Songwriter Joe Henry has recorded five albums in the 21st century; he’s also become a Grammy-winning producer. These more recent records (of 12) offer a mature view of an artist at his most musically ambitious and lyrically cagey. Reverie, as its title implies, contains 14 songs that seemingly center on the concept of time: the random glinting of memory as it perceives love, loss, spirituality, history, and culture refracted through the gaze of the human heart. Musically, it feels like the loosest album Henry’s ever recorded; its production techniques are organic, live sessions were cut in his home studio with the windows open, allowing the sounds of everyday life–barking dogs, mothers calling children, cars and trucks– to pour through, making them part and parcel of the album's fabric. Henry's lyrics and melodies do, however, contrarily reveal an exacting craftsman. He and his guitar are accompanied by longtime associates, drummer Jay Bellerose, pianist Keefus Ciancia, and bassist David Piltch, with cameos by Patrick Warren, Marc Ribot, Jean McLain, and Lisa Hannigan. His lyrics – scattershot, mercurial expressions of memory – are caught in exacting rhymes that reflect on the power, delight, and torment of desire (he admits as much at the end of his liner essay). The musical forms are more rhythmically inventive and slippery; they serve his ephemeral, evocative lyrics by opening them up to time’s uncageable nature.

Twelve tracks originally recorded in 2010 to 2014 as part of the Close Up series of acoustic reimaginings of Suzanne’s favorite songs. Never before released!

Not Too Far Away is the nineteenth studio album by British singer-songwriter Joan Armatrading, and was released on 18 May 2018. Armatrading produced the album herself, arranged the strings and plays and programmes all instruments.

While 1995's Relish proved Joan Osborne was a smart and idiosyncratic lyricist with a big, strong and soulful voice, the unexpected success of the album (and the single "One Of Us") proved to be as much of a burden as a blessing. Touring kept Osborne out on the road for the next few years, and troubles with her record company prevented her follow-up, Righteous Love, from arriving in stores until 2000, after which it died quickly on the vine (though the album deserved a better fate). As Osborne was blocking out plans for her next album in the fall of 2001, the terrorist attacks of September 11 upended her musical priorities, and for How Sweet It Is, Osborne has indulged herself in the musical equivalent of comfort food by cutting covers of a dozen classic soul and R&B tunes from the 1960s and '70s, with the exception of three reworked rock numbers (Dave Mason's "Only You Know and I Know," the Band's "The Weight," and Jimi Hendrix's "Axis: Bold As Love").

The project consists mostly of Tim Booth's vocals and lyrics washing over layers of Angelo Badalamenti keyboard and orchestra treatments, with trippy rhythms and some intriguing guest performances fleshing out the structure. Fans of the first Suede album will be pleased to hear prodigal guitarist Bernard Butler serving as supple ligaments for five tracks, especially taut on the assertive "Heart" and relatively cutting "Butterfly's Dream" (James producer Brian Eno and Badalamenti on background vocals). There's nothing overly challenging here, in fact, some of it is annoyingly lightweight, but Booth and the Bad Angel makes for an overall pleasant confectionary of influences, moody pop, and melodic, cocooning atmosphere.

The Wallflowers' long-awaited third album, Breach, was a strong, confident record that demonstrated clear growth from Jakob Dylan as a songwriter and The Wallflowers as a band. Thing is, everybody ignored it. Critics wrote it off and the large audience Bringing Down the Horse attracted shunned it, leaving the band in an awkward position of having to prove themselves yet again with their fourth album, Red Letter Days. The first striking thing about the album is that its production is a clear reaction to the failure of Breach. Glistening where its predecessor had a semblance of grit, this is a polished mainstream rock record, designed to win back listeners who loved the band by hearing "One Headlight" on the radio repeatedly. Dylan has adjusted his songwriting slightly, too, playing up the hooks and the melodies, which is hardly selling out. Even so, it's hard not to wish that the album had a bit more of the quirks and muscle that gave Breach its backbone.

Joan Osborne is releasing a collection of unheard demos and live in-studio radio recordings titled Radio Waves (Womanly Hips Records), out Feb. 22, 2022. The singer and songwriter unearthed the long-lost recordings after canceling her tour due to the pandemic, following the release of her 12th album Trouble and Strife. The 13 tracks of Radio Waves are a collection of songs hand-picked by Osborne, who sifted through her archive of more than 100 radio station performances, each serving as a time capsule of her 25-year career. “Most of my life’s work has disappeared without a trace,” says Osborne. “I’ve made 10-plus studio albums, but the vast majority of the songs I’ve sung hundreds and thousands of times over decades of touring across the globe has never been recorded.”

Sinéad O'Connor's debut, The Lion and the Cobra, was a sensation upon its 1987 release, and it remains a distinctive record, finding a major talent striving to achieve her own voice. Like many debuts, it's entirely possible to hear her influences, from Peter Gabriel to Prince and contemporary rap, but what's striking about the record is how she synthesizes these into her own sound – an eerie, expansive sound heavy on atmosphere and tortured passion. If the album occasionally sinks into its own atmospheric murk a little too often, she pulls everything back into focus with songs as bracing as the hard-rocking "Mandinka" or the sexy hip-hop of "I Want Your (Hands on Me)." Still, those ethereal soundscapes are every bit as enticing as the direct material, since "Troy," "Jackie," and "Jerusalem" are compelling because of their hushed, quiet intensity. It's not a perfect album, since it can succumb to uneven pacing, but it's a thoroughly impressive debut – and it's all the more impressive when you realize she only topped it with its immediate successor, before losing all focus.