Morgan Wade has not only conquered the sophomore slump; the music and her raspy Virginia twang sound better than ever. "80s Movie" is redolent of the kind of nostalgia Eric Church does so well, referencing cassette tapes and small-town water towers, When Harry Met Sally and Dirty Dancing, and remembering boyfriends with "Tom Cruise hair." And, as with Church, it's as inspired by '80s guitar rock as classic '80s country. But there are plenty of '90s touchstones, too, including the folksy jangle of "Roman Candle" and smoky "Outrun." "Alanis," with its jittering guitar, pays tribute to Alanis Morisette and "You Oughta Know," which came out the year Wade was born. (She performed that song with Morissette and other country singers at the 2023 CMT Awards.) "Alanis, lived out your pain through sweet profanity … Alanis, how did you ever keep your sanity?" Wade sings, in awe of the way Morisette would "scream on the stage and let out the rage 'til the lights go dark." Appropriately, the song ends with Alanis-style harmonica. There's a Sheryl Crow open-mic vibe "Phantom Feelings," a Julia Michaels co-write, with Wade hitting a growl as she gets nostalgic about being "young and … dumb" and "getting drunk at a bar downtown quoting Sylvia Plath." There's also a longing for being 16 and carefree, before knowing "the world was so damn mean," on "Losers Like Me," which rips with juke-joint piano and siren-wail guitar. "We said we wouldn't get jobs and we'd burn our bras/ We wouldn't turn out nothing like our moms/ I didn't/ But I wish I did," Wade reckons. Inevitably, the songs on this record will be picked over for clues to Wade's nebulous relationship with Real Housewives of Beverly Hills star Kyle Richards, a favorite topic of internet gossip. Power ballad "Guns and Roses" should fuel the flames: "Chasing after you feels a little dangerous/ I could give it all, but it never is enough/ Just when I think we're friends/ All of your words turn to lead/ Planting flowers in my head/ Aiming for love, hitting me instead." And "27 Club," a bittersweet-sounding acoustic number, is sure to spur guessing games, as Wade sings about "laying in the bed at the Chateau/ With someone I saw on TV but barely even know" and being "out in LA with a Beverly Hills hottie/ The kind that wants to go and sniff the pills off my body." It builds and the guitars rock out, but Wade, who proudly wears her sobriety, is sometimes left "feeling so sad/ I could reach for the gun/ I could reach for the bottle/ But it's great/ I'm getting paid ... I didn't make the 27 club/ I'm 28." Glad she's here. © Shelly Ridenour/Qobuz

Lurking beneath the seductive, supple gloss of The Voyager lies a serious undercurrent of sorrow -- an undercurrent Jenny Lewis doesn't disguise but doesn't bring to the surface, either. Someone, somewhere broke her heart, and perhaps the culprit is Lewis herself. Regret and self-recrimination abound on The Voyager: it's a tattered storybook full of relationships gone to rot, missed marriages, infidelities forgiven but not forgotten, wistful teenage memories fading in the face of adult disappointment. Whether the songs are autobiographical or not -- and they're filled with seemingly personal signifiers, ranging from red hair and scars left from the San Fernando Valley to a philandering, layabout beau named John -- doesn't matter much, as The Voyager aims to strike a universal chord for ladies in their thirties watching the years slide by as they wait for boyfriends to commit or life to start happening. It's heavy midlife crisis material but The Voyager plays lightly, offering a warm balm of Southern California sounds. Much more than Under the Blacklight, Rilo Kiley's 2007 stab at Fleetwood Mac-styled pop, this feels like vintage L.A. studio rock. Working primarily with producer Ryan Adams -- Beck comes aboard to give "Just One of the Guys" a narcotic sway, while Jenny collaborates with longtime partner Johnathan Rice on "Head Underwater" and "You Can't Outrun 'Em" -- Lewis indulges in the sunnier aspects of vintage yacht rock, occasionally dipping into the Laurel Canyon folk-rock she's specialized in on her own. Guitars roam wide-open spaces, couched in luxurious reverb and draped in strings; the rhythms often follow cool, steady eighth-note pulses; the surfaces always shimmer. It's such a sultry, soothing sound that it's easy to ignore the pain that lies beneath but that's a feature, not a bug: on The Voyager, Lewis' characters live for today without ever thinking that the world might pass them by, and having her music flow so smooth and easy, she illustrates how easy it is to get sucked into that alluring stasis.© Stephen Thomas Erlewine /TiVo

