mama)" is an anthem of empowerment that wouldn't be out of place at Michigan Womyn's Music Festival. Her intensity can be frightening, like a deeper-voiced Tori Amos, as seen in songs like "One Day I Will." The percussive bells in "Not Good Enough" give it a great sound, and the drums are intense in "Until the Levee." "I thought you wouldn't love me if I didn't do everything right, so I lied..." she begins in "You Love Me." Could she be speaking about her marriage? She sings about leaving being not "What a Good Woman Does," and terrifies with her heavy breaths in "The Dying Kind," singing, "every rose has its thorn, every thorn has its crown." Williams finishes strong with the catchy "Till Forever" and the sweeping "Welcome Home," which is reminiscent of ballads by Celine Dion. Some girls are just better single.
(Sensibility Music/Columbia Records)

"The Fool" (Ryn Weaver)

Born in California, based in New York City, 22-year-old Ryn Weaver drops her debut album this month, "The Fool." She said that the album was inspired by a tarot reading in which she received The Fool card, which signifies new beginnings and endless potential, and a devotion to following your heart wherever it takes you. She captured the idea in her lyrics, singing of her own wanderings. If you're looking for something new and a bit nutty, Weaver fits the bill. Her album starts off with "Runaway," pairing her reedy voice with a bass-heavy track, which segues seamlessly into her cut "OctaHate," a pop song about leaving someone who isn't good for you. "Pierre" showcases Weaver's voice, as she sings about meeting a guy who "lied about his age but I didn't care/ spoke in broken English but the heart was there/ in those eyes of sky and ocean blue." She sings her way through the excellent "Stay Low" with its electronic flourishes, and rounds up the 'broken pieces' in the intense "Sail On." The title track, with its synth riffs, tells a tale of regret in the face of fierce independence. It is one of the best on the album, with rollicking instrumentals and a memorable chorus. She cycles through the song "Promises" with �lan, rhyming and moving her voice up and down the scales, and dishes out straight talk about being broken in "Free." "Traveling Song" puts Weaver in the shoes of a traveling troubadour, with folksy instrumental and forward-moving sound of a "traveling song to ease the ride." It eases into a delicate a capella ending that is unexpected and a little eerie. "You're letting people into this incredibly dark part of you, hoping that there'll be others who find some solace in what you've created. It's a very weird game, and I don't even know why I do it, other than that I just completely need to." She amps up intensity again for "Here Is Home," a song about roaming with lyrics like, "if we're still living when the earth stops spinning/ you can fall into my arms." The tremolo in her voice is amazing in her final track "New Constellation," singing about dizzy stargazers with their heads in the clouds. Weaver has something good here, and you're sure to see more of her before long.
(Interscope Records)

"Before This World" (James Taylor)

Five-time Grammy winning singer/songwriter James Taylor releases his first album of new songs in 13 years, and it's already gone straight to number one for the first time in his career. The 10-song release has sold 96,000 albums, 9,000 songs and was streamed 411,000 times. And it's the same old James Taylor we know and love, crafting homespun acoustic tunes with sage lyrics. He starts with "Today Today Today" and moves into the ether in "You and I Again," singing, "I can't escape this feeling that we've been this way together you and I." He sings of "86 summers gone by" and hexes by the Bambino in the enjoyable "Angels of Fenway," promising to be a Red Sox fan until the day he dies. "Stretch of the Highway" is a classic traveling song, and "Montana" is a classic love song. "Learned my lesson again, only one way to surrender," Taylor sings in "Watchin' Over Me," with its winning fiddle. He's lost in downtown Toronto at dinnertime in "SnowTime," before finding a cabaret show where "every note was an antidote to December." He finishes the album up with the enigmatic "Before This World/Jolly Springtime." "Far Afghanistan" is a dark marching dirge, in which Taylor sings about life back in Indiana: "Civilized and socialized they teach you right from wrong/ how to how your liquor and how to hold your tongue, how to hold a woman or a baby or a gun/ But nothing will prepare you for the far Afghanistan." He finishes the album with the smooth "Wild Mountain Thyme," which sounds a lot like his old work. Taylor's music has been the backdrop for our American life for the past 30 years. It's about time he got his due. "Before This World" is his 17th studio album, and he will do a short U.S. tour from July 2-August 6 to promote it.
(Concord Records)

"Dopamine" (Third Eye Blind)

Third Eye Blind releases their first album in six years. Led by frontman Stephan Jenkins, this fifth studio album album is a road-tested collection of songs chronicling the band's time on tour since their last studio effort, "Ursa Major." With its signature guitar riffs and rock arrangements, "Dopamine" is vintage Third Eye Blind, looking at the personal relationships that have come and gone. The blend of acoustic, rock and electronica make Third Eye Blind a band for all comers. The recordings retain the endearing sentiment Third Eye Blind fans new and old have come to love. They kick things off with the bouncy cut, "All These Things," singing about standing your ground with a slight tinge of easygoing Beach Boys-esque vibes permeating it. They follow with the upbeat "All These Things" then go "black on black and nothing else" in the darker "Back to Zero." The song chronicles a "life swap" Jenkins did with a struggling musician in a small apartment, to overcome his writers' block. "I took my blade and I cut him deep and blood bloomed red on his crisp white shirt for your party guests to see," Jenkins sings in the spare but creepy "Blade." They rock out in the title track "Dopamine," singing, "I'm making it pretty but I know I mean nothing/ I'm just drugs to you, still I'm jonesing like a fiend." Their first single "Everything is Easy" has a sense of humor, with lyrics like, "Go ahead take my heart up, roll it up like a joint, smoke me out 'til the feeling gets cashed. When you look at my face it's like you forget the point." The acoustic intro to "Exiles" gives it a folksy feel, as marching drums play a dirge to the end of a relationship. "Get Me Out of Here" is a fabulous, dramatic tune perfect for your gayest angst. And "Rites of Passage" is among the most pop-driven cuts on the song, inherently listenable. "If I tell you what I really want, you just say 'shut up,'" starts the sobering "Say It." His sister is a "Shipboard Cook" in the next tune, driven largely by grinding power chords, with the refrain, "I'm always a ghost." He finishes up the album with "Something in You" looking to "find all the things that chaos brings." This is a tasty dozen that Third Eye Blind has cooked up for their fans. The band's been touring endlessly since their last album, and this summer, will return for an eight-week national tour with Dashboard Confessional.
(Big Hassle)