Rising pop artist Sabrina Carpenter made a splash with her spectacular disco throwback “Feather,” but she looks set to make an even bigger splash. Enter “Espresso,” a cheeky, summery tune that just might have the juice to take it to the next level. Over a mid-tempo beat that’s mildly reminiscent of the subdued retro-funk of “Say So,” the song that made Doja Cat a star, Carpenter plays the carefree temptress with winking humor: “Say That you can’t sleep, baby I know, that’s me, Espresso.” Double it and get ready to hear it everywhere. Lindsay Zoladz
The girl in the red dress in “I’m Back” – Norwegian songwriter Marie Ulven Ringheim – challenges the cycle of depression. “It’s not that I wanna die,” she sings in a whisper. “At least not right now/I like being alive.” Quasi-Baroque keyboard arpeggios pace a track that lingers, recognizing that “time doesn’t stop for a sad little girl” and as she decides, “This time I think I’ve got it”. Increases. one syllable words; Deep successes. Jon Pareles
A highlight of singer-songwriter Maggie Rogers’s loose and confident third album, “Don’t Forget Me”, “The Kill” is a soft-rock breakup song that shifts perspective mid-sentence, and delivers a near-miss. Assigns mutual responsibility for the relationship. Death. “We were both pretty tough,” Rogers sings passionately, “but pretty much unstoppable.” zoladz
Liz Wright joins Angelique Kidjo, ‘Sparrow’
Liz Wright promises sanctuary, solace and strength in “Sparrows” from her new album “Shadows.” Folksy guitar and fiddle and a quietly insistent six-beat rhythm support Wright’s benevolent, ever determined voice as she calls for a lover to return. With Angelique Kidjo singing mesmerizing lines invoking her African roots in the background, Wright recalls the stormy, scary times and vows, “We will rise singing.” parallels
Margo Gurian, ‘Moon Ride’
Margo Gurian’s 1968 light psychedelic chamber-pop album, “Take a Picture”, was rediscovered by pop crate-diggers like Beck and Cornelius in the early 2000s, and more recently on TikTok. In the 1950s, Gurian was immersed in jazz, writing lyrics to tunes such as Ornette Coleman’s “Lonely Woman” and having her own songs recorded by Dizzy Gillespie, Harry Belafonte, and Astrud Gilberto; He wrote the complex Top 40 hit “Sunday Morning” for Spanky and Our Gang. A new boxed set, “Words and Music”, unveils 16 previously unreleased tracks, including 1956’s “Moon Ride”, recorded by jazz singer Chris Connor in 1958. It’s an easy-swinging arrangement with Guerion playing a delightfully dissonant flute. She describes a “hair-raising, nail-biting, terrifying flight”, where she is captured by the Moon’s people, shot with her ray gun and flees across “ground covered with uneven stuff”. goes – all with a hint of 1950s cool and a wink. His voice. parallels
Phish, ‘Evolve’
Trey Anastasio sings as a friendly voice of God in “Evolve”, which will be the title track of Phish’s first studio album since 2020. The tune is from Phish’s pastoral side, following a deity who has second thoughts about the consequences of creation: “A million little things to be solved / Or not – I’ll let them all evolve.” Phish fans have already heard a version of “Evolve” on Anastasio’s 2020 album, “Lonely Trip,” and the band has recently been playing it on tour. The studio version has the key changed and becomes slightly more formal, featuring tonal harmonies and a string section. No doubt it will be set loose at concerts, still evolving. parallels
Politically-minded South African group Felimunkasi from Durban recorded new album “Izigkinamba” (“The Rules”) in a studio in Uganda with Jesse Hackett, Gorillaz’s longtime keyboardist, who occasionally records as metal frontmen. ) collaborated on. Its opener, “Gidigidi Ka Makhelwane” is a rhythm-forward track that syncs Felimunkasi’s Malathon, Makan Nana and Khera’s loud, surreal female and male vocals amid hissing beatbox sounds, deep log-drum beats and – out Is. Nowhere – occasional church bells: solemn but decidedly oblique. parallels
Bruno Berle, ‘Accorda e Vem’
Brazilian singer and songwriter Bruno Berle and his musical collaborator Batata Boy, on Berle’s album, “No Reino dos Afetos 2” (“In the Kingdom of Emotions 2”). His voice is an androgynous tone further enhanced by Auto-Tune; On two recurring, disjointed notes is his appeal, “Reclaim the magic/Reclaim what has dissolved in emotions and tears.” parallels
Phosphorescent, ‘fence’
Phosphorescent – songwriter Matthew Hawke – laments the rift that has become irreparable in the worn-out folk-rock of “Fences”. With a jagged melody and hovering pedal-steel guitar, he blends apology, disbelief and complaint: “You thought I wouldn’t see that you were so wrong.” The chorus – “You’re building fences” – brings consoling harmony to what he knows he must accept. parallels
Chilean jazz saxophonist Melissa Aldana pays tribute to Wayne Shorter with a song in his style: seemingly tentative but moving, harmonically complex but tenderly lyrical. That melody emerges as his quintet streams abstract ideas around him – sporadic piano playing, tiny guitar patterns, distant electronics – that still, somehow, coalesce. parallels
Carlos Nino and Friends, ‘Love to All Doulas!’
One of the primary collaborators behind Andre 3000’s instrumental album, “New Blue Sun”, was Carlos Nino, who has recorded extensively with his own fluid combination of “guys”. Nino’s album, “Placenta,” due out May 24, reflects the birth of his second child, now 1 year old, and like “New Blue Sun” it invokes drone, ambient and ritual music. “Love to All the Doulas” moves in hazy, long-breathed arcs, with the horn-like notes of Nate Mercero’s guitar synthesizer feeling a melody amidst the untamed percussion and quivering strings, creating a long silence of anticipation. parallels
