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.
Miley Cyrus has announced that her album “Something Beautiful,” due May 30, will be a “pop opera” and a “visual experience,” with a film to follow in June. One of its early singles, “End of the World,” is a luxurious pop extravaganza with songwriting collaborators including Jonathan Rado from Foxygen and Molly Rankin and Alec O’Hanley from the group Alvvays. A pumping beat, stacked-up guitars, orchestral underpinnings and a platoon of backup vocals abet Cyrus as she calls for one last, desperate chance at pleasure. “Let’s pretend it’s not the end of the world,” she urges. She probably didn’t know she’d be singing through an economic crisis. JON PARELES
Bruce Springsteen was hoarse and howling when he recorded “Rain in the River,” now released as a preview of “Tracks II: The Lost Albums,” an 83-song collection from his archives that will be released in June. It’s a booming, arena-scale cry of anguish with Springsteen’s guitars pealing, droning and spinning gnarled leads. His character gets spurned, told that “Your love means no more to me than rain in the river.” What happens next is ambiguous — and possibly fatal. PARELES
Layers of fandom inform “Who Believes in Angels?,” the new duet album by Elton John and Brandi Carlile. Carlile grew up as an ardent fan of John’s songwriting and flamboyant gay identity, while the producer Andrew Watt, who collaborated on the songwriting (along with John’s longtime lyricist, Bernie Taupin), spurs longtime musicians to rediscover their youthful spark. The album’s two opening tracks pay tribute to songwriters that John admired: Laura Nyro and, in this song, Little Richard. John, now 78, sings about Little Richard’s swings between carnality and faith, with high harmonies from Carlile, and he pounds out piano chords as a lifetime rock ’n’ roll believer. PARELES
A deadpan near-spoken vocal, bristling bass and guitar riffs and a beat that stomps its way into the chorus: those were the ingredients of the English indie-rock band Wet Leg’s 2021 smash, “Chaise Longue.” The group deploys similar elements in “Catch These Fists,” but trades the drolleries of “Chaise Longue” to contend with a more fraught situation: an unwanted pickup attempt at a club. “I know all too well just what you’re like,” Rhian Teasdale tells the suitor. “I don’t want your love — I just wanna fight.” PARELES
The swaggering Swedish punks the Hives are back — so soon! — with the first single from an album due Aug. 29 called “Play It Again Sam.” The quintet paused after its 2012 LP “Lex Hives” until 2023, when it returned with “The Death of Randy Fitzsimmons.” (“It was like a slow, 10-year-long panic,” the frontman Howlin’ Pelle Almqvist joked then. “It was never an outright panic because we continued to be so immensely popular worldwide.”) “Enough Is Enough” rides four chords and a wave of frustration to a delightfully tuneful bridge. In the video, Almqvist is the king of the ring — until he takes a punch that lands him in the hospital. Like his powder keg of a band, he rallies. CARYN GANZ
Ed Sheeran, ‘Azizam’
Ed Sheeran returns to a familiar scene — the dance floor — with an airy, syncopated tune named for the Persian term for “my beloved.” The track is a collaboration with one of the British artist’s trusted regulars (Johnny McDaid of Snow Patrol), as well as Ilya Salmanzadeh, a Swedish-Iranian writer and producer who’s worked with Ariana Grande, and Savan Kotecha (whose credits include the Weeknd, a seeming influence here). It’s a first taste of album promising global influences that’s due later this year. GANZ
Kin’gongolo Kiniata, ‘Liseki Te’
Kin’gongolo Kiniata means “the crushing sound” in Lingala, the main language in the Democratic Republic of Congo; its debut album, “Kiniata,” arrives on Friday. The band, from Kinshasa, uses its own percussion and string instruments — handmade from materials like plastic bottles and junk metal — and four-part vocal harmonies to create hurtling grooves like the ones in “Liseki Te.” It’s a love song from a narrator who insists on honesty (“no lies, no pretenses”) and its urgency doesn’t just sound personal. PARELES
PinkPantheress, ‘Tonight’
A brisk club groove carries a direct come-on in “Tonight” by PinkPantheress. “You want sex with me? Come talk to me,” she beckons. “You can ruin my makeup,” she adds, and escalates further. “You could even ruin my life.” For all her eagerness, her voice stays almost nonchalant. PARELES
Marina Sena, ‘Numa Ilha’
The Brazilian singer Marina Sena basks in a romantic idyll by the sea in “Numa Ilha” (“On an Island”) from her new album, “Coisas Naturais” (“Natural Things). The track’s easy sway mingles low reverbed guitars with the staccato picking and bongo drums of Dominican bachata, putting contentment in every syncopation. PARELES
BigXthaPlug featuring Bailey Zimmerman, ‘All the Way’
Breakups don’t get any more bitter than this song, a country-rap collaboration that burns every bridge. Modal guitar picking backs Bailey Zimmerman’s opening and closing taunt: “Don’t let me down easy / if you’re gonna leave me, leave me all the way.” Trap drums join the guitar as BigXthaPlug finalizes the separation: “If you leavin’ just leave ‘cause your bag’s gone / Just know you can never come back home.” There’s no reconciliation anywhere in earshot. PARELES
