Latest news with #TheAmplifier
New York Times
25-04-2025
- Entertainment
- New York Times
Lorde Returns With a Nostalgic Breakup Anthem, and 9 More New Songs
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. In her first solo song in four years, after her boffo duet with Charli XCX, Lorde skips back past the guitar-picking, Laurel Canyon sound of her 2021 album, 'Solar Power,' to the keyboards and pumping electronics of her 2017 'Melodrama.' She sings about coming to terms with a breakup and missing past pleasures with someone — kisses, MDMA, a perfect cigarette — but she might also be speaking to her pop audience: 'Since I was 17, I gave you everything.' She brings tremulous drama to the vocals, but despite the synthetic firepower available to Lorde and her fellow producers — Daniel Nigro (Olivia Rodrigo) and Jim-E Stack (Bon Iver) — the track is oddly muted and rounded-off, even where it could explode. Maybe that choice will make more sense within a full album. Keys left behind, door locked, plane boarded — Danielle Haim sings about a decisive breakup in 'Down to Be Wrong' from Haim's next album, 'I Quit,' due June 20. As the song begins, with a chunky beat and a few guitar notes at a time, perhaps there's a hint of hesitancy in her voice. But as more instruments kick in and the miles of distance increase, her voice gets rougher and her certainty only grows. 'I didn't think it would be so easy till I left it behind,' she realizes, and her sisters' vocal harmonies fully agree. Of course Ariana Grande can sing an old jazz standard. She glides through a song from 1931 (by Fred Ahlert and Russ Turk) that has been recorded by the Andrews Sisters, Frank Sinatra and Kate Smith. Grande is one of the guest singers on Jeff Goldblum's album with the vintage-style Mildred Snitzer Orchestra; Goldblum, her 'Wicked' co-star, is on piano, playing a modest, leisurely solo. But the track is hers — a poised, guileless, gently escalating complaint about unrequited affection: 'You never seem to want more romancing / The only time you hold me is when we're dancing.' Understatement, so rare in current country production, burnishes 'The Touch,' a song that promises lasting love. 'As long as we're together, it's more than enough,' Ashley Monroe sings over Marty Stuart's lone acoustic guitar, which is virtually the only accompaniment for the first half of the track. Harmonies blossom and more guitars (and Shelby Lynne on bass) eventually join, but the mood stays pristine. 'Luna' hits a very sweet spot between Afrobeats and reggaeton as Wisin, from Puerto Rico, and Kapo, from Colombia, harmonize on a friendly flirtation: 'Just you and me in this room on a trip to the moon.' The production (by Daramola, a Nigerian musician based in Miami, and Los Legendarios, from Puerto Rico) is an ever-changing matrix of percussion sounds, electronics and vocal harmonies arriving from all directions. It's pure ear candy. Thank you for your patience while we verify access. If you are in Reader mode please exit and log into your Times account, or subscribe for all of The Times. Thank you for your patience while we verify access. Already a subscriber? Log in. Want all of The Times? Subscribe.
New York Times
08-04-2025
- Entertainment
- New York Times
Getting Loud With Sleigh Bells and Beyond
Image Sleigh Bells onstage in 2012. Credit... Phil Sears for The New York Times Jon Pareles here, sitting in while Lindsay is on book leave. This week cranks The Amplifier all the way up — and then further into overload. Sleigh Bells, the duo of Alexis Krauss and Derek Miller, have just released their sixth album, 'Bunky Becky Birthday Boy.' Like the rest of their catalog, the new album is a recombinant bash, slamming together selected elements of loud and louder styles — punk, metal, grunge, hip-hop, electro, glam, garage-rock — with the suddenness of digital edits. Along with their sonic impact, Sleigh Bells songs also deal in emotional extremes, jumping between jubilation and sorrow, exhilaration and despair, deep loneliness and shout-along community. With their first singles in 2009, Sleigh Bells presaged the studio-tweaked, genre-hopping, whiz-bang mash-ups of hyperpop — ideas and strategies that, more than a decade later, are often taken for granted. The juxtapositions are startling; they also hold decades of allusions. This playlist mingles Sleigh Bells songs with what might be the band's influences and protégés — some roots and offshoots, and all pure guesswork. 'Infinity Guitars,' from Sleigh Bells' 2010 debut album, 'Treats,' sets out the band's sound in the rawest lo-fi. Krauss might be singing about toxic masculinity in the terse lyrics she shouts: 'Street wars, straight men / Cowboys, Indians.' Everything is pushed into distortion: guitars, vocals, percussion, stereo handclaps. But with some wordless ah s, Krauss also offers just enough melody to hint at playfulness. ▶ Listen on Spotify, Apple Music or YouTube Thank you for your patience while we verify access. If you are in Reader mode please exit and log into your Times account, or subscribe for all of The Times. Thank you for your patience while we verify access. Already a subscriber? Log in. Want all of The Times? Subscribe.
