Listen "Out" music reviews for May 2026

 - by Jason Drewry
   Listen “Out” Columnist

Tori Amos – In Times of Dragons  

Tori Amos’s eagerly awaited new album In Times of Dragons arrives like a flare shot into a storm and takes aim at the times in which we find ourselves. The album leans into the political urgency Amos has been speaking about, threading personal mythology with the fractures of the present moment. Her piano work is as mercurial as ever, shifting from crystalline delicacy to a seismic rumble, while her lyrics circle power, autonomy, and the cost of complacency. 

A vital thread here is family and legacy: her daughter Tash joins her on a couple of songs; their voices braiding together like a chorus across generations. This shared vocal space softens some of the record’s sharper edges without dulling its intent. 

What makes In Times of Dragons resonate is its balance of fire and vulnerability. Amos excavates rather than sermonizes, guiding listeners through grief, resistance, renewal, and ultimately, a political reckoning using equal parts myth and melody. 

Loreen – Wildfire  

Loreen’s Wildfire is back with an album that doesn’t just glow — it radiates. The Swedish icon leans deeper into her elemental, body‑first pop, crafting a record that feels like it was carved from smoke and muscle. The title track, Wildfire, sets the tone with its slow‑burn intensity, while Is It Love and Forever shimmer with the kind of emotional voltage only Loreen can conjure. 

Her Eurovision‑winning juggernaut Tattoo appears here in full force, anchoring the album with its now‑mythic blend of ache and ascension. But it’s the new material that gives Wildfire its shape: Crying Out for You pulses darker, grounding the album’s more celestial moments. 

What emerges is a cohesive, breath‑heavy meditation on desire and resilience. Loreen isn’t reinventing herself — she’s refining the ritual. Wildfire smolders, beckons, and ultimately rewards anyone willing to step into the heat. 

Arlo Parks – Ambiguous Desire  

Ambiguous Desire moves like a night drive through a city that only wakes up after midnight—humid, neon‑lit, and full of emotional detours. The album leans into the club‑tinged pulse she’s been circling for years, opening with the shimmering Blue Disco and sliding into the restless thrum of Jetta. Parks’ gift has always been emotional clarity. Still, here she filters it through nocturnal textures: the Sampha‑assisted Senses glows with quiet intimacy, while Heaven stretches into something weightless and devotional. 

The record’s heartbeat, though, is 2SIDED, a track that captures the album’s tension between self‑interrogation and self‑liberation. Elsewhere, Beams and Luck of Life shimmer with the kind of soft‑focus euphoria that comes from losing yourself on a dancefloor and finding a new version of yourself on the way out. 

Ambiguous Desire is Parks at her most confident—fluid, exploratory, and beautifully unguarded. 

ZAYN – KONNAKOL 

Superstar ZAYN returns with a new album replete with the sound of an artist finally unafraid to follow the thread all the way into the dark. Named after the South Indian vocal percussion tradition, the album folds rhythm into emotion until the two feel indistinguishable: heartbeat as production, breath as instrumentation. ZAYN leans into a more experimental palette here: elastic percussion, smoky low‑end and vocals that slip between velvet and voltage. 

What’s striking is how intentional the world‑building feels. Rather than chasing after pop trends, the record carves its own humid, nocturnal atmosphere. ZAYN’s vocals show why his voice is still one of pop’s most expressive instruments. It moves with a new kind of confidence, stretching into falsetto, cracking at the edges, letting the imperfections glow. 

If his earlier work hinted at artistic restlessness, KONNAKOL is perhaps the payoff: a moody, rhythm‑driven reinvention that feels intimate but still architecturally ambitious.  

The Gayly online. 5/30/26 @ 5:05 p.m. CST.