RECORD REVIEWS

Phantogram

Album: “Voices” (Republic Records)

Grade: A

The so-called “sophomore slump” is something most artists aim to avoid but somehow manage to hit with precision.

Not so with Phantogram. The New York-based duo, whose songs blend deep and defined throbbing foundations with swirling but dirgelike grooves that float and careen around in a whirl of melody, has safely hopped over that trap with “Voices,” its new 11-track album. It’s the follow-up to the electronic rock act’s 2009 debut, “Eyelid Movies,” and the new album comes after Phantogram’s well-received collaborations with Big Boi of Outkast.

There’s no slumping on “Voices” to be found anywhere except for the heavy-handed lyrics and layer upon layer of heavy tones that wrap listeners in a mummy’s bandages of longing and regret as is experienced on “Never Going Home.”

But it’s not all melancholy. Sarah Barthel and Josh Carter have found an equilibrium that pulls the very best of each other’s talents to the forefront and blends it for songs that have a stunning heft.

This isn’t music for jubilant parties. This is music for listening, parsing for meaning, for introspection and for making bold declarations.

Phantogram has crafted an epochal album, a generational capstone that will reside in the playlists for a generation to come and returned to in times of heady joy and nostalgic reminiscence, too.

—Matt Moore, Associated Press

Candice Glover

Album: “Music Speaks” (Interscope/19 Recordings)

Grade: B

Candice Glover originally planned to release her debut two months after she won “American Idol” last May. She postponed it — twice.

Time is definitely on her side though: “Music Speaks” is one of the better “Idol” debuts.

Glover, to no one’s surprise, is a vocal powerhouse on the 12-track set, which full of pop ballads and R&B numbers that fit together nicely. Most post-“Idol” albums, and those from other TV talent contestants, lack personality and a sense of cohesiveness. But Glover paints an intriguing portrait of a woman lost in love, and all the emotional highs and lows that come with that condition.

She kicks off the album with the top-notch “Cried,” co-written by one of her contemporary influences, Jazmine Sullivan. “Die Without You” echoes Brandy — but with stronger vocals — while “Same Kind of Man” and the powerful “Forever That Man” mirror Fantasia.

The 24-year-old hasn’t found her voice entirely, and all of the songs aren’t complete winners, but Glover demonstrates promise as she shows she’s more than a balladeer: She coos beautifully on “Kiss Me,” which sounds like a future radio hit; she shines on the beat-driven, Southern hip-hop-flavored “Coulda Been Me,” co-written by Ester Dean; and “In the Middle” surprisingly interpolates Shabba Ranks’ “Ting-A-Ling” in a good way.

—Mesfin Fedaku, Associated Press

LAURA CANTRELL

Album: “No Way There From Here” (Thrift Shop Recordings)

Grade: B

“They’re just working out who they are,” Laura Cantrell sings in explaining the title of her new album’s first song, “All the Girls Are Complicated.” When it comes to her music, at least, this alt-country veteran already has her own fully formed vision.

On “No Way There From Here,” the Nashville-born, New York-based singer-songwriter uses country as a base for a beguiling sound that also draws on folk and pop. It’s a good match for the grace and nuance of lyrics that never serve up trite emotion (the girls really are complicated).

Cantrell delivers the songs in a clear alto that gets right to their heart, whether it’s the yearning of “Driving Down Your Street” or the melancholy of the title track. And for all the gentle, beguiling nature of that voice, the brisk “Beg or Borrow Days” also reveals a steely resolve.

—Nick Cristiano, Philadelphia Inquirer