[Updated 3/12 with reviews of Beautiful Things and Hollow!]

Tori Kelly's had a long road to her debut album — an independent EP, a major label EP, elimination from American Idol and opening slots on tours for Sam Smith and Ed Sheeran. But with her debut album, blending acoustic songs, R&B and rap, it's evident that her record deal is well deserved, and American Idol made a mistake letting her go. (A side note — why are so many things leaking lately? Have some respect for the artists, people. I'm pretty sure it's easy enough to wait until it's officially released or officially available to stream.)

Rachel Platten - Fight Song At first listen one might think Fight Song is a typical motivational pop ballad, but in reality, it's much more. Fight Song sounds so real, and there's hardly any unnecessary instruments or production. Even the production effects in the chorus fit in well, as they're accurate to the title and really do make the song sound like a fight song.

Tori Kelly - Should've Been Us The latest single from Tori Kelly's album Unbreakable Smile continues the R&B-esque flavor of the singles so far. It's undeniably catchy, but perhaps due to its long list of seven different composers, does not sound as real as Unbreakable Smile or even Nobody Love. I've actually preordered Unbreakable Smile on iTunes, due to my excitement over Tori Kelly as an artist herself and the co-writers such as Ed Sheeran, Toby Gad, Ilya and Claude Kelly. I probably won't like the other songs with huge numbers of composers (Expensive and California Lovers) but I'm still very excited.

Britney Spears feat. Iggy Azalea - Pretty Girls Britney Spears is seeming pretty irrelevant right now. Her last album, Britney Jean, was her first album to spend only one week in the Billboard top 10, and Pretty Girls, despite bringing in Iggy Azalea, arguably the biggest star of last summer, is her lowest-charting lead single ever. It was predicted to revive Spears' career and chart higher due to a music video and performance at the Billboard Music Awards, but sadly, it appears nobody really cares about her anymore, and I'm definitely not the only person who thinks it's annoying and too reminiscent of Fancy. Perhaps it has something to do with how the production team behind many of her earlier hits has moved onto other, younger artists...such as Taylor Swift.

Only about a year after the release of Golden, Lady Antebellum released their new album, 747. This album, instead of being produced by Paul Worley, is produced by Nathan Chapman (Taylor Swift, The Band Perry.) Needless to say, it has a more upbeat sound, and feels more produced overall. It's a pretty cohesive album, with many gems, sticking to the memories theme they explored in Golden. 

Sam Hunt is one of the three male country solo artists — along with Hunter Hayes and Scotty McCreery — who I will voluntarily purchase an album from and enjoy. As a whole, males in country music tend to resort to clichés, asking a girl to come up in their truck and ride. Few manage to escape this mold and actually write music that is worth listening to. But as an artist who is opening for Lady Antebellum on their Wheels Up tour and who writes with songwriters such as Shane McAnally and Josh Osborne, it's safe to say he has. 

Ariana Grande's sophomore album is hotly anticipated, following three songs that peaked at the top 10 of Billboard's Hot 100, and a fourth peaking at 49. It features many collaborations with other rappers and singers — there are more tracks with a featured artist than without. This is perhaps where the album falls short — tending to overcomplicate and disrupt what could've been a smooth listening experience.

[Read the review of the full album here] Frankly, one of my least favorite things in the music industry is label pressure on artists. If an artist is making good music that their fans like, then don't mess around with what's working. All of You peaked at #6 on the Billboard Top 200 albums chart — I think that's quite enough success, commercially as well as in other manners.
This EP was a complete surprise release. A single, Hold On, was released in November 2013, but nothing was heard about Caillat's new album. The sound of Hold On should've been enough of a warning for the new direction of Caillat's next release, but I was still somewhat blindsided.

Following her departure from Simon Cowell's British record label, Syco, and subsequent signing to a division of Sony Records, Cher Lloyd's sophomore album took a while to be released, inspiring the title "Sorry I'm Late." The first single featured T.I, the rapper who sang on Robin Thicke's "Blurred Lines" and Iggy Azalea's "Change Your Life", and the album contains co-writes with pop hitmakers and producers Max Martin and Shellback. On the album, Cher Lloyd uses her vocals a lot more, opting to only really have a rap verse of her own on one song, "Killin' It." With so many big writing and producing names, as well as Cher Lloyd's talent, which has improved significantly from her debut album, it's no surprise that "Sorry I'm Late" is an album that you can pop in and just jam to. 

Salute, the sophomore album of British girl band Little Mix, is packed full of motivational songs and catchy jams. It's a big improvement over their previous album, which was mainly girl-power anthems, lacking severely in ballads. Like Jade said in her Girl's Life interview in their Halloween issue, "You feel better, now we're going to have a good time."