New York Times
21-03-2025
- Entertainment
- New York Times
The Power of ‘Two': An Anniversary Playlist
Image Dolly Parton Credit... Charlie Riedel/Associated Press Surprise: There's a birthday party in your inbox! Today we're celebrating two years of The Amplifier, with — what else? — a themed playlist. On March 21, 2023, I sent out the first installment of this newsletter, introducing myself with 11 songs that explain my musical perspective and asking readers to submit some of their own favorite tracks. In the time since, I've sent out nearly 200 playlists, shared thousands of songs and received countless submissions when I've asked Amplifier readers to generate their own soundtracks. The community we've created together is vibrant and reciprocal: I may have discovered as much new music through your recommendations as you have through mine. Today's playlist honors the Amplifier's second birthday with eight tracks that feature the word 'two' in the title. In keeping with The New York Times style guide, I stuck with songs that spell out the word 'two,' so my apologies to Sinead O'Connor's 'Nothing Compares 2 U' and Beyoncé's 'II Hands II Heaven,' among plenty of other greats that didn't make the cut. But you will hear classics from the Beatles, Dolly Parton and Bruce Springsteen, as well as more recent and lesser-known tracks from indie singer-songwriters like Mitski and Flock of Dimes. This anniversary is also ushering in a new chapter for this newsletter. Starting next week, I'll be taking a few months off to finish the manuscript of a book I've been working on. I'll miss making these playlist and corresponding with you all, but I'm incredibly excited to get one step closer to a lifelong goal of publishing my first book. Once I'm back, I'll update you on my progress — and probably share my writing playlist with you, too. While I'm out, I have a wonderful lineup of guest writers who will be sending out their own newsletters and playlists each Tuesday, and I'm thrilled for you to see (and hear) what they have in store. Thanks to each and every one of you who has read this newsletter, sampled our playlists and reached out to give us feedback. As always, happy listening. Thank you for your patience while we verify access. If you are in Reader mode please exit and log into your Times account, or subscribe for all of The Times. Thank you for your patience while we verify access. Already a subscriber? Log in. Want all of The Times? Subscribe.
New York Times
21-03-2025
- Entertainment
- New York Times
Japanese Breakfast's Shimmering Sadness, and 8 More New Songs
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. Plucked string tones from all directions create a magical, shimmering cascade around Michelle Zauner's voice in 'Here Is Someone' from the new album by Japanese Breakfast, 'For Melancholy Brunettes (& Sad Women).' The lyrics hint at tensions and anxieties, but the track radiates anticipation: 'Life is sad, but here is someone,' Zauner concludes. JON PARELES Marianne Faithfull, who died in January at 78, kept recording almost to the end. She brought every bit of her scratchy, ravaged, tenacious voice to 'Burning Moonlight,' a song she co-wrote that holds one of her last manifestoes: 'Burning moonlight to survive / Walking in fire is my life.' Acoustic guitars and tambourine connect the music to the 1960s, when she got her start; her singing holds all the decades of experience that followed. PARELES 'Letter From an Unknown Girlfriend' is from the Waterboys album due April 4, 'Life, Death and Dennis Hopper,' and was written by Mike Scott. But it is sung and played by Fiona Apple, alone at the piano, delivering a remembrance of an abusive boyfriend: 'I used to say no man would ever strike me,' it begins, 'And no man ever did 'til I met you.' She admits to the charm of the 'satyr running wild in you,' but her voice rises to a bitter, primal rasp as she recalls the worst. It's a stark, harrowing performance. PARELES Diffidence turns into resolve in the course of 'Sanctuary,' a waltzing duet from 'Every Dawn's a Mountain,' the new album by the Belgian songwriter Tamino-Amir Moharam Fouad. In separate verses, Tamino and Mitski sound fragile, contemplating uncertainty and loss; 'I reside in the ruins of the