Record REviews

Hank Williams Jr.

Album: “It’s About Time”

Grade: A-

“Hell, yes, I’m an icon,” Hank Williams Jr. declares with typical bravado in “Dress Like an Icon.” “Don’t call me an icon,” he urges with uncharacteristic humility in “Just Call Me Hank.”

Mixed messages aside, Bocephus is in blazingly fine form on “It’s About Time.” He’s still as self-referential as any rapper, and he gets a little ornery when he perceives a threat to his “God and Guns.” But he steers clear of the boorishness that sometimes mars his work.

From his take on Neil Young’s “Are You Ready for the Country” (with Eric Church) to his own, set-closing “Born to Boogie” (with Brad Paisley, Brantley Gilbert, and Justin Moore), the self-professed “dinosaur” offers a primer on Southern rock and barroom honky-tonk.

—Nick Cristiano, Philadelphia Inquirer

Chairlift

Album: “Moth”

Grade: B

The mile-high atmosphere of Boulder, Colo., has added just the right amount of rarefied air and icy bite to everything Chairlift has done. Imagine Bjork in her pop prime fronting the oblong, synth-skronky Boards of Canada without either’s usual elliptical lyricism, and there’s choppy contralto Chairlift singer Caroline Polachek and her small, chilly unit.

What makes “Moth” different from its two chattering predecessors is its molten-hot thawing of Chairlift’s cold calculation with gently swaying melodies and an overall brassiness. It may be a synthetic trumpet’s toot that gives “Romeo” its horny syncopation, or the slow skanking “Ch-Ching” its ska-reggae slinkiness. Every element is geared toward warming up their sound.

—A.D. Amorosi, Philadelphia Inquirer

Daughter

Album: “Not to Disappear”

Grade: A

The first EPs and the 2012 debut album, “If You Leave,” from London trio Daughter were hushed, mainly acoustic affairs tinged with melancholy atmospherics and restrained tension. “Not to Disappear” is bigger and bolder and, at times, more embittered.

Elena Tonra sings in a beautifully introspective, clear-toned alto, and the album still has moments of calm, such as “Made of Stone.” But “Fossa” and “Mothers” build to emphatic climaxes worthy of Florence & the Machine, and there’s an anger and aggression in the ominous “Alone / With You” and the skittery “No Care” that dispel any sense of placid acceptance. Best of all are forceful, reverb-drenched tracks such as the fabulous “How,” which, with Igor Haefeli’s shimmering electric guitar and Remi Aguilella’s cymbal-crashing percussion, sounds like Sigur Ros gone pop.

—Steve Klinge, Philadelphia Inquirer