Backbeat movie4/3/2023 Yuniverse, an Indonesian-Australian songwriter, collaborated with the producer Corin Roddick, of Purity Ring, to make a familiar situation shimmery and surreal: “You’re smiling through your lies again/You’re telling me she’s just a friend,” she sings. Sheer, euphoric infatuation courses through “Blood and Butter,” the latest single previewing the album Caroline Polachek is releasing on Valentine’s Day: “Desire, I Want to Turn Into You.” Polachek and her co-producer, Danny L Harle, constructed a song that starts out in wonderment - “Where did you come from, you?” - on its way to declarations like “What I want is to walk beside you, needing nothing.” Springy hand percussion, a bagpipe solo and multilayered la-las sustain the bliss. PARELES Caroline Polachek, ‘Blood and Butter’ The studio-built track is loosely held together by a loping beat, but it rambles at will through Beach Boys-like harmonies, free-form raps and small-group jazz, all thoroughly and cleverly whimsical. His debut album as Temps, “Party Gator Purgatory,” is due in May. “Do not fear mistakes,” floating voices advise for the first minute of “Bleedthemtoxins,” a bemused miscellany overseen by James Acaster, an English comedian, actor and podcaster turned musical auteur. ZOLADZ Temps featuring Joana Gomila, Nnamdï, Shamir and Quelle Chris, ‘Bleedthemtoxins’ “Layla, let’s get out of this broken place,” Nielson sings, conjuring an alluring elsewhere. “Layla” is full of warmth, with a soulful vocal melody, Nielson’s nimble guitar playing and the band’s signature fuzzy tones all contributing to an enveloping atmosphere. The New Zealander Ruban Nielson, leader of the tuneful lo-fi psych-rockers Unknown Mortal Orchestra, is known for being a prolific songwriter, so it makes sense that the band’s forthcoming “V,” its first release in five years, will be a double album. PARELES Unknown Mortal Orchestra, ‘Layla’ Chris Hoffman’s electric cello snarls distorted drones and Max Jaffe’s drumming moves between marching-band crispness and rumbling eruptions, while Lewis and Kirk Knuffke, on cornet, share the melody, go very separate ways simultaneously and then reunite, contentious but comradely. On his new album, “Eye of I,” the tenor saxophonist James Brandon Lewis makes it both militant and questioning. When Donny Hathaway sang his “Someday We’ll All Be Free,” it was determinedly encouraging. “We can play the part.” LINDSAY ZOLADZ James Brandon Lewis, ‘Someday We’ll All Be Free’ There’s a dreamlike quality about “Echolalia,” the breathy, percussive new single from Yves Tumor’s wildly titled upcoming record “Praise a Lord Who Chews But Which Does Not Consume (Or Simply, Hot Between Worlds).” Basically a three-minute swoon, “Echolalia” finds the 21st-century glam rocker dazed with infatuation and, however briefly, cosplaying conventionality: “Just put me in a house with a dog and a shiny car,” Tumor sings breathlessly. Sunny War, a songwriter from Nashville born Sydney Lyndella Ward, sings about a flawed but striving character - maybe herself - in “No Reason,” from her new album, “Anarchist Gospel.” She observes, “You’re an angel, you’re a demon/Ain’t got no rhyme, ain’t go no reason,” as folk-rock fingerpicking, a jaunty backbeat and hoedown handclaps carry her through the contradictions. Morgan Wallen, the canny country superstar, has what sounds like a loop of acoustic guitar - three chords - backing him as he sings about a whiskey-fueled reconciliation: “Baby, baby something’s telling this ain’t over yet,” he sings, sounding very smug. The distance between acoustic-guitar sincerity and electronic artifice is nearing zero. The musical turf, a reggaeton beat, is hers, but the temptation is mutual. Two Latin pop songwriters who thrive on breakup drama - Karol G, from Colombia, and Romeo Santos, a stadium-scale headliner from the Bronx with Dominican roots - arrange a last tryst in “X Si Volvemos.” Karol G points out “No funcionamos” - “We don’t work” - and “We’re a disaster in love,” but she admits, “In bed we understand each other.” He tells her their relationship is toxic, but wonders if he’s addicted to their intimacy. Karol G and Romeo Santos, ‘X Si Volvemos’ Like what you hear? Let us know at and sign up for our Louder newsletter, a once-a-week blast of our pop music coverage. Just want the music? Listen to the Playlist on Spotify here (or find our profile: nytimes). Every Friday, pop critics for The New York Times weigh in on the week’s most notable new songs and videos.
0 Comments
Leave a Reply.AuthorWrite something about yourself. No need to be fancy, just an overview. ArchivesCategories |