\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 Miley Cyrus has announced that her album \u201cSomething Beautiful,\u201d due May 30, will be a \u201cpop opera\u201d and a \u201cvisual experience,\u201d with a film to follow in June. One of its early singles, \u201cEnd of the World,\u201d is a luxurious pop extravaganza with songwriting collaborators including Jonathan Rado from Foxygen and Molly Rankin and Alec O\u2019Hanley from the group Alvvays<\/a>. A pumping beat, stacked-up guitars, orchestral underpinnings and a platoon of backup vocals abet Cyrus as she calls for one last, desperate chance at pleasure. \u201cLet\u2019s pretend it\u2019s not the end of the world,\u201d she urges. She probably didn\u2019t know she\u2019d be singing through an economic crisis. JON PARELES<\/p>\n Bruce Springsteen was hoarse and howling when he recorded \u201cRain in the River,\u201d now released as a preview of \u201cTracks II: The Lost Albums,\u201d<\/a> an 83-song collection from his archives that will be released in June. It\u2019s a booming, arena-scale cry of anguish with Springsteen\u2019s guitars pealing, droning and spinning gnarled leads. His character gets spurned, told that \u201cYour love means no more to me than rain in the river.\u201d What happens next is ambiguous \u2014 and possibly fatal. PARELES<\/p>\n Layers of fandom inform \u201cWho Believes in Angels?,\u201d the new duet album by Elton John and Brandi Carlile. Carlile grew up as an ardent fan of John\u2019s songwriting and flamboyant gay identity, while the producer Andrew Watt<\/a>, who collaborated on the songwriting (along with John\u2019s longtime lyricist, Bernie Taupin), spurs longtime musicians to rediscover their youthful spark. The album\u2019s two opening tracks pay tribute to songwriters that John admired: Laura Nyro and, in this song, Little Richard. John, now 78, sings about Little Richard\u2019s swings between carnality and faith, with high harmonies from Carlile, and he pounds out piano chords as a lifetime rock \u2019n\u2019 roll believer. PARELES<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n A deadpan near-spoken vocal, bristling bass and guitar riffs and a beat that stomps its way into the chorus: those were the ingredients of the English indie-rock band Wet Leg<\/a>\u2019s 2021 smash, \u201cChaise Longue.\u201d<\/a> The group deploys similar elements in \u201cCatch These Fists,\u201d but trades the drolleries of \u201cChaise Longue\u201d to contend with a more fraught situation: an unwanted pickup attempt at a club. \u201cI know all too well just what you\u2019re like,\u201d Rhian Teasdale tells the suitor. \u201cI don\u2019t want your love \u2014 I just wanna fight.\u201d PARELES<\/p>\n The swaggering Swedish punks the Hives<\/a> are back \u2014 so soon! \u2014 with the first single from an album due Aug. 29 called \u201cPlay It Again Sam.\u201d The quintet paused after its 2012 LP \u201cLex Hives\u201d until 2023, when it returned with \u201cThe Death of Randy Fitzsimmons.\u201d (\u201cIt was like a slow, 10-year-long panic,\u201d the frontman Howlin\u2019 Pelle Almqvist joked then. \u201cIt was never an outright panic because we continued to be so immensely popular worldwide.\u201d) \u201cEnough Is Enough\u201d rides four chords and a wave of frustration to a delightfully tuneful bridge. In the video, Almqvist is the king of the ring \u2014 until he takes a punch that lands him in the hospital. Like his powder keg of a band, he rallies. CARYN GANZ<\/p>\n Ed Sheeran returns to a familiar scene \u2014 the dance floor \u2014 with an airy, syncopated tune named for the Persian term for \u201cmy beloved.\u201d The track is a collaboration with one of the British artist\u2019s trusted regulars (Johnny McDaid of Snow Patrol), as well as Ilya Salmanzadeh, a Swedish-Iranian writer and producer who’s worked with Ariana Grande, and Savan Kotecha (whose credits include the Weeknd, a seeming influence here). It\u2019s a first taste of album promising global influences that\u2019s due later this year. GANZ<\/p>\n Kin\u2019gongolo Kiniata means \u201cthe crushing sound\u201d in Lingala, the main language in the Democratic Republic of Congo; its debut album, \u201cKiniata,\u201d arrives on Friday. The band, from Kinshasa, uses its own percussion and string instruments \u2014 handmade from materials like plastic bottles and junk metal \u2014 and four-part vocal harmonies to create hurtling grooves like the ones in \u201cLiseki Te.\u201d It\u2019s a love song from a narrator who insists on honesty (\u201cno lies, no pretenses\u201d) and its urgency doesn\u2019t just sound personal. PARELES<\/p>\n A brisk club groove carries a direct come-on in \u201cTonight\u201d by PinkPantheress<\/a>. \u201cYou want sex with me? Come talk to me,\u201d she beckons. \u201cYou can ruin my makeup,\u201d she adds, and escalates further. \u201cYou could even ruin my life.\u201d For all her eagerness, her voice stays almost nonchalant. PARELES<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n The Brazilian singer Marina Sena basks in a romantic idyll by the sea in \u201cNuma Ilha\u201d (\u201cOn an Island\u201d) from her new album, \u201cCoisas Naturais\u201d (\u201cNatural Things). The track\u2019s easy sway mingles low reverbed guitars with the staccato picking and bongo drums of Dominican bachata, putting contentment in every syncopation. PARELES<\/p>\n Breakups don\u2019t get any more bitter than this song, a country-rap collaboration that burns every bridge. Modal guitar picking backs Bailey Zimmerman\u2019s opening and closing taunt: \u201cDon\u2019t let me down easy \/ if you\u2019re gonna leave me, leave me all the way.\u201d Trap drums join the guitar as BigXthaPlug finalizes the separation: \u201cIf you leavin\u2019 just leave \u2018cause your bag\u2019s gone \/ Just know you can never come back home.\u201d There\u2019s no reconciliation anywhere in earshot. PARELES<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\nEd Sheeran, \u2018Azizam<\/a>\u2019<\/h2>\n
Kin\u2019gongolo Kiniata, \u2018Liseki Te<\/a>\u2019<\/h2>\n
PinkPantheress, \u2018Tonight<\/a>\u2019<\/h2>\n
Marina Sena, \u2018Numa Ilha<\/a>\u2019<\/h2>\n
BigXthaPlug featuring Bailey Zimmerman, \u2018All the Way<\/a>\u2019<\/h2>\n