Brittany Howard returns with a new album, ‘What Now,’ and songs she calls ‘like journal keeping’

By MARK KENNEDY
AP Entertainment Writer

NEW YORK (AP) — Brittany Howard’s second solo album, the 12-track “What Now,” is a thrilling mix of songs that lean into jazz, R&B, soul, house and metal. There’s “Power to Undo” that seems to be a gleeful nod to Prince and “Every Color in Blue” that has a Radiohead vibe. As a whole, it’s more experimental than her 2019 debut, “Jaime.” There’s even an interlude with a poem read by Dr. Maya Angelou. Howard says she needed an outlet for her feelings or, as she says it: “A way to get all these feelings out.” The album is out Friday.