What’s New
Stevie Wonder, ‘It’s Easier’
Stevie Wonder released “Songs in the Key of Life” on Sept. 28, 1976. It was an affirmation of joy, conscience and connection, and a vinyl deluge: 21 songs across two LPs and an EP. Still, there were outtakes: four songs now released as “Songs in the Key of Life — the EP.” They’re joyous, physical and harmonically convoluted; perhaps Wonder thought they were too similar to his other songs. The highlight is the upbeat “It’s Easier.” A heartbroken narrator visits a “love physician” who advises him to say “love bye-bye” when he wants to cry. As the band turns one of Wonder’s ever-climbing chord progressions into a frisky funk jam, his vocals cut loose more with every chorus. In five minutes, the heartache is gone.
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Jae Stephens, ‘Expensive & Difficult’
Jae Stephens isn’t just arrogant as she boasts that she’s “Expensive & Difficult,” from her debut album, “Audacity.” She’s also utterly blasé about it. “My tone abrasive, so persuasive / Turns you on even though you hate it,” she notes. The track struts through self-satisfied verses, airy choruses and nonchalant raps with some hints of Bollywood; it’s sleek and unflappable.
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Mei Semones, ‘Howl’
Mei Semones continues to twist together bossa nova, indie-rock, string arrangements and bilingual (English and Japanese) lyrics in “Howl,” the light-fingered title track of an album due in January. “Howl” presents an obsession as a deliberate escape from introspection. “I know you’ll never be mine,” she sings, and adds, “I’d rather chase till I die and so / I’ll never have to learn to be still.” She’s choosing to stay frustrated.
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Wynonna featuring the War and Treaty, ‘The Hopeful Lie’
Wynonna Judd’s new album, “The Hard Truth,” stonily reconsiders a troubled life as a performer, daughter and parent. “The Hopeful Lie” rides a jaunty, mandolin-topped backbeat, but the lyrics are grim: A mother sings to her child, an addict who’s beyond help. “I would drag you out of hell if I could / But I don’t have the power,” she sings, knowing she’ll try again.
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Anna Domino, ‘Happy to Go’
Clacking typewriter keys tap syncopations on “Happy to Go,” a relic of 1980s downtown New York minimalism. It’s from an expanded reissue of Anna Domino’s 1984 debut EP, “East and West,” arriving in December. “Happy to Go,” previously unreleased, assembles little motifs on analog synthesizers and guitar — methodical and a little blurry — behind Domino’s deadpan, rhyming R.S.V.P.: “I’d be happy to go / It’s far, you know.”
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Meshell Ndegeocello with Willow, ‘Hunger Strike’
Meshell Ndegeocello and many guests transform other people’s songs on her new album, “Synonym.” Most were hit pop love songs, but “Hunger Strike” revives a 1991 Seattle grunge curio from the only album by Temple of the Dog. Chris Cornell of Soundgarden wrote it and was backed by musicians who would become Pearl Jam; the track was Eddie Vedder’s recording debut. Ndegeocello replaces guitar picking and power chords with tolling, otherworldly sustained tones and wordless vocals; Willow wails “I’m going hungry!” And percussion comes clattering in like an underclass uprising.
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Mogwai featuring Iggy Pop, ‘Underground’
The Scottish band Mogwai has been making dramatic, largely instrumental rock for three decades. It welcomed guest vocals from an idol, Iggy Pop. At 79, he’s still a troublemaker. “Underground” revisits proto-punk with a drone-y track that suggests an electronically enhanced Stooges rocker. Pop intones, incontestably, “Underground, you’re my home.” He’s been doing assorted guest vocals lately; “Got a job,” he boasts in “Underground.” He makes each job count.
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What’s New in Instrumental Music
John Leventhal, ‘When I Walked to the River’
“National Drift” is an instrumental album by John Leventhal, a producer, songwriter and studio musician with Rosanne Cash (his wife), Shawn Colvin, Sarah Jarosz and many others. It’s a working musician’s sketchbook of improvisations, with pensive guitar solos alongside a few tracks as a one-man studio band. Leventhal communes with his instruments, letting melodies speak plainly rather than showing off. “When I Walked to the River” is a band track, an unhurried shuffle that ambles through loosely connected tunes, sharing a mood while changing keys.
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What’s New on the Charts
bôa, ‘Duvet’
Sampling and TikTok have repeatedly revived “Duvet,” a 1998 single from the British band bôa, which reunited in 2023 to grab its second chance. Now the song is No. 93 on the Billboard Hot 100. “You don’t seem to understand / A shame, you seemed an honest man,” Jasmine Rodgers sings, a vulnerable voice over a taut rhythm section. (She’s the daughter of Paul Rodgers, the singer in Bad Company and Free.) The song’s desperate emotion — “I am falling, I am failing, I am drowning” — waited decades for its destined audience.
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The post Stevie Wonder’s Outtake and 8 More Songs We’re Talking About appeared first on New York Times.
