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    Machine Gun Kelly’s Pop-Punk Pivot

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    Subscribe to Popcast!Apple Podcasts | Spotify | StitcherOne of the most unlikely pop music twists of the last couple of years has been the ascent of Machine Gun Kelly, who recently released “Mainstream Sellout,” his second consecutive No. 1 pop-punk album following a career of decreasing returns in the hip-hop world.The roots of this success predate his musical shift: in the mid-to-late 2010s hip-hop began flirting with pop-punk and emo thanks to the early waves of SoundCloud rap. Some of the most creatively successful practitioners of that era, namely Juice WRLD and Lil Peep, made influential music but unfortunately did not live to see the full scale of their impact. That left a vacuum, into which Machine Gun Kelly and others have stepped.On this week’s Popcast, a conversation about Machine Gun Kelly’s pop-punk pivot, the arc of his prior career in hip-hop and the behind-the-boards work of the drummer Travis Barker, who has been an influential engine of the current pop-punk revival.Guests:Meaghan Garvey, who writes about music for Billboard and othersArielle Gordon, who writes about music for Pitchfork and othersConnect With Popcast. Become a part of the Popcast community: Join the show’s Facebook group and Discord channel. We want to hear from you! Tune in, and tell us what you think at popcast@nytimes.com. Follow our host, Jon Caramanica, on Twitter: @joncaramanica. More

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      Ed Sheeran’s Glossy Late-Night Pop, and 12 More New Songs

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      Hear tracks by Willow, Helado Negro, Low and others.Every Friday, pop critics for The New York Times weigh in on the week’s most notable new songs and videos. Just want the music? Listen to the Playlist on Spotify here (or find our profile: nytimes). Like what you hear? Let us know at theplaylist@nytimes.com and sign up for our Louder newsletter, a once-a-week blast of our pop music coverage.Ed Sheeran, ‘Bad Habits’In the video for his new single “Bad Habits,” Ed Sheeran boldly declares, “We live in a society.” Though I could have lived my life contentedly without ever seeing the British musician dressed as a glittery, high-flying hybrid of the Joker, Edward Cullen and Elton John, the track itself is a reminder of Sheeran’s knack for sleek songcraft. “My bad habits lead to late nights, sitting alone,” he sings over the kind of brooding chords and insistent, minimalist beat that suggests that pop music will continue to exist in the shadow of the Weeknd’s “After Hours” for at least another trip around the sun. “Bad Habits” doesn’t quite have the fangs that its video incongruously promises, but it’s a well-executed, safe-bet pop song squarely in Sheeran’s comfort zone, which is to say that it already sounds like a smash. LINDSAY ZOLADZWillow, ‘Lipstick’Willow Smith’s swerve into rock continues, abetted by the drums of Travis Barker from Blink-182. Their first collaboration, “Transparent Soul,” was straightforwardly vengeful pop-punk that proved she could belt. “Lipstick” is more idiosyncratic, with angular vocal lines overlapping stop-start guitar blasts of thick, jazzy chords. The sentiments are more complicated, too, juggling confusion, pain and euphoria; it’s cranked up loud, but it’s full of second thoughts. JON PARELESColleen Green, ‘I Wanna Be a Dog’The Los Angeles indie musician Colleen Green has a history of playfully talking back to her punk elders: The title of her first album riffed on that of an iconic Descendents record and featured a song called “I Wanna Be Degraded”; in 2019, she released a gloriously lo-fi cover album of Blink-182’s “Dude Ranch.” So judging by its name, the first single from her forthcoming album “Cool” would seem to be a provocative sneer in the direction of a certain Stooges classic. Except it’s not, really: “I Wanna Be a Dog” is instead a catchy, funny and straightforwardly earnest song about … how nice it would be to be a dog. In a voice that balances self-deprecation with wry humor, Green figures she’s already halfway there: “Each year aging more quickly, but I always still