Petrichor

Perfume connoisseurs will recognize the title of the shadowy singer-songwriter’s third album: the mythic word for the earthy scent that accompanies the first rain after a long dry spell. For 070 Shake, the smell reminds her of her childhood in New Jersey; her mother would point it out after a heavy rain. After breaking through in 2018 with a handful of deeply felt features on songs from Pusha T and Ye, Shake’s haunting blend of rap and R&B wallowed in romantic anguish. On *Petrichor*, the 27-year-old musician gets vulnerable, stripping down her sound and falling headfirst into love. With the help of two longtime collaborators, composer Johan Lenox and producer Dave Hamelin, the ultra-private musician departs from the foggy synths and heavy vocal processing of past work, embracing guitar, piano, and lovestruck lyrics that leave it all on the table. Still, moodiness and mystery abound, from the dark ’80s power-pop of “Elephant,” an ode to uneasy mornings after long nights, to “Vagabond,” which channels old spaghetti westerns for a song about giving up your wild ways for a more domestic life. The tight guest list is made up of iconoclastic divas only (like an inspired cover of Tim Buckley’s “Song to the Siren” with none other than Courtney Love), but the best cameo comes from Shake’s partner Lily-Rose Depp, who delivers a raw spoken-word poem touching on aliens, Joan Baez, and mutual masochism.