Just as his 2023 album On & On wasn't a straightforward Erykah Badu tribute, José James' 2024 follow-up, 1978, isn't merely a throwback to the year of the singer's birth. In essence, a little over half of the set achieves release on the dancefloor and in the bedroom, and the remainder is more reflective and sonically adventurous. Sensuality fuels the first side and seeps into the second side, beginning with a pair of caressing ballads frictionized by Jharis Yokley's twists on Dilla-style drunken drums. The next two songs, rhapsodic, slick, and as seductive as what precedes them, evoke prime Heatwave and Off the Wall-era Michael Jackson -- from Chad Selph's driving low-end synthesizer to Marcus Machado's wriggling rhythm guitar -- distinguished by James' buttery vocals and casual swagger. "Black Orpheus (Don't Look Back)" reverts to ballad mode with a philosophical look at companionship. James cited Leon Ware as an inspiration for the album, and the low-profile Motown legend's work, particularly on Marvin Gaye's I Want You and his own Musical Massage -- landmarks of quiet storm eroticism issued months apart in 1976 -- is especially felt in the love ballads. 1978's sound and vision open up with "Dark Side of the Sun" ("a prayer for broken-hearted people") and "Place of Worship," global gospel-folk fusions with respective featured appearances from stern Congolese-Belgian rapper Baloji and comforting Brazilian singer/songwriter Xênia França. The last two songs are among James' heaviest. Backed by only piano and strings, he delivers a poised outpouring of grief on "For Trayvon," masterfully switching in one early line from solemn baritone to despairing falsetto, and staying in the latter range until fadeout. James then returns to his hometown of Minneapolis for "38th & Chicago," the site of George Floyd's murder. The energy increases for this second song written in response to a racist killing. It's a rolling groove that, in a way, reimagines Marvin Gaye's What's Going On with Ware involved to apply some Afro-Brazilian influence. The breeziness is certainly at odds with James' feelings of terror, anger, and frustration, but its steady propulsion, combined with a burning Machado solo and a Pedrito Martínez conga break, signify resolve, defiance, and power.© Andy Kellman /TiVo

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L.A. garage psych revivalists the Allah-Las didn't mess around with their winning formula much on their second album, 2014's Worship the Sun. Working with retro-leaning producer Nick Waterhouse again, the quartet can still effortlessly crank out chiming ballads that sound worthy of a strong volume of Pebbles, dish out moody midtempo tracks that have the feel of classic West Coast bands like the Chocolate Watchband, and take the occasional instrumental detour that come off like surf music that's been dragged through some desert dust. It definitely feels like an extension of their debut album, only instead of being a retread, it's an improvement. Stronger songs, vocals that lean a little less on the snotty side of the garage in favor of some nuance, and slightly softer focus production mean that the album is a slight bit of an improvement. The band's songcraft feels sharper and more focused, whether it's the near-rollicking "Artifact" (half borrowed from the Chocolate Watchband's "Are You Gonna Be There [At the Love-In]"), the slowly swaying ballad "Nothing to Hide," which anchors the middle of the record like a big fat teardrop, or the album's title track, which manages to make melancholy sound sun-kissed and peaceful. Along with this overall strengthening of their core, the group mixes in a couple off-speed pitches, like the countrified jangle pop gem "Better Than Mine" that beats the Beachwood Sparks at their own game, or the psychedelic bubblegum rocker "501-415," that give the album the little bit of growth and expansion it needed to sound fresh. No one will ever accuse the Allah-Las of being particularly original or exciting, but that's not really what they're aiming for. If you were to call them revivalists who found a tiny niche of the garage rock scene that nobody else was exploiting, and revived it with a charmingly relaxed and assured style, then you'd be dead right. On Worship the Sun, their subtle excavation is even more impressive, richly rendered, and worth checking out than before.© Tim Sendra /TiVo

The two releases (so far) of African American Voices albums by conductor Kellen Gray and the Royal Scottish National Orchestra have been valuable in that they have brought exposure to African American composers whose works have not been in general circulation. That is especially true of this second volume, including works by composers from after World War II, who took a variety of approaches toward the use of African American vernacular material. The Montgomery Variations of the underplayed Margaret Bonds use the spiritual I Want Jesus to Walk with Me as a commentary on the turbulent history of that city in the 1950s and '60s, with the Montgomery Bus Boycott and the 1963 white terrorist bombing of the 16th Street Baptist Church in which four girls were killed. The piece is a set of variations on the spiritual, deepening both the somber mood and sentiments of hope as it proceeds. Ulysses Kay's Concerto for Orchestra reflects the influence of his mentors, William Grant Still and Paul Hindemith, and certainly the inspiration of Bartók's enormously popular work in this genre. It makes little reference to African American traditions. The career of Coleridge-Taylor Perkinson began during the time of Kay and Bonds but extended into the 21st century; Worship: A Concert Overture was written in 2001. It is a niftily compact treatment of the hymn Praise God from Whom All Blessings Flow, subjecting it to hints of blues, spirituals, Baroque counterpoint, call-and-response structure, and much more. Perkinson will likely be unknown to many listeners, and the physical album is recommended to them; it contains a good deal of biographical material on all three composers. The Royal Scottish National Orchestra sounds terrific and takes remarkable lyric flight in the Arioso central movement of Kay's work. The group, coached with foot-stomping exercises by conductor Gray, has none of the reticence that sometimes shows up in European performances of African American music. A fresh release of considerable interest to specialists in African American music and indeed, to general listeners.© James Manheim /TiVo