In Rotation: Laura Mvula, ‘Sing to the Moon’

Laura Mvula

“Sing to the Moon�

(Columbia)

The young English singer Laura Mvula makes a stunning entrance on her debut album, weightlessly soaring over the massed harmonies of a gospel choir as slow-motion bass and brass rev to life beneath the intricate vocal interplay. The opening tune is called “Like the Morning Dew,� which feels appropriate: A composition graduate of the Birmingham Conservatoire, Mvula is providing renewal in a U.K. pop scene overloaded with old-fashioned soul strivers chasing Adele’s runaway success.

The songs on “Sing to the Moon� chart boldly idiosyncratic paths; they repeat and elaborate, building instrumental steam only to stop cold when you least expect it. Yet the thrills aren’t simply academic. “I don’t need love to rescue me,� Mvula declares atop a swinging orchestral-jazz groove in “Make Me Lovely,� and it’s like a slyly modern response to “I Feel Pretty� from “West Side Story.�

Audra McDonald

“Go Back Home�

(Nonesuch)

Where Mvula’s album brushes against the lush grandeur of Broadway, Audra McDonald embraces — or reembraces — the form fully on her first solo disc since the pop-leaning “Build a Bridge� in 2006.

But if the musical-theater star is back to performing Sondheim (“The Glamorous Life�) and Styne-Comden-Green (“Make Someone Happy�), she keeps her arrangements relatively stripped-down here, drawing out the folky simplicity of “Edelweiss� and the Kander & Ebb title track, from “The Scottsboro Boys.�

Of course, the tidy chamber-orchestra settings only create more room for McDonald’s magnificent singing, which offers all the thrills a listener needs. As usual, she stuns upon entrance, exit and everything else.

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