Billie Eilish considers distraction and 10 more songs

“TV” – from a few modestly plucked but lavishly produced “guitar songs” Billie Eilish just released – begins as one of her hushed, husky ballads about alienation, self-doubt and a longing for numbness, this time with the help of TV; she’s considering putting on ‘Survivor’ to watch someone suffer.” But she’s looking for something bigger — the way entertainment leads to distraction, alienation, and apathy — and she’s emphatically making 2022 current: “The internet has gone wild watching movie stars on trial / As they topple Roe v. Wade” she sings. But Eilish hasn’t forgotten that she’s an entertainer herself; as she reflects on her isolation in a closing chorus—”Maybe I’m the problem”—she calls into an arena crowd, singing and clapping along. JON PARELES

Jessie Ware resorts to tried-and-true disco tools in “Free Yourself,” assisted by stalwart producer Stuart Price (Madonna, Pet Shop Boys, Dua Lipa). There’s a bouncing piano riff, a solid thumping beat, and finally the sounds of a soaring, soaring string section, as Ware promises freedom will feel good: “Keep up that mountaintop,” she insists. “Why don’t you please yourself?” The breakdowns and build-up meet with a sense of shimmering inevitability, stumbling toward a grand finish that, surprisingly, never arrives: “Don’t stop!” Ware sings, “Baby don’t you…” Suddenly she stays to hang. PARELES

Flo Milli with BabyFace Ray, ‘Hottie’

A Flo Milli song is like a Blingee filter: loud, flashy and confrontingly feminine. This week, the Alabama rapper released her major-label debut album, “You Still Here, Ho?”, a sort of spiritual sequel to her irresistible 2020 mixtape “Ho, Why Is You Here?” Following an introductory invocation from the muse, in this case reality TV legend Tiffany “New York” Pollard, the album is a showcase for Flo Milli’s boastful wit and the chatty ease of her signature flow. Plenty of other rappers would slow their pace if they got a beat as dreamy as the one on “Hottie”, but Milli is relentless as ever, anti-flirt while still breathing to set some boundaries (“I don’t text back when I’m cranky”). Here, as with other highlights of the record, she spits like a cartoon character merrily gliding over a rainbow. LINDSAY ZOLADZ

Three notable South African producers – Tyler ICU, Kabza De Small and DJ Maphorisa – worked on “Inhliziyo” (“Heart”), a spacious amapiano track constructed of shakers, sustained keyboard chords, sparse tapping percussion and shadowy, almost underground basslines. What makes it even more haunting than most amapiano songs are the vocals of the songwriter, Nkosazana Daughter: quiet and almost private, hinting at non-Western inflections and suffused with the inconsolable heartbreak of her Zulu lyrics. PARELES

Sun Ra Arkestra, ‘Someone else’s idea’

The Sun Ra Arkestra evokes a loose community, the sense of misfits coming together for a shared purpose. When the Arkestra recorded “Somebody Else’s Idea” during Sun Ra’s lifetime, June Tyson sang lyrics like “Somebody else’s idea of ​​things to come/Need not be the only way.” Today’s Arkestra, led by saxophonist Marshall Allen, regains the song without words, as a relaxed bolero with saxophones or wordless voices carrying the concise melody over Afro-Caribbean percussion. They are sometimes joined by Farid Barron’s brightly dissonant piano, by brass interjections, by flute trills and by undulating stringed instruments, each making its own contribution until, like a caravan at sunset, the tune settles down. PARELES

Julianna Riolino, ‘You’

“You,” from Canadian singer-songwriter Julianna Riolino’s forthcoming debut album, “All Blue,” is a twangy, deliriously infectious explosion of power pop. Riolino’s impassioned delivery and boat-pounding energy will appeal to fans of the more upbeat songs on Angel Olsen’s “My Woman,” but Riolino also mixes the sounds of vintage country and jangly garage rock in a way unique to herself. “Everyone is fine until they drown in someone,” Riolino sings on this ode to devotion, with the intensity of someone sustaining a precious life. ZOLADZ

Formed in Austin and now based in Atlanta, indie rock band Mamalarky celebrates a deep, joyful friendship in “Mythical Bonds,” the lead single from a September album, “Pocket Fantasy.” With a teasing smile in her voice, guitarist Livvy Benneett sings: “I don’t care what I do so long as I do it with you.” The complications – and there are plenty – are in the music: stop-start meter changes, quirky chords, knotty counterpoint, all wrapped up in two playful minutes. Mamalarky makes math rock sound fun. PARELES

Blondshell, ‘Kiss City’

“Mama, I’m adjoining a lot of love,” sings Los Angeles singer-songwriter Sabrina Teitelbaum, in one of many quotes from her second single as Blondshell. (Also, “I think my nod is when you tell me you like me.”) During the first half of “Kiss City,” Teitelbaum delivers these lines in an arc, somewhat self-deprecating, accompanied by an understated arrangement of piano and guitar. But halfway through, “Kiss City” rips open and becomes a towering rock song, giving Teitelbaum space to scream those same lines with all her heart, as if she’s suddenly in a dream, confessing the kind of things she’d done. being afraid to give in in waking life. ZOLADZ

Kelsey Waldron, ‘Simple as Love’

Sometimes, amazingly, romances really work. With a pedal steel guitar sighing affirmations behind her, clear-spoken country singer Kelsey Waldron rolls out images and similes – “like a monarch on a mimosa tree,” “simple as a cotton dress,” “patience as the moon” — to marvel at. a reliable, nurturing love: no drama, just comfort and gratitude. PARELES

Recorded in Montell Fish’s bedroom in Brooklyn, “Darling” – from his new album “Jamie” – is a love song imbued with vulnerability, performed like a serene undulating waltz. “Have you fallen out of love, my love?” he wonders in an otherworldly falsetto voice, over acoustic guitar picks and low-fi string squeaks. A big, bedroom-grunge chorus sounds as he pleads, “Please, don’t run,” but the beat drops and ghostly piano chords are his only accompaniment as he puts himself down, “I’ll let you go at last,” he decides. PARELES

Object, ‘Bad Apples’

TJ Hertz, the electronic musician who records as Objekt, uses the proudly unnatural tones of techno to generate constantly rising tension in ‘Bad Apples’. He undermines the methodical predictability of most dance music. Even if the beat remains square and danceable, sounds and silences keep coming, growing, suddenly disappearing or breaking themselves. Humming, chimes, nagging noses, deep bass-cross rhythms, shuffling and crackling, beeps turning into swarms: in the next two bars, anything can appear, from any direction. PARELES