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      Karol G and Romeo Santos’s Sensual Goodbye, and More New Songs

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      Hear tracks by Morgan Wallen, Yves Tumor, Lankum 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.Karol G and Romeo Santos, ‘X Si Volvemos’Two Latin pop songwriters who thrive on breakup drama — Karol G, from Colombia, and Romeo Santos, a stadium-scale headliner from the Bronx with Dominican and Puerto Rican roots — arrange a last tryst in “X Si Volvemos.” Karol G points out “No funcionamos” — “We don’t work” — and “We’re a disaster in love,” but she admits, “In bed we understand each other.” He tells her their relationship is toxic, but wonders if he’s addicted to their intimacy. The musical turf, a reggaeton beat, is hers, but the temptation is mutual. JON PARELESMorgan Wallen, ‘Last Night’The distance between acoustic-guitar sincerity and electronic artifice is nearing zero. Morgan Wallen, the canny country superstar, has what sounds like a loop of acoustic guitar — three chords — backing him as he sings about a whiskey-fueled reconciliation: “Baby, baby something’s telling this ain’t over yet,” he sings, sounding very smug. PARELESSunny War, ‘No Reason’Sunny War, a songwriter from Nashville born Sydney Lyndella Ward, sings about a flawed but striving character — maybe herself — in “No Reason,” from her new album, “Anarchist Gospel.” She observes, “You’re an angel, you’re a demon/Ain’t got no rhyme, ain’t go no reason,” as folk-rock fingerpicking, a jaunty backbeat and hoedown handclaps carry her through the contradictions. PARELESYves Tumor, ‘Echolalia’There’s a dreamlike quality about “Echolalia,” the breathy, percussive new single from Yves Tumor’s wildly titled upcoming record “Praise a Lord Who Chews But Which Does Not Consume; (Or Simply, Hot Between Worlds).” Basically a three-minute swoon, “Echolalia” finds the 21st-century glam rocker dazed with infatuation and, however briefly, cosplaying conventionality: “Just put me in a house with a dog and a shiny car,” Tumor sings breathlessly. “We can play the part.” LINDSAY ZOLADZJames Brandon Lewis, ‘Someday We’ll All Be Free’When Donny Hathaway sang his “Someday We’ll All Be Free,” it was determinedly encouraging. On his new album, “Eye of I,” the tenor saxophonist James Brandon Lewis makes it both militant and questioning. Chris Hoffman’s electric cello snarls distorted drones and Max Jaffe’s drumming moves between marching-band crispness and rumbling eruptions, while Lewis and Kirk Knuffke, on cornet, share the melody, go very separate ways simultaneously and then reunite, contentious but comradely. PARELESUnknown Mortal Orchestra, ‘Layla’The New Zealander Ruban Nielson, leader of the tuneful lo-fi psych-rockers Unknown Mortal Orchestra, is known for being a prolific songwriter, so it makes sense that the band’s forthcoming “V,” its first release in five years, will be a double album. “Layla” is full of warmth, with a soulful vocal melody, Nielson’s nimble guitar playing and the band’s signature fuzzy tones all contributing to an enveloping atmosphere. “Layla, let’s get out of this broken place,” Nielson sings, conjuring an alluring elsewhere. ZOLADZTemps featuring Joana Gomila, Nnamdï, Shamir and Quelle Chris, ‘Bleedthemtoxins’“Do not fear mistakes,” floating voices advise for the first minute of “Bleedthemtoxins,” a bemused miscellany overseen by James Acaster, an English comedian, actor and podcaster turned musical auteur. His debut album as Temps, “Party Gator Purgatory,” is due in May. The studio-built track is loosely held together by a loping beat, but it rambles at will through Beach Boys-like harmonies, free-form raps and small-group jazz, all thoroughly and cleverly whimsical. PARELESDebby Friday featuring Uñas, ‘I Got It’“I Got It,” from the Toronto musician Debby Friday, is an explosive, pounding, relentlessly calisthenic dance-floor banger with attitude to spare. A pulsating beat flickers like a strobe light as Friday and Chris Vargas of the duo Pelada, appearing here as Uñas, trade braggadocious bilingual verses. “Let mama give you what you need,” Friday shrieks before calmly assuring, “I got it.” ZOLADZCaroline Polachek, ‘Blood and Butter’Sheer, euphoric infatuation courses through “Blood and Butter,” the latest single previewing the album Caroline Polachek is releasing on Valentine’s Day: “Desire, I Want to Turn Into You.” Polachek and her co-producer, Danny L Harle, constructed a song that starts out in wonderment — “Where did you come from, you?” — on its way to declarations like “What I want is to walk beside you, needing nothing.” Springy hand percussion, a bagpipe solo and multilayered la-las sustain the bliss. PARELESRaye, ‘Environmental Anxiety.’Most of the songs on “My 21st Century Blues,” the impressive new album by the English songwriter Raye, are about personal struggles: with romance, with the music business, with drugs, with exploitation. But “Environmental Activity” views the generational big picture: a poisoned planet, a toxic online culture, a rigged economy. The song is elegant in its bitterness, opening with a sweetly sung indictment — “How did you ever think it wasn’t bound to happen?” — leading to a snappy dance beat, a matter-of-fact, half-rapped list of dire situations and a poised chorale sung over church bells and sirens: “We’re all gonna die/What do we do before it happens?” PARELESYuniverse, ‘L8 Nite Txts’Yuniverse, an Indonesian-Australian songwriter, collaborated with the producer Corin Roddick, of Purity Ring, to make a familiar situation shimmery and surreal: “You’re smiling through your lies again/You’re telling me she’s just a friend,” she sings. Her voice is high and breathy, with hyperpop computer tweaks; it floats amid harplike plinks and fragments of deep, twitchy, drill-like beats. Even in the synthetic soundscape, heartache comes through. PARELESJana Horn, ‘After All This Time’The Texas folk singer Jana Horn makes music of arresting delicacy; her songs take shape like intricately woven spider webs. “After All This Time,” from a new album due in April, is a hushed, gently off-kilter meditation full of Horn’s peculiar koans: “Looking out the window,” she sings in a wispy voice, “is not the same as opening the door.” ZOLADZLankum, ‘Go Dig My Grave’The Irish band Lankum amplifies the bleakest tidings of Celtic traditional songs, leaning into minor modes and unswerving drones, harnessing traditional instruments and studio technology. “Go Dig My Grave,” an old song that traveled from the British Isles to Appalachia, is death-haunted and implacable. It begins with Radie Peat singing a cappella, insisting “tell this world that I died for love.” The band joins her with somber vocal harmonies, tolling drone tones, clanking percussion and baleful fiddle slides, a crescendo of dread. PARELES More

