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    Erykah Badu’s Woozy Flirtation, and 9 More New Songs

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    Hear tracks by Kehlani, Benson Boone, Witch and others.Every Friday, pop critics for The New York Times weigh in on the week’s most notable new tracks. Listen to the Playlist on Spotify here (or find our profile: nytimes) and at Apple Music here, and sign up for The Amplifier, a twice-weekly guide to new and old songs.Erykah Badu and the Alchemist, ‘Next to You’Erykah Badu floats some companionable requests — “I wanna take walks with you,” “I wanna just talk with you,” “I can’t wait to see you after school” — in this leisurely, woozy, increasingly hypnotic track. The Alchemist’s production gathers countless layers of Badu’s vocals, with and without lyrics, but places most of them at a distance, for a happy tangle of inner voices.Brittany Davis, ‘Sun and Moon’Brittany Davis, a blind, nonbinary pianist, singer and songwriter based in Seattle, recorded their second album, “Black Thunder,” leading a classic jazz piano-bass-drums trio. “Sun and Moon” reaches back to Nina Simone for its husky, organic, bare-bones dynamics. This six-minute song rises ever so gradually, affirming everyday pleasures; “In the sun, my heart is full of joy and light,” Davis sings. “In the moonlight, I’m thankful for the blessings of the night.” The track has a jammy, improvisational feel, with serious purpose behind it.Billie Marten, ‘Clover’The English songwriter Billie Marten calmly savors tensions and contradictions in “Clover”: “You’re raining heavy, I’m almost dry / I’m only learning to love you right.” The tempo is relaxed; keyboards plink and twinkle through mild dissonances. It’s affectionate but watchful: “Don’t push me over, I’m half your size,” she admonishes.Kehlani, ‘Folded’Kehlani dramatizes the most reluctant of breakups in “Folded.” Yes, she’s waiting for her ex to “come pick up your clothes,” neatly folded. But this isn’t the door-closing scenario from Beyoncé’s “Irreplaceable.” Kehlani urges, “Meet me at my door while it’s still open” and notes, “It’s getting cold out but it’s not frozen.” Descending chords, a string section, little guitar licks and Kehlani’s voice all convey a world of regret and a chance to reunite.Cari, ‘Luvhiii’Cari Stewart-Josephs, an English songwriter, surrenders to infatuation in “Luvhiii,” from an EP due July 10. “You hit me like a truck,” she sings, “And I never will get enough.” A loping bass line, jazzy piano chords and a faraway but insistent tambourine arrive, enfolding Cari’s multilayered vocals in a trip-hop haze as she succumbs.We are having trouble retrieving the article content.Please enable JavaScript in your browser settings.Thank you for your patience while we verify access. If you are in Reader mode please exit and log into your Times account, or subscribe for all of The Times.Thank you for your patience while we verify access.Already a subscriber? Log in.Want all of The Times? Subscribe. More

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      Lizzo Returns With a Throwback-Rock Bop, and 11 More New Songs

