Compare The Navigator

On her previous five albums as , singer/songwriter subscribed to an audacious, far-reaching definition of Americana, but she's never been as ambitious as she is on 2017's . A pseudo-autobiographical concept album partially inspired by 's first listen to 's , follows the journey of Navita, a Puerta Rican folk-punk who discovers her identity and sharpens her politics as she journeys through the boroughs of New York City. Although 's story is relatively easy to parse, the pleasure in lies not in the narrative but rather its ideas. While the album may open with "Living in the City," a song that makes a conscious nod to her early influence expands her musical palette considerably, finding space for spectral strings, gospel choirs, barrelhouse piano, and percolating funk. All of these flourishes give a lush, enveloping atmosphere, but they're not merely flair: They're an indication of how pulls from several different American traditions to create a vibrant, modern Americana. Certainly, this album feels richer than previous records, which all benefitted from the stripped-down aesthetic that often signifies authenticity in Americana, but this broadening of 's scope hardly constitutes pandering. is nothing if it isn't a bold risk, a record that attempts to carve out a new kind of Americana, one where the past informs the present instead of the present preserving the past -- and one where the political is personal, too. ~ Stephen Thomas Erlewine