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Guest-filled four th album from nouveau blues-and-more guitarist.
By Mark Blake.
Hands on: Gary Clark Jr expands his bluesbased palette.
Gary Clark Jr
★★★★
JPEGRAW
WARNER BROS. CD/DL/LP
HABITS, THE final song on JPEGRAW, lasts for nine minutes. Partway through, this other wise melancholy ballad is upended by a blast of martial dr umming, followed by choral backing voices, a dash of flamenco and a bombastic guitar solo. It’s Gar y Clark Jr’s Purple Rain, if you will, and screams ‘serious artist’. But the drama never over whelms the music, and this delicate balance car ries over to the rest of his new album.