record reviews

Darlene Love

Album: “Introducing Darlene Love”

Grade: B

She’s been around, of course, since the early 1960s, when hers was the biggest voice atop Phil Spector’s Wall of Sound, even if she was never credited by name. The title of Darlene Love’s new album, however, nods to the fact that the powerhouse singer never subsequently achieved the level of solo success her talents warranted.

With “Introducing,” producer Steven Van Zandt makes a fresh case for Love by building her another wall of sound to conquer. The arrangements are big and dramatic, full of strings and brass and backup vocalists, and the 74-year-old Love matches their grandeur with thrilling, undiminished power. It helps that Van Zandt gives her a solid collection of songs from writers including himself, Bruce Springsteen, Elvis Costello, and the team of Cynthia Weil and Barry Mann. She also tackles Spector’s monumental “River Deep, Mountain High,” originally done by Ike and Tina Turner in 1966.

—Nick Cristiano, Associated Press

Mac Miller

Album: “GO:OD AM”

Grade: B

Pittsburgh’s Mac Miller has come some way since 2011’s “Blue Slide Park,” its jolly old-school vibe, and the high-pitched, frat-rappy “Donald Trump.”

Even 2013’s darkly epic “Watching Movies with the Sound Off” seems distant in comparison to the wise wonk of “GO:OD AM.”

Like a stand-up comedian who has gone from prop comic to humorously tittering essayist, Miller has progressively found wired-out wit and bleak, smart chuckles amid the rubble.

“Swear to God, I put the ’hero’ in heroin,” Miller slurs during “100 Grandkids,” a blurry anthem that bounces between home comforts and street sleaze. “Brand Name” slows his roll and portrays Miller as trying to mend his mad, childish ways. There’s been rehab, death, and forward-facing elements in his real life, all of which grip “GO:OD” like a chokehold on the touching “God Speed” and the blackly humorous “In the Bag” without becoming preachy.

—A.D. Amorosi, Philadelphia Inquirer

Stryper

Album:“Fallen”

Grade: A

On their 11th studio album, Stryper states the fundamental basis of their Christian faith more simply and directly than they ever have in a 30-plus year career.

They also rock harder than they ever have before. And that’s a lethal combination.

If this were 1986, this album would easily sell 2 million copies.

In “Big Screen Lies,” the band decries the way Christianity is portrayed in mass media, and “Till I Get What I Need” is one of many full-speed-ahead rockers that show Stryper hasn’t lost a second off their pace.

The band’s trademark twin-guitar solos are here in all their glory, as is the four-part harmony that made the band MTV darlings in the 1980s.

—Wayne Parry, Associated Press