What’s New
Dove Cameron, ‘Breaks Open’
Retro melodrama rises around Dove Cameron in “Breaks Open” from her new album, “Final Girl.” Cameron — an actress and singer who, like Olivia Rodrigo, got her start on the Disney Channel — vows to survive repeated heartbreak. Amid a crescendo of strings, reverb-laden guitar, chimes and choir, her vibrato is equal parts tearful and adamant.
Listen on Spotify, Apple Music or YouTube
Rex Orange County featuring Daniel Caesar, ‘Indecision’
Echoes of the Beach Boys and the Beatles suffuse “Indecision,” the latest ballad about precarious romance from the songwriter Alex O’Connor, who records as Rex Orange County. It’s from his new album, “Dream Fatigue.” Joined by Daniel Caesar, he starts out wondering, “Is it getting to that time for me to go?” Then he realizes the decision isn’t his: “Soon as I leave, you’ll run off to be with him,” he sings, cradled by bittersweet strings.
Listen on Spotify, Apple Music or YouTube
Hannah Jadagu, ‘Curse’
Hannah Jadagu sings about the thrill and trepidation of seeking emotional intimacy in a new single, “Curse.” A laconic bass line opens depths below her voice; sustained synthesizer and guitar tones open up airspace. In between, she’s ready to take her chances, singing, “I want to know where it hurts / I want to know what it costs.”
Listen on Spotify, Apple Music or YouTube
Shygirl, ‘Mantra’
The British singer, songwriter producer and D.J. Shygirl powers a mission statement with speedy break-beats in “Mantra” from her new album, “Swallow!” She insists, “You can’t tell me what to do / how to live, nothing to lose,” joined by buzzing, pulsing synthesizers to help her “rise and rise and rise and rise and rise.”
Listen on Spotify, Apple Music or YouTube
Twisted Teens, ‘When We First Met’
The New Orleans rock band Twisted Teens delivers overdriven, raw-throated garage rock, topped by wriggling steel-guitar lines. “When We First Met” is from “The Holy Cross Tigers,” the band’s fourth album and its third this year. It’s a hopped-up recounting of ecstatic early romance — when “We used to do everything we could think of together” — that’s now just a drunken memory.
Listen on Spotify, Apple Music or YouTube
Mamalarky, ‘Sad Songs’
Mamalarky, a band from Austin, intertwines pop and prog, playful and dark. “Sad Songs,” from an album due in February, lilts along, with a triplet rhythm and sliding guitar motifs. But the band’s guitarist, Livvy Bennett, matter-of-factly reveals depression and alienation: “I forgot how to love, I forgot how to trust,” she sings. “I forgot how it feels when you want me around.” The music is transparent; so is the tension.
Listen on Spotify, Apple Music or YouTube
Computerwife, ‘Hammered’
Addie Warncke, who records as Computerwife, confronts pretenders and poseurs in “Hammered” from her new album, “Born From a Wish.” She taunts, “Don’t work if you’re doing it on purpose / know who you are.” In just two minutes, the song piles up grungy guitars and careens through key changes and tempo shifts, while her irritation mounts.
Listen on Spotify, Apple Music or YouTube
Yaeji, ‘ddr’
The producer Yaeji name-checks the vintage video game Dance Dance Revolution with her new single, “ddr.” She chants and sings about liberation through rhythm and motion — “trying to breathe, trying to dance it all away” — in a track that’s nearly all crisp electronic percussion and bass, thumping and ratcheting and skittering without ever locking into a predictable pattern.
Listen on Spotify, Apple Music or YouTube
Dexter Story featuring Sudan Archives and Kamasi Washington, ‘Mama’
The Los Angeles R&B songwriter Dexter Story has long been drawn to the music of East Africa: Ethiopia, Somalia, Sudan. He collaborates with the violinist and singer Sudan Archives in “Mama” from his new album, “T’som,” which is named after a period of ritual fasting. The track uses an ancient-sounding pentatonic fiddle tune; it also has synthesizer pulses and a chromatic Kamasi Washington saxophone solo that pushes into the coda, dovetailing the ancestral and the new.
Listen on Spotify, Apple Music or YouTube
What’s on the Charts
Jhené Aiko featuring Kendrick Lamar, ‘So Good’
Jhené Aiko has top billing on this track from her album “Westside Whimsy,” which was released in September. But Kendrick Lamar stays front and center in a duet about wanting to “make it physical, spiritual, sexual.” Now at No. 38 on the Billboard Hot 100, it’s an easy-swaying tune with a cushy beat and twinkling keyboards. While the two insist that their connection is also “godly” and “intellectual,” it’s clear that desire comes first.
Listen on Spotify, Apple Music or YouTube
What’s New in Jazz
Keith Jarrett, ‘Roma, Part VII’
“Roma” was recorded at the final solo performance of Keith Jarrett’s 2016 European tour. It was, as usual, an extended improvisation with distinct episodes: chordal, contrapuntal, percussive, impressionistic or gospelly, all arriving with clarity and luminous tone. “Part VII” is a pensive stretch of the concert, a jazz ballad inventing itself phrase by phrase, chord by unexpected chord.
Listen on Spotify, Apple Music or YouTube
The post Heartaches and a Mission Statement: 11 Songs We’re Talking About appeared first on New York Times.
