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A well-timed holiday remix that doubles as shameless Oscar campaigning? Yes, they Ken! Ryan Gosling and Mark Ronson\u2019s \u201cBarbie\u201d showstopper \u201cI\u2019m Just Ken\u201d is reimagined in three different formats \u2014 acoustic lament, club banger and Christmas novelty \u2014 on the newly released \u201cI\u2019m Just Ken\u201d EP. \u201cI\u2019m Just Ken (Merry Kristmas Barbie)\u201d reworks the arrangement into a stately, vaguely festive bit of chamber-pop; Gosling doesn\u2019t fill the lyrics with Christmas puns, thankfully, but merely mutters in conclusion a wistful, \u201cMerry Christmas, Barbie \u2026 wherever you are.\u201d LINDSAY ZOLADZ<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n
\u201cWe put the trap in entrapreneur,\u201d the British drill rapper Central Cee spits on his first solo single of the year, following high-profile collaborations with Dave<\/a>, Drake<\/a> and PinkPantheress<\/a>. In his signature knottily conversational flow, Cee boasts about his hustler mentality and sudden success, never forgetting from where he came: \u201cWent from a Toyota Yaris to Urus,\u201d he raps. \u201cI still got the same work rate as before.\u201d ZOLADZ<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n Flagboy Giz grew up on hip-hop, but he\u2019s also a proud carrier of New Orleans tradition as a member, since 2015, of the Wild Tchoupitoulas tribe of Mardi Gras Indians<\/a>. The title of his 2023 album \u201cDisgrace to the Culture\u201d points to the way his music determinedly mixes hip-hop with New Orleans lore. Twitchy trap programming and a low-slung piano riff join hints of brass-band sousaphone and Mardi Gras tambourine to carry \u201cFell in Love at the Secondline,\u201d a flirtation mapped onto the city\u2019s streets. JON PARELES<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n A fierce beat, relentless but changeable \u2014 with percussion, voices and programming \u2014 drives \u201cSurvivor,\u201d a knowing vow of defiance in the face of every obstacle. \u201cI am the lawless, formless, thoughtless, flawless chaos of the sun\/I am the seed of life and love, you see the blaze, you better run\u201d chants Genesis Owusu, born in Ghana and living in Australia. The track is brutal, full of paradoxical wordplay \u2014 and fully confrontational. PARELES<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n Iza, a Brazilian singer and rapper, isn\u2019t just breaking up in \u201cQue Se V\u00e1\u201d (\u201cLet It Go\u201d); she\u2019s also canceling the ex\u2019s credit card. Her gleeful good riddance, with verses that build toward laughter, is propelled by Afro-Brazilian rhythms, programmed handclaps and a harmony chorus that exults in its spite. PARELES<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n Kesha set aside her pop and rock reflexes for the somber \u201cEat the Acid\u201d from her 2023 album, \u201cGag Order.\u201d She sings about indelible drug revelations and warns, \u201cYou don\u2019t wanna be changed\/like it changed me.\u201d With stark keyboard drones, a cappella moments, processed vocals and distant, ethereal harmonies, Kesha pushes toward the experimental realms of songwriters like Julia Holter and Bj\u00f6rk. PARELES<\/p>\n Medicine, the indie-rock band Brad Laner has led since 1990, thrives on overload, placing poppy tunes within a pile-on of instruments, voices, electronics and distortion. \u201cThat\u2019s Alright, Friend\u201d \u2014 the opening track on its 2023 album, \u201cSilences\u201d \u2014 bashes out a six-beat stomp behind Julia Monreal\u2019s cheerful voice while bells ping, electronics chatter and layered guitars pick up her melody. Then the track starts lurching into new territory, swerving through a few episodes before ending up somewhere like a psychedelic sea chantey, while Monreal repeats the title as reassurance amid the din. PARELES<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n A vocalist sits on a stool in a dark-lit subterranean jazz club, topped with a beret, she-bopping through standards. Even if that\u2019s more or less what you think of when you hear the word \u201cjazz,\u201d it\u2019s probably not what the name \u201cEsperanza Spalding\u201d calls to mind. But back in 2018, Spalding took a detour into the old songbook, at the elbow of the piano maestro Fred Hersch, during a weeklong stand at the Village Vanguard. A few tracks from those dates were released as an album earlier this year.<\/p>\n Yes, she wore a beret and sat on a stool, and the lights were low. (She also left her bass at home.) Still, Spalding created healthy distance between herself and the old material. On \u201cBut Not for Me,\u201d even as she delights in banter with Hersch\u2019s piano, Spalding seems certain this Gershwin tune was not written \u201cfor\u201d her. \u201cThey say that Russian plays do boast of many gray skies,\u201d she sings, before tapping out on the next line. \u201cAnd then some words I don\u2019t really understand, \u2019cause it\u2019s like Old English: \u2018hi-ho, alas and lackaday?\u2019\u201d she says. \u201cThat\u2019s how I feel \u2014 confused about the whole situation.\u201d The audience laughs easily, agreeing that the old material shines best when thrown open to the light of the present day. GIOVANNI RUSSONELLO<\/p>\n Darcy James Argue and his airtight big band, Secret Society, have long made a cottage industry out of dynamic torque, and Argue rarely wastes a note. \u201cAll In,\u201d from their aptly named album \u201cDynamic Maximum Tension,\u201d starts with a tenuous and crooked drum beat, then a procession of rich harmonies \u2014 packed with just enough dissonance to tighten up the energy \u2014 before a heavier beat kicks in. The horns swell atop a percussive, string-muted piano part from Adam Birnbaum. Even as the sound grows triumphant, that catalytic dissonance never goes away. RUSSONELLO<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\nMedicine, \u2018That\u2019s Alright, Friend\u2019<\/h2>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n
Darcy James Argue\u2019s Secret Society, \u2018All In\u2019<\/a><\/h2>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n