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      7 Songs We Nearly Missed in 2022

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      Hear tracks by Flo, Becky G and Karol G, Monster and Big Flock and more.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.Flo, ‘Cardboard Box (Live Acoustic)’A stunning entry in the litany of to-the-left-to-the-left kiss-off anthems, Flo’s “Cardboard Box” is cheeky, confident, ever so slightly righteously rude. Flo — Jorja Douglas, Renée Downer and Stella Quaresma — is a vividly talented British R&B girl group that released several strong songs last year, but this was the most striking, full of arched-brow dismissals, self-love affirmations and, in this acoustic rendition, mellifluous harmonies that communicate bliss amid collapse: “You ain’t gonna change, boy/What’s the point in stringing me a-loh-ohngggg?” JON CARAMANICABecky G and Karol G, ‘Mamiii’This blockbuster 2022 hit — the inevitable collaboration between the two “real Gs,” Becky (the American granddaughter of Mexican immigrants) and Karol (from Colombia) — strives to be the ultimate kiss-off to a toxic ex. “I gave you my heart,” Becky G charges as the song begins, but she has definitely taken it back, changing her phone number and comparing the ex to a rat and a venereal disease. Over the bounce of a reggaeton beat, with sisterly harmonies, the breakup turns into a female-bonding experience: angry, amused, unforgiving. JON PARELESMonster and Big Flock, ‘Cappin’The most obvious retort to the recent uptick in using rap lyrics in court cases is this: Rappers — like all artists — lie. Of course they do. Rap is history and reportage and also embellishment and fancy. Placing an unreasonable truth value on a set of words perhaps based on actual experience that also happen to rhyme and have narrative coherence and are presented in an entertaining manner — that’s a fool’s game. Thus, “Cappin,” a song by the rappers Monster and Big Flock, a song made under the presumption of surveillance. Everything they rap about? Falsehoods, they insist. If you’re listening in search of evidence, look elsewhere. “Why you so serious?” Monster raps. “I can’t play?/I ain’t got no pistols, these props/I act like I be in the mix, but I’m not.” It’s a clever gimmick that serves as a reminder that what appears in a song isn’t necessarily true, and by extension, that plenty of true things never appear in any song. CARAMANICAFally Ipupa, ‘Formule 7’The Congolese songwriter, singer, guitarist and producer Fally Ipupa has delved into styles new and old, releasing an album a year since 2016. He celebrates decades of Congolese rumba on “Formule 7,” his seventh album, and its eight-minute title song is more like a highlight reel, cruising through multiple eras, configurations and rhythms of Congolese music. It spotlights six-beat drumming, intertwined guitars, synthesizer and accordion obbligatos, call-and-response vocals, singing and rapping, cheerfully claiming a whole continuum of ideas. PARELESEla Minus and DJ Python, ‘Kiss You’The ticks, glitches and muffled drumbeats of DJ Python’s production mirror the insistent longing Ela Minus sings about in “Kiss You.” She insists on a certain equilibrium — “I’m not holding on/I’m not letting go” — as sustained chords and twitchy electronic rhythms come and go. This is stasis as a taut balance of competing forces, all virtual, and all subject to change at any moment. PARELESManuel Turizo, ‘La Bachata’One of the year’s biggest bachata songs came not from the long-running genre kingpin Romeo Santos but instead from the Colombian singer Manuel Turizo. “La Bachata” is both folksy and ambitiously modern — Turizo has a relatively thin voice, but the lushness of the modern production bolsters him. Santos can sometimes sing with a coyness that feels impossibly dreamy, but Turizo, less bound by tradition, pushes hard into the beat, a restless interloper. CARAMANICAMabe Fratti, ‘Cada Músculo’Mabe Fratti, from Guatemala, brings maximal emotion to the Minimalist structures she builds from her vocals and the gutsy riffs she plays on cello. “Every muscle has a voice,” she insists in “Cada Músculo” (“Every Muscle”), as she layers her cello and electronics into her own orchestra. The tension — muscular and psychological — only grows. PARELES More