feel so naïve/And I get so bored when no one’s playing with me.” ZOLADZWye Oak, ‘Its Way With Me’Jenn Wasner has released an extraordinary album this year, “Head of Roses,” in her solo guise as Flock of Dimes. Back in Wye Oak, her longtime duo with Andy Stack, she continues to merge intricate music with openhearted emotion. In the gorgeous “Its Way With Me,” a rippling seven-beat guitar line circles throughout the song, as horns and strings waft in and out and Wasner sings, with aching determination, about accepting what life might bring yet staying true to herself. PARELESWet Leg, ‘Chaise Longue’“Chaise Longue” is the semi-absurdist and deliriously catchy debut single from Wet Leg, an intriguing new duo from the Isle of Wight. In their sound and in the self-directed video for this song, Rhian Teasdale and Hester Chambers are agents of controlled, charismatic chaos. “Chaise Longue” struts a fine line between deadpan restraint and zany freakout, faux-naivety and winking knowingness (“I went to school and I got the big D … I got the big D”). They’re one of those new bands whose sound and aesthetic seem to have arrived fully formed, promising exciting if totally unpredictable things to come. ZOLADZHelado Negro, ‘Gemini and Leo’The music of Helado Negro (Roberto Carlos Lange) has always had a bit of an interstellar quality to it: soft, sci-fi hymns that harness the medicinal possibilities of sound and melody. For “Gemini and Leo,” the new single from his forthcoming album “Far In,” the Brooklyn artist fully ascends into a world of galactic disco. Glossy synths and a syncopated bass line shimmer into a prismatic dance-floor strut. “We can move in slow motion. We can take our time in cosmic balance,” Lange hums. It’s a reminder to embrace tenderness and affection — in love, but also in our relationship to a world still coming to terms with a year of grief. ISABELIA HERRERAHyzah, ‘Dan Mi (Pass Me the Lighter)’Hyzah, a 19-year-old Nigerian rapper and singer, has followed through on a 49-second street-side freestyle that got hundreds of thousands of views after a signal boost from Drake, who must have appreciated both its melodic hook and its sprint into double-time rapping. “Dan Mi” turns the freestyle into a full-length song. As Hyzah sings about trouble, flirtation and ganja, he fills out the song’s modal melody above a peppery Afrobeats track, produced by Ogk n’ Steaks, that sends percussion, voices and synthesized horns ricocheting across the beat in a rush of cross-rhythms. PARELESLow, ‘Days Like These’The new Low song is almost unbearably stirring, a meditation on hope and decay that sounds like a pop-gospel track run through William Basinski’s “Disintegration Loops.” If “Double Negative” from 2018 proved that these indie lifers were still finding uncharted frontiers in their spacious sound nearly three decades into their band’s existence, this first taste of their forthcoming album “Hey What” shows once again that they’re not finished discovering exhilaratingly new ways to sound exactly like themselves. ZOLADZJazmine Sullivan, ‘Tragic’“Tragic” picks up the thread Jazmine Sullivan started on her excellent 2021 album “Heaux Tales,” a record as multi-vocal and casually chatty as a particularly active group chat. “Why do you be looking for me to do all the work?” Sullivan sings here in a weary voice, addressing the less-giving half of a lopsided relationship. But the chorus finds her asserting her own solution, in the form of a tuneful and infectious mantra: “Reclaim, reclaim, reclaiming my time.” ZOLADZJim Lauderdale, ‘Memory’A final collaboration between Robert Hunter, the Grateful Dead’s lyricist who died in 2019, and Jim Lauderdale, who also wrote many songs with him, is, fittingly, an Americana elegy: “You’re with me wherever I go, deep down inside my soul.” The music is twangy and somber, a march floated by pedal steel guitar, and many lines begin with a grainy, fervent hope: “Long live …” PARELESMabe Fratti, ‘Nadie Sabe’Mabe Fratti is a composer, cellist and singer from Guatemala who now lives in Mexico, and “Nadie Sabe” (“Nobody Knows”) is from her new album “Será que Ahora Podremos Entendernos?”: “Will we be able to understand each other now?” Fratti works with layers of repeating cello motifs, plucked