Dig These Discs :: Carly Rae Jepsen, Oh Wonder, Rob Thomas, Yo La Tengo, Halsey

Canadian singer Carly Rae Jepsen releases her third album, "Emotion." Singer/songwriter Halsey confronts her demons in the debut album, "Badlands." Smooth rockers Yo La Tengo celebrate their 30th anniversary with the release of "Stuff Like That," and a world tour starting Sept. 23 in Troy, NY. Matchbox Twenty singer Rob Thomas releases his third solo album, "The Great Unknown," his first since 2009's "Cradlesong." The London writing duo of Anthony West & Josephine Vander Gucht, aka Oh Wonder, release their 15-song debut album -- and they've never even played on stage together!

"Emotion" (Carly Rae Jepsen)

Canadian singer Carly Rae Jepsen likes you. No; she really, really, really likes you. The "Call Me Maybe" baby parlayed her third-place win in Canadian Idol's Season Five into a music career, and is now ready to release her third album, "Emotion." Two hit singles have already emerged: "I Really Like You" and "Run Away With Me." It's a cohesive, '80s-style pop album by a honey-voiced, upbeat singer, and the kids are gonna love it. In the title song, Jepsen establishes herself as not just another wallflower, but someone worth your fantasies. She slows things down in the shy-girl love song "Gimmie Love" and "All That," with the lyrics, "I'll be your lighthouse when you're lost to see, I'll keep my light on, baby, you can always come to me, I wanna be the place you call your home." She keeps things light and fun in the bouncy pop tune "Boy Problems," and hijacks her baby in "Making the Most of the Night," singing, "Baby I'm speeding and red lights are run. What I got you need it, and I'll run to your side/ When your heart is bleeding, I'm coming to get you." Jepsen wants to take the long way home in the endearing "Let's Get Lost," and tries not to let fame go to her head, despite the planes she's hopping and cards she's dropping, in "LA Hallucinations." She puts the lies aside for the one she loves in "Warm Blood," and finishes the album up with "When I Needed You," a sad tune about wishing you could change into a person they could love forever. Jepsen may be spawned from pop culture TV, but in today's auto-tuned industry, she's a real singer with bona fide musical chops. We really, really, really like her back.
(Interscope Records)

"The Great Unknown" (Rob Thomas)

Matchbox Twenty singer Rob Thomas releases his third solo album, "The Great Unknown," his first since 2009's "Cradlesong." The German-born singer worked with Ryan Tedder, Ricky "Wallpaper" Read and the team of Shep Goodman and Aaron Accetta to put together this 13-track album. Thomas sings fast and skillfully in the style of today's popular music. He kicks things off with "I Think We'd Feel Good Together," trying to drop his patter on a lady, promising, "We got no reason to rush, 'Cause soon enough I'm gonna do some things that make you blush." His single, "Trust You" dropped in May, and did fairly well. It's a bro-tune, an ode to staying out late and drinking with the boys, with a country backbeat. Ukulele backs Thomas as he promises to make her feel better and "keep you warm like a sweater" in the sunny "Hold on Forever." He rocks to a pounding bass drum in the party anthem "Wind It Up" and goes YOLO in "One Shot." The title song is a slow, thoughtful song about holding on to hope against a world with a heart of stone. He channels Rick Springfield in "Absence of Affection," asking, "And if everybody wants you/ Tell me why are you so alone?" The woman who saves his life breaks his heart in "Things You Said" and the relationship is on the rocks in "Paper Dolls." "Lie to Me" follows a similar theme. Thomas gets funky in the dance track "NLYTM" (Not Like You Told Me) and swings in the popular "Heaven Help Me" -- among the album's best songs. He finishes the album with "Pieces," another song about breaking down. Overall, it's a good solo effort, and Thomas is on the road spreading the word about this new project. "The idea now is to be out touring to build up all the excitement for the [album], and then I can do all the traditional promo after that," Thomas told Billboard Magazine. "That's one of the reasons why for this summer we picked more of a theater tour instead of doing the outdoor sheds and keep it in that vibe of, 'We're building something.'"
(Atlantic Records)

"Badlands" (Halsey)