sanctuary,' Mitski sings. But when they connect — asking 'Is it late where you are?' — and harmonize, an orchestra rises behind them to offer hope. PARELES 'I'm a little crazy, but the world's insane,' the disturbed narrator of Morgan Wallen's new single contends. His character is a drug dealer who keeps a loaded gun nearby. He's sustaining himself 'on antidepressants and lukewarm beers' and yelling at his TV, 'but the news don't change.' Over steadfast acoustic guitar picking and lightly brushed drums, Wallen sings with chilling, sociopathic calm. PARELES The rhythm section from the African rock band Mdou Moctar — Ahmoudou Madassane, Mikey Coltun and Souleymane Ibrahim — has been recording on its own as Takaat, which means 'noise' in Tuareg; an EP is due in April. Takaat's first single, 'Amidinin' ('Friend'), keeps the modal riffing and six-beat propulsion of Mdou Moctar, but cranks up the guitar distortion, slathers on echo and unleashes the drums to sound even more ferocious. PARELES The Toronto-based vocalist and producer Debby Friday won the Polaris Music Prize for her sharp 2023 debut album, 'Good Luck.' She returns with the euphoric electro-pop single '1/17,' a dance-floor confessional that shows off yet another side of her multifaceted talent. 'I swear you're a sign,' Friday sings in an airy atmosphere punctured by percolating synths. The track builds layer atop gauzy layer until it explodes in a burst of club-ready catharsis. LINDSAY ZOLADZ The legacy of 1970s Stevie Wonder suffuses 'Crash,' with cushy chromatic chord changes and a loping synthesizer bass line supplied by the keyboard master (and co-producer) Greg Phillinganes. Saba raps a no-pressure come-on: 'Together we can make time go fast / And if it's late, I hope you might just crash.' And Kelly Rowland, joining in on choruses, sounds perfectly amenable. PARELES Jack Harlow and Doja Cat exchange flirty verses on 'Just Us,' a fast-paced track that forgoes catchy pop choruses and focuses instead on dexterous flows and winking wordplay. 'I know it sounds like Zack and Cody, this life's sweet,' Harlow raps, showing his age with a reference to a mid-2000s Disney Channel show. Corny? Maybe, but Doja's into it: 'You a softy, marshmallows and black coffee,' she counters affectionately. The video is full of celebrity cameos that prove how many people will pick up the phone when Harlow calls: Matt Damon, PinkPantheress, John Mayer and Nicholas Braun. Zack and Cody, alas, are nowhere to be found. ZOLADZ The long-running indie-rock band Deerhoof can be coy or oblique, but it's neither in 'Immigrant Songs,' a response to America's sudden, brutal xenophobia. Satomi Matsuzaki gives voice to unrecognized immigrant labor — drivers, cooks, entertainers — over guitars and drums that lilt and intertwine behind her. But for the second half of this seven-minute track, the instruments just scream. There's no more arguing or persuasion left. PARELES
New York Times
14-03-2025
- Entertainment
- New York Times
Chappell Roan's Bro-Country Tweak and 9 More New Songs
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. Chappell Roan provocatively but persuasively dons country-queen drag on 'The Giver,' her first single in nearly a year, which she previewed on a November episode of 'Saturday Night Live.' Driven by a boot-stomping beat and heavily embroidered with fiddles and banjos, the track is a vividly rendered throwback to country's '90s pop crossover moment — think Shania Twain and the Chicks — though its cheeky lyrics (full of queer innuendo) frame 21st-century bro-country in its cross hairs. 'Ain't no country boy quitter,' Roan winks at a love interest on a rollicking, shout-along chorus that centers female pleasure. 'I get the job done.' 