Listen Up!: The Killers, Shania Twain, Demi Lovato, Lights, JP Cooper

Canadian country legend and five-time Grammy winner Shania Twain releases her fifth album "Now," a 16-track deluxe collection of tunes. Grammy-nominated singer/songwriter Demi Lovato releases her sixth studio album, a dozen pop hits. Electro-pop artist Valerie Poxleitner, aka Lights, releases her fourth studio album, "Skin & Earth," a concept album that she launched with an accompanying comic book series. And after three self-released EPs and two digital downloads, English singer/songwriter JP Cooper releases his first studio full-length debut.

"Now" (Shania Twain)

Canadian country legend and five-time Grammy winner Shania Twain releases her new album "Now," a 16-track deluxe collection of tunes. It's her first album since 2002, and her fifth full-length on Mercury Nashville. Three decades into her reign as "top-selling female country artist of all-time," Twain takes the lead on this one, writing all the songs and overseeing the action as co-producer. With a trill of steel drums, she launches into the first track, "Swingin' With My Eyes Closed," singing about how life is short, and nothing's sure in this world. Sings Twain, "I'm swinging with my eyes closed, got my hair down, a wide-open road... only God knows how far it goes." It's the banjo that plucks up "Home Now," a country-pop confection like only Twain can do that has her recounting a hard day at work, singing, "This job ain't worth the pay/ Can't wait 'til the end of the day." She gets moody in the louche cut, "Light Of My Life," with its early-'60s vibe. A similar sound comes out in "Let's Kiss and Make Up," with its undertones of Andy Kim's "Rock Me Gently." It's "Poor Me" when she finds her man's dirty little secret, and wishes "he'd never met her/ Then everything would be the way it was." A similar theme arises in a track with a thumping bass drum, but this time, she turns the tables, singing, "I'm Alright." Twain's voice crackles magnetically as she croons the catchy strummer, "Who's Gonna Be Your Girl." She bemoans the Monday blues and counts down to the weekend in "More Fun." Twain holds nothing back in the piano ballad "Where Do You Think You're Going," belting out, "Case you never look back I want you to know that you were loved like mad." She wishes you the best, hopes you have it all, but she wishes you'd take her with you. Twain bookends it with the album's most rocking cut, "Roll Me On The River," a twangy tune that takes its time building up momentum before launching into the sultry chorus. But she's bouncy with an Alanis Morissette insouciance in "We Got Something They Don't." The guitar pick work on "Because of You" is excellent, as Twain sings, "I'm not afraid of the truth: I'm not me without you." If life gives you lemons, make lemonade and drink it under the shining sun, sings Twain in "You Can't Buy Lemons," her take on Pharrell's "Happy," with a doo-wop vibe. A similar instrumentation follows in "Life's About to Get Good," but with the twang of banjos added, as Twain sings, "life's about joy, life's about pain, it's all about forgiving and the will to walk away." She sings, "you are not alone when you dream/I'm with you" in the patriotic "Soldier," and she ends the album with "All In All," sailing away into her dreamscape. Twain is the first and only female artist to receive CMT's Artist of a Lifetime Award. So what if she takes her time between albums? Her 34 million U.S. record sales prove she's worth the wait.
(Mercury Nashville)

"Wonderful Wonderful" (The Killers)

