Dig These Discs: Alicia Keys, Sting, Emeli Sande, Olly Murs, Stevie Nicks

Scottish singer Emeli Sand� releases her second studio album this month, with a deluxe edition featuring 18 tracks. Olly Murs is in a close second, with 16 tracks available on his "24 Hrs." Sting is back, occupying space on 57th & 9th. Alicia Keys releases her eighth album, her first in four years. And Stevie Nicks sends two remastered collections out, for your reminiscing pleasure.
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"Long Live the Angels" (Emeli Sandé)

Scottish singer Emeli Sand� releases her second studio album this month, with a deluxe edition featuring 18 tracks. Sand�'s high soprano vocal range has been compared to Nina Simone. The lead single, "Hurts" was released in September; that album includes an acoustic version. She kicks things off with the haunting a capella cut "Selah," with lyrics like "cross around my neck and a crystal in my pocket/ my love is the bomb and forgiveness is the rocket." She believes in miracles, because it's a miracle she's here, in "Breathing Underwater." At the end, a gospel choir sings, "something like flying, hard to describe it, my love I'm breathing underwater." She rolls out "Happen" with some lo-fi record player crackles, and lets her fine voice shine. It segues seamlessly into the pounding track "Hurt," where Sand� lets you know, she's not made of stone. The slow acoustic instrumentation of "Give Me Something" pairs well with the sad lyrics. She wonders who's going to love her "Right Now" and promises to give you a penny for every song she's sung in the heartfelt title track. Jay Electronica and �ine Zion perform on the cut "Garden," with its spare arrangement of snap tracks and deep bass drums, released on October 14. Jay Electronic raps about that 'Prince type love' -- all fighting and riding motorcycles and fucking in the rain. Among the best on the album is "I'd Rather Not," with its flourishes of harps highlighting Sand�'s beautiful voice. She follows it with the equally mellifluous "Lonely." She's looking for someone to build her back up in "Sweet Architect" and is ready to in give you every tear and every breath, "Every Single Little Piece" of her. The excellent song "Tenderly" features her father and cousins, credited as Joel Sand� and The Serenje Choir, after the district in Zambia. She gets funky in the R&B track "Highs & Lows," and ends the album strong with the eternal love song "Babe."
(Virgin Records)

"24 Hrs" (Olly Murs)

English recording artist Olly Murs releases his fifth studio album, "24 Hrs," with 16 tracks available on the Deluxe version. His lead single and first track, "You Don't Know Love" peaked at No.15 on the UK Singles Charts, followed by "Grow Up" and "Back Around." "I know I made some bad decisions, but my last one was you," he sings in "You Don't Know Love," with a cascade of electronic drums. Spare piano opens the midtempo cut "Years & Years" with Murs' voice holding it together as he pledges every minute will be sweet, with you in it. He goes for that tried and true repetitive style in the bouncy "Grow Up," which bookends nicely with the poppy "Unpredictable," with its snap tracks and end rhymes. He let you down, but still wants to know when you'll bring your love "Back Around" in a rock cut, and goes "Deeper" in a sexy disco track. The title track is a mixed bag, starting somber and then moving uptempo, as Murs sings about you ripping out his heart and leaving it out on the floor. He doesn't want to make a scene; he's not into PDAs in the jumbled dance track "Private." He can't live without you in the sappy "Love You More," which profiles his higher vocal range, and bass drums keep "Read My Mind" moving forward. Slow tracks like the meant to be together cut "Better Than Me" and "Flaws" are lost in the wash, and regrets rise to the top in the dopey "That Girl." He gets creative with the instrumentation in "Before You Go" and snaps his way through "Better Without You." He finishes the album with "How Much for Your Love," recalling making love in the Mandarin Hotel in New York City. It's a sad, sappy number, but anchors the theme Murs advances in the album. He's still solidly relying on pop music, but he's traded some of his footloose and fancy-free lyrics to delve into emotions like love and loss. "24 Hrs" is a study in heartbreak and suffering, couched in a pop patois.
(Epic Records)

"57th & 9th" (Sting)

British singer Sting hits the streets with his first pop/rock album in more than a decade, "57th & 9th," named for the Hell's Kitchen streetcorner where he recorded it. It's the former The Police frontman's 12th studio album, and he made it in three months, to add a sense of urgency to the sound. Inspired by the deaths of Prince and David Bowie, the album finds Sting returning to his roots. He wrote "50,000" days after the Purple Prince's demise, and almost whispers his way through it as he sings, "rock stars don't ever die, they only fade away." "It's really a comment on how shocked we all are when one of our cultural icons dies: Prince, David [Bowie], Glenn Frey, Lemmy," said Sting. "They are our gods, in a way. So when they die, we have to question our own immortality. Even I, as a rock star, have to question my own. And the sort of bittersweet realization that hubris doesn't mean anything in the end." He bolts out of the gate with the rocker "I Can't Stop Thinking About You," which he's been playing on various late-night shows. The chorus rings as Sting and the band sing, "This heart's a lonely hunter, these hands are frozen fists/ I can't stop thinking about you, I don't care if you exist." He bemoans a lost love via sound in "Down Down Down," singing about "the sound that I've been waiting for/ The sound that tells me when you're walking out my door." His "One Fine Day" tackles climate change, layering a pleasing, sing-song melody over lyrics about being doomed to make the same mistakes over and over again. His "Pretty Young Soldier" is a storytelling tune about a woman who dresses as a soldier to follow her love into war. It has the pacing of one of Sting's classic lute songs that he's favored of late, as does his acoustic story-song, "Heading South On the Great North Road." He grinds it out in "Petrol Head," a classic driving song, and growls "I don't want half of anything" in the break-up song, "If You Can't Love Me." Sting got flack for singing "Inshallah" meaning "if it be your will," at the reopening of the Bataclan in Paris, the site of the jihad massacre last year. The song looks at the exodus of refugees into Europe. He ends the album with "The Empty Chair," complete with imagery about a prisoner praying that his loved ones remember him. The album is a tight, ten songs, but it showcases the best of Sting, and shares his struggle to live in "this broken world." At the least, we know we're not alone in this.
(Cherrytree, Interscope, A&M)

