“Every day I try not to hate myself,” pop crooner Sam Smith sings on a new single, “but lately it doesn’t hurt like it did before.” “Love Me More” is a simple yet moving ode to self-acceptance, and Smith delivers it with an airy lightness that brings the message home convincingly. The arrangement keeps it lighthearted and understated so that even when a chorus of backing vocalists enter the middle, the effect isn’t mournful or heavy-handed. The song, like Smith, continues to move forward with a confident spring in its step. LINDSAY ZOLADZ
Regina Spektor, ‘Up the Mountain’
Regina Spektor follows an ecological treasure hunt – from ocean to mountain to forest to garden to flower to nectar – in ‘Up the Mountain’, in search of an answer in the taste of that nectar. It’s mystical and earthy, moving from twirling piano to unrelenting beat, with strings and horns rising behind her; whether she finds her answer or not, she has thrown everything into the quest. JON PARELES
Wilco, ‘Falling Apart (Right Now)’
Wilco goes to the country – or maybe it just goes back. Jeff Tweedy has always had a complicated relationship with the genre: his work with Uncle Tupelo and the early Wilco records certainly flirted with it, but they also had the kind of punky grit that generally earned them the “alt” prefix. However, there’s a heartfelt sincerity in “Falling Apart (Right Now),” which makes the lead single off the band’s upcoming “Cruel Country” feel like new territory for a group that’s 12 records and three decades in the making. “Honey, being blue, when it comes to me and you,” Tweedy sings, “it’s always on the menu.” His delivery has a playful, twangy warmth, but what really sells the song and its country bona fides is Nels Cline’s nimble steel guitar playing. ZOLADZ
Marshmello and Tokischa, ‘Estilazo’
Many artists in the Latin music industry have been dabbling with electronic textures over the past year. But Dominican dembow rebel Tokischa has never been one to conform, so don’t consider her new collaboration with EDM producer Marshmello trend-hopping. “Estilazo” is pure Toki: raunchy lyrics, coy moans and unabashedly queer aesthetic. “Larga vida homosexual,” she says on the track – long live the gays. The video is also a delightfully playful romp: Dennis Rodman, Nikita Dragun and La Demi lead a drag competition, while dancers walk the catwalk in vogue. RuPaul is shaking in his boots and I’ll be screaming “ser perra está de moda” (“being a bad bitch is trendy”) all summer in the club. ISABELIA HERERA
I Am, ‘All-Knowing (Mycelium)’
I Am is a duo: Isaiah Collier on saxophone and Michael Shekwoaga Ode on drums. “Omniscient (Mycelium)” has a basic structure – a 4/4 beat and a mode – that gives them plenty of room to improvise and embellish. Collier regularly touches two low notes before trampolining in top-level acrobatics; the drumming becomes more and more hyperactive to suit him, and the song fades before they reach a climax. PARELES
Adrian Quesada with Gabriel Garzon-Montano, ‘El Paraguas’
It’s hard to recreate the magic of a balada, a song of desire popular in the 1970s that defined a generation in Latin America. Black Pumas guitarist and producer Adrián Quesada manages to harness the power of the genre on an upcoming album called “Boleros Psicodelicos”. “El Paraguas,” featuring Colombian artist Gabriel Garzón-Montano, exemplifies the record’s raw, full-blown vocal drama; Montano unleashes a torrent of verve and fear that slides over the dizzying production. A vintage organ helps evoke a staggered, nostalgic haze. HERRERA
Flora Purim, ‘500 Miles High’
Brazilian singer Flora Purim has never sung like a jazz crooner, nor like your average bossa nova whisperer. When she came on the scene in the 1970s, she had something unique: an ingenious, gossamer voice that became instantly recognizable and fit perfectly into the rapidly opening landscape of jazz fusion. On her latest album, “If You Will,” Purim pays tribute to Chick Corea, whose Return to Forever was her first major performance; the pianist died last year. Here she presents a version of ‘500 Miles High’, their most famous collaboration from the Return to Forever years. She sounds remarkably undiminished at age 80 as her band takes an energetic run through the tune, propelled by Endrigo Bettega’s hot-footed drumming. GIOVANNI RUSSONELLO
Maria de Fatima, ‘Voce’
Maria de Fátima, from Rio de Janeiro, has spent much of her career singing backup for leading Brazilian songwriters and singers: Milton Nascimento, Gilberto Gil, Chico Buarque, Flora Purim. But in 1981, when she was living in Uruguay – it’s a long story – she jumped at her chance to record a solo album, ‘Bahia Com H’, which is being re-released today. The album mixed her Brazilian spirit with her Uruguayan backup; she sang acclaimed Brazilian songs alongside her own, including “Vocé,” which unites lovers like the sun and the moon. Synchronized acoustic guitars and hand percussion in an odd beat — — carry her through a melody that skips around and lands on expressive dissonances; imagine if Joni Mitchell was born in Brazil. PARELES
Miles Okazaki, ‘In a Distant Place’
Guitarist Miles Okazaki and his longstanding quartet Trickster have never sounded so limitless as on their latest album ‘Thisness’. Trickster’s normal hallmarks are its elaborately stitched, skewed grooves and its affinity for evasive deception, echoing Okazaki’s solid one-note playing. But that’s all here immersed in a mix of drummed acoustic guitar, shaky bass from Anthony Tidd and distant sonic elements that rise and fall (you can hear voices lurking behind the instrumentals, but only faintly, and only for brief moments ). At first, it recalls the aesthetic of ECM albums from the 1970s by Eberhard Weber, Gary Burton and Ralph Towner. Towards the end, there’s something closer to Trickster’s usual brand of hazy kinetics, but the newfound sense of mystery hasn’t been taken away. RUSSELLO
Giveon, ‘Ly Again’
Giveon’s voice soars into a jealous limbo in “Lie Again,” a new take on the age-old lover’s fate of trying and failing not to think about a partner’s past. “Lie so sweetly until I believe/I’ve been alone to touch you,” he begs painful tenderness. The track smoothly continues on a vintage soul chord progression, but the production conjures up ghostly voices and surreptitious instruments, like all the facts the singer wishes to avoid. PARELES
Sky Blue, ‘Runaway’
Emerging from marital and legal entanglements with her first album in six years – untitled as a statement of sincerity – Skylar Gray whispers of despair for a second chance in “Runaway”. She is barely accompanied as she sings “I need a place where I can be alone”; strings rock her as she hopes to “start the whole thing over.” The music builds patiently as she hopes for the best. PARELES