American rockers The Killers release their fifth studio album, a streamlined ten indie-pop tracks that had Brandon Flowers and guitarist Dave Keuning excited enough to reunite the band. The album, recorded in California and Las Vegas with producer Jacknife Lee, tackles the idea of what it means to be a man. Said Flowers, "In your head it's about being tough and bringing home the bacon, but what I've come to find is it's really more about empathy and compassion." With a trill of horns, they kick off the title track "Wonderful Wonderful," a bass-heavy New Wave-inspired that has them "keep praying for rain... motherless child." They follow that with what is easily the best song of the season, "The Man," a tune so bad-ass it unabashedly states, "I got gas in the tank, I got money in the bank/ I got news for you baby: you're looking at the man." It's a toe-tapping track, with samples from a Kool & The Gang tune. "Rut" was inspired by Flower's wife's struggle with PTSD, with the vocals, "I've gone my best to fill 'em but the cracks are starting to spread." He said it helped him understand her struggle better. Flowers sings of running through amber fields of wheat, somewhere in the "Life to Come." His fast-moving drum cut "Run for Cover" has a reference to Bob Marley's "Redemption Song." Their unexpectedly poignant "Tyson vs. Douglas" was inspired by the 1990 bout, said Flowers, noting that it's about what it's like to watch a hero fall. They slow things down with the otherworldly "Some Kind of Love," with its echo strings and slow bass drum beat, as Flowers sings, "you got the grace of a storm in the desert," a reference to him being in the desert and seeing a storm coming, and thinking "wonderful, wonderful," which he said inspired him to write the album. "We're building up a kingdom, we pray it never falls/ I can lose my temper, you can put up walls," they sing in "Out of My Mind." "The Calling" starts out with a Bible passage, but segues into a hard-rocking cut about "the keys to the kingdom." Their final track "Have All the Songs Been Written?" was taken from the subject line of an email to U2's Bono, who suggested it would make a great song title. In it, Flowers asks if all the gas has been siphoned, if all the ships have sailed off, if every heart has gone blue. He just needs one to get through to you. It's a strong ending to an uncluttered, winning album, their best since 2006's "Sam's Town." The Killers kicked off their tour in Brooklyn in mid-September and will take it through Texas, up to Canada, and then back to the East Coast in January, before hitting most major cities.
(Island Records)

"Tell Me You Love Me" (Demi Lovato)

Grammy-nominated singer/songwriter Demi Lovato releases her sixth studio album, a dozen pop hits. Lovato collaborates with several notable songwriters and producers, including Oak, Sean Douglas, John Hill, Stint and DJ Mustard. Lovato's hit single "Sorry Not Sorry" made it into the Top 5 hits, and she sang it at the VMA Awards. She kicks off the album with the song, which has her out "looking like a 10" while he's scraping around looking for the "second chance you'll never get." She's pissed, and she doesn't mince words as she sings, "Payback is a bad bitch, and baby I'm the baddest/ Baby you fucking with a savage, and I can't have this." In "Tell Me You Love Me," they're fighting again, and she's sorry, because "you ain't nobody 'til you got somebody." She channels Prince and Sheila E. in her sassy "Sexy Dirty Love," as she sings about how you "intoxicate me gently with your loving/ you got me so high, pull me closer to you and watch our bodies intertwine." Electronic beats open the slow, regret-laden track "You Don't Do It For Me," in which Lovato promises she won't fall for your games this time. She calls too much, but you never pick up -- unless you want to fuck, sings Lovato in "Daddy Issues." Better get to therapy, girl! Bass leads the charge in the sultry song "Ruin the Friendship," singing, "your body's looking good tonight/ I think we should cross the line." A swath of horns toward the end adds a lot to this tune. The lo-fi piano chords that open "Only Forever" make their way through the song as Lovato sings sweetly about the tension between them both. Someone needs to make a move; she'll wait forever 'til you do. The slow jam "Lonely" has her hoping he'll save her, with a rap break by Lil' Wayne that's full of slowly-sung expletives, like only Weez can deliver. She gets a sing-song patter in "Cry Baby," a song about her long line of heartbreaks, and the love she's looking for. Lovato is a cool character, but you've got her shook to the core in "Games." Be careful; you might find out the hard way that two can play. Her cut "Concentrate" has a classic '70s rock vibe, and she ends the album with a similarly-arranged track about a lover that has her up at night searching for headlights like a "Hitchhiker." Watch out, Taylor Swift! You're not the only pop confection with a new album out!
(Island/Safehouse/Hollywood Records)

"Skin & Earth" (Lights)

