New and noteworthy

The Devil Don’t Like It

Dedicated Men of Zion

Accompanied by the Bible & Tire Recording Company’s in-house Sacred Soul Sound Section, these four North Carolinians have the sound of 1970s black gospel down pat—no horns, no choirs, and, as Queen used to brag, no synthesizers. And if some of their energy seems patched in from the soul-rockin’ ’60s, well, sacred music, black or white, has often tended to play catch-up when it comes to style. It has also tended to be really good at making up for lost time.

Half Home

Love’n’Joy

There’s a reason this Ukrainian trio’s new album lacks references to Putin, war, or giving peace a chance: It was completed three days before the invasion began. There are also reasons for why it sounds as if it were conceived and executed in Manchester instead of in Kyiv. One: Anton Pushkar (on eight songs) and Andrii Sukhariev (one) sing in (clear) English. Two: The band composes, arranges, and plays like Mancunians with dreams of pop glory.

Strange Pilgrim

Strange Pilgrim

It’s interesting, given Joshua Barnhart’s relative youth, that his first three songs contain faint echoes of oldies: Bob Dylan’s “I Don’t Believe You” (the electric version), Van Morrison’s “Into the Mystic,” and Elvin Bishop’s “Fooled Around and Fell in Love” respectively. It’s more interesting that, as a drummer, Barnhart doesn’t rock much. Only with the instrumental “Survive the Summer” seven tracks in (the middle of Side 2 on the vinyl) does he pick up the pace, preferring instead to generate a layered haze through which his simple pop melodies and silky vocals unfold in slow motion. “Close your eyes, fade into blue light,” he coos at one point. The search for why dream pop is called dream pop stops here.

American Daydream

Jeremy Warmsley

Neither the Beach Boys nor any of the external lyricists that have populated their payrolls over the years would’ve ever let the F-word sully the band’s wholesome facade. So consider the 22-second mark of “Freedom” a fly in the ointment of this otherwise charming musical retelling of the Brian Wilson story. Jammed with biographically accurate details (Warmsley sites no fewer than 15 sources), the album’s main achievement is fitting those details to vocals, instrumentation, and melodies worthy of Wilson himself. And because this is Wilson’s story, it’s the Beach Boys’ too. A typically salient observation: “Mike sings low and dances like your dad.”

Encore

The 69 minutes of mostly fresh bonus material on Amy Grant’s Behind the Eyes: 25th Anniversary Expanded Edition practically begs fans to imagine how the album could’ve turned out had certain outtakes and demos elbowed their way onto the finished product. The wounded ­vulnerability of songs like “Watching the Waves” wouldn’t have affected the overall tone. But “Carry You” and the 1 Corinthians 13–interpolating “What Kind of Love” would’ve added a patina of faith, consoling those among Grant’s Christian base who’d begun to feel neglected, though ­perhaps not those still ­concerned with asterisks attached to her personal life.

They’d have felt even more neglected, however, by the sassy workouts “I’ve Got You,” “Walk on Water,” and “How Do You Manage That.” Combined with the original running order’s “Curious Thing,” they’d have made Grant seem oblivious to her CCM queendom altogether and determined instead to give Shania Twain a run for her money. —A.O.