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In a genre-spanning display of musicality that’s also a workaholic’s lament, Beyoncé announces her next kingdom to conquer (country, one of her birthrights as a Texan) while remembering her past and doubling down on her ambition. , singing: “Ain’t I got time to waste, I got art to make.” The music is a gritty country crescendo, from acoustic guitar strums to full-band hits topped by pedal steel guitar, along with gospel organ underpinnings and country eighth notes in Beyoncé’s vocal lines. At a time when there is pressure on country music to recognize black roots and current black musicians, Beyoncé isn’t just claiming an expanded demographic base. She’s also using her celebrity influence to force open some doors. JON PARES
Vampire Weekend channels the exhaustion, disillusionment and overload of a generation in “Capricorn,” a stubbornly slow ballad about being “too old to die young” and “searching through centuries for moments of your own” from “Only God Was Above Us,” a new The album will be out on April 5. The music majestically combines chamber pop with churning, screeching noises, then softens into folky resignation. PAIRS
Waxahatchee,’Bored‘
“Back to that” The first single from Waxahatchee’s upcoming album, “Tiger’s Blood,” was a laid-back, midtempo tune that showcased Katie Crutchfield’s casual mastery of a certain kind of vibrant folk. The second single, “Bored,” is something else entirely: a searing, biting country-rock number that allows Crutchfield to channel a serious, here-there attitude. “My benevolence just falls to the ground,” she sings scornfully. “I’m getting bored.” LINDSAY ZOLADZ
Pearl jam,’Dark matter‘
Pearl Jam returns to action with “Dark Matter,” the title track from an upcoming album that kicks off a tour. The drums pound, the guitars line up into hard-hitting riffs; Eddie Vedder complains about demagogues who contrast “your word with the law” and complains that “everyone else pays for everyone else’s mistakes.” Dark matter is misinformation and amorality: ethics, not astrophysics. PAIRS
In the best score-named song since Vampire Weekend’s “Oxford Comma,” serpentwithfeet, songwriter Josiah Wise, and Orion Sun (Tiffany Majette) sing about overcoming the inadequacy of words to the purity of kisses: “When words fail, ellipses, Baby, come kiss me,” they each sing. It’s bossa nova with a hip-hop undertow, making vulnerability seductive. PAIRS
Carolina Polachek, ‘Spring comes with a strawberry in its mouth‘
On Valentine’s Day, exactly one year after releasing her alt-pop opus “Desire, I Want to Turn Into You,” Caroline Polachek released an expanded “Everasking Edition” of the album with seven additional tracks. Along with a cover of “Butterfly Net” from the album now featuring Weyes Blood, the highlight of this deluxe edition is the luminous “Spring Is Coming With a Strawberry in Its Mouth,” a reverent take on a relatively dark track. song by Roger Doyle’s Irish synth-pop band Operating Theatre. Polachek recites the spoken sections of the song with requisite anguish, but the chorus becomes a showcase for his otherworldly falsetto. ZOLADZ
Saya Gray,’AA bouquet for your face 180‘
Canadian songwriter and producer Saya Gray counts down the days since someone abandoned her on “AA Bouquet for Your 180 Face.” Her voice is wry and a little sleepy as she reconsiders the relationship, singing, “I did the impossible to myself so many times / I became a golden arch so you can walk through it.” But her production is alert, hyper-detailed and surreally unpredictable, alternating between electronica, syncopated indie-rock, spacey vocal chorales, distorted guitars and what might be a koto. She may feel alone, but she has resources. PAIRS
Written after enduring one too many bad dates (yes, even Dua Lipa has bad dates), the pointed, sharply cut “Training Season” seethes with romantic frustration even as she dreams of something better: “I need someone to hold me.” closer, deeper than I have ever known.” Presumably the second single from an as-yet-unannounced album, “Training Season” reunites Lipa with Tame Impala’s Kevin Parker, who also produced her previous teaser, “Houdini.” On both tracks, Parker proves himself an adept architect of intriguingly textured surfaces, but amid such careful design, Lipa’s icy vocals become just another element of the structure, rather than an elevator to the emotional depths of the song. ZOLADZ
DBN Gogo and Atmos Blaq featuring Yumbs, Shazmicsoul, Dr. Thulz Mashudu and Leandra.Vert, ‘Uthando‘
South African producer and songwriter DBN Gogo recruited four additional producers (Atmos Blaq plus Yumbs, Shazmicsoul and Dr. Thulz) and two singers, Leandra.Vert and Mashudu, for this song from “Click Bait,” his new album. “Uthando” (“Love”) is an upbeat Amampian number that places a dialogue between the husky-voiced Mashudu and the breathy Leandra.Vert over a subtly mutating, richly layered beat. Amapiano’s sparse bass, electric piano chords and deep register drums combine with an ever-changing array of percussion and a subtle but insistent synth pulse that hints at hidden tensions. PAIRS
King’s wool, ‘Blue skies‘
Let Lana del Rey and producer Jack Antonoff turn Irving Berlin’s proclamation of pure optimism (“nothing but blue skies from now on”) into something nervously prescient. Changing it to a minor key is just the beginning. The beat is upbeat, but Del Rey sings as if she’s looking over her shoulder at something she wishes she could avoid. Soon Antonoff dissolves her voice into echoes and fragmentary, wordless phrases. The mix at the end literally whistles in the dark. PAIRS
Very calmly and clearly, Sasha Alex Sloan, whose first EP, in 2018, was titled “Sad Girl”, denounces a careless and possibly abusive upbringing in “Highlights”. As she plays the guitar austerely, she sings, “I’m not mad anymore about what you did / But who does that to a child?” and she adds, “You love me when it’s easy / You love me when your friends think it’s right.” There’s a survivor’s determination behind her composure. PAIRS