'The Giver' feels like the beginning of the self-assured second chapter of Roan's stardom, since her previous smashes were all sleeper hits that crawled up the charts long after their initial release. But here she's stepping confidently into an expectant spotlight, unbowed by the pressure and ready to fulfill the song's promise: 'Baby, I deliver.' LINDSAY ZOLADZ The Haim sisters, who haven't released an album since 2020, juggle cynicism and connection in a new single, 'Relationships.' The backup is steady-chugging midtempo R&B, with cushy piano chords and a firm backbeat; the lyrics pile on the ambivalence. The sisters ask, 'Don't they end up all the same? When there's no one left to blame?' Seconds later they admit, 'I think I'm in love but I can't stand [expletive] relationships.' Consider it an update of Samuel Johnson's line about a second marriage: 'a triumph of hope over experience.' JON PARELES Playboi Carti has optimized hip-hop for the splintered-attention era of streaming and TikTok. He releases a barrage of one-off singles and features, slinging high-impact sounds and percussive, seconds-long phrases in unpredictable voices. Meanwhile, he's been working on 'I Am Music,' his first full-length album — a 30-track marathon — since 'Whole Lotta Red' in 2020. Among the guests is Kendrick Lamar, who shows up on 'Good Credit' to anoint 'Carti my evil twin.' Lamar raps about his own un-gimmicky integrity and success: 'The numbers is nothing, the money is nothing / I really been him, I promise.' Carti's boasts are more scattershot — women, dangerous associates, drugs — and one is undeniable: 'I got too many flows.' PARELES Doubts and yearning — and electronics and distortion — threaten to overcome Justin Vernon, who performs as Bon Iver, in 'If Only I Could Wait' from his coming album, 'Sable, Fable.' He wonders, 'Can I incur the weight? / Am I really this afraid now?' in one of his majestically hymn-like melodies — a melody that's set atop edgy electronic drums and interrupted by stray guitar lines. Danielle Haim arrives with companionship and sympathy: 'I know that it's hard to keep holding, keep holding strong.' But their verses and vocal lines collide. By the time they find harmony, they conclude they're 'best alone,' more bereft than before. PARELES Willie Nelson's next album, due April 25, is filled with songs from the catalog of Rodney Crowell, who joins him for a duet on the title track: 'Oh What a Beautiful World.' It's an easygoing, well-traveled reflection on life's ups and downs — 'It's a walk in the park, or a shot in the dark' — delivered with Nelson's grizzled, kindly mixture of acceptance and tenacity. PARELES Joy Oladakun reassures a distant lover that 'Even when I'm miles away, my watch is set to wherever you are' and promises to share 'this mortal roller-coaster ride / braiding your sweet dreams with mine.' The rhythm-guitar groove is muted but upbeat — a road song that's cruising along — and as a watch ticks away the moments apart, her voice sounds more than eager for the reunion. PARELES Matt Berninger doesn't make a radical departure from the sound of his longtime band, the National, on 'Bonnet of Pins' from his second solo album; it's robust folk-rock with orchestral backup. Berninger's producer and songwriting collaborator, Sean O'Brien, has also worked on the National's albums. 'Bonnet of Pins' sketches an awkward encounter with an ex; 'I thought I'd find you much quicker than this,' she says, after finishing his drink. 'You must've thought I didn't exist — poor you, I do.' What happens next goes untold, but the guitar hook sounds confident. PARELES The Nigerian songwriter Davido flaunts his success and digs in for more on 'Be There Still.' He boasts, '12 years, I'm still on top' and predicts, 'Fast forward, no rewind.' The production (by Marvey Muzique and Black Culture from Nigeria, and DJ Maphorisa from South Africa) fuses South African amapiano, Nigerian Afrobeats and tendrils of Congolese guitar — more proof of Davido's ever-expanding outreach. PARELES Haley Fohr, the songwriter behind Circuit des Yeux, chants, 'Truth is just imagination of the mind.' Whatever that signifies is secondary to the drone and groove set up by Fohr and her producer, Andrew Broder, abetted by the deep funk bassist Melvin Gibbs. One repeated note and a welter of organ chords, percussion, scratching, guitar licks and bass riffing make for a rhythm track that won't be denied. PARELES In a track that radiates serenity, the Canadian musician Thanya Iyer intones, 'I am here now in my body / Let me be free.' With an unhurried pulse, a subtly droning backdrop, a forest of rustling percussion and hints of Indian inflections rippling across vocals, flute, violin and saxophone, it's a five-minute haven of wellness. PARELES