"Here" (Alicia Keys)

Singer Alicia Keys releases her eighth album, her first since "Girl on Fire" four years ago. In the meantime, she's had a son, Genesis. She said that she created the music for this album very fast, like "raining down every night, like storms of music just coming out." The songs deal with our current political climate and the values we need to uphold, via authentic passion and storytelling. The 16-track album starts at "The Beginning (Interlude)" a spoken word intro name-dropping the likes of Nina Simone. It morphs right into "The Gospel," which has Keys hitting the soulful high notes, backed by a chorus of voices as she sings that "momma did the cooking, daddy did the yelling." In the R&B cut "Pawn It All" they worry "how we gonna feed the babies." The spoken word "Elaine Brown (Interlude)" recites poetry, and yields to the acoustic cut "Kill Your Mama," asking, "how you gonna kill your mama when only mama's gonna love you to the grave?" She rocks the snare drum hit "She Don't Really Care_1 Luv," one of the best cuts on the entire album, that opens with Keys singing, "She grew up in Brooklyn, she grew up in Harlem, she grew up in the Bronx, she knew she was a queen, she lived in Queens." Keys gets sultry in the slow jam "Illusion of Bliss," singing "so it persists, like a bottomless kiss," about having no control over what you pursue. "Blended Family (What You Do For Love)" is a radio-ready pop hit, featuring A$AP Rocky rapping about the old times, good and bad. Keys sings, "I know it started with a little drama, I hate you had to read it in the paper, but everything's alright with me and your Momma/ Baby everybody here you know adores ya." She follows it with "Work on It," another soulful R&B cut. Her "Girl Can't Be Herself" has a bouncy reggaeton beat reminiscent of George Michael's intro for "Freedom," about being beautiful without all the accouterments, with Keys singing "maybe all this Maybelline is covering my self-esteem." "More Than We Know" is a classically styled R&B track, and "Where Do We Begin Now" looks at same-sex relationships. She finishes the album up with the acoustic stunner, "Holy War," singing "if war is holy and sex is obscene, we've got it twisted in this lucid dream." Speak that truth, sister! Keys made headlines for walking the MTV Video Music Awards sans makeup. And this album is another example of her eschewing the surface gloss, and baring her soul.
(RCA Records)

"Bella Donna" and "The Wild Heart" (Stevie Nicks)

Fleetwood Mac frontwoman Stevie Nicks transports back to a blissful time of yesteryear with the remastered release of Deluxe Editions of her hit albums "Bella Donna" (3-disc set) and "The Wild Heart" (2-disc set). This stunning collection features all the hits you love from Stevie Nicks and some you've probably never even heard of. The 3-disc set for "Bella Donna" charts the love affair between Nicks and Jimmy Iovine, with a photo-heavy booklet covering the romance. Best of all, the lyrics to all these tunes are included, so you can finally figure out what she's saying under all that tambourine. The first disc features the 10 singles of Bella Donna, digitally remastered. You'll enjoy the crisp sound of favorites like the classic title tracks, which features the memorable intro lines, "You can ride high atop your pony/ I know you won't fall... 'cause the whole thing's phony." She teams up with Tom Petty & The Heartbreakers for "Stop Draggin' My Heart Around," and with Don Henley for the golden standard in karaoke duets, "Leather and Lace." And don't forget about everyone's fave, "Edge of Seventeen." But as good as these cuts are, what you'll probably love more is seeing the hidden side of them. For example, Disc 2 features an "early take" version of "Edge of Seventeen" with a funkier intro than the one we all know and love. Other key cuts are the unreleased version of "Gold and Braid," with its fake start, and many alternate and unreleased versions of her hits, like the more drum-heavy rendition of "How Still My Love" and the spare, acoustic unreleased version of "If You Were My Love." There's also soundtracks, like "Blue Lamp" from "Heavy Metal," and "Sleeping Angel" from "Fast Times at Ridgemont High." Disc 3 features live remastered versions of these songs, recorded at a 1982 show. This will be a thrill for anyone who thinks they've heard every bit of Stevie there is to hear. Top hits are the gritty version of "Outside the Rain," which segues seamlessly into the tender rendition of "Dreams," where Nicks sings of her "crystal visions." And Nicks speak-sings parts of "Sara," that make it particularly poignant. Also, new this week is the 2-disc set of "The Wild Heart." The first disc features remastered versions of tunes like "Violet and Blue," from the movie "Against All Odds," as well as an alternative version of "Sable on Blond" and a demo of "Are You Mine." The unreleased version of "Sorcerer" will blow minds. Disc Two features remastered versions of hits like "Wild Heart," "If Anyone Falls," "Enchanted," "Stand Back," and "Nightbird." It's practically a Stevie Nicks primer. Tom Petty again duets with Nicks in "I Will Run To You." Also, there's a little booklet filled with tour photos of the band circa '82-'83, when the album came out, as well as a story about that time. In other news, Fleetwood Mac is reportedly waiting on Nicks to complete their first album since 2003, and take it on tour. They say she's been focusing on her own work. Maybe now she's ready to get back to the Mac.
(Rhino Atlantic)