Rina Sawayama turns damnation into a dance party and 15 more songs

Once the pop maximalist, Rina Sawayama’s first single from her upcoming album, “Hold the Girl,” has it all: a fiery chorus, cheeky humor, diabolical puns for days, and even a wonderfully cheap hair-metal guitar solo. “This hell is better with you, we burn up together / Baby that makes two,” she sings on the towering hook, making eternal damnation sound like an exclusive VIP party. Both the glammy intensity and the ‘be-yourself’ messages feel like a throwback to Lady Gaga from the ‘Born This Way’ era, but it’s all remixed by Rina’s signature, neo-Y2K pop sensibility. LINDSAY ZOLADZ

If Californian singer-songwriter mxmtoon has a mission, it’s like catchy, smiley self-help. “Frown” is off her new album “Rising”, and it presents itself as an antidote to “being stuck in a loop while contemplating all our pain”. She collects four-chord pop optimism, multi-track vocals and a pop-reggae backbeat to insist: “It’s okay to frown/smile upside down.” JON PARELES

Diana Ross and Tame Impala, ‘Turn Up the Sunshine’

Nothing screams “Minions” like a collaboration between… Tame Impala and Diana Ross? Yet their styles go together surprisingly well on ‘Turn Up the Sunshine’, the lead single from the Jack Antonoff-produced soundtrack for the animated summer film ‘Minions: The Rise of Gru’. (Yes, the man is so ubiquitous, he even produces for the Minions now.) A sleek, seamless, and lovingly evoked disco throwback, “Turn Up the Sunshine,” gives Kevin Parker a chance to go completely retro in his arrangement, saving Ross plenty of room for ecstatic vocals and some groovy spoken word vamping. ZOLADZ

Carrie Underwood, ‘She Doesn’t Know’

Infidelity gets a fierce retaliation in “She Don’t Know,” a clever country revenge song by Carrie Underwood and her collaborators, David Garcia and Hillary Lindsay. A foot tapping beat and country instruments like mandolin and fidel hair as she sings, with the vengeful glee of someone escaping a very bad situation: “What she doesn’t know is she can have it.” PARELES

A good dream pop song sparkles, like sunlight breaking through water. On the stunning ‘Conchitas’ from Katzù Oso’s debut album, ‘Tmí’, Los Angeles-based artist Paul Hernandez is bathed in 90s nostalgia, immersing in shimmering synths, buzzing guitar riffs and a husky falsetto voice. The result taps into the most tender, romantic qualities of Cocteau Twins, but Hernandez also shines the track in its own special sheen: much of “Tmí” is written in Boyle Heights, and as sweet as the pan dulce treats of its namesake, “Conchitas” embraces the spirit of that neighborhood and pours it into the soundtrack for a sweet, heartbreak daydream. ISABELIA HERRERA

Sudan Archive, ‘Egoistic Soul’

It may not seem like the mischievous charm of a playground rhyme and a jagged violin hook would blend seamlessly, but Sudan Archives has always taken risks. On her new single “Selfish Soul,” the artist-born Brittney Parks reprises her irreverent boho whimsy, coinciding reverberated vocals, a rapped verse and wild imagery with a razor-sharp message: a promise to love and embrace every kind of black hair texture. “If I wear it straight, will they like me more? / Like those girls on the front covers,” Parks sings. The video also exudes euphoria; Parks climbs a chrome stripper pole, plays the violin upside down and twerks with her friends in a mud puddle. What have you ever done? HERRERA

Metric, ‘Doom Scroller’

Over 10 minutes long, Metric’s “Doomscroller” is a mini-suite that moves from electronic dystopia to a plea for empathy to an offering of reassurance backed by physical instruments. The dystopia is compelling: a tireless mechanical thump and throbbing, fluttering tones—racing like a gathering troll mob—behind Emily Haines’ calmly biting observations about internet rabbit holes and deep-seated inequality. “The salt of the earth has paid too little to serve you,” she observes, and “The scum of the earth has paid too much to rob you.” The reassurance, though it builds to a full rock band march, is shaky; when the song ends, electronic blips reappear. PARELES

Sylvan Esso celebrates self-indulgence and laments its aftermath in “Sunburn”: “Sunburn blistering, the heat beneath your skin,” sings Amelia Meath. “Oh, but it felt so good.” The electronic backup is resilient and pointillistic – almost all staccato single notes, rarely a chord – and interrupted by the happiest samples: a bicycle bell. PARELES

Burna Boy, ‘Last Last’

Burna Boy juggles heartbreak, accusations, self-medication and memories of his success in “Last Last,” a post-breakup song about a rollercoaster of feelings: “I’ve put my life into my job and I know I’m in trouble/ She manipulates my love,” he grumbles. “Why you say I’ve done nothing for you / When I do everything you want me to do.” The video shows him surrounded by friends, possessions and awards, smoking and drinking. The title of the sample that gives the nervous plucked rhythm and vocal hook suggests a completely different scenario: it’s from Toni Braxton’s 2009 single “He Wasn’t Man Enough”. PARELES

