Here are 3 new albums you should know about this week

Chris Stapleton extends a superlative run on From A Room: Volume 2, while War & Leisure finds Miguel in more radio-friendly territory. These, plus Neil Young & Promise Of The Real in this week’s notable releases.
Miguel, War & Leisure
[RCA]
Grade: B+
If you need to know precisely how Miguel has changed since 2015’s Wildheart, take note: On the cover of War & Leisure, he is fully clothed—and in a silk suit-green beret combo, no less. That shift from oiled-up flesh and piled-high pompadour to what you might call bowling-alley chic represents not only War & Leisure’s relatively tame sense of sexuality, but also its creator’s move away from vulnerability and toward a radio-friendly stoned sweetness. As “Sky Walker” and the latinized G-funk of “Caramelo Duro” show, though, Miguel is still a phenomenally creative songwriter and producer, and his success here is partly owing to the way he allows his songs’ moving parts to wander around the party and mingle for a while before he passes them all off in search of something fresh. As he does with his assortment of expensive-looking robes, Miguel wears War & Leisure’s looseness well, and even if he doesn’t reveal much of himself, he still has the charisma to pull the whole ensemble off.
RIYL: Prince (of course). Jeremih. Waking and baking. The cowabunga lifestyle.
Start here: The squirting beat and slap-bass funk of “Told You So,” if only to remind yourself that it’s a crime this dude never got to produce for Prince. [Marty Sartini Garner]