Stream: New albums from Sam Valdez, NoMBe and Ashe

on
0
From left: Sam Valdez, NoMBe and Ashe

Rounding up three notable albums just out — from Sam Valdez, NoMBe and Ashe …

SAM VALDEZ, “Take Care”

Like her aptly titled 2018 EP “Mirage,” Sam Valdez’s first full-length, “Take Care,” invites you inside her hazy reveries, serenely sung vignettes with shoegaze-meets-Americana textures. Any of the singles — “Turn,” “Palms Casino,” “Toothache” and “Clean” — would make fine companions on an unhurried drive across the desert at dusk. Though barely 25 minutes long, “Take Care” will get you where you’re going before you know it.

NOMBE, “Chromatopia”

Like its predecessor, 2018’s “They Might’ve Even Loved Me,” Noah McBeth’s second album as NoMBe is a sprawling affair, 14 tracks that cover electronic pop, soul and, yes, rock. “Boys Don’t Cry” and “Paint California” are good points of entry, but there’s plenty more, most as vivid as the album’s title suggests. “I decided early on I wanted the record to feel brighter and incorporate a lot of color,” NoMBe says. “‘Chromatopia’ originally was the title of a book on color theory my creative director, Bel Downie, found. The album and its title have many layers and its core concept is that ‘love is a spectrum’ — it means that relationship status, sexual orientation or gender fall onto a spectrum that is open to interpretation and ever-changing. You get to decide how you want your relationship to be. The color spectrum plays a huge role in showcasing that visually.” Color us entertained.

ASHE, “Ashlyn”

The latest pop ingenue to elevate her diary entries into grandiose drama, 28-year-old Ashlyn Rae Willson emerges as poised and relatable (though not necessarily distinctive) on her debut, “Ashlyn.” Everything is pop-perfect here — there were seven singles in all — as Leroy “Big Taste” Clampitt is among the producers, Finneas and Niall Horan guest and besides those three Adam Melchor, Jason Evigan, Taylor Goldsmith and Tobias Jesso Jr. are among the other writers. Whether harking to ’60s pop or driven by contemporary production, Ashe’s songs have a warm familiarity and, at times, a touching poignancy (see “Ryne’s Song,” an ode to her brother). (Ashe will perform on “Late Night With Seth Meyers” on Tuesday and “Today” on Thursday with Finneas.)