MusicNews

Various Artists, Black Panther: The Album
The Kendrick Lamar-helmed soundtrack to Marvel Studios' latest blockbuster features K-Dot collaborations with SZA, Travis Scott and The Weeknd, as well as appearances by Khalid, 2 Chainz, Future and Top Dog Entertainment crew members Schoolboy Q and Jay Rock. "At first, [Lamar] was just going to do a few songs for the film, and then he came in and watched quite a bit of the movie, and the next thing I know, they were booking a studio and they were going at it," Black Panther director Ryan Coogler told NPR. "Hats off to him and his production team – they made some really great songs," he added.

MGMT, Little Dark Age
"MGMT are back to their roots on Little Dark Age," Jon Dolan writes about the blog-beloved duo's fourth album, "with concise tunes built from cushy keyboard beats and cute, kiting melodies. ... But there's a welcome new wrinkle here: 'She Works Out Too Much' and 'TSLAMP' (a.k.a. 'time spent looking at my phone') are funny, bemusedly cranky parodies of modern screen-obsessed solipsism."

Franz Ferdinand, Always Ascending
The debonair Scots' fifth album is "a return to form the band never really lost, and if the quiet bits drag, the wit's sharper than ever," writes Will Hermes.

Dashboard Confessional, Crooked Shadows
Chris Carrabba's first Dashboard Confessional album in eight-plus years "hews to familiar formulas of Dashboard dramatics, cleverly clad in contemporizing pop production," writes Jessica Hopper. "Carrabba's lyrical focus has evolved some in his time away, having disregarded the diaristic 'I' for a unified 'we,' yet emo's heroic paternalism is still present - he's saving, he's dedicated, he won't let the love die. 'I'm always going to be/About us,' he sings on 'About Us.' His pledges of allegiance to his marriage are identical to the ones he makes to the scene."

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