New and noteworthy

Swag and Swag II

Justin Bieber

Had these 44 tracks totaling 155 minutes been overseen by someone like Quincy Jones or Teddy Riley instead of by Bieber’s indulgent production team, they might’ve amounted to more than what they sound like: a mountain of sketches and demos for a potentially not-bad Michael Jackson album. Not that Jackson would’ve let the half a dozen or so songs with explicit lyrics even reach the demo stage. (Maybe the pastors of the megachurch that Bieber is said to attend could have a word?) Then again, Jackson also probably wouldn’t have risked “Safe Space,” “Glory Voice Memo,” “Forgiveness,” “Everything Hallelujah,” or the colloquial but accurate spoken retelling of Genesis 2 and 3 called “Story of God.”

Chilling, Thrilling Hooks and Haunted Harmonies: The Big Stir Records Halloween Grimoire

Various artists

Imagine the median point between “Monster Mash” and “(Don’t Fear) the Reaper” (and maybe Count Floyd’s Monster Chiller Horror Theatre and definitely Disneyland Records’ Chilling, Thrilling Sounds of the Haunted House) and you’ll have an accurate idea of the sounds on this clever, Halloween-themed ad for Big Stir Records’ talented (and, in Graham Parker’s and the Strawberry Alarm Clock’s cases, pedigreed) power-pop roster. Good. And clean. And fun.

Philip Glass: Glassworks

Philip Hoch

Even if you agree with Harold C. Schonberg that minimalism is a “kind of baby music” or with me that Philip Glass has long overplayed his hand, you can still admit that Glassworks is an ineffably haunting and at-times powerful piece. For one thing, the average length of each movement is 6½ minutes, just about right where Glassy minimalism is concerned. For another, the whole suite flows. It sparkles more when performed by an ensemble, but Philip Hoch’s organ transcription has its recollected-in-tranquility charms.

Between Piety and Desire

Nathan Oglesby

The fruit of a painful romantic breakup and a joyful pivot toward faith, these folk-meets-country songs by a former classics professor with a social media presence built on philosophical hip-hop feel raw and real because they are. Oglesby wrote and recorded them in a month, singing and playing (or sampling) everything himself except Anya Sapozhnikova’s guest vocals on the not ironically titled “Thank You for Breaking Our Hearts.” Also not ironically titled: “Reading the Bible in a Bar” and “The Name of Jesus.”

Encore

Last fall, MovieScore Media released the orchestral soundtrack to Sean McNamara’s biopic Reagan. Now, Curb Records has released the 13-track Reagan: Original Motion Picture Soundtrack (rock-pop-­country songs heard in whole or in part in the film) and the 11-track Reagan: Songs Inspired by the Film (what it says). The latter is uneven but has its moments (Sweet Comfort Band’s “Do I Say Goodbye,” Kathie Lee Gifford & Claude Kelly’s “I Knew it Would Be You,” the Commodores’ “Always”). The former, however, is nothing but moments, from faithful reproductions (Clint Black covering John Denver, the Imaginaries covering Frankie Valli) and dazzling reproductions (Robert Davi and Creed’s Scott Stapp covering Sinatra, MŌRIAH covering the Andrews Sisters) to reproductions both one of a kind (Bob Dylan singing “Don’t Fence Me In”) and two (a “Stormy Weather” by KISS’ Gene Simmons that makes a fitting flip side to the “When You Wish Upon a Star” he recorded 47 years ago). —A.O.