In 2000, Radiohead tore up the old pompous assumptions of Britpop. With the sessions that gave rise to the albums “Kid A” and “Amnesiac”, the group followed their more artistic and experimental leanings and turned inward at the same time. “If You Say the Word” is a song the band completed but abandoned, which will appear on their extended reissue “Kid A Mnesia”. Their sound is still relatively alive – a band with a stable drummer that goes minimalist – with lyrics that envision entombment and release. JON PARELES

Producer Max Martin may have coined the phrase “melodic mathematics ”, but Ed Sheeran absolutely embodies it in his lyrics, music and production. “Shivers” is just filled with pop trigger words – love, heart, fire, kiss, party, car, dance, sunlight, soul, “tear me up”, “lipstick on my guitar”, “all day long and all night, “” do it like that “- backed up by a track that pulls pizzicato strings and flamenco handclaps over a solid four-chord structure. If computers dance or fall in love, this is their song. PARÉLES

A sweet track about the one who ran away, “23” tells about how the power of memory is sometimes more than enough. Sung melancholy but without meanness, Sam Hunt remembers a love that evolved in a different direction, and it seems almost as calming to remember their good times together as to imagine how his future might have turned out: “J ‘really hope you’re happy now / I’m really glad to know you when. JON CARAMANICA

Lisa, ‘Lalisa’

Lisa of Blackpink’s first solo single is politely exuberant and bubbly. Perhaps the most agile rapper in her group, she weaves her way through this hard-hitting and vibrant song. It’s an extension of a familiar brand, with a dash of innovation when the runway and video nod to Lisa’s Thai heritage. CARAMANIC

Yebba, ‘Boomerang’

Yebba (singer and songwriter Abigail Elizabeth Smith) recalls vintage 1960s pop and soul on her debut album, “Dawn”. In “Boomerang”, she sings an inevitable revenge for the man who, she realized too late, “would drag me to hell”. She gathers her rage in a spaghetti-western piece, with distant percussions, castanets and orchestral accents; his hook “whoo-oo-oo-oo” swirls like a boomerang. PARÉLES

Jazzmeia Horn and her noble strength, “Where’s the freedom?” “

Singer and songwriter Jazzmeia Horn closes her new album, the rousing effort of the big band “Dear Love”, with “Where Is Freedom !?”, carrying a message of self-liberation on a groove that could have come out of it. ‘a soul record from the 1970s. “What does it mean to go upstairs after you have started your journey?” / You might lose all your friends to be free, ”she sings defiantly, as the track nears its top and the harmonies of horns gather behind it. GIOVANNI RUSSONELLO

Sleigh Bells, ‘True Seekers’

How does a band built for brash, brilliant and provocative pop approach times of pandemic? Boldly and knowingly, invoking his usual muscle and melody – the drum machine beats and loud guitars of Derek Miller behind Alexis Krauss’ chipper vocals – but now, on his new album “Texis”, with lyrics that denote dread and mortality: “Strip away armor, take away the fear / I think I lost it, but here it is again,” Krauss sings. “I will find my way out of the grave. PARÉLES

ÃŒfé, ‘Fake Blood’

The genre-devouring group ÃŒfé is a revelation. His new song, “Fake Blood,” is a reminder of the boundless promise of music, bringing together Yoruba Auto-Tuned prayer, the constant shaking of a maraca and a thumping bass in a meditation on colonialism, violence policewoman and mass shootings. Over snapping hand percussion, deep bass and razor sharp synth hits, the band asks: “Qué es lo que pasa aquí?” (“What’s going on here?”) Drawing on sounds and styles from across the African Diaspora, this is an exercise in divination – a request to imagine a better future, here, now. ISABELIA HERRERA

Fivio stranger, “Storytime”

Brooklyn’s early exercise waves were light on storytelling, so Fivio Foreign’s breakout performance on Kanye West’s “Donda” album came as a shock. “Story Time” emphasizes that its narrative gifts are here to stay. This is the story of a young man in prison faced with unthinkable choices: “He was a little fish when he jumped into the water / then he became a shark. »CARAMANIQUE

Like the neon glow of an underground lounge bar, Tirzah’s Hive Mind sparkles in cool tranquility. A bass drum resonates under oblique synths and dog barking. Tirzah and singer Coby Sey offer a serene, call-and-answer conversation: “But who were we / Do we see things through?” At the end of the song, the question is apparently left unanswered. The effect is a bit haunting and a bit loose, and all the more hypnotic. HERRERA

Saint Etienne, ‘House of the Pond’

Saint Etienne, who arrived in the 1990s as a suave, optimistic and hollow corollary of trip-hop, is downright dark on his album “I’ve Been Trying to Tell You”, presented as the music for the film of the same name. . “Pond House” meditates in a wide open soundscape, with a vocal sample of Natalie Imbruglia’s “Beauty on the Fire” – “Here it come again / Cannot outrun my desire” – hovering above a reggae beat and d ‘a bass line, like percussion and the sounds of gulls open the horizon. PARÉLES

Aakash Mittal, ‘Nocturne III’

Visiting Kolkata, India years ago, saxophonist Aakash Mittal took inspiration from the haunting energy and vibrant soundscape of the night in this crowded city, and strove to write music that captures the feeling. He ended up living there for almost two years and left with a book of compositions which he called his “nocturnes”. On “Nocturne III” he was specifically thinking of how drivers use their car horns – freely, as a form of chatty communication – while taking inspiration from the Carnatic Bageshri raga. Mittal and his trio (guitarist Miles Okazaki and mrudangam drummer Rajna Swaminathan) play in unison, repeating an increasingly urgent rhythm at one pitch before jumping to the next, like different cars stuck in a traffic jam. RUSSONELLO

Haley Fohr, the songwriter and singer who records under the Circuit des Yeux name, brings a sense of loss to the lyrical drama in “Sculpting the Exodus” from her October 22 album, “-io”. It’s an elegy that begins with a modest and resounding harpsichord motif and swells to an overwhelming orchestral peak in a whirlwind of ghostly voices, as Fohr clings to some sort of memorial, singing “The Signal Goes On.” to repeat itself ”. PARÉLES

Sarah Davachi, ‘Abeyant’

“Abeyant”, a new work by experimental luminary Sarah Davachi, is deeply respectful of time. The song is simple but powerful: for seven minutes, the band’s fuzz hovers under piano keys and subdued synths, repeating, suspending and cradling the melody in a sort of prolonged and decomposed aria. It’s the kind of music that demands repeated listening, inspiring us to listen attentively, deeply, and intimately to what may seem like just texture, but which holds the promise of deep contemplation beneath the surface. HERRERA