This CD cover image released by Lambent Light Records/Thirty Tigers shows ‘The Things That We Are Made Of’, by Mary Chapin Carpenter. (AP)

On her latest release, “The Things That We Are Made Of”, the five-time Grammy winner is back in her comfort zone with an evocative collection of songs backed by a soothing guitar-piano ensemble with occasional violin touches — and, yes, on this record, it’s more violin than fiddle.

Polite

Carpenter’s finest work could best be described as ache-country, or maybe Sunday-morning back porch music. It’s polite and unobtrusive, but still capable of drawing listeners in with an unexpectedly poignant turn of phrase. She’s at a different place in her life now but still looking for emotional connections — whether walking through New York pondering the underappreciated gospel legend Sister Rosetta Tharpe or driving down a lonely road.

“I’m staring down the great big lonesome,” she sings wistfully on “Something Tamed Something Wild”. “As I’m listening for the dwindling of time”.

The album is put together with flair by red-hot producer Dave Cobb, whose work with Jason Isbell, Chris Stapleton and others has brought some dignity back to the airwaves in recent years. He’s a good match for Carpenter’s warm, conversational voice, and the elegant production lends gravity to her perspective as an artist further along in her career.

Carpenter’s album fits neatly into NPR Music’s First Listen series, where it’s streaming exclusively. It’s easy to picture these sweetly gentle songs being met with approving murmurs by an NPR-influenced crowd at Nashville’s Bluebird Cafe or some other quiet venue.

Or even on the back porch on a quiet Sunday morning.

Darryl Purpose, “Still the Birds” (Blue Rock)

Yes, Darryl Purpose sounds like James Taylor. And, yes, he has an amazing backstory — he’s a blackjack expert banned from casinos on six continents who says he became a songwriter while on a work release program following his arrest on allegations of laundering drug money.

These songs are so good they eclipse all that. Purpose has a rare flair for writing memorable mellifluous melodies, and on “Still the Birds” he pairs them with marvelous lyrics by Paul Zollo, who has written a rhyming dictionary and shows it by pairing “Halloween” with “gabardine”.

Purpose’s folksy tunes enchant thanks to their surprising twists, such as the octave-and-a-half leap in the chorus of “When Buddha Smiled at the Elephant.” Elsewhere he sings about gangs, devotion, Dylan Thomas, and wars today and two centuries ago. Keep this up, and someday folks will say James Taylor sounds like Darryl Purpose.

Cyndi Lauper, “Detour” (Sire/Rhino)

Cyndi Lauper’s “Detour”, a trip into country territory after earlier forays into blues and pop standards, is all over the map, held together by her true north of a voice.

Lauper brings out her trademark hiccups on the opener, rockabilly queen Wanda Jackson’s wild and wacky “Funnel of Love”, which would have been a great fit on “She’s So Unusual”, her 1984 smash solo debut.

She tackles several country evergreens on her own, including a pair of Patsy Cline hits — “I Fall to Pieces” and “Walking After Midnight” — but sounds most at ease singing duets with giants of the genre, including the witty title track with Emmylou Harris.

Lauper refuses to take out the curlers but frees up her natural Noo Yakw accent with Vince Gill on “You’re the Reason Our Kids Are Ugly”, which is sure to draw a smile. Jewel’s yodeling on “I Want to Be a Cowboy’s Sweetheart” is also a hoot.

Also:

NEW YORK: After months of cryptic signals, Radiohead has finally announced a Sunday release for the band’s long-awaited ninth album. The British experimental rockers on Friday released a dark second single, entitled “Daydreaming,” with a message on their website: “Taken from our album released digitally Sunday” at 18:00 GMT.

Radiohead revealed little else, including the title, but the band was expected to unveil an album shortly as the rockers open a tour of select cities on May 20. (Agencies)

In one shift for Radiohead, the band released “Daydreaming” as well as the first single, “Burn the Witch”, on streaming services including Spotify despite frontman Thom Yorke’s long vehement criticism of the companies’ compensation to artists.

It remains to be seen if the entire album will be available through streaming. Radiohead has experimented widely on how to release albums. In 2007, they allowed listeners to pay whatever they chose to download “In Rainbows”.

Sunday’s album will be Radiohead’s first since 2011’s “The King of the Limbs”, which played with traditional song structure by using as a base a loop of previously recorded music.

On “Daydreaming”, Radiohead put electronic elements largely in the background with the song building on morose piano chords and culminating in strings. “Beyond the point of no return/ Of no return/ Of no return/ It’s too late/ The damage is done”, Yorke sings in his characteristic falsetto. An accompanying video follows Yorke on a walk through stages of life, including a hospital delivery room, a school and a well-stocked Western grocery store.

He finally emerges in snow-covered mountains, with the six-and-a-half-minute song climaxing in Yorke mumbling an indecipherable, digitally altered message.

The ending quickly fascinated fans who isolated the section. Played backward, it sounds as if Yorke is saying, “Every minute/ Every minute/ Half of my love”. (Agencies)

By Scott Stroud