\n<\/p>\n
Every Friday, pop critics for The New York Times weigh in on the week\u2019s most notable new tracks. <\/em>Listen to the Playlist on Spotify here<\/em><\/a> (or find our profile: nytimes) and <\/em>at Apple Music here<\/em><\/a>, and sign up for <\/em>The Amplifier<\/em><\/a>, a twice-weekly guide to new and old songs.<\/em><\/p>\n Plucked string tones from all directions create a magical, shimmering cascade around Michelle Zauner\u2019s voice in \u201cHere Is Someone\u201d from the new album by Japanese Breakfast, \u201cFor Melancholy Brunettes (& Sad Women).\u201d The lyrics hint at tensions and anxieties, but the track radiates anticipation: \u201cLife is sad, but here is someone,\u201d Zauner concludes. <\/p>\n Jon Pareles<\/p>\n Marianne Faithfull, who died in January at 78<\/a>, kept recording almost to the end. She brought every bit of her scratchy, ravaged, tenacious voice to \u201cBurning Moonlight,\u201d a song she co-wrote that holds one of her last manifestoes: \u201cBurning moonlight to survive \/ Walking in fire is my life.\u201d Acoustic guitars and tambourine connect the music to the 1960s, when she got her start; her singing holds all the decades of experience that followed. <\/p>\n Jon Pareles<\/p>\n \u201cLetter From an Unknown Girlfriend\u201d is from the Waterboys album due April 4, \u201cLife, Death and Dennis Hopper,\u201d and was written by Mike Scott. But it is sung and played by Fiona Apple, alone at the piano, delivering a remembrance of an abusive boyfriend: \u201cI used to say no man would ever strike me,\u201d it begins, \u201cAnd no man ever did \u2019til I met you.\u201d She admits to the charm of the \u201csatyr running wild in you,\u201d but her voice rises to a bitter, primal rasp as she recalls the worst. It\u2019s a stark, harrowing performance.<\/p>\n Jon Pareles<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n Diffidence turns into resolve in the course of \u201cSanctuary,\u201d a waltzing duet from \u201cEvery Dawn\u2019s a Mountain,\u201d the new album by the Belgian songwriter Tamino-Amir Moharam Fouad. In separate verses, Tamino and Mitski sound fragile, contemplating uncertainty and loss; \u201cI reside in the ruins of the sanctuary,\u201d Mitski sings. But when they connect \u2014 asking \u201cIs it late where you are?\u201d \u2014 and harmonize, an orchestra rises behind them to offer hope. <\/p>\n Jon Pareles<\/p>\n \u201cI\u2019m a little crazy, but the world\u2019s insane,\u201d the disturbed narrator of Morgan Wallen\u2019s new single contends. His character is a drug dealer who keeps a loaded gun nearby. He\u2019s sustaining himself \u201con antidepressants and lukewarm beers\u201d and yelling at his TV, \u201cbut the news don\u2019t change.\u201d Over steadfast acoustic guitar picking and lightly brushed drums, Wallen sings with chilling, sociopathic calm. <\/p>\n Jon Pareles<\/p>\n The rhythm section from the African rock band Mdou Moctar<\/a> \u2014 Ahmoudou Madassane, Mikey Coltun and Souleymane Ibrahim \u2014 has been recording on its own as Takaat, which means \u201cnoise\u201d in Tuareg; an EP is due in April. Takaat\u2019s first single, \u201cAmidinin\u201d (\u201cFriend\u201d), keeps the modal riffing and six-beat propulsion of Mdou Moctar, but cranks up the guitar distortion, slathers on echo and unleashes the drums to sound even more ferocious. <\/p>\n Jon Pareles<\/p>\n The Toronto-based vocalist and producer Debby Friday won the Polaris Music Prize for her sharp 2023 debut album, \u201cGood Luck.\u201d She returns with the euphoric electro-pop single \u201c1\/17,\u201d a dance-floor confessional that shows off yet another side of her multifaceted talent. \u201cI swear you\u2019re a sign,\u201d Friday sings in an airy atmosphere punctured by percolating synths. The track builds layer atop gauzy layer until it explodes in a burst of club-ready catharsis. <\/p>\n Lindsay Zoladz<\/p>\n The legacy of 1970s Stevie Wonder suffuses \u201cCrash,\u201d with cushy chromatic chord changes and a loping synthesizer bass line supplied by the keyboard master (and co-producer) Greg Phillinganes. Saba raps a no-pressure come-on: \u201cTogether we can make time go fast \/ And if it\u2019s late, I hope you might just crash.\u201d And Kelly Rowland, joining in on choruses, sounds perfectly amenable. <\/p>\n Jon Pareles<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n Jack Harlow<\/a> and Doja Cat exchange flirty verses on \u201cJust Us,\u201d a fast-paced track that forgoes catchy pop choruses and focuses instead on dexterous flows and winking wordplay. \u201cI know it sounds like Zack and Cody, this life\u2019s sweet,\u201d Harlow raps, showing his age with a reference to a mid-2000s Disney Channel show. Corny? Maybe, but Doja\u2019s into it: \u201cYou a softy, marshmallows and black coffee,\u201d she counters affectionately. The video is full of celebrity cameos that prove how many people will pick up the phone when Harlow calls: Matt Damon, PinkPantheress, John Mayer and Nicholas Braun. Zack and Cody, alas, are nowhere to be found. <\/p>\n Lindsay Zoladz<\/p>\n The long-running indie-rock band Deerhoof can be coy or oblique, but it\u2019s neither in \u201cImmigrant Songs,\u201d a response to America\u2019s sudden, brutal xenophobia. Satomi Matsuzaki gives voice to unrecognized immigrant labor \u2014 drivers, cooks, entertainers \u2014 over guitars and drums that lilt and intertwine behind her. But for the second half of this seven-minute track, the instruments just scream. There\u2019s no more arguing or persuasion left. <\/p>\n Jon Pareles<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\nJapanese Breakfast, \u2018Here Is Someone<\/a>\u2019<\/span><\/h3>\n
Marianne Faithfull, \u2018Burning Moonlight<\/a>\u2019<\/span><\/h3>\n
The Waterboys featuring Fiona Apple, \u2018Letter From an Unknown Girlfriend<\/a>\u2019<\/span><\/h3>\n
Tamino featuring Mitski, \u2018Sanctuary<\/a>\u2019<\/span><\/h3>\n
Morgan Wallen, \u2018I\u2019m a Little Crazy<\/a>\u2019<\/span><\/h3>\n
Takaat, \u2018Amidinin<\/a>\u2019<\/span><\/h3>\n
Debby Friday, \u20181\/17<\/a>\u2019<\/span><\/h3>\n
No I.D. and Saba featuring Raphael Saadiq and Kelly Rowland, \u2018Crash<\/a>\u2019<\/span><\/h3>\n
Jack Harlow featuring Doja Cat, \u2018Just Us<\/a>\u2019<\/span><\/h3>\n
Deerhoof, \u2018Immigrant Songs<\/a>\u2019<\/span><\/h3>\n