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The playlist
Listen to songs by Perfume Genius, Lucy Dacus, Bartees Strange and others.
By Jon Pareles
Every Friday, the New York Times’ pop critics take a look at the week’s biggest new songs. Listen to the playlist on Spotify here (or our profile: nytimes) and on Apple Music here, and subscribe to The Amplifier, a twice-weekly consultant of new and old songs.
Saxophonist Marshall Allen, 100, has long carried on the legacy of Sun Ra, the Afrofuturist visionary who claimed to have been from Saturn; has fronted the network’s big band, Arkestra, since Ra’s death in 1993. “New Dawn” is the title track of the first album to name Allen as its leader – a debut from 100 years ago! – and is deeply rooted in the era-melting spirit of Ra. It’s a quiet ballad with jazzy chords, composed by Allen, with lyrics by Knoel Scott that urge: “Rise and seek/listen to the spirit speak. ” Neneh Cherry sings with affectionate calm over sustained strings and a whispering rhythm section, and Allen’s alto saxophone solo treads polytonal, dashing paths.
Two New Orleans stalwarts, the singer Irma Thomas and the band Galactic, have teamed up for an album due in April, “Audience With the Queen.” Its first single, “Lady Liberty,” harks back to the socially conscious funk of Allen Toussaint songs like “Yes We Can Can,” with Thomas declaring, “Time to shuffle these cards that we’ve been dealt and free ourselves / If you don’t do something, you know nothing’s gonna change.” The horns and bass line strut; the lyrics hunker down for a long siege.
Consolation isn’t simple in the steadfast soul ballad “Cry Baby.” In her deep-diving alto, Sunny War sings about how she wishes nothing but the best for a troubled friend, but she also knows that “the pain is real” and it’s necessary to “feel what you feel.” Joined on the chorus by an amiably wandering harmony vocal from Valerie June, the song offers empathy rather than false cheer.
Pressures, insecurities, self-doubt, and a deep preference for acceptance come together on “Wants Needs” by indie-rock singer-songwriter Bartees Strange. Her upcoming album, “Horror,” has a wonderful pop pro on board: maker Jack Antonoff (Taylor Swift, Lorde, Lana Del Rey, Sabrina Carpenter). But “Wants Needs” has an edgy undertone, from its frenetic electric guitar opening to a mid-song hole in a subway, to a direct confession to listeners: “I love you too. “
Perfume Genius — the songwriter Mike Hadreas — juxtaposes opportunity and anxiety, isolation and exploration, in “It’s a Mirror.” He wonders, “What do you get from the stretching horizon?” He knows “My whole life is open just outside the door.” But he also sees “holy terror” when he looks in a mirror. The song is an expansive folk-rock march that’s full of ups and downs, leaving it an open question whether he’ll open that door.
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