Getting all the minor complaints out of the way, Kavinsky's 2013 album Outrun is a limited listen with a handful of highlights that were made available previously, but such is life for the fast and futuristic. The grand concept here isn't that grand after all, as French house producer Vincent Belorgay's project/character Kavinsky crashed his Testarossa in 1986, and then reappeared as a zombie in 2006 in order to make electro and show off his racing skills in animé-like videos. Apparently, Giorgio Moroder, Sega video game soundtracks, and the original TRON soundtrack were all the cassettes available to the pre-zombie Kavinsky. Outrun -- named after Sega's Golden Joystick Award-winning game which just happened to feature a Ferrari Testarossa -- is filled with the bleeps and tempos one might find in an '80s B-grade action film where macho and mullets still thrill the ladies, and guitar solos are thrown on top when a little extra scream is needed. The Daft Punk-deep punch of the bass and the Justice-like thwak of the snares give away that this is post-millennium and designed for modern woofers, plus when a woozy Havoc shows up for some cloud-based rapping on "Suburbia," it's Mobb Deep starring in Miami Vice thanks to a wonderful time machine mix-up. Still, the main reasons to drop a quarter into this video game on wax (or digital download) are the sexy robot song "Nightcall" (which was featured prominently in the film Drive), the dubsteppy victory theme "Protovision," and the assurance that no matter what cool bits of the present are employed, the fetishizing of that 16-bit swagger will remain solid and inspired. Mario brothers might find it tiresome and cheeseball, but bad dudes, street fighters, and metal gearheads will think of it as their dream soundtrack.© David Jeffries /TiVo

Getting all the minor complaints out of the way, Kavinsky's 2013 album Outrun is a limited listen with a handful of highlights that were made available previously, but such is life for the fast and futuristic. The grand concept here isn't that grand after all, as French house producer Vincent Belorgay's project/character Kavinsky crashed his Testarossa in 1986, and then reappeared as a zombie in 2006 in order to make electro and show off his racing skills in animé-like videos. Apparently, Giorgio Moroder, Sega video game soundtracks, and the original TRON soundtrack were all the cassettes available to the pre-zombie Kavinsky. Outrun -- named after Sega's Golden Joystick Award-winning game which just happened to feature a Ferrari Testarossa -- is filled with the bleeps and tempos one might find in an '80s B-grade action film where macho and mullets still thrill the ladies, and guitar solos are thrown on top when a little extra scream is needed. The Daft Punk-deep punch of the bass and the Justice-like thwak of the snares give away that this is post-millennium and designed for modern woofers, plus when a woozy Havoc shows up for some cloud-based rapping on "Suburbia," it's Mobb Deep starring in Miami Vice thanks to a wonderful time machine mix-up. Still, the main reasons to drop a quarter into this video game on wax (or digital download) are the sexy robot song "Nightcall" (which was featured prominently in the film Drive), the dubsteppy victory theme "Protovision," and the assurance that no matter what cool bits of the present are employed, the fetishizing of that 16-bit swagger will remain solid and inspired. Mario brothers might find it tiresome and cheeseball, but bad dudes, street fighters, and metal gearheads will think of it as their dream soundtrack.© David Jeffries /TiVo

Timeless is the third non-Christmas album from Home Free since they won the fourth season of The Sing-Off in 2013. A lot of the promotional press the a cappella group did prior to its release emphasized that this was a little "grittier" than its predecessors, suggesting that it took the band a while to figure out how to cut its own version of "Man of Constant Sorrow," a song covered by countless other singers. "Man of Constant Sorrow" shouldn't be seen as indication that Home Free are doing a bunch of country/folk standards. Like its predecessors, Timeless is packed with covers of big pop and country tunes -- "Life Is a Highway," "We Just Disagree," and "Hillbilly Bone" among them -- and features a few originals that highlight the group's cheerfulness and fondness for melody. While the feel of the record is a little more subdued than its predecessors, it's still cut from the same cloth, which may mean it wins no new converts but will please old fans.© Stephen Thomas Erlewine /TiVo

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Few mainstream artists can keep the lazy release schedule Don Hathaway's daughter does and retain a strong fan base. It's been a whole decade since Lalah Hathaway released one of her own albums and half that long since she joined Joe Sample for The Song Lives On. It's her warm voice, smooth delivery, and allegiance to fad-free R&B that keeps the faithful patiently waiting. Delivering on all counts, Outrun the Sky is a fan's dream and the singer's best showcase since her debut. While The Song Lives On was more ambitious and in turn brought more fans, Outrun the Sky is a better showcase. Not only does Hathaway cover a wider spectrum of tones and moods but she also producers and writes most of the highlights of the album. Her stream-of-consciousness lyrics for the title track give a more personal picture of the artist and paint her as an approachable dreamer who's as unsure as anyone. Hathaway's inspired writing is responsible for many of the other warm and reflective winners but it's the closing "Boston" that best illustrates how this husky voiced siren can conjure up a cosmopolitan song and deliver it with heart. Including her smoky take on Luther Vandross' "Forever, for Always, for Love" from the Forever, for Always, for Luther tribute is the icing on this cool cake. The ballad-heavy album still has its fair share of grooves that are rooted in R&B but the overall easy temperament isn't going to alienate any of Hathaway's smooth jazz converts. Nice to have her back; here's to a shorter wait next time. © David Jeffries /TiVo