Kelly Clarkson
“Piece by Piece”
★★ ½
Trying to keep up with the kids has been the undoing of many 30-something pop stars, but on her seventh album, Kelly Clarkson maintains her dignity as she dips her toe into dance music. The fractured EDM of “Take You High” and the bombastic beats that power “Dance With Me” bring a contemporary feel to the Texan’s new material without resorting to desperate, Day-Glo antics. The album’s self-empowerment anthems sometimes stray toward the syrupy (the John Legend duet “Run Run Run” is definitely worthy of a skip), but on the title track, Clarkson turns her strained relationship with her father into the album’s emotional peak. The original “American Idol” may have been handed a career, but she’s still earning the right to keep it.
Nate Ruess
“Nothing Without Love”
★★ ½
With his main band fun. on hiatus and his guitarist Jack Antonoff’s Bleachers project on a roll, Nate Ruess has some work to do. His first solo single at least shows he can handle the choruses on his own. “Nothing Without Love” has a Beatles-esque grandiosity, and while Ruess’ shrill voice and clichéd, seafaring lyrical metaphors are tough on the ears, the big pop hooks win out.
Zedd
“I Want You to Know” featuring Selena Gomez
★ ½
The Russian-German DJ and producer hit gold when he teamed up with Ariana Grande for 2014’s “Break Free,” but his new girlfriend Selena Gomez just doesn’t have the chops to carry off this new track in the same way. “I Want You to Know” is generic and not aided hugely by Gomez, whose all-important vocals are delivered with a disappointing lack of vivacity. Whatever she wanted us to know obviously wasn’t that important.
Boots
“I Run Roulette”
★★★ ½
The mysterious Brooklyn producer behind some of the best tracks on Beyoncé’s self-titled album is going to be a star in his own right if the mini-soundtrack album to his short film “Motorcycle Jesus” is any indication. The most impressive of the five tracks from BOOTS (real name: Jordan Asher) is the seductive “I Run Roulette,” which puts a sexier, funkier spin on Nine Inch Nails’ industrial rock.
Noel Gallagher’s High Flying Birds
“Ballad of the Mighty I”
★★ ½
It will surprise few to hear that the former Oasis guitarist’s new group’s album, “Chasing Yesterday,” is filled with stodgy dad-rock, but this closing cut is where the High Flying Birds hover over new territory. Surging disco rhythms and sweeping strings break the monotony. For a precious few minutes, Gallagher offers something that isn’t strictly for Britpop revivalists.
Purity Ring
“Begin Again”
★★★
If the absence of Chvrches has left you yearning for a quick fix of crystalline electro-pop, try this Canadian duo. Purity Ring’s excellent second album, “Another Eternity,” is filled with glacial melodies, especially this track, sung with bewitching beauty by frontwoman Megan James.