Electro-pop artist Valerie Poxleitner, aka Lights, releases her fourth studio album, "Skin & Earth," a concept album that she launched with an accompanying comic book series. Lights worked on the album with Purity Ring and Twenty One Pilots' Josh Dun. She announces, "It all starts here...." Her voice is high and fine as she sings about hope and romance. The poppy "Until the Light" has you cut the headlights to carouse until the sun comes up. "I was hanging next to you by a thread from so high," she sings in the opening of the brutal rock cut "Savage," only to discover later that he'll cut her down. She's got "New Fears" to carry her through, but don't worry -- she's coming for you, and she's "learned to be the champion of the story." The twinkling cut "Morphine" has an ethereal vibe over its snap track, as Lights sings, "this must be the morning/ never saw it coming/ I was tangled up in your limbs." Among the best cuts of the album is the melodic "We Were Here," with its catchy rhyme scheme. The electronic snare keeps "Kicks" moving, and persistent keyboards add urgency to the anthem "Giants." In the next track, Lights sings, "'Moonshine' this is my time, sun goes down and I come alive/ midnight sun in my eyes, stars are blazing I feel elated." After a short "Interlude," Lights wraps up a very interesting concept album with three more tracks: "Magnetic Field" has her fighting her feelings for a lover who is bad at heart, and holding her back. Things are getting heavy in the catchy cut "Fight Club," but by the end, she sings, "I was a knife in a gunfight... you were a wolf in the daylight," and you "Almost Had Me." Lights sets out on tour with PVRIS, hitting the South in October, before heading to Philly, NYC and Boston. By the end of the month, she'll be in the heartland. Catch her when she comes through your town.
(Warner Bros. Records)

"Raised Under Grey Skies" (JP Cooper)

After three self-released EPs and two digital downloads, English singer/songwriter JP Cooper releases his first studio full-length debut. And man, is it full-length! Featuring 19 tracks, the album includes his Jonas Blue single "Perfect Strangers" and his solo "September Song," as well as previously released singles "She's on My Mind" and "Passport Home." He kicks things off with the title track, a catchy acoustic ballad that showcases Cooper's fine singing voice. He employs an R&B vibe in "All This Love," about her dress hanging over the back of the door, and tripping over her shoes, asking her if she'll ever come and pick up her stuff, because he just can't throw it away, singing, "waters getting rough swimming in your stuff/ I just wanna get to the shore, drowning in memories of you." The vocals have a smooth patina in the sexy track "The Only Reason," as he sings, "The only reason God gave me hands was to hold you/ and he finely tuned the drums of my ears just to hear your voice." Cooper remembers his first love in his "September Song," singing, "You were my September song, tell me where have you gone/ Do you remember me? We were only 15." He whistles an intro in "Passport Home," a catchy tune about his love being "his passport home, my guiding light." He works the electric guitar in the pop track "She's On My Mind," because while he's seen a lot of pretty faces, there's no one like you. In his folksy acoustic cut "Wait," they're a sinking ship that he can't let go of, as Cooper sings, "my arms are open; my heart is shut tight; but I can't disconnect when I want to protect ya." He latches on to a funky Stevie Wonder vibe in "Change," confessing that, "I keep running, try to beat it with the bottle." His patter runs fast and smooth in "Closer" as he sings about wishing he could see more of "Daddy's little soldier," and he gets candid about the things he needs in "Beneath the Streetlights and The Moon," replaying the video inside his mind of "us dancing in the midnight rain/ do you remember upstaging springtime in your daisy chains?" He follows it with the piano ballad "In The Silence," singing, "Oh, I wish it didn't taste so bittersweet." The fretwork on the acoustic ballad "Masterpiece" is impressive, as Cooper sings, "honestly, I love you to infinity and darling, you're my masterpiece." Similar acoustic prowess is evidence on "Tidal Wave," as he sings about the good love they've lost, that "the tears we've cried won't wash it away." Cooper's "Party" has him sitting in front of two piles of albums, sorting whose is whose. And he gets a Spanish guitar sound in "Lost Boy Dreaming," singing, "just like a train without a track, without you I'm useless." Cooper ends the album with "Perfect Strangers," singing, "you're here with me now/ I don't want you to go." Love and loss are on the menu in Cooper's new album, and he's got a lot to say about both.
(Island Records)