Singer/songwriter Halsey (born in New Jersey as Ashley Nicolette Frangipane) drops her debut studio album, a concept piece called "Badlands." The name refers to Halsey's mental state while writing the album; it's a physical metaphor for a desolate, lonely mind. It's her sophomore album, after the 2014 debut EP, "Room 93." She kicks things off with "Castle," a sonorous tune with deep bass beats and the lyrics, "Sick off all these people talking, sick of all this noise/ Tired of all these cameras flashing." A gothic chant break precedes Halsey's launch into the chorus, "I'm headed straight for the castle/ they wanna make me the queen." Halsey's voice is very well suited for this genre of rebellious pop. In "Hold Me Down" she gives a critique of the music industry, singing, "Sold my soul to a three piece and he told me I was holy/ He's got me down on both knees but it's the devil that's trying to hold me down." Her "New Americana" paints a portrait of a nouveau riche woman armed with, "cigarettes and tiny liquor bottles, just what you'd expect inside her new Balenciaga." Her "Drive" is an extended metaphor about love, with Halsey bemoaning that, "All we do is drive/ all we do is think about the feelings that we hide." She looks back at the turmoil of young love in "Roman Holiday," and gets the blues over her sedated life in "Colors." She finds both God and the Devil in her lover in "Coming Down" and is possessed by her ex (and likes it) in the excellent, moody track "Haunting." She goes crazy hiding the secrets inside in "Control" and bemoans a man who has too much to drink and a head full of dope in "Young God," admitting, "I only fuck you to feel less alone." Halsey finishes this strong first album with the tune "Ghost," sending away the fresh-faced innocents in favor of those men "wearing leather... the sad eyes, bad guys, mouth full of white lies." The verdict: Halsey is a woman with demons so compelling, you'll want to watch her vanquish them.
(Astralwerks Records)

"Oh Wonder" (Oh Wonder)

The London writing duo of Anthony West & Josephine Vander Gucht met four years ago while working with other bands, and began writing songs together. The two set out to release one song per month for a year on Soundcloud, and reached that goal, despite having never set foot on stage together. Now, catch all these songs together in their self-titled debut album. It's 15 tracks of innovative instrumentals with the pleasing male/female vocal pairing. They start with "Livewire," feeding off each other's energy. The stripped-down, auto-tuned "Body Gold" is almost robotic in nature, and "Technicolour Beat" has a similar, pared-down effect. Their first single, "Drive," has a catchy beat and a video to match, as West and Vander Gucht sing, "I can't help but drive away from all the mess you made You sent this hurricane, now it won't go away./ And I promised I'd be there, but you don't make it easy." They're caught up in an overflow in "Lose It," and are caught up in a "Landslide" in this upbeat pop song. They catch an R&B vibe in the fantastic cut "Without You," admitting, "I'm a little bit lost without you." The intro keyboard effects of "The Rain" are incongruous with the slow rock vibes of the song. They have better luck with "Dazzle," as Vander Gucht demands, "Dazzle me with gold." "Dazzle" was inspired by a sad old gambler in Vegas, Dorris, who plays the one-armed bandit compulsively.
The piano give gravitas to "All We Do" as they sing, "I've been upside down, I don't wanna be the right way round/ I find paradise on the ground." "All We Do" was written in four minutes on the evening before New Year's Eve, about challenging yourself as a human. They're over the moon in "Midnight Moon" and employ cool effects in the spare "Shark." They finish the ambitious collection of songs with the piano ballads "Heart Hope" and "Plans." The duo hits the road in mid-September for dates in Europe, coming to L.A. on Oct. 5, then hitting New York before flying back across the pond for gigs in Europe and then Australia. Get in on the ground floor!
(Self-recorded)

"Stuff Like That There" (Yo La Tengo)

Smooth rockers Yo La Tengo celebrate their 30th anniversary with the release of "Stuff Like That," and a world tour starting Sept. 23 in Troy, NY. The trio of Ira Kaplan, Georgia Hubley and James McNew now return as a quartet, reuniting with former member Dave Schramm on electric guitar as they perform cover songs, cover their own covers from their album "Fakebook" and throw in a few brand new originals. This unprecedented live set-up -- Kaplan on acoustic guitar, Hubley up-front on a small kit, and McNew on upright bass -- marks the first occasion of this particular Yo La Tengo incarnation touring together. Hubley's voice is smooth and fine in Darlene McCrea's unrequited love song, "My Heart's Not In It." Deep bass guitar studs their track "Rickety" and their cover of Hank Williams' "I'm So Lonesome I Could Cry" gives the Cowboy Junkies a run for their money. They remake "All Your Secrets" from "Popular Songs" and follow it with a remake of "The Ballad of Red Buckets" from "Electr-o-pura." Hubley sounds like a dream as she slowly sings The Cure cover "Friday I'm in Love." The deep vocals of the Great Plains' "Before We Stopped to Think" give it a modern blues country sound that rolls over into The Lovin' Spoonful's "Butchie's Tune." The guitar swings and glides in Special Pillow's "Automatic Doom" and "Awhileaway" is a charming and endearing song. Male and female vocals compliment each other in The Parliaments "I Can Feel the Ice Melting" in perhaps its most unusual arrangement to date. Antietam's "Naples" sounds like a Joni Mitchell track, and they remake "Deeper Into Movies" from "I Can Hear the Heart Beating As One." They wrap it up with "Somebody's In Love" from The Cosmic Rays with Sun Ra and Arkestra. Yo La Tengo hits the road this fall, with East Coast dates through October 15, before heading to Ireland, Scotland, the UK, France, Amsterdam and Germany.
(Matador Records)