and bowed; with layers of guileless vocals, verbal and wordless; and with keyboards that spotlight or float against her Minimalist structures. There are echoes of songwriters like Arthur Russell and Juana Molina. In “Nadie Sabe,” she sings about the moon, about presence and disorientation, about dark dreams and shifting realities; the pulse of the music carries her through them all. PARELESMarc Ribot’s Ceramic Dog, ‘Maple Leaf Rage’On parts of “Hope,” the guitarist Marc Ribot’s new album with his trio Ceramic Dog, the band works like a hyperactive jukebox, stuffing its original tunes with rock ’n’ roll references, reggae guitar, half-rapped lyrics that hark back to the Beats and occasional jam-band grooves. The second half of the album is quieter and less peripatetic. The band might be at its most concise on the album’s longest track, “Maple Leaf Rage,” a Ribot tune that has been in its book for years. For the first half of these 13 minutes and 30 seconds, the trio plays as if at a secret meeting, the drummer Ches Smith using brushes and the bassist Shahzad Ismaily playing in unforced, staccato chords. Then a beat kicks in, Ribot trades in his reverb for a heavy dose of distortion and the band starts marching. GIOVANNI RUSSONELLOEli Keszler, ‘The Accident’Eli Kezler, who has provided ultraprecise percussion for Oneohtrix Point Never, is also a composer on his own. His new solo album, “Icons,” is filled with instrumental pieces that are suspended between nervous energy and what might be post-apocalyptic calm. “The Accident” wraps brisk quasi-breakbeats in thoroughly ambiguous electric-piano chords and slow-motion whooshes, hurtling ahead toward unknown consequences. PARELES More

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      Billie Eilish’s Portrait of Power Abuse, and 11 More New Songs

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      Hear tracks by Willow featuring Travis Barker, girl in red, DJ Khaled featuring Cardi B, and others.Every Friday, pop critics for The New York Times weigh in on the week’s most notable new songs and videos. Just want the music? Listen to the Playlist on Spotify here (or find our profile: nytimes). Like what you hear? Let us know at theplaylist@nytimes.com and sign up for our Louder newsletter, a once-a-week blast of our pop music coverage.Billie Eilish, ‘Your Power’Cozy, pristine, Laurel Canyon-style acoustic guitars accompany Billie Eilish as she whisper-sings “Try not to abuse your power.” Then she proceeds to sketch a creepy, controlling, exploitative and possibly illegal relationship. The quietly damning accusations pile up: “You said she thought she was your age/How dare you?” Meanwhile, in the video that she directed, an anaconda slowly tightens around her. JON PARELESWillow featuring Travis Barker, ‘Transparentsoul’The return of Willow — daughter of Will and Jada — is brisk, breezy pop-punk throbbing with a very particular sort of famous-child agonizing. She lashes out at deceptive former friends (and maybe some current ones, too) who “smile in my face then put your cig out on my back.” JON CARAMANICAgirl in red, ‘Serotonin’Whatever slams, girl in red — the Norwegian songwriter Marie Ulven — can use it. In “Serotonin,” from her new album “If I Could Make It Go Quiet,” she sings about trying to stabilize her wildly whipsawing, self-destructive emotions with therapy and medications: “Can’t hide from the corners of my mind/I’m terrified of what’s inside,” she announces. The music veers from punk-pop guitars to EDM crescendos and bass drops, from distorted rapping to ringing choruses, only to crumble as it ends. PARELESDJ Khaled featuring Cardi B, ‘Big Paper’It is perhaps the strongest testament to the A&R savvy of DJ Khaled that on an album filled with glossy cameos from Megan Thee Stallion and Lil Baby, and contemplative elder moments from Nas and Jay-Z, he opts to include the endlessly charismatic and exceedingly famous Cardi B on “Big Paper,” a song that sounds like she’s rapping on an old D.I.T.C. beat. It’s relentless, sharp-tongued and slick: “House with the palm trees for all the times I was shaded.” CARAMANICAQ, ‘If You Care’The power of “If You Care” isn’t in the conventional come-on of lyrics like “If you care you’ll come a