Sleigh Bells, ‘Bunky Pop’
The most recent blast from the Sleigh Bells album due in April, “Bunky Becky Birthday Boy,” memorializes Alexis Krauss’s canine, who died in 2023. “Nights are lengthy right here with out you,” she sings. However the music is manic and upbeat, swerving from electro to power-chorded pop, with eruptions of thrash drumming and tangents of dissonance — mourning by celebrating. PARELES
Mamalarky, ‘#1 Better of All Time’
Mamalarky makes musicianly antics sound nonchalant on its new album, “Hex Key.” The singer and guitarist Livvy Bennett breezes by way of the self-satisfaction of “#1 Better of All Time,” declaring, “I all the time win even after I fall.” Her voice stays informal (and doesn’t fear about being a little bit flat) whereas the beat hurtles forward and the chords take unlikely chromatic turns. The most important boast is making it sound really easy. PARELES
Selena Gomez, Benny Blanco, Gracie Adams, ‘Name Me When You Break Up’
The skilled fiancés Selena Gomez and Benny Blanco invite a 3rd onto their upcoming collaborative album, “I Stated I Love You First,” with this breathy Gracie Abrams characteristic. No matter the truth that “Name Me When You Break Up” is a conceptually complicated sentiment for a document that appears to be celebrating the singer Gomez and the producer Blanco’s love story, Ariana Grande did it first, and with extra perspective. ZOLADZ
McKinley Dixon that includes Anjimile and Quelle Chris, ‘Sugar Water’
McKinley Dixon, a rapper from Richmond, Va., is a maximalist who often surrounds himself with stay musical preparations and hearty backup singers. In “Sugar Water,” from an album due in June titled “Magic, Alive!,” he needs for after which witnesses the resurrection of a buddy. The observe deploys a springy, Latin-tinged jazz vamp, riffing horns and fervent vocal harmonies. “Can’t imagine that I used to be completed,” says the returnee. “No time to waste — let’s get again in it.” PARELES
Emma-Jean Thackray that includes Kassa General, ‘It’s Okay’
The rolling six-beat vamp behind “It’s Okay” rushes after which relaxes, underlining the music’s anti-stress message: “The whole lot’s OK however you gotta really feel it,” the rapper and drummer Kassa General advises. Emma-Jean Thackray overdubs herself right into a one-woman jazz combo — trumpet, bass, keyboards, drums — and backup refrain, then gives her personal rapped and sung admonition: “Don’t you are concerned ’bout a factor.” PARELES
