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The latest blast from the Sleigh Bells album due in April, \u201cBunky Becky Birthday Boy,\u201d memorializes Alexis Krauss\u2019s dog, who died in 2023. \u201cNights are long here without you,\u201d she sings. But the song is manic and upbeat, swerving from electro to power-chorded pop, with eruptions of thrash drumming and tangents of dissonance \u2014 mourning by celebrating. PARELES<\/p>\n
Mamalarky \u2014 the singer and guitarist Livvy Bennett and the multi-instrumentalist Michael Hunter \u2014 makes musicianly antics sound nonchalant on the duo\u2019s new album, \u201cHex Key.\u201d Bennett breezes through the self-satisfaction of \u201c#1 Best of All Time,\u201d declaring, \u201cI always win even when I fall.\u201d Her voice stays casual (and doesn\u2019t worry about being a little flat) while the beat hurtles ahead and the chords take unlikely chromatic turns. The biggest boast is making it sound so easy. PARELES<\/p>\n
The professional fianc\u00e9s Selena Gomez and Benny Blanco invite a third onto their upcoming collaborative album, \u201cI Said I Love You First,\u201d with this breathy Gracie Abrams feature. Regardless of the fact that \u201cCall Me When You Break Up\u201d is a conceptually confusing sentiment for a record that seems to be celebrating the singer Gomez and the producer Blanco\u2019s love story, Ariana Grande did it first<\/a>, and with more attitude. ZOLADZ<\/p>\n McKinley Dixon, a rapper from Richmond, Va., is a maximalist who regularly surrounds himself with live musical arrangements and hearty backup singers. In \u201cSugar Water,\u201d from an album due in June titled \u201cMagic, Alive!,\u201d he wishes for and then witnesses the resurrection of a friend. The track deploys a springy, Latin-tinged jazz vamp, riffing horns and fervent vocal harmonies. \u201cCan\u2019t believe that I was finished,\u201d says the returnee. \u201cNo time to waste \u2014 let\u2019s get back in it.\u201d PARELES<\/p>\n The rolling six-beat vamp behind \u201cIt\u2019s Okay\u201d rushes and then relaxes, underlining the song\u2019s anti-stress message: \u201cEverything\u2019s OK but you gotta feel it,\u201d the rapper and drummer Kassa Overall<\/a> advises. Emma-Jean Thackray overdubs herself into a one-woman jazz combo \u2014 trumpet, bass, keyboards, drums \u2014 and backup chorus, then offers her own rapped and sung admonition: \u201cDon\u2019t you worry \u2019bout a thing.\u201d PARELES<\/p>\n<\/div>\nMcKinley Dixon featuring Anjimile and Quelle Chris, \u2018Sugar Water<\/a>\u2019<\/span><\/h3>\n
Emma-Jean Thackray featuring Kassa Overall, \u2018It\u2019s Okay<\/a>\u2019<\/span><\/h3>\n