On her new album, “Pick Me Up Off The Floor” (Blue Note), nine-time Grammy-winner Norah Jones is unhurried and relaxed – her timing for releasing such a soothing album of soft jazz-pop impeccable. The album, her seventh, is the result of a series of collaborations with contributors such as poet Sarah Oda and Wilco’s Jeff Tweedy, which rather than making the album seem choppy, actually creates a cohesive mood. The loungey atmosphere defies any specific genre and she has two things going for her: her stellar voice and empathic songwriting. The funny things about the songs on “Pick Me Up” is that they were essentially leftovers from her sessions for last year’s singles collection, “Begin Again.” On “I’m Alive,” Jones exhales about hope: “She’s crushed by thoughts at night of men/who want her rights/and usually win/but she’s alive.” “To Live” is a gospel-tinged anthem, as Jones sings about oppression and breaking through to the other side. “To live in this moment and finally be free/is what I was after, no chains holding me.” There is a sense of serenity on this record, an elixir to cure the hype and circumstance of everything going wrong in the world. Jones simply gets it right.

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It might have been intentional; it could be happenstance. But on Liam Gallagher’s “MTV Unplugged” (Warner), Oasis’ Gallagher is warm and hopeful – quite a breath of fresh air from the irascible and unlikely pop star, who in 1996 ditched Oasis’ “MTV Unplugged,” leaving his brother, bandmate and sometime foe Noel Gallagher to handle things on his own. Liam Gallagher is a bit of an anti-hero, and with his new album, you’d expect a few mothballs as “MTV Unplugged” trots out another session in its taped “acoustic” series that’s seen the likes of Eric Clapton and Nirvana. Here, at a show taped last year at Hull City Hall in England, you might suspect that Liam would simply be performing the contractual obligation record. You’d be wrong. With five Oasis classics and five songs of his own, this Gallagher is downright homey. He opens with his song, “Wall of Glass” (a track from his 2017 solo debut, “As You Were.”).“You believe in fascinations,” he sings, perhaps trying to get a read on his audience. Liam Gallagher sounds good, earnest and engaged and his damaged voice surprisingly decent, considering the years of cigarettes and alcohol which has given him a bit of a weathered sound. For the curious, his former band Oasis was mammoth on a global scale, with and so were that legendary spats with his brother Noel. Who’s the bad guy? That’s debatable. But with the album’s closer, Oasis’ hit “Champagne Supernova,” Liam sounds contented as he intones, “How many special people change? How many lives are living strange?” Only he knows for sure.

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It’s been an epic 19 years since the Long Beach Dub Allstars released their last record. Now the ska and reggae rockers are back with an eponymous record, (Regime Music). The 10-track album has been described as a more mature version of the notorious party-loving band that formed in 1997, out of the wreckage of Sublime, and after the death of that band’s influential frontman Bradley Nowell. The original 10-piece Allstars lineup included fellow Sublime founders Eric Wilson and Bud Gaugh as well as frequent Sublime collaborators like drummer and producer Marshall Goodman and Opie Ortiz, who was responsible for creating much of the artwork for Sublime, including album covers and T-shirts. He also inked the famous “Sublime” tattoo across Nowell’s back. The line-up may be new, but the sound is pure back to basics. The opener “Tell Me” pays tribute to fallen friends, while the first single, “Youth,” which was released in April, is a precursor to the protests and violence that have struck across America in the wake of two black men killed by police. “You take a look at the news today/what’s going on?” The album’s vibe isn’t melancholy, but rather a gleeful escape and a fine way to usher in the summer, So-Cal style.

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