Sleigh Bells, ‘Bunky Pop’
The latest blast from the Sleigh Bells album due in April, “Bunky Becky Birthday Boy,” memorializes Alexis Krauss’s dog, who died in 2023. “Nights are long here without you,” she sings. But the song is manic and upbeat, swerving from electro to power-chorded pop, with eruptions of thrash drumming and tangents of dissonance — mourning by celebrating. PARELES
Mamalarky, ‘#1 Best of All Time’
Mamalarky makes musicianly antics sound nonchalant on its new album, “Hex Key.” The singer and guitarist Livvy Bennett breezes through the self-satisfaction of “#1 Best of All Time,” declaring, “I always win even when I fall.” Her voice stays casual (and doesn’t worry about being a little flat) while the beat hurtles ahead and the chords take unlikely chromatic turns. The biggest boast is making it sound so easy. PARELES
Selena Gomez, Benny Blanco, Gracie Adams, ‘Call Me When You Break Up’
The professional fiancés Selena Gomez and Benny Blanco invite a third onto their upcoming collaborative album, “I Said I Love You First,” with this breathy Gracie Abrams feature. Regardless of the fact that “Call Me When You Break Up” is a conceptually confusing sentiment for a record that seems to be celebrating the singer Gomez and the producer Blanco’s love story, Ariana Grande did it first, and with more attitude. ZOLADZ
McKinley Dixon featuring Anjimile and Quelle Chris, ‘Sugar Water’
McKinley Dixon, a rapper from Richmond, Va., is a maximalist who regularly surrounds himself with live musical arrangements and hearty backup singers. In “Sugar Water,” from an album due in June titled “Magic, Alive!,” he wishes for and then witnesses the resurrection of a friend. The track deploys a springy, Latin-tinged jazz vamp, riffing horns and fervent vocal harmonies. “Can’t believe that I was finished,” says the returnee. “No time to waste — let’s get back in it.” PARELES
Emma-Jean Thackray featuring Kassa Overall, ‘It’s Okay’
The rolling six-beat vamp behind “It’s Okay” rushes and then relaxes, underlining the song’s anti-stress message: “Everything’s OK but you gotta feel it,” the rapper and drummer Kassa Overall advises. Emma-Jean Thackray overdubs herself into a one-woman jazz combo — trumpet, bass, keyboards, drums — and backup chorus, then offers her own rapped and sung admonition: “Don’t you worry ’bout a thing.” PARELES
