Karen O of the Yeah Yeah Yeahs and Erykah Badu are both working at the top of their respective games right now, and the fact that they're doing so this far into their careers is one of the most heartening things in pop music. It isn't simply that things have gotten so bad—moneywise, bizwise, artwise, you name it—that pop diehards are looking for any port in the storm. It's that both women have always made themselves known as visionaries, and their visions have only grown sharper, clearer, and more expansive with time. That's rare in any artistic field, never mind one as fickle as pop music.

I was skeptical about the Yeah Yeah Yeahs' new It's Blitz! (Interscope) at first—like Badu's latest album, Blitz! is a grower and clearly meant as a growth marker—but two things occurred to turn me around. First, they appeared on Saturday Night Live—playing "Maps" second, alas (you're promoting a new album on national television and your second and final song is six years old? Not shrewd), but playing "Zero" first and forever searing the song into my brain. Second, after playing It's Blitz! a handful of times and missing something, I finally had the sense to crank the volume. It helped—a lot. This record is very subtly produced—the string arrangement on "Runaway," for instance, is central to the song, but it's also nearly invisible at low volume.

All that detail just enhances strong writing and, especially in Karen O's case, performances. The stagy but real ache in "Zero" gives it an extra kick: It sounds like an emotional autobiography in the form of a welcome mat to every teen misfit who flees to the city in search of leather and other weirdos, in that order. "Heads Will Roll" sets a They Shoot Horses, Don't They? scenario to dance-rock that's been French-kissed by rave (the opening organ loop is straight out of a 1992 breakbeat-hardcore anthem). "Dull Life" is good old-fashioned rock-star/fantasy-hero allegory ("We sing the nightmare of your lives") that Stevie Nicks would take her velvet hat off to. "Hysteric" is an awesomely serene ballad—like "Maps" without bumps.

And as with the SNL appearance, none of it seems the least bit forced. Karen O has always been a strong, expressive singer, rhythmically loose and an excellent shrieker. She's always been very charismatic. Now, though, none of it seems like she's even trying—it's a kind of confidence that comes with experience and age, and it's twice as magnetic.

With Karen O, you see the honing of a style over time. With Erykah Badu, you see a style becoming ever more omnivorous. New Amerykah: Part One (4th World War), which Universal Motown issued in February 2008, was supposed to have been followed forthwith by two sequels, neither of which has even leaked—not that Part One needs any help making everything else right now seem puny by comparison. Its music is a kaleidoscopic refraction of R&B since the '70s: burbling, aquatic hiphop beats topped with sci-fi harmonizing ("My People"), head-knocking funk ("Soldier"), rippling synth-soul ("Honey"), and on the bracing "The Cell," a rhythm track, complete with silver-matte keyboards, straight out of prime Stevie Wonder. You'd expect those things from Badu, but there's a cyborgian touch on a lot of New Amerykah that gives it an urgent cast, as it does to her lyrics about the everyday struggles of, in no particular order, humanity, blacks, women, and Erykah Badu.

New Amerykah's social-commentary stuff is startlingly apt, as with the pinpoint lyrics of "The Cell" and "Soldier" and "Master Teacher" (the latter featuring fellow R&B eccentric Georgia Anne Muldrow). But when Badu gets personal on "Me"—"This year I turn 36/Damn, it seems it came so quick/My ass and legs have gotten thick/It's all me"—it's relatable, not the usual tired superstar complaining. And "The Healer"—one of Madlib's greatest production jobs, bracing and soothing at the same time—is an extraordinary one-act play with Badu taking all the parts. (Seriously: Look at the lyric sheet with the CD.) "Hiphop," say "the Children," with "the Healer" responding, "It's bigger than the government."

That's an extraordinary claim to make about anything. Yet Badu imbues it with truth simply by being so ambitious. As with Karen O, I hope this won't be her peak. But even if it is, it's nothing to be sorry for. And I can't wait to see what they do with it all at the Gorge. recommended