Sleigh Bells, ‘Wanna Start a Band?’
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.
Momma, ‘I Want You (Fever)’
“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.
Bonnie ‘Prince’ Billy, ‘Turned to Dust (Rolling On)’
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 & Union Station, ‘Looks like the End of the Road’
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.
Black Country, New Road, ‘Besties’
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.”
