Haley Reinhart Better

So much has happened since the release of her outstandingly-groovy 2012 debut Listen Up! on Interscope Records; yes, she was dropped six months later, but that is only a small piece of the puzzle. In nearly four years, she, too, has gone through other machinations of Hollywood and a fickle music business in order to find her soul and a new muse worthy of greatness. Better, packed to the brim with 11 soul-inspired, Motown-fused tracks, is a kind of greatness which forges career-defining moments in time. Reinhart is having her moment, and she has enlisted a bevy of songwriters and producers to bolster her stylistic expression, including Rob Kleiner (who worked on her last album and has also produced the likes of Sia, Britney Spears and The Weeknd), Sir Charles Prince (a mastermind who taps into the magic and sheer sucker-punch of Reinhart’s raw voice on Love is Worth Fighting For) and Swedish producer Anders Grahn (whose imprint is found on three songs, Bad Light, Better and the sweltering Good or Bad).

Jordie Lane is always getting caught in a downpour. "A quick storm just hit while I was getting my coffee," he says with an unquenchable, good-natured humor. The much loved Australian indie roots artist, who recently moved from Melbourne to LA to Nashville, is malleable and resilient despite the torrent of changes that have come his way. Glassellland combines the desert Tropicalia influences of his homeland with the modern Southwestern folk of his new home. Produced by Clare Reynolds (Timbaland, Haley Reinhart, Greyson Chance), the two created Glassellland in teardown transitory studios, which they built and deconstructed in varying spaces in Northeast Los Angeles.