The Red Hot Chili Peppers pay tribute to Eddie Van Halen and 1980s Los Angeles on “Eddie,” which sounds like an old-school real-time studio jam. Anthony Kiedis sings a biographical snippet — “My brother is a keeper / I married a TV wife” — Flea’s bass and John Frusciante’s guitar chase each other throughout the song, Shredders, overdriven guitars—the sounds of the band in the room, still shoving each other, in an ever-shifting counterpoint of bassline-hopping, teasing, and crying.pareles
Kelsey Ballerini “Muscle Memory”
In “Muscle Memory” Kelsea Ballerini orchestrates an instinctive reunion with an old flame — “My body will never forget our history” — classic tools: two chords, a backbeat, no words lead guitar accompanied by caresses. “When are you going back to town?” she asks, hiding her enthusiasm.pareles
Margo Price “Change of Heart”
Margo Price reaches out to confrontational aspects of the 1960s and psychedelia on “Change of Heart.” Wirey blues guitar riffs and organ jabs allude to the Doors, while Price plays a breakaway song that plays with Paradox. Shallow like me.To keep things off balance, the band occasionally adds extra beats, but the long, gradual fade-out suggests she’s still a little reluctant to move on.
It’s been seven years since DJ, producer and longtime xx member Jamie xx released his beloved solo album ‘In Colour’, and this year he’s released two exciting new singles. Elastic “Kill Dem”.Built around the Cutty Ranks samples of the dancehall great “Limb by limb” Jamie chops up the source material into barely perceptible syllables and launches it into hyperspace, banging its components against each other with springy, frenetic energy.Zoraz
“Pyramid” where comets come
British jazz saxophonist Shabaka Hutchings, who lived in Barbados between the ages of 6 and 16, has been the centerpiece of several groups with varying line-ups. On Comet Is Coming, he works in the zone where electronic dance music and jazz collide with synthesizer player Dan Leavers, aka Danalog, and drummer Maxwell Hallett, aka Betamax. “Pyramids” is included on the trio’s new album “Hyper-Dimensional Expansion Beam”. The title of this track is “Pyramid Song” by Radiohead, which share some of the same ascending but foreboding chords. Danalogue uses his 1980s synthesizers for plump bass and upward swoops. Betamax mixes drums and drum machines, always emphasizing different offbeats. Hutchings is a tenor.pareles
Witch “Will”
In the 1970s, Zambian rock band Witch (an acronym for We Intend to Cause Havoc) fused garage rock, psychedelia and funk with African rhythms, spurring a movement called Zamrock. The wider world discovered them with the release of the 2011 collection, and the surviving members of the band, singer Emmanuel (Jagari) Chanda and keyboardist Patrick Muwondera, are international musicians, including Dutch neo-psychedelics. back in the studio in 2021, backed by Songwriter Jaco Gardner. Written in 1978, the unrecorded “Waile” deals with “grief and suffering” and family separation. It goes through a percolating xylophone and guitar riff, a blast of fuzz tones, a lively African funk, and a slow wailing carried by a female voice along the way before the beat picks up again and a hard-nosed guitar riff rolls forward. Don’t be shy.pareles
Flo, “It’s not my job”
On “Not My Job,” British girl group Flo updates the glittery sound of Y2K pop-R&B with a touch of modern therapy language. “Not being vulnerable says it all.” Glittering sheen, wiggling beats and synthetic strings all evoke an aesthetic you might not have known was nostalgic. . It gives “The Writing’s on the Wall”—albeit enlivened with a fresh, modern twist.Zoraz
Lil Nas X “Star Walkin”
If Lil Nas X continues to deftly play the clown on social media, this week he posted a naughty and hilarious video of himself send pizza to protesters outside his concert and of his newly minted wax figure FaceTiming Confused Friends — his new single ‘Star Walkin” suggests he’s still interested in using his music as an outlet for the emotions that complicate his persona: anxiety, mild depression and self-doubt. “I was told you couldn’t go home alive,” he defiantly sings on a glittering synth-based track for this year’s League of Legends World Championship theme song. This one-off certainly doesn’t rank among his most memorable singles, but it’s further proof that he’s come up with a credible sonic formula for turning personal concerns into steely boasts. By the end of the song, he asks, “Why worship a legend when you know you can join them?”Zoraz
Emiliana Torrini & The Colorist Orchestra “Right Here”
Emiliana Torrini proves lasting relationship security in ‘Right Here’. “I am by your side.” She is backed by her Colorist Orchestra, a delightful and quirky Belgian chamber music ensemble that mixes standard and homemade instruments. The song also includes the sound of grinding stones. Torrini and her Colorist Orchestra rearranged some of her old songs on the album they shared in 2018, and “Right Here” previews her LP for a new collaboration due early next year. There is stippled syncopation of marimba, glockenspiel and pizzicato strings, set against a backdrop of sustained chords.pareles
Shannen Moser “Oh My God”
Shannen Moser recreates community songs and hometown band concerts with “Oh My God” from her album out next week. In “The Sun Still Seems to Move,” she offers theological and existential musings on fingerpicking and woodwinds, muscles and hands and breathing. The music is thoughtful yet resolutely physical.pareles
Anna B. Savage “The Ghost”
London-based artist Anna B Savage’s devastating new single ‘The Ghost’ derives its power from a progressive accumulation of small, intimate details. “We had the same thing on his toenails, those little bugs,” she sings over an old flame in a quivering low register. “But that has changed. I can no longer see the graves we dug.” “Stop bothering me,” she begs in the chorus, and her piano-led solemn arrangements suddenly fill with an eerie atmosphere.It sounds like an exorcism—or at least a coveted last attempt at it, desperate for it to work.