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New pop albums: Titus Andronicus, Night Beds, and Migos

Any band that names itself after a Shakespeare play harbors lofty ambitions. Patrick Stickles is the leader of the punk-rock band born in Glen Rock, N.J., that impressed with The Monitor (2010), a sprawling concept album that put the Civil War to allegori

Migos"Yung Rich Nation"(Atlantic/Quality Control/300 Entertainment (***)
Migos"Yung Rich Nation"(Atlantic/Quality Control/300 Entertainment (***)Read more

Titus Andronicus

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Any band that names itself after a Shakespeare play harbors lofty ambitions. Patrick Stickles is the leader of the punk-rock band born in Glen Rock, N.J., that impressed with The Monitor (2010), a sprawling concept album that put the Civil War to allegorical use. After scaling back - and shaving his beard - for Local Business (2013), Stickles has returned, with facial hair and grand designs, with this 29-song epic, a five-act punk-rock opera that crackles with intelligence and energy as it traces the neurotic adventures of a manic-depressive Everyman who seems to have much in common with his hyperactively creative auteur.

Rough, ready, and raw, Most Lamentable gives you the totality of the Titus A. experience. It's a stylistically varied bundle of tunes that never suffocate with their seriousness. Along with a fair share of fury, the band often sounds more accessible than ever. They open up their sound much like Bruce Springsteen's similarly broad double album The River. There's the joyous schoolboy crush of "Come on Siobhan," the power-chord crunch of "Fatal Flaw," and the electric "Mr. E. Mann." Stickles always keeps his wits about him: He pays tribute to the hard-core band 7 Seconds with "[Seven Seconds]," a silent track exactly that long. The album closes with a heavy sigh after the wordless "A Moral" refuses to sum up the tumult of the previous hour and a half. - Dan DeLuca

nolead begins Night Beds
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nolead ends The reference points for the first Night Beds album, 2013's very good Country Sleep, came from the world of alt-country: Fleet Foxes, Bon Iver, Horse Feathers. Ivywild, the second album from the project helmed by Winston Yellen, draws from different wells: the contemporary R&B of the Weeknd and Rhye and the so-called chill wave of Washed Out and Neon Indian. Yellen has aptly called these songs "sad sex jams": They build on slow beats and - although densely layered with keyboards, strings that drift in and out of the mix, and Yellen's reverb-laden vocals - the atmosphere is airy and gauzy.

Yellen's yearning tenor voice is the center of Ivywild. He tweaks it with Auto-Tune, overlaps lines to turn it into a choir, and bolsters it with female harmonies. Songs such as "Love Streams" and "Tide Teeth" are full of desperate longing, mostly sexual. Although Ivywild differs radically from Country Sleep, Yellen's new persona is totally persuasive.    - Steve Klinge
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(Atlantic/Quality Control/300 Entertainment nolead ends nolead begins (*** nolead ends nolead begins )

nolead ends In 2009, goofy rappers Offset, Quavo, and Takeoff had just begun in Atlanta's hip-hop scene with early cuts like "Bando" paving the way for rowdier hits like "Versace." Yung Rich Nation isn't as light-hearted as Migos' previous efforts. What it does offer is the trio's wordy flow and rat-a-tat rhymes in a sinister setting: glum, cinematic gangsta-rap lite. "One Time" is slick, pop, and dark with its "smoke one/drink one" hook, and "Spray the Champagne" is a fun, funky prelude to something ominous. "Highway 85," in particular, is a Technicolor, surround-sound Southern car chase, with Migos pile-driving through police barricades to a tense electro-funk accompaniment. Migos goes from goofy to gripping and makes it work. - A.D. Amorosi

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Grace Potter, Midnight; Blackalicious, Imani, Vol. 1; Neck Deep, Life's Not Out to Get You; Teen Daze, Morning World EndText