Cale’s album vital and inviting

J.J. Cale, “Stay Around” (Because Music)

J.J. Cale’s “Stay Around” is a posthumous collection of 15 previously unreleased tracks that is as authentic as any of the original and compilation albums he’s released over his long career.

Cale, who passed away in 2013, was held in very special esteem by many illustrious musicians, the kind of admiration that led to a 2014 tribute album recorded by Eric Clapton, whose early cover of Cale’s “After Midnight” was fundamental to both their careers. Tom Petty, Willie Nelson and Mark Knopfler were also part of the tribute album.

It took the Oklahoma native well over a decade to release his first solo album, in 1972, and whatever changed by the slightest of degrees over the following decades, some things stayed quite the same – his relaxed but precise sound, a devotion to his trademark country-blues shuffle and the seemingly effortless atmosphere of his voice and grooves.

Compiled from a huge accumulation of recordings by longtime manager Mike Kappus and Christine Lakeland – Cale’s wife and occasional collaborator – one of the pleasures of “Stay Around” is its judicious song selection, which stretches from Cale’s legendary one-man studio creations and gentle acoustic songs to full-band takes and even some banjo playing.

There’s excellence at both ends of the spectrum – and everything in between. Recorded in the kitchen, the persevering “If We Try” is just voice and guitar and squeaky chair, while “Chasing You” benefits from the live drums and group sound. The Latin-tinged “Maria” could be a lost Drifters tune and the restlessness on “Winter Snow” is accompanied by audible and claustrophobic buzz.

“Stay Around” may be, strictly speaking, an archival release, but it feels as vital and inviting as Cale usually did.

Pink, “Hurts 2B Human” (RCA)

Right out of the gate on her new album, Pink gives you just the song you expect from the punk superstar: a pop ballad oozing with confidence and giving her signature “f-off” vibe. Her background vocalists sound like a posse as she sings out, “Don’t hustle me/Don’t ... with me.”

“Hurts 2B Human” sounds largely like Pink’s typical aesthetic – mostly pop with a punk attitude and a few sentimental piano ballads sprinkled in. Just like her 2017 album “Beautiful Trauma”, Pink dabbles in a myriad of styles, but this time recruits the help of more collaborators. Khalid, Cash Cash, Wrabel and even Chris Stapleton make appearances.

The album lands clearly in the pop camp. First single “Walk Me Home” is catchy with all the right ear worm ingredients, but this same formulaic pop tendency hurts her on other songs. Her energy and booming vocals may draw listeners in, but the album falls short with some tracks lacking originality.

“My Attic” sounds like a tune that’s been done before: a Fergie-style “Big Girls Don’t Cry” using a thinly veiled metaphor of an attic to describe the things she keeps hidden. “I keep hiding the keys in all these places even I can’t find/Hoping one day you’ll find them all ‘cause I wanna let you see inside my attic.”

This isn’t to say all Pink’s sentimental tracks are kitschy. “90 Days” incorporates a James Blake/Imogen Heap production style with a balanced blend of Wrabel and Pink’s vocals over distorted layers to create a strong track.

Daniel Norgren, “Wooh Dang” (Superpuma)

Daniel Norgren’s devotion to American roots music is undisguised on his latest work, “Wooh Dang”. But the Swede with the big Scandinavian following is anything but a copycat.

Trippy, edgy and daring, Norgren’s first international release makes the case one more time that cross-cultural exploration remains the most fertile frontier in popular music.

It is fresh, rough-edged perfection.

Norgren’s music, described in promotional materials as “shredding in the most polite way possible,” is a raw mélange of coarsely elegant vocals, gently distorted guitar and piano set against a backdrop of unhurried bass and drumming.

The opener, “Blue Sky Moon”, is a three-minute blend of one-note mood intonations, chirping birds and gentle strumming. Get past that. It might be art but there’s not much to it. (AP)

The brilliance is yet to come. In its own sweet time.

As the first cut fades into “The Flow”, a regal bass line and cymbals give way to gentle, chord-based piano, followed by the most restrained electric guitar. What comes next is a remarkable run of original songs filled with innovative, blues-based surprises.

Norgren sings of trains and John Wayne movies in what could have sounded trite but is somehow magical here. The lyrics almost don’t matter. They are instruments in the soundscape he’s creating - one more sign that Norgren has done something distinctive, different and new.

Recorded in a farmhouse in Sweden, this is the kind of low-idle Americana that calms the spirit.

Lie back. Take it in. Listen. (AP)

By Pablo Gorondi