Gordon Lightfoot Book, Music and More!

From its upside down cover photo to the off-kilter music inside, Grande’s fourth album is clearly meant as the ponytailed pop singer’s Mature Artistic Statement. The quirkier tracks come courtesy of singer-rapper-producer Pharrell Williams, of “Happy” fame, while the more straightforward offerings are the work of Swedish hitmaker Max Martin. Grande makes no direct reference to the terrorist attack at her May 2017 Manchester concert that killed 23 people and injured another 500, although one bubbling, infectious Williams number has Grande half-rapping “The light is coming to give back everything the darkness stole.” She addresses her clinical anxiety on “Breathin’” and “Get Well Soon,” the la...

She’s made two conceptual albums featuring her alter-ego, the time-traveling android Cindi Mayweather, and starred in two films: the Oscar-winning Moonlight and Hidden Figures. And yet a major commercial breakthrough has so far eluded her. But this could be Monáe’s moment. Working with Prince before he died in 2016, Monáe went on to create a strikingly personal album. The sensual “Make Me Feel” is a direct homage to Prince’s “Kiss,” while “Americans” resembles the free spirit of his “Let’s Go Crazy” and the finger-popping “Pynk” channels the Purple One’s sexually liberated anthems. Monáe, who has been romantically linked to actress Tessa Thompson, uses her new album to explore themes of femi...

He sang on two of last year’s biggest records: Daft Punk’s “Get Lucky” and Robin Thicke’s “Blurred Lines.” Now the seven-time Grammy winner is molten hot and ready for global domination with his second solo album. Packed full of pop hooks and endlessly funky, the 10 tracks find Pharrell teaming up with Justin Timberlake on the falsetto-drenched conga line of “Brand New” and Alicia Keys on the dreamy, ska-flavored “I Know Who You Are.” Also included is “Come Get it Bae,” a revved-up pairing with Miley Cyrus about popping wheelies on motorcycles. But this isn’t just a collection of superstar duets. The man with the Vivienne Westwood-designed Buffalo hat gets giddy on “Happy,” his Oscar-nominat...