Rarely has the critical consensus spins so swiftly and sharply as with Arcade Fire, a band that began in the 2010s by winning a surprise Album of the Year Grammy for its beloved, sky-high double album “The Suburbs” and capped off the decade that has been caricatured. as out-of-touch swearing when his 2017 technology critique “Everything Now” left just about everyone cold. However, the overwhelming tale of return to form that has greeted its first new music in five years, from an album due out May 6, suggests that many were simply waiting for the group to recreate songs that sound like “The Lightning I” and “II.” “I won’t quit on you, don’t quit on me,” Win Butler clenched teeth in the first part of the song, moving at the pace of someone running against the wind. Then, all of a sudden, the song kicks into a riveting gallop, becoming the kind of urgent, clenched fist anthem the band was once known for: “Waiting for the lightning, waiting for the lightning, what will the light bring?” Butler sings and burns again with a sincere, fervent hope. Someone kept the car running after all. LINDSAY ZOLADZ
Oumou Sangare, Wassulu Don
Oumou Sangaré has brought a tradition of women’s songs from the Malian region of Wassoulou to a worldwide audience. Her first new song since 2017, off an album to be released in April, is the Malian fusion of “Wassulu Don”: the trembling vocals and the call-and-response of Wassoulou songs propelled by the modal, six-beat electric guitar picking – echoing Ali Farka Toure – dubbed ‘desert blues’, topped with an overtly bluesy slide guitar. The song, it turns out in translation, praised regional economic development “thanks to colossal investment”: a prosaic text for a euphoric piece of music. JON PARELES
Normani, ‘Honest’
Her debut album has been waited so long, for some people the phrase “new Normani album” has come to mean something like what “Chinese democracy” used to be, or – heaven help us – “#R9” still does. But the arrival of Normani’s new single “Fair” is promising in two respects: It hints that 2022 could really be the year she releases that mythical album; and it’s way better than “Wild Side,” the sultry but ultimately snoozy Cardi B duet from 2021. “Fair,” which mines the liquid sounds of Y2K-era TLC or Aaliyah, is a haunted ballad with a deep, threatening undertow. “Is it fair that you moved on?” Normani asks, “because I swear I didn’t.” All the while, the moody song is beating with a sputtering but sustained heartbeat. ZOLADZ
In the world of Rosalía
In just a few years, the Spanish singer from Catalonia has become one of the most adored, researched and most appreciated young artists in the world.
Residente with Ibeyi, ‘This Is Not America’
Aside from his intramural reggaeton steak with J Balvin, Puerto Rican rapper Residente returns to major socio-political statements with the furious “This Is Not America,” which is rapped in Spanish but purposefully mentioned in English. It’s a darker sequel to the “Latinoamérica” hemisphere of Residente’s former group, Calle 13: a sweeping indictment of repression, corruption and abuse in the Americas. Driven by deeply Afro-Caribbean drumming and choral harmonies, it insists “America is not just the USA,” with a video recapitating brutal human rights abuses in nation after nation. PARELES
Brad Mehldau, ‘Cogs in Cogs, Pt. I dance’
A three-piece suite, “Cogs in Cogs,” takes center stage on Brad Mehldau’s new album, “Jacob’s Ladder,” which collects 12 complex, difficult-to-change tracks: an attempt to use the tools of prog rock – his first musical love – to to explore how a worldly life had both shaken and strengthened his Christian faith. Continuing to build on his solid identity as one of the country’s top jazz pianists, Mehldau plays almost every instrument on part 1 of “Cogs in Cogs”: piano, rhodes, harmonium, mixed percussion and more. He also sings a bit. Supported by the syncopated rhythm and woven harmonic progression he outlines at the beginning, the song acts like a patient immersion, offering some balance to the intoxicating overload of so much of this album. GIOVANNI RUSSONELLO
Donae’o with Terri Walker, ‘Good Mood’
Everyone in this dystopian moment wants something better. Here’s a song for when, eventually, the situation might feel right: a stripped-down electronic funk topped with gritty human voices, placed in a digital grid, but hoping beyond that is a warm, real, physical space. PARELES
Syd and Lucky Daye, ‘Cybah’
On the brink of a new romance, Syd – Sydney Loren Bennett, the songwriter and producer who spawned Odd Future – expresses her doubts in “Cybah”, whispering a question to a potential mate: “Can you break a heart?” Lucky Daye responds with his own terms: “Promise me you’ll always keep my heart in a safe place.” The hesitation is built right into the song, three slowly descending chords atop a bassline that sometimes fades into complete silence, leaving the next step uncertain. PARELES
Valerie June, ‘Use Me’
Valerie June’s “Use Me” isn’t Bill Withers’ 1972 song. It offers a kinder, less exploited version of the same generous loving sentiment: “I’ll let you use me when the world gets you wrong,” she promises. It’s a soul waltz that takes on circus-like momentum from an oom-pah-pah beat, slightly delayed snare drum rolls, and jovial horns that sound like they’re walking into a bar and deciding to linger. PARELES
Rosalia, ‘Hentai’
A delicate, understated piano arrangement serves as sonic red herring for the grittiest song Rosalía has released to date. At first glance, “Hentai” is painfully gorgeous, as sparse and intimate as anything the pop flamenco queen has ever done. “So, so, so good,” she sings ecstatically on the chorus, starry-eyed and accompanied by nothing more than a few plinking notes – the sound of a versatile performer revealing yet another side of himself. ZOLADZ
Ethan Gruska and Bon Iver, ‘So Insignificant’
Two meticulously disorienting songwriters and producers – Justin Vernon (Bon Iver) and Ethan Gruska (Phoebe Bridgers’ producer) – collaborated remotely on “So Unimportant.” It’s a waltz that mixes an argument and an apology, with Gruska finally concluding, “It’s so insignificant what started the fight.” What could have been a folk, homely waltz is layered with hazy sonic phantoms – echoes, altered voices, electronic tones, a floating string arrangement – that hint at the emotional complexity of everyday frictions. PARELES
Danilo Perez, ‘Fronteras (Borders) Suite: Al-Musafir Blues’
As the founder of the Berklee Global Jazz Institute in Boston, the celebrated Panamanian pianist Danilo Pérez has a utopian goal framed by his own jazz experience: he sees music as an instrument of international solidarity and a path to a kind of global sonic language. Pérez’ Global Messengers is a transnational band that grew out of his work at Berklee, trying to put some evidence behind the ideas. “Al-Musafir Blues” comes as part of the “Fronteras (Borders) Suite”, which contemplates the pain of forced migration. “Al-Musafir Blues” is an 11-minute epic in its own right, starting with a lingering, lovely pattern by Palestinian cellist Naseem Alatrash that slowly transitions into a full-band arrangement; towards the end, Pérez’s running piano leads the conversation. RUSSELLO