“TV” from a pair of understated yet richly produced “guitar songs” just released by Billie Eilish, this time using TV, longing for estrangement, self-doubt, and numbness. Begins like one of her quiet and breathtaking ballads about. She says, “I’m thinking of wearing a’survivor’just to see someone suffering.” But she’s working on something bigger: how entertainment can foster distraction, alienation, and indifference. It became a hot topic in 2022. But Irish does not forget that he is an entertainer. While she ponders her isolation ahead of her closing — “maybe I’m the problem” — she dials, sings, and applauds the arena audience.John Pairless
Jessie Ware, “Free Your Self”
With the help of solid producer Stuart Price (Madonna, Pet Shop Boys, Dua Lipa), Jessie Ware now has a well-established disco tool for “Free Yourself.” There are bouncing octave piano riffs, firm throbbing beats, and finally the sound of a dive and hovering string section. “Why don’t you please yourself?” Failures and accumulations are assembled with a sense of glittering necessity and, surprisingly, struggle for a great finish that never arrives. “Don’t stop!”, Ware sings.Palais
Baby Face Ray, Flo Milli featuring “Hottie”
Flo Milli’s songs are like Blingee filters. It’s loud, flashy, and confrontationally femme. This week, Alabama rappers released her major debut album, “You Still Here, Ho?”. This is a kind of spiritual sequel to her fascinating 2020 mixtape “Ho, Why Is You Here?”. Following a call to introduce the muse (in this case the legendary Tiffany “New York” Polard on reality TV), the album is a showcase of Flomili’s proud humor and the talkative ease of use of her signature stream. .. Many other rappers slow down the tempo by giving them a dreamy beat like a “hot water bottle”, but Miri is still relentless, breathtakingly setting boundaries and frivolous (“I’m” hard to please”). Here, like the other highlights on the record, she spits on the cartoon character happily gliding over the rainbow.Lindsay Zoraz
Tyler ICU featuring Nkosazana Daughter, Kabza De Small, DJ Maphorisa, “Inhliziyo”
Spacious Amapiano built by three prominent South African producers, Tyler ICU, Kabza De Small, and DJ Maphorisa, from shakers, persistent keyboard chords, sparsely tapped percussion, and shadowed, almost underground baselines. I worked on the track “Inhliziyo” (“Heart”). Even more memorable than most Amapiano songs is the vocals by songwriter Nkosazana Daughter. Quiet and almost private, hinting at non-Western intonation and full of miserable grief of Zulu lyrics.Palais
Sun Ra Arkestra, “Someone’s Ideas”
Sun Ra Arkestra is reminiscent of a loose community, the sense of heretics gathering for a common purpose. When Arkestra recorded “Somebody Else’s Idea” during Sun Ra’s life, June Tyson sang lyrics like “The idea / need for someone else’s coming”. The current alkestra, led by saxophonist Marshall Allen, regains the wordless song as a saxophone that carries a concise melody to the afro-Caribbean percussion and a laid-back bolero with a wordless voice. Farid Baron’s ornate dissonant piano, brass interjections, flute trills, and wavy strings are sometimes added, each adding its own contribution until the song settles in a resting place, like a caravan at sunset. increase.Palais
Juliana Riolino, “You”
Canadian singer-songwriter Juliana Riolino’s next debut album, “You”, is a flashy, captivating and catchy explosion of power pop. While Riorino’s ardent delivery and boot-slamming energy appeal to fans of the brighter songs of Angel Olsen’s “My Woman,” Riorino also brings her own vintage country and jerky garage rock sounds. Blend in a way. “Everyone is fine until someone drowns,” Rio Rino sings devotedly in this ode, and she awaits a life that someone loves. ZOLADZ
Mamalarky, “Mythical Bonds”
Formed in Austin and now based in Atlanta, the Atlanta-based indie rock band Mamalarky celebrates a deep and enjoyable friendship with their first single, “Mythical Bonds,” on their upcoming September album, “Pocket Fantasy.” Guitarist Liveby Bennett sings with a teasing smile, “I don’t care as long as I do it with you.” The complexity — and many of them — is in music: stop start meter changes, unique chords, knotty counterpoint, all packed into two playful minutes. Mamalarky makes the sound of math rock fun.Palais
Blonde shell, “Kiss City”
“Mom, I’m next to a lot of love,” said Los Angeles singer-songwriter Sabrina Teiterbaum, singing on one of several very quarterly lines from her second single, “Blonde Shell.” I am. (Also, “My kink is when you tell me you think I’m cute.”) During the first half of “Kiss City,” Teiterbaum delivers these lines in the arch. A discreet arrangement of piano and guitar. But along the way, “Kiss City” splits into a towering rock song, giving Teiterbaum the space to shout the same lines from her heart, as if suddenly in her dream, and confessing what she wants to do. She is afraid to admit to awakening her life. ZOLADZ
Kelsey Waldon, “Simple as Love”
Sometimes, surprisingly, romance actually works. As the pedal steel guitar sighs behind her, mediocre country singer Kelsey Waldon says, “Like a mimosa tree monarch,” “Simple like a cotton dress,” and “Patient like the moon.” ”Image and Simir are developed. Marvel at the love you can trust and nurture. There is no drama, just comfort and gratitude.Palais
Montelfish, “Darling”
Recorded in Brooklyn’s Montelfish bedroom, “Darling” is a fragile love song from his new album “Jamie”, delivered as a gently undulating waltz. “Did you fall in love with my loved one?” He wonders about acoustic guitar picking and lo-fi string squeaking in a falsetto in another world. Begging “Don’t run away” produces a large chorus of grunge in the bedroom, but the beat drops and the haunted piano chords are his only accompaniment, “I finally let go of you. “He resigns. To decide.Palais
Objekt, “bad apple”
Electronic musician TJ Hertz, who records as Objekt, proudly uses unnatural technitone to create a constant escalating tension in “Bad Apples.” He undermines the systematic predictability of most dance music. Even if the beat remains four-square and danceable, the sound and silence continue to arrive, accrete, suddenly disappear or break. Buzzers, chimes, persistent nasals, deep bass cross-rhythms, slides and crackles, and swarming blip: The next two bars can display anything from any direction.Palais
