Dej Loaf, "#AndSeeThatsTheThing"

Dr. Dre

“COMPTON”

Aftermath Entertainment / Interscope Records

“Compton” — Inspired by “Straight Outta Compton,” the new N.W.A biopic of which Dr. Dre was an executive producer — is a combination of utter confidence and distracting hodgepodge. Musically, it’s ornate and grand-scaled, and somehow also deft. But there’s almost an open-door policy in place for collaborators, meaning that attack dogs like the new Compton superstar Kendrick Lamar coexist alongside more dubious talents, like the young Dre protégés Justus and King Mez.

But those are microconcerns, and Dr. Dre is macrominded. Ever since “The Chronic,” it’s been clear that Dr. Dre’s real peers are film-score composers who communicate emotional direction with broad, legible strokes that set the tone for the details sprinkled atop.

Mainly, though, what “Compton” shows is that Dr. Dre isn’t racked by self-doubt. He merely needs some kind of muse, something bigger than himself to believe in. In this case, the muse is both the city and the history on display in “Straight Outta Compton.”

That’s a form of hiding, too, though. And on “Compton,” he has at least one good reason to fade into the background: Lamar, who appears on three songs. Lamar is the photo negative of Dr. Dre — he’s a dense lyrical technician who can be all trees, no forest. As strong as his albums have been, he’s still needed the caress of a Dr. Dre.

“Deep Water” showcases each at his best — it’s more propulsive than almost anything on Lamar’s recent album and still an accommodating home for his dexterous verse. It’s an act of genuine intergenerational sharing.

— Jon Caramanica,

New York Times

Titus Andronicus

“THE MOST LAMENTABLE TRAGEDY”

Merge Records

Any band that names itself after a Shakespeare play harbors lofty ambitions. Patrick Stickles is the leader of the punk-rock band born in Glen Rock, N.J., that impressed with “The Monitor” (2010), a sprawling concept album that put the Civil War to allegorical use. After scaling back — and shaving his beard — for “Local Business” (2013), Stickles has returned, with facial hair and grand designs, with this 29-song epic, a five-act punk-rock opera that crackles with intelligence and energy as it traces the neurotic adventures of a manic-depressive Everyman who seems to have much in common with his hyperactively creative auteur.

Rough, ready and raw, “Most Lamentable” gives you the totality of the Titus A. experience. It’s a stylistically varied bundle of tunes that never suffocate with their seriousness. Along with a fair share of fury, the band often sounds more accessible than ever.

ON TOUR: Oct. 2 — Mississippi Studios, Portland; www.ticketfly.com.

— Dan DeLuca,

The Philadelphia Inquirer

Dej Loaf

“#ANDSEETHATSTHETHING”

Columbia Records

Dej Loaf, from Detroit, has a child’s voice, round and small and not yet firm. Her breakthrough single, “Try Me,” which was released last year, sounded like getting threatened by a particularly needling child.

Since then, Dej Loaf has become a refreshingly chameleonic presence in hip-hop, slithering through songs about mean-mugging and songs about sweet loving. Her new EP, “#AndSeeThatsTheThing” — her first major-label release of new material — has some of both, her saccharine voice sometimes blurring the lines between them.

Most of the time, her soft and stretchy voice is spread atop oozing, shimmery production, and manipulated by machines; it’s a toy to be fiddled with and molded.

Being a female rapper invariably means all manner of collaborations with men, many unwelcome and retrograde, but Dej Loaf has consistently used those opportunities to show new sides of herself, whether adding spooky kiddie menace to Kid Ink’s “Be Real” or ride-or-die insouciance to the remix of Lil Durk’s “What You Do to Me.” But she has never been more impressive than on the remix of Omarion’s “Post to Be,” one of this year’s most salacious songs.

On this EP, the duets are more balanced, be it “Hey There” or the rising hit “Back Up,” a back-and-forth with Big Sean. Big Sean is a whimsical, witty rapper, and while Dej Loaf can’t quite match his energy, she’s happy to double his attitude: “You got to promise not to stress me/ Don’t be blowing up my phone and don’t be leaving voice messages.”

— Jon Caramanica,

New York Times