After having written songs for Rihanna, Cher, Christina Aguilera and the Backstreet Boys, Laura Pergolizzi, aka LP, started her career as a solo artist in 2001 and has now released her fifth album. It’s an expert mix of nicely balanced rock, spunky electro pop and powerful soul, but this time, LP is confiding in us. In a more intimate style, her singing is less epic and overpowering than on her previous albums and is more heartfelt and the result is truthfully quite compelling, especially on the hit Recovery. You can tell that Heart to Mouth serves as an emotional outlet for LP, like therapy after a recent, painful breakup. By exposing herself in this way, the Italian-American woman endows her pop with a strength that wasn’t there before. Clotilde Maréchal/Qobuz