Lambrini Girls, ‘Company Culture’
All things patriarchal, capitalistic and obtuse are targets for Lambrini Girls, the gleefully obstreperous English punk duo Phoebe Lunny and Lilly Macieira. “Company Culture,” a blast at workplace harassment from their debut album, “Who Let the Dogs Out,” revs up instrumentally for nearly a full minute — clattery drums, buzz-bombing bass, dissonant guitar — before Lunny lets loose a brutally sarcastic tirade: “Human resources say I’m asking for it,” she barks. PARELES
Spellling, ‘Portrait of My Heart’
Chrystia Cabral, a California songwriter who records as Spellling, proclaims “I don’t belong here!” with mounting vehemence in “Portrait of My Heart,” which will be the title track of her fourth album, due in March. She sings about a psychological and spiritual crisis — “I need a stroke of luck / ’Cause I kicked down all my angels to the dirt” — in a crescendo of choppy drums, layered guitars and orchestral strings, exulting in the drama. PARELES
Bad Bunny, ‘Baile Inolvidable’
Heartache and heritage mingle on Bad Bunny’s new album, “Debí Tirar Más Fotos” (“I Should Have Taken More Photos”). Like many of its songs, “Baile Inolvidable” (“Unforgettable Dance”) morphs between current and vintage sounds, underscoring the multigenerational continuity of Puerto Rican music. “Baile Inolvidable” begins as a blurred dirge of synthesizer lines and Bad Bunny’s vocals, mourning a lost romance; “I thought we’d grow old together,” he sings in Spanish, and admits, “It’s my fault.” But the track switches to an old-school salsa jam, with organic percussion and horns and a jazzy piano; the lessons of the girlfriend who taught him “how to love” and “how to dance” have stayed with him. PARELES
SZA, ‘What Do I Do’
In “What Do I Do” — from “Lana,” her album-length addition to her album “SOS” — SZA answers her phone to hear an accidentally dialed call and the sounds of her boyfriend with another woman. A lean, finger-snapping track backs her as she grapples with the shock in brief, colliding phrases: old loyalties, new anger, hurt, disgust and the clear realization that “It’ll never be the same again.” PARELES
Cymande featuring Jazzie B, ‘How We Roll’
The Caribbean-rooted British band Cymande, whose first three albums were released in the early 1970s, is about to put out a new one, “Renascence,” after decades of hearing its music recycled as samples. “How We Roll” brings back the group’s hand-played, Afro-Anglo-Caribbean grooves and hardheaded idealism: “We must never lose determination.” Its patient, cymbal-tapping beat and electric-piano chords hint at Miles Davis’s “In a Silent Way,” while the horn lines look toward Fela Anikulapo Kuti’s Afrobeat. And deep-voiced guest raps from Jazzie B, the founder of Soul II Soul, connect across British R&B generations. PARELES
