EMMYLOU HARRIS & RODNEY CROWELL  Old Yellow Moon  [Nonesuch] Thankfully, the second posthumous Winehouse release isn’t filled with scraps that didn’t make last year’s Lioness. Drawn from BBC appearances, it reminds listeners what a charismatic vocalist Winehouse was. The early material, recorded circa 2004’s Frank album, showcases Winehouse’s jazz roots, pairing her sultry, scat-like singing with big band arrangements. The handful... 

RY COODER Election Special [Nonesuch] Ry Cooder has played so many roles—go-to guitarist, in-demand soundtrack composer, booster of World Music and Americana—that one almost forgets his sizable and generally exceptional body of solo albums. In recent years, Cooder has grown comfortable as a songwriter, penning tunes increasingly topical in nature. Election Special comprises broadsides in the tradition of Pete Seeger, Woody Guthrie and Phil Ochs.... 

SHAWN COLVIN All Fall Down [Nonesuch] Procuring master guitarist and Nashville alt-country staple Buddy Miller as producer ensures authenticity in the Americana world—just ask Robert Plant, who tapped him for 2010’s Band of Joy—but Shawn Colvin needs no such thing for her first new album in six years. Her history with Miller is very different. She sang in his band early on and later toured with him, Emmylou Harris and Patty Griffin as Three... 

BJÖRK Biophilia [Nonesuch] Björk’s eighth solo release is not so much an album as the foundation of an ambitious multimedia project. Partly recorded on an iPad and released (in addition to traditional outlets) through 10 interactive apps, Biophilia boasts a lyrical thread drawing from biologist Edward O. Wilson’s ideas about the connections that humans subconsciously seek with the life that surrounds them. By fusing African-derived rhythms,... 

K.D. LANG AND THE SISS BOOM BANG Sing It Loud [Nonesuch] This is the first release that comes with an “and” after k.d. lang’s name since the Reclines shared billing on her first three records. The last of those, Absolute Torch and Twang, was also the last country album she made. So does the return of a band also signal a return to those roots? Not exactly, but Sing It Loud may be as close as she’s been since then. Siss Boom Bang contributes... 

BRAD MEHLDAU Live in Marciac [Nonesuch] Brad Mehldau’s restlessness is as much a force of nature as his musicianship, so it comes as no great shock that the master jazz pianist follows last year’s double-disc quintet recording Highway Rider with another double album (plus DVD), this time solo. Mehldau is an explorer, in his compositions, his playing and—to the delight of his loyal flock—his eclectic choice of cover material. The music he interpreted... 

NATALIE MERCHANT Leave Your Sleep [Nonesuch] It’s been seven years since the last Natalie Merchant album, and the wait for completely original material continues with no end in sight. Though she’s back penning tunes, the words on this new set are the work of classic English and American poets. In its reverence for e.e. cummings and Robert Louis Stevenson, this feels less like an album and more like a university recital one might attend for extra... 

THE MAGNETIC FIELDS Realism [Nonesuch] After swathing their songs in bristling feedback for 2008’s Distortion, the Magnetic Fields take the opposite approach on their latest. Leader Stephin Merritt calls Realism their “folk album”—but this is variety-show folk with a knowing, occasionally ironic undertone. The instrumentation is mostly acoustic, with guitar, bouzouki, cello, horns and hand percussion. It’s fairly straightforward on the opening...