Matty Healy, the proudly enigmatic singer-songwriter of 1975, leads his group into chamber pop with “Part of the Band,” the first track from an October album, “Being Funny in a Foreign Language.” He sings about ‘cringe and heroin’, about a ‘vaccine tote-bag chic barista’ and about literary-oriented homosexual liaisons – ‘I was Rimbaud and he was Paul Verlaine’. He also asks, “I’m ironically awake?” The production wanders from a chugging string ensemble to fingerpicked folk rock to saxophone choir, and they all mingle towards the end. It’s pandemic confusion, self-examination and boredom, with melodies all over. JON PARELES
Alvvays, ‘Pharmacist’
A clear, everyday confession – “I know you’re back, I saw your sister at the pharmacy” – kicks off Canadian dream pop band Alvvays’ latest single; as soon as singer Molly Rankin sings that line, the song suddenly changes into a fantasy of melancholic melody and howling guitars. Hints of My Bloody Valentine and Japanese Breakfast linger in the hazy atmosphere, but Rankin’s bittersweet delivery gives “Pharmacist,” the opening track of upcoming album “Blue Rev,” a distinct emotional undercurrent, like a rousing dream that ends a little too early. . LINDSAY ZOLADZ
Julien Baker, ‘Guthrie’
“Guthrie” is a quietly poignant postscript to Julien Baker’s 2021 album “Little Oblivions” from a collection, “B-Sides,” due out later this month. Like “Little Oblivions,” the song confronts what it’s like to be an addict: “Whatever I get, I always need a little bit more,” she sings. But while Baker overdubbed herself in a rock band in “Little Oblivions,” she’s solo in “Guthrie,” choosing a soothing waltz on her guitar as she rips into her own shortcomings. The song is a crisis of conscience and faith, with a voice humbled by self-knowledge. “I wanted so badly to be good,” she offers, “but there’s no such thing.” PARELES
King Princess, ‘Change the Locks’
“A year without divorce may have broken us, baby,” sings King Princess in “Change the Locks,” a song about how pandemic closeness — and friction — can destroy a relationship. It’s three-chord folk rock that explodes into hard rock when King Princess (Brooklyn songwriter Mikaela Strauss) realizes how bad it’s gotten. She wants to hold; she knows she can’t. PARELES
British R&B is years or sometimes decades behind American innovations. The vocal trio Flo catches up on what American acts like Destiny’s Child accomplished in the 1990s: evoking masculine assumptions while mastering recording techniques and using voices, instruments and machines to hone their message of self-determination. The way Flo juggles individual voices and two- or three-part harmonies, flirtation and fury, harks back to Destiny’s Child, but unerringly: “Why do you have to be so immature,” they sing, adding, “Tell me how I can relate / if you do not communicate?” Even before a crying baby monster slides into the mix, it’s easy to know who’s wrong.
Ghetto Kumbé, ‘Pila Pila (Trooko Remix)’
Ghetto Kumbé is a group from Bogotá that amplifies Afro-Colombian drums and socially conscious lyrics with electronics; it released a powerful self-titled debut album in 2020 and is open for Radiohead. The group handed tracks from their album to various producers for “Ghetto Kumbé Clubbing Remixes,” an album due out in November. A muscular tribute to the power of drums, Pila Pila was reworked by Grammy-winning Honduran producer Trooko (who collaborated on “Residente” and “The Hamilton Mixtape”). He ramped it up even further, switching the meter from 6/4 to 4/4, moving the mesmerizing lead vocal to the beginning of the song and constantly bringing in a hopping salsa bassline, electronic hoots, jazzy piano and jittery drum machines, constantly raging ahead. PARELES
Killer Mike with Young Thug, ‘Run’
A verse from a still-imprisoned Young Thug only adds to the urgency of “Run,” Killer Mike’s first new song as a solo artist since his vital 2012 album “RAP Music.” On four prolific albums with Run the Jewels, it’s become commonplace to hear Mike rapping over El-P’s kinetic, collage-like beats, but it’s refreshing to hear him reconnect here with veteran No ID, whose understated production Killer Mike enables it to tap in a smoother flow. “The race to freedom hasn’t been won,” he raps in the chorus, offering a welcome counterprogramming to your standard Independence Day jingoism. ZOLADZ
Domi & JD Beck (with Anderson .Paak), ‘Take a Chance’
Jazz is perhaps one of the few spaces where the term ‘Internet star’ still means something. Domi & JD Beck are Exhibit A, a duo of virtuoso post-jazz Zoomers who seem to have jumped out of a cartoon, and whose wow factor is fit for the small screen: a blonde keyboardist rips out solos while a petite drummer hyper-restrained, hyperactive beats. References to jazz history are piped into the aesthetic of an accelerated TV jingle. Domi and Beck have found a champion in Anderson .Paak, and their debut album, “Not Tight”, is being released jointly by his new label and Blue Note Records. Reminiscent of lounge, 70s fusion, trip hop and breakbeat, this LP offers the non-stop dopamine drip of a doom scroll, and it’s heavy on star characteristics: Thundercat, Snoop Dogg and Mac DeMarco all pull up . “Take a Chance” is their moment with Paak, and if his heartfelt, knocked-down promises of dedication don’t exactly match the song’s feel-good vibes and geometric-sounding pophook Domi and Beck sing, you’ll be hard pressed to beat them. to keep. GIOVANNI RUSSONELLO
Tyshawn Sorey Trio, ‘Enchantment’
Tyshawn Sorey, a multi-instrumentalist, composer, University of Pennsylvania professor and MacArthur genius, is likely to write suite-length experimental works, or serve as composer-in-residence with an opera company, or devise new systems for groups. improvisation. It’s been a long time since anyone really thought of him as ‘just’ a jazz drummer. So, for Sorey, recording an album of standards with a piano trio is qualifying as a crooked ball. Of course he has a great fondness for throwing turns. Sorey recently teamed up with pianist Aaron Diehl, one of the traditional jazz performers, and versatile bassist Matt Brewer to record “Mesmerism,” an album of jazz classics and lesser-known pieces from the canon. Horace Silver’s “Enchantment” is usually played as a tight rhythmic samba, but the trio adapts it afterwards, with Diehl putting the luscious precision of his harmonies to work on a loose, shuffling beat from Sorey. RUSSELLO