The Weeknd's Gloomy but Glittering Pop, and 9 More New Songs

New York Times

31-01-2025

Every Friday, pop critics for The New York Times weigh in on the week's most notable new tracks. Listen to the Playlist on Spotify here (or find our profile: nytimes) and at Apple Music here, and sign up for The Amplifier, a twice-weekly guide to new and old songs.
The Weeknd's quest for the ultimate combination of pop formula and self-destructive misery continues in 'Cry for Me' from his new album, 'Hurry Up Tomorrow.' The song is a suicide note left as a voice message: 'I can see myself and I'm not breathing,' he sings. 'At least you'll play a song when I'm gone.' There's a trap beat, minor-key synthesizers, bits of distorted guitar and pitch-shifted vocals, spanning genres but still sounding oh so alone.
'Gimme some room to breathe — I just need some space from you,' the Jamaican singer Shenseea tells a far too possessive partner in 'Puni Police.' The production by Di Genius has sirens cruising behind a crisp dancehall beat while Shenseea sings and raps about someone who's suspicious enough to track her 'location, AirTaggin' on my purse.' It's counterproductive, of course: 'You can't stop me from cheat if I want cheat,' she warns.
The K-pop star Jennie, from Blackpink, coos, 'I swore I'd never do it again — until you came over,' with a sly tone that mixes a lot of satisfaction with just a tinge of regret. Her partner, Dominic Fike, raps about how he's ducking his responsibilities as a 'baby father.' But the easy swagger of the beat and the cushiony backup vocals suggest that the hookups will continue.
In 2009, before hyperpop had a name, Sleigh Bells — the duo of Alexis Krauss and Derek Miller — were already slamming together power-chord riffs, drum-machine eruptions, synthesizer swoops, perky pop melodies and arena-sized choruses in explosive, catchy non sequiturs. 'Wanna Start a Band?' deploys all those devices, and more, for a song that couples sonic ambushes with a touch of well-earned nostalgia: 'Come and blow the world away / Talk about the good old days,' Krauss sings, in a brief interlude of gentleness.
'Take it apart and build it again,' sing the songwriters and vocalists in Momma, Allegra Weingarten and Etta Friedman. What they've rebuilt in this track is the layered guitars, effects and voices of 1990s rock, from bands like the Breeders, Dinosaur Jr. and Pixies: multitracking, distortion, echo-delays, reversed riffs, all of them stacked and restacked. The song exults in an infidelity that's also a reunion: 'Do you think she knows we're back together?' It equates a musical revival with a rekindled romance.
Will Oldham, who records as Bonnie 'Prince' Billy, calmly ponders mortality in 'Turned to Dust (Rolling On)' from a new album full of grizzled, philosophical songs, 'The Purple Bird.' Recorded with seasoned Nashville sideman, the countryish, organ-infused march 'Turned to Dust,' notes, 'It won't be long till we're gone' and observes, 'When I see the things that man can do / It makes this poor heart break.' The song takes comfort in simple perseverance, in rolling on, but the shakiness in Oldham's voice leaves room for doubts.
Alison Krauss has reconvened her string-centered band, Union Station, for their first album together since 2011; 'Arcadia' is due in March. 'Looks like the End of the Road,' written by Jeremy Lister, is a mournful farewell to 'the world that I know,' a waltz carrying lyrics of misfortune and betrayal. The bitterness is only heightened by the purity of Krauss's voice, answered by Jerry Douglas's measured, melodic slide-guitar solos.
The polymorphous English band Black Country, New Road has been through major upheavals. Its lead singer, Isaac Wood, abruptly left the group days before the release of its 2022 album, 'Ants From Up There,' so the band introduced brand-new material on its subsequent tour. The violinist and guitarist Georgia Ellery takes lead vocals on 'Besties,' which fast-forwards through meters, keys and styles — Baroque harpsichord, march, waltz, music-hall bounce, jazzy dissonances — as Ellery sings about fluctuating relationships, songwriting, TikTok and persistent need: 'I know I want something more.'
Lucrecia Dalt brings her skills as a soundtrack composer to her songs, conjuring spaces and moods with her sound designs. In 'Cosa Rara' ('Strange Thing'), she sings in Spanish about 'the rhythm of desire' over percussion that evokes Afro-Colombian traditions and samples that emerge from shadowy places. At the end, the song downshifts to half speed and takes on some dub echoes as none other than the art-rocker David Sylvian, who was in the new wave band Japan, recites a somber coda: 'I'm vulnerable and I know it / Is that door locked?'
The Congolese musician Jupiter Bokondji and his band, Jupiter & Okwess, bring echoes of funk, psychedelia and salsa to their unmistakably African rock. 'Les Bons Comptes' ('The Good Accounts') — a song denouncing deadbeats from the new album 'Ekoya' — goes bounding ahead with wiry guitar hooks, a parade of lead vocals and a groove that could go on much longer.