Becky G knows better than to keep returning, like a boomerang, to a liar who doesn\u2019t love her \u2014 but she can\u2019t resist. And the ingenious, rhythm-forward production of \u201cBoomerang\u201d makes her obsession sound like a village-wide celebration, with the plink of a thumb piano, flamenco-like handclaps, a thudding reggaeton bass line and a rowdy backup chorus that cheerfully supports her misplaced affections.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n

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In \u201cFire Excape,\u201d Zsela croons what turns out to be a love song \u2014 but only eventually, after she notes, \u201cThere\u2019s a fire in the ocean when the oil starts spilling.\u201d The song takes shape over a lurching, stop-stop beat, with some gaping silences, odd harmonic turns and sudden electronic surges, but amid the asymmetries Zsela proffers some husky reassurance: \u201cWe\u2019ll get along quite fine, thank you.\u201d<\/p>\n

Willow, \u2018Symptom of Life\u2019<\/span><\/h3>\n<\/div>\n
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Willow Smith ponders self-knowledge, reinvention, mortality and beauty in \u201cSymptom of Life\u201d: \u201cLooking into the shadow\/now I notice the light,\u201d she sings. \u201cMagic is real when you see it inside.\u201d It\u2019s a meter-shifting math-pop tune, with Willow\u2019s voice blithely hopscotching amid jazzy piano clusters, brisk drumming and a bass countermelody, vigorously affirming that her search for meaning continues.<\/p>\n
Tierra Whack, \u2018Numb\u2019<\/span><\/h3>\n<\/div>\n
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Six years after she released her 15-song, 15-minute EP, \u201cWhack World,\u201d the rapper, singer and video auteur Tierra Whack is releasing her full-length album, \u201cWorld Wide Whack,\u201d which veers from boasting and absurd humor to troubled reflections on her mental health. \u201cNumb\u201d is joyless: a recitation of mental-health symptoms over inhuman, pulsating synthesizer chords. Other songs on the album suggest she has overcome her malaise, but this track memorializes it.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n
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A snappy jungle break beat propels Nia Archives as she explores a nagging, growing conviction about her partner: \u201cI got a feelin\u2019 you have unfinished business somewhere else.\u201d Her voice moves from feigned nonchalance to simmering annoyance; \u201cNobody comes with a clean slate,\u201d she allows, but clearly her patience is limited.<\/p>\n
Beans, \u2018Zwaard 2\u2019<\/span><\/h3>\n<\/div>\n
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The rapper Beans, formerly of Anti-Pop Consortium, faces turning 50 with adamant defiance on his new album, \u201cZwaard,\u201d which doesn\u2019t bother with individual song titles. Zwaard is Finnish for sword, and the album is Beans\u2019s collaboration with the Finnish producer Sasu Ripatti, who also records as Vladislav Delay, among other pseudonyms. Ripatti backs Beans with hectic, abrasive tracks akin to Chicago footwork; \u201cZwaard 2\u201d is a fusillade of bent bell tones, punching-bag beats and wordless singsong voices. Beans writes lyrics that veer between rap rhymes and spoken-word exposition in a constant rush. In \u201cZwaard 2,\u201d he juggles self-mythologizing, stark autobiography and glimpses of politics and psychology. He notes his receding hairline and promises to be \u201cone of the flyest MCs on AARP,\u201d and he insists, \u201cWhat I am is both the pen and the sword, the disciple and the lord.\u201d<\/p>\n
Ernest and Jelly Roll, \u2018I Went to College\/I Went to Jail\u2019<\/span><\/h3>\n<\/div>\n
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False equivalency tops a slick country waltz in \u201cI Went to College\/I Went to Jail.\u201d In the lyrics, Ernest (college) and Jelly Roll (jail) play up contrasts \u2014 \u201cI could have been a doctor\/I should have been dead\u201d \u2014 but both are proud to have arrived on Music Row, backed by fiddle and pedal steel: a Nashville happy ending.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n
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Allison Russell gathered a choir of three-dozen singers \u2014 including Brittany Howard, Brittney Spencer, Devon Gilfillian, Amanda Shires, Maren Morris, Brandi Carlile and Emmylou Harris \u2014 for a single to support the candidacy of State Representative Gloria Johnson, Democrat of Tennessee, for U.S. Senate. It\u2019s a slow-rolling, gospelly song that invokes civil-rights watchwords, worries over gun violence and exhorts, \u201cWe\u2019ve come so far, so far\/but there\u2019s so much left to do.\u201d<\/p>\n
Willie Nelson, \u2018The Border\u2019<\/span><\/h3>\n<\/div>\n
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Never one to avoid a fraught subject, Willie Nelson chose \u201cThe Border\u201d \u2014 a song Rodney Crowell co-wrote and first recorded on his 2019 album \u201cTexas\u201d \u2014 as the title song of his next album. It\u2019s a Tex-Mex bolero narrated by a Border Patrol officer who has witnessed smuggling, corruption and desperation. \u201cFrom the shacks and the shanties come the hungry and poor,\u201d he sings, \u201cSome to drown at the crossing\/Some to suffer no more.\u201d Nelson digs almost unrecognizably low in his range, sounding scarred and gruff and resigned: \u201cIt\u2019s just the border, you know,\u201d the chorus concludes.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n
<\/div>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
Becky G knows better than to keep returning, like a boomerang, to a liar who doesn\u2019t love her \u2014 but she can\u2019t resist. And the ingenious, rhythm-forward production of \u201cBoomerang\u201d makes her obsession sound like a village-wide celebration, with the plink of a thumb piano, flamenco-like handclaps, a thudding reggaeton bass line and a rowdy<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":46309,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[41],"tags":[],"amp_enabled":true,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/manitimes.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/46308"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/manitimes.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/manitimes.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/manitimes.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/manitimes.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=46308"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/manitimes.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/46308\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/manitimes.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/46309"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/manitimes.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=46308"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/manitimes.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=46308"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/manitimes.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=46308"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}