Meridian Brothers & El Grupo Renacimiento, ‘Metamorphosis’

Meridian Brothers, a high concept Colombian band formed in 1998 by Eblis Álvarez, likes to twist the roots of salsa and other Latin American styles and change them over time. “Metamorfosis” — from an album out on August 5 — borrows Kafka’s title from a song about a man who wakes up and turns into a robot, faced with a futuristic world of drones and screens; he summons Yoruba gods to fight transhumanism. Mixing hearty guaracha and montuno rhythms with bursts of psychedelic reverb and jazzy piano, it’s a percussive romp. PARELES

The Garifuna people, an Afro-Caribbean culture that has preserved its own language and traditions, mainly in Belize and Honduras, are descendants of indigenous Arawaks and of West Africans who survived a 17th-century shipwreck to escape slavery. Founded by Andy Palacio, the Garifuna Collective has revived and updated old Garifuna songs and “Watina” (“I Called Out”) was the title track of the 2007 album. This remake adds a horn section – making the arrangement a gets a little closer to ska – and has lead vocals from Trinidadian icon Calypso Rose, 82, who has been an honorary citizen of Belize since 1982, along with stinging guitar from Carlos Santana and some lyrics translated into English: “Lord, please help me, even if I’m alone.” PARELES

Oneida, ‘I want to hold your electric hand’

The Brooklyn long-running band Oneida likes repetition, layering and noise, and the catalog contains many artful, elaborate structures. But ‘I Wanna Hold Your Electric Hand’, a preview of an album due out in August, is reminiscent of basic punk rock tracks like ‘Roadrunner’ by the Modern Lovers. It uses just two chords, almost all the way through (with one more before a bridge), a raging beat, and succinct lyrics: “So sure of ourself/Who needs a plan?” But those two chords support a mishmash of guitar parts and drum bursts that only get more euphoric. PARELES

FKJ with Toro y Moi, ‘A Moment of Mystery’

Vincent Fenton, the French producer who calls himself FKJ (for French Kiwi Juice), collaborated with Chaz Bundick, who records as Toro y Moi, and Toro’s keyboardist, Anthony Ferraro, on a track from FKJ’s album due out in June, “Vincent It’s three minutes of lush, wistful uncertainty: serene hazy vocals, soaring keyboard tones, ambiguous chords that remain unsolved. “I like drama because I never know what the ending will be,” Bundick sings, fitting the music.

“Our bodies are music/You can’t play/Music/Without the body/Dance.” 91-year-old dancer and choreographer Carmen de Lavallade, a former star of Alvin Ailey, opens Esperanza Spalding’s latest with those lines of poetry; over the next 13 minutes she brings them to life. She slides and tilts across the floor of an open studio, surrounded by four dancers and four musicians – including Spalding, who uses her double bass and a calm, cooing voice to coax and sustain the Lavallade. At the beginning of the performance, De Lavallade sits down next to her and puts one ear and one hand on the bass while Spalding plays. As the piece progresses, the band’s lavish bloom and pointillism are evident in response to the dancers, just as their steps respond to the music. Usually everyone is focused on the guidance and unhurried elegance of the Lavallade. The audio of this piece is a bonus track on the newly released vinyl version of Spalding’s ‘Songwrights Apothecary Lab’. GIOVANNI RUSSONELLO

Shabaka, ‘Discover the inner space’

Shabaka Hutchings begins this song improvising on a lonely wooden flute, against a background of silence. Soon, analog synthesizers and loops gather around him, and an electric guitar adds dewy, flickering strums. The music never quite rises, but the mysterious serenity may invite you to take on the song’s title. The tune comes from ‘Afrikan Culture’, the first solo EP released by this famous saxophonist from the UK, who just started performing under the name Shabaka. RUSSELLO

Mary Lattimore and Paul Sukeena, ‘Hundred Dollar Hoagie’

Harpist Mary Lattimore and guitarist Paul Sukeena, two experimental musicians and expats from the Philly area who occasionally collaborate, have teamed up to release the rousing ambient album ‘West Kensington’, due out Friday on the indie label. Three Lobed recordings. The opener “Hundred Dollar Hoagie” humbly announces itself, with its playful title nodding to the greatest regional slang word of all time for a submarine sandwich, not quite preparing you for the seven and a half minutes of otherworldly sublimity it contains. Lattimore’s synth chords and Sukeena’s warping, howling guitar lines combine to create an almost lunar soundscape, pleasantly reminiscent of Brian Eno’s awe-inspiring 1983 masterpiece “Apollo: Atmospheres and Soundtracks”. ZOLADZ