Love, Shelby is actually superior in some ways to its predecessor, the universally acclaimed I Am Shelby Lynne. If anything Lynne's writing and singing are even more compelling. Producer-songwriter collaborator Glen Ballard's touch is limited mostly to stacks of electric and acoustic guitars (which seem designed to slide the songs onto contemporary radio) and the updated hip-hop shaded beats that power many cuts. Lynne's concerns are front and centre whether in the vows of emotional openness and resilience on "Wall in Your Heart", "Trust Me" and "I Can't Wait" or the intimations of Southern soul on "Bend". John Lennon's "Mother" becomes a sort of autobiography in her hands-her father killed her mother in a murder-suicide when Lynne was a teenager-until switching the song's perspective to her dad's in the final verse. Her story gives the soaring "Killin' Kind" (previously heard on the Bridget Jones's Diary soundtrack) a hint of ambivalence about romantic surrender. A couple of cuts, most obviously "Jesus on a Greyhound", succumb to the self-consciousness that marred a couple of I Am Shelby Lynne's sketches but that's a minor complaint in the face of what this record's best has to offer. -Rickey Wright.

At first glance, it may seem that Toronto's Sadies have merely stood pat with their trademark blend of psychedelic country and twangy surf rock. But theirs has been a sly evolution, and Favourite Colours, their fifth full-length (not including various collaborations), finds them masterfully honing and building on their core sound. There's an emerging depth and pensiveness to their songwriting, a growing sense of spirituality and drama. The imagery is grand and vivid, seemingly drifting from utopian to apocalyptic. The heart of the album is a three-part suite (broken up by a dense, cinematic instrumental) that perfectly exemplifies the Sadies' deft balance of the ominous and the uplifting. The gentle steel and delicate acoustic strumming of "1000 Cities Falling (Part 1)" gives way to the trippy, atmospheric "Song of the Chief Musician (Part 2)" before culminating with the bright, sunny, 12-string-driven "Why Be So Curious? (Part 3)" with its refrain: "why be so curious when nobody knows the truth?" In this balance between tension and consolation one can hear echoes of '60s "cosmic cowboys" the Byrds, Buffalo Springfield, and Flying Burrito Brothers. Exclusive company indeed, but with their sharp, fluid playing and broadening lyrical and musical scope, the Sadies are fast earning these comparisons. -Marc Greilsamer.