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      Hear tracks by Benson Boone, Jenny Hval, J. Cole and others.Every Friday, pop critics for The New York Times weigh in on the week’s most notable new tracks. Listen to the Playlist on Spotify here (or find our profile: nytimes) and at Apple Music here, and sign up for The Amplifier, a twice-weekly guide to new and old songs.Lizzo, ‘Love in Real Life’“It’s been a while,” Lizzo sings in “Love in Real Life,” after more than a year of commotion involving her social media, her weight and lawsuits from employees. The video (though not the song itself) opens with Lizzo saying she needs “no views, no likes, real love in real life.” Backed by a swinging beat and rock guitars, Lizzo heads out for a drunken night at a dance club, with a chorus topped by a Prince-like scream. For a few minutes, pleasure solves everything. JON PARELESBenson Boone, ‘Sorry I’m Here for Someone Else’The back-flipping upstart Benson Boone runs into a former flame who upends his current relationship on the lively new single “Sorry I’m Here for Someone Else.” Amid driving percussion, pulsating synths and an escalating sense of urgency, Boone unfurls a satisfying narrative of love lost and regained in a sudden moment of clarity. The only problem is that he has to break another girl’s heart in the process. “Benny, don’t do it, Benny don’t do it!” he tells himself — but he does it, and lets her down easy with that classic line, “It’s not personal.” LINDSAY ZOLADZLittle Simz featuring Obongjayar and Moonchild Sanelly, ‘Flood’“Flood” exults in percussive low end: a Bo Diddley drumbeat meshed with a syncopated bass line, below Little Simz rapping in her most hard-nosed bottom range. She lashes out at anyone who’d interfere with “my genius plan, and that’s being as free as I can” and offers career advice: “Don’t trust all the hands you shake.” She’s righteous and cynical, with her defenses well fortified by rhythm. PARELESModel/Actriz, ‘Cinderella’Agitation is built in to “Cinderella,” from the where’s-the-downbeat intro to the dissonant note that repeats — irregularly — through nearly the entire track. As an industrial dance beat assembles itself, crumbles, and reappears, the vocalist Cole Haden wrestles with the vulnerability of revealing himself to a partner, finally deciding, “I won’t leave as I came.” PARELESJenny Hval, ‘To Be a Rose’The Norwegian pop experimentalist Jenny Hval takes on a familiar lyrical image — the rose — and turns it into something highly specific and alluringly strange on this first single from her upcoming album, “Iris Silver Mist.” “A rose is a rose is a rose is a cigarette,” she sings atop a spare track that features light, hypnotic percussion and subtle blasts of brass. As the arrangement gradually builds into something fuller, Hval sketches a vivid childhood memory of her mother smoking on a balcony, “long inhales and long exhales performed in choreography over our dead-end town.” ZOLADZWe are having trouble retrieving the article content.Please enable JavaScript in your browser settings.Thank you for your patience while we verify access. If you are in Reader mode please exit and log into your Times account, or subscribe for all of The Times.Thank you for your patience while we verify access.Already a subscriber? Log in.Want all of The Times? Subscribe. More

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      The Year in Pop: Hits Without Stars, Stars Without Hits

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      This past spring, Tommy Richman got famous off a TikTok.Well, not famous exactly. Popular. Let’s say popular. Tommy Richman got popular off a TikTok.Or maybe that’s not quite right either. How about: This past spring, a snippet of a song used in a video on TikTok catapulted Richman, a young soul singer with some promising earlier releases, onto the path to fame.The snippet was of “Million Dollar Baby,” a deliciously saccharine pop-funk thumper, and the TikTok it soundtracked was a loose clip of Richman and his friends having a fantastic time in the studio one night — a warm little bolt of you-shoulda-been-there fun. This was in April, and before long, the clip had millions of views, and the audio was inescapable. Eventually, it appeared in over nine million videos on the app. Radio play followed quickly, leading to a No. 2 debut for the song on the Billboard Hot 100, followed by a few months in the Top 10.Stardom secured, right? Not quite. While “Million Dollar Baby” is one of this year’s defining singles, Richman remains largely a cipher. He hasn’t done many interviews; he had a needless social-media kerfuffle over how people taxonomize his sound; and his debut studio album, “Coyote” — which pointedly and stubbornly did not include “Million Dollar Baby” or its follow-up cousin, “Devil Is a Lie” — arrived with a whisper in September, and disappeared even more quietly.Tommy Richman’s “Million Dollar Baby” blew up on TikTok and hit the Hot 100, but didn’t appear on his debut studio album.Craig Barritt/Getty ImagesThis isn’t to consign Richman to pop’s deep bin of one-hit wonders. If anything, the current pathway for breakout successes, especially via TikTok, is more insidious than that. Viral smashes like “Million Dollar Baby” often feel like hits without stars — potent for soundtracking and sticking to content made by others rather than attached to the artist who actually created it.We are having trouble retrieving the article content.Please enable JavaScript in your browser settings.Thank you for your patience while we verify access. If you are in Reader mode please exit and log into your Times account, or subscribe for all of The Times.Thank you for your patience while we verify access.Already a subscriber? Log in.Want all of The Times? Subscribe. More