What’s New
Tyla: ‘Is It Love’
On her new single, the South African hitmaker Tyla asks, “Is it love if you don’t cry, cry, cry?” Her answer is no: She wants to “see tears in those eyes.” Her voice is set to a track that starts out as something like rock, with lead-guitar licks and power chords, then turns into something more electronic with programmed beats and little synthesizer licks. Throughout, it leaves plenty of silence around her demands while she toggles between flirty and commanding.
Listen on Spotify, Apple Music or YouTube
FKA twigs featuring Lil Yachty: ‘On Your Mind’
FKA twigs asks: “Why won’t you stop dancing? Is there’s something on your mind?” The booming, pounding electro beat probably has something to do with that. While Lil Yachty’s interludes detail his struggles, Twigs just keeps moving through any misgivings.
Listen on Spotify, Apple Music or YouTube
Allison Russell featuring Brittney Spencer: ‘Black Lavender’
“Black Lavender,” Allison Russell’s single timed for Juneteeth, is a duet of comfort, affirmation, praise and solace. Harmonizing with Brittney Spencer, she sings, “You don’t know how beautiful you are,” over a rolling, gospel-tinged piano vamp. The song recognizes opposition and the need to stay defensive, but it’s determinedly optimistic. Russell promises, “Slings and arrows, they can’t touch you.”
Listen on Spotify, Apple Music or YouTube
The War and Treaty featuring Valerie June and Wynonna: ‘Reclaim All of Your Time’
The War and Treaty — the husband-and-wife duo Michael Trotter Jr. and Tanya Trotter — are dedicated to classic Southern soul, which merges the twang and storytelling of country with the dynamics and fervor of gospel. “Reclaim All of Your Time” is from the duo’s new album, “The Story of Michael and Tanya,” but with any luck it’s fictional. A country waltz carries advice for ditching a useless, straying husband — and taking his car and credit cards — shared with the gutsy, raspy sisterhood of Wynonna (Judd) and Valerie June.
Listen on Spotify, Apple Music or YouTube
Midori Jaeger: ‘Planted’
Midori Jaeger, a cellist and songwriter from Japan who studied at the Royal Academy of Music and is now based in London, often builds her songs atop pizzicato cello parts that sketch harmony, counterpoint and shifting meters as they hop around her voice. “Planted” follows an EP she released in March, “(Un)planted,” and it glancingly addresses a failed relationship: “Like a withered branch you were planted here/Too late or too soon.” The spartan production — cellos, drums, vocals — gives her the space she’s claiming.
Listen on Spotify, Apple Music or YouTube
daine: ‘PQC’
The Filipino-Australian songwriter daine (Daine Lauren Wright) has been putting out singles, EPs and mixtapes since 2020 and has collaborated with electronics-wielding genre-twisters like Ninajirachi and Underscores. “PQC” previews daine’s official debut album with a song about a lingering, misplaced attachment: “I’m over-reactive, overly romantic/’Cause I’m wrapped in the passion, can’t seem to let it go,” daine sings, adding some perky, “oh-whoa-oh-ohs.” Yet what could have been clear, upbeat power pop arrives with sonic complications instead. Blotchy distortion, faraway piano loops and hyperpop vocal stutters wreck any pretense of nonchalance.
Listen on Spotify, Apple Music or YouTube
Jordan Patterson: ‘Cinderella’
Romance tangles with second-guessing in “Cinderella” from Jordan Patterson’s new EP, “Songs From a Valley Girl.” Her tremulous voice conveys all the anticipation and uncertainty of a new liaison. “I’m feeling strange today, but I think I like it,” she realizes, in a song that begins with her waltzing acoustic guitar and layers on instruments and vocals that echo her contending doubts and hopes.
Listen on Spotify, Apple Music or YouTube
Yendry: ‘Mala Mia’
Yendry apologizes, tearfully and sincerely, for leaving someone behind in “Mala Mia” (“My Bad”). She knows they’ve been close and they’ve told each other everything; she knows it’s “a goodbye like a stab in the back.” But she’s not in love, and she “didn’t promise you anything.” Yendry, who is Dominican, delivers her regrets in a retro, string-laden bolero with a few contemporary touches: bongos that hint at bachata and a multitracked a cappella interlude. But the heartache is timeless.
Listen on Spotify, Apple Music or YouTube
What’s New on the Charts
Steve Lacy: ‘The Feeling’
In 2022, Steve Lacy had a No. 1 hit with “Bad Habit,” a bleary mixture of mid-tempo rock and R&B that wallowed in regret and insecurity. Four years later, he has previewed an album due July 17, “Oh Yeah?,” with “The Feeling,” another mid-tempo testament to confused, frustrated longing that has arrived in the Hot 100 at No. 75. “There’s one I thing don’t know/am I your baby?,” Lacy asks, in harmonies that hint at the Beach Boys or Animal Collective. This time he’s singing to someone he was close to, veering between impatience and desperation. Is he reconciling, or stalking?
Listen on Spotify, Apple Music or YouTube
What’s New in Instrumental Music
Sir Richard Bishop: ‘Back Forty Lashes’
The virtuoso guitarist who dubbed himself Sir Richard Bishop has played in assorted lineups and genres since the 1980s, delving into surf-rock, noise, jazz, Asian music, electronics and more. But his new single, like much of his recent work, is an acoustic guitar solo. “Back Forty Lashes” is a quick-strummed, rhythmically insistent drone piece with bits of modal melody that hint at both raga and Appalachian dulcimer music. It’s folky, but agitated.
Listen on Spotify, Apple Music or YouTube
Daniel Lanois: ‘Marionette’
Every so often, the producer Daniel Lanois (U2, Bob Dylan, Willie Nelson, Peter Gabriel) releases an album of his own instrumentals, revealing the ear for spaciousness, surreal resonances and natural melody that he brings out in his collaborators. His new album, “Belladonna Nocturne,” includes “Marionette,” a ghostly waltz with pedal steel guitar lines that hover atop patient but restless percussion.
Listen on Spotify or Apple Music
The post 11 Songs We’re Talking About This Week appeared first on New York Times.
