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Baby Rose featuring Elmiene: ‘Is This Love’
Baby Rose agonizes over romance in vintage style on her new album, “Yearnalism.” Her torn, tremulous contralto is framed by an old-school soul band and genteel orchestral arrangements in “Is This Love.” She exchanges doubts and questions — “Is this the way it’s meant to be?” — with Elmiene, a British-Sudanese singer with an aching tenor that glides into falsetto. Their only conclusion is, “I don’t know.”
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The Linda Lindas and Hayley Williams, ‘Closer’
“I’m overthinking again,” the chorus proclaims, as Hayley Williams of Paramore joins one of the many bands she has inspired, the Linda Lindas. “Closer” — from an album due Aug. 28 — demonstrates what the younger band learned from Paramore: the churn of guitars behind clear melodies, the drama of switching in and out of half-speed and the power of acknowledging distress in order to push through it.
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Jack White, ‘There’s Nobody There’
Jack White’s new album, “Frozen Charlotte,” revels in loud, lean, throwback riff-rock, often with guitar, drums and vocals yowling and pounding in crisp unison. “There’s Nobody There” desperately bemoans being ignored: “I’m shooting up a flare / I’m sending the smoke signals through the air / But there’s nobody there.” That failure to communicate just makes him more frantic.
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Kelela featuring PinkPantheress, ‘The Bridge’
The nearest approach to pop on Kelela’s third album, “New Avatar,” is “The Bridge,” a duet with PinkPantheress, and it still conveys open-ended obsession. In two-syllable bursts over two circling chords, Kelela sings about an ecstatic encounter: “First time, so right, my nook all night.” A double-time rhythmic undercurrent, and the verse from PinkPantheress, show the excitement that’s barely concealed under a serene surface.
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Destin Conrad, ‘Nervous’
Born in Florida to a Jamaican mother, Destin Conrad plays with and expands what R&B and reggae can do. “Nervous” is a boast about the singer’s money, charisma and women — typical stuff. But in Louie Lastic’s production, the track is paced by a loop of a Chinese folk song about legendary lovers, while the reggae beat is sketched almost purely by implication. Stereo tambourines, a few bass notes, scattered percussion accents and bursts of backup vocals create transparent propulsion.