little closer.” It’s in the persistent rhythmic displacement, top to bottom: the way beat, bass line, vocals and rhythm guitar each suggest a different downbeat, enforcing disorientation from the bottom up. They only align when the vocals turn to rapping at the end; it had to finish somewhere. PARELESPriscilla Block, ‘Sad Girls Do Sad Things’If you didn’t know better, you’d think the young country singer Priscilla Block was perennially gloomy, the sum of one bad decision after the next. That’s the mood on her impressive debut EP, which is sturdy, shamelessly pop-minded and full of songs about regret like “Sad Girls Do Sad Things”:Don’t get me wrong, I love a beer on a FridayBut lately I’ve been at the bar more than my placeAnother round of shutting it downTwo-for-ones ’til too far goneBlock has a crisp and expressive voice, and she telegraphs anguish well. But this EP skips over the rowdy cheer and randy winks of her breakthrough single, “Thick Thighs.” Which is to say, there’s more to Block’s story than heartbreak. CARAMANICABrye, ‘I’d Rather Be Alone’The teenage pop songwriter and producer Brye Sebring lilts through the wreckage of an overlong relationship in “I’d Rather Be Alone.” Everything is crisp: her diction, her rhymes and the pinging syncopations of an arrangement that builds from single keyboard tones through percussion and handclaps to teasing back-and-forth harmonies. “I doubt you’ll even bother listening to this song,” she notes, one more good reason to break free. PARELESHalf Waif, ‘Swimmer’The drama never stops building in “Swimmer,” from the coming album “Mythopoetics” by Half Waif: the electronics-driven songwriter Nandi Rose Plunkett. It’s a song about everlasting love — “they can’t take this away from me,” she vows — that evolves from an anxious rhythmic pulse to a chordal anthem, all larger than life. PARELESChristian McBride, ‘Brouhaha’The eminent bassist Christian McBride has just released “The Q Sessions,” a three-song collection that he recorded in high-definition for Qobuz, an audiophile streaming platform. The EP features three top-flight improvising musicians who, like McBride, tend to play their instruments in hi-def already: the saxophonist Marcus Strickland, the guitarist Mike Stern and the drummer Eric Harland. The group chases McBride’s syncopated bass line through the ever-shifting funk of “Brouhaha,” which he clearly wrote with Stern — and his roots on the frisky 1980s fusion scene — in mind. GIOVANNI RUSSONELLOJen Shyu and Jade Tongue, ‘Living’s a Gift — Part 2: Everything for Granted’The singer, composer and multi-instrumentalist Jen Shyu draws on jazz, Asian music and much more. Her new album, “Zero Grasses: Ritual for the Losses,” reflects on loss, memory and perseverance. It opens with “Living’s a Gift,” a suite of songs using lyrics written by middle schoolers during the pandemic: “We’ve lost our minds, lost our time to shine.” The music is ingenious and resilient; leading her jazzy quintet, Jade Tongue, Shyu multitracks her voice into a frisky, intricately contrapuntal choir, folding together angular phrases as neatly as origami. PARELESBurial, ‘Space Cadet’The elusive English electronic producer Burial has re-emerged yet again, splitting a four-track EP, “Shock Power of Love,” with the producer Blackdown. “Space Cadet” hints at post-pandemic optimism — a brisk club beat, arpeggiators pumping out major chords, voices urging “take me higher” — but Burial shrouds it all in static and echoey murk, letting the beat collapse repeatedly, until the track falls back into emptiness. PARELESSofía Rei, ‘La Otra’As she prepared to make her forthcoming album, “Umbral,” Sofía Rei embarked upon a trek through Chile’s mountainous Elqui Province. She brought a charango and two backpacks full of recording gear; on the trip, she recorded herself playing and singing, as well as the babbling sounds of the natural world around her. The album begins with “La Otra,” out Friday as a single, on which Rei sets a poem by the Nobel Prize-winning Chilean poet Gabriela Mistral to music. Flutes flutter over ricocheting synth bass, a stop-and-start beat and strummed charango, as Rei’s overdubbed voice harmonizes with itself in fierce exclamations, lapping at the sky like a flame. RUSSONELLO More