10 New Songs You Need to Hear: Khalid, Jay Som, Steve Lacy and More

New York Times

5 hours ago

Khalid, 'In Plain Sight'
With 'In Plain Sight,' Khalid dumps a cheating boyfriend and wonders how he didn't see it coming. While the singer moves from suspicion to ultimatum — 'If you're the type to sneak around / Just leave the keys on your way out' — the music bounces along, springy synth-pop R&B that barely contains his anger.
Dijon, 'Another Baby!'
The songwriter and producer Dijon has been a prominent collaborator with Mk.gee, Bon Iver and Justin Bieber, abetting their experimental impulses. 'Another Baby!' from his second full-length album, 'Baby,' is just as bold. It's a love song with more than a hint of Prince. Dijon gleefully proposes, 'Let's make a baby,' in an overstuffed sonic fun house, with voices and instruments constantly popping out of nowhere: wriggly synthesizers, plinking pianos, clanky percussion, all in the service of lusty commitment.
Steve Lacy, 'Nice Shoes'
The songwriter, producer and one-man studio band Steve Lacy emerged from the 2010s group called the Internet to make loose-limbed, low-fi, singsong tracks like his 2022 TikTok blockbuster, 'Bad Habit.' In 'Nice Shoes,' his first new song since 2022, he sets up a loop with a breakbeat, three chords, a child's shout and a stratospheric keyboard hook. He starts out singing about idle lust, but then swerves into a slow-groove, vocal-harmony invitation to 'let down your guard and be honest.' Then he brings back a noisily distorted version of the loop and a suddenly desperate plea: 'Make it stop!' Those non sequiturs aren't so casual after all.
T.P. Orchestre Poly-Rythmo, 'Trop Parler, C'est Maladie'
In the 1970s, T.P. Orchestre Poly-Rythmo — a band from Benin that mingled highife, rumba, funk, psychedelia and far more — recorded a trove of albums that were only released locally. Now the label Acid Jazz UK is releasing them, and they're a joy, with songs that run the length of an LP side and could easily have gone longer. 'Trop Parler, C'est Maladie' ('Talking Too Much Is a Disease') is a breezy, upbeat tune with a mesh of guitars that looks toward both Congolese pop and psychedelia; it stays airborne for 16 minutes.
Jay Som and Mini Trees, 'Cards on the Table'
Jay Som (Melina Duterte) sings about an eroding friendship, or perhaps a romance, in 'Cards on the Table.' The track places a wistful, breathy melody atop a nervous electronic pulse, while backup vocal harmonies — from Duterte and Mini Trees (Lexi Vega) — billow behind her like chemtrails. In a few verses, the singer moves from hunch — 'You give just enough to keep me around' — to certainty: 'Say it: You let me down,' she realizes.
Hannah Frances, 'Surviving You'
In 'Surviving You,' Hannah Frances sings that she's 'Smoldering as the rage lingers longer / There's nothing more to give toward forgiveness.' A 5/4 beat creates a heaving momentum that's compounded with layered, staggered vocals and a pileup of guitars, reed instruments and feedback. Even as she furiously breaks away, she admits to a contrary pull; the song's final lyric is a repeated word: 'homesick.'
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