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      Pop Smoke’s Memory Lives On, and 14 More New Songs

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      Hear tracks by Xenia Rubinos, Swedish House Mafia, Soccer Mommy 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.Pop Smoke, ‘More Time’“Faith,” the second posthumous album from Pop Smoke, includes collaborations with Kanye West, Dua Lipa, 42 Dugg, Future and others. But this track, early in the album, is jarring and stark. Not simply because it’s still eerie to hear Pop Smoke rapping with a blend of menace and joy, but because of its chilling beat — produced in part by the rapper’s longtime collaborator Rico Beats, but also in part by Nicholas Britell, who has scored “Moonlight” and “Succession.” It is a familiar trick, these reverberating keys that stand stern sentry, but no less effective for it. Here is a splash of theater more visceral than any radio hit, any pop crossover. JON CARAMANICAXenia Rubinos, ‘Working All the Time’Xenia Rubinos’s “Working All the Time” is only two minutes long, but it’s as intricate as an arduous jigsaw puzzle. There are waves of skittish synths, air horns straight out of a Funk Flex set on Hot 97, a bridge that sounds like the glitchy maximalism of hyperpop, and last but not least, an interpolation of the traditional rumba “Ave María Morena.” Somehow, Rubinos makes sense of all these disparate pieces using her brassy, featherlight voice. Blink and you’ll miss that it’s a workers’ anthem, too: In one verse, Rubinos sings, “You better keep me poor and busy or I’d be a danger.” It’s a warning for those who try to crush the power of the people. ISABELIA HERRERASwedish House Mafia, ‘It Gets Better’I suppose you can absorb this song on the internet, where it is currently available. But the slick return of Swedish House Mafia — the Brobdingnagian kings of mainstream EDM, the clout champions of biggest-room house music — cries out for an open field, a dizzying laser show, a loss of sense of time and place. Hug a friend; the soundtrack of shared mayhem is upon us. CARAMANICAMahalia, ‘Whenever You’re Ready’A brisk, ratcheting, evolving ska-meets-trap beat carries “Whenever You’re Ready” by Mahalia, a British singer whose mother is Jamaican. It’s a semi-breakup song that flaunts confidence instead of pain. The singer is letting him go because he’s angry at her now, but she’s sure he’ll be back: “You won’t be gone for good,” she sings. “No, I’m not worried.” JON PARELESCaroline Polachek, ‘Bunny Is a Rider’Singing about a woman so elusive that a “satellite can’t find her,” Caroline Polachek makes staccato syllables and short phrases bounce all around the beat, working equally as percussion and melody. They’re just a few of the syncopated layers in a playful yet strategic production — by Polachek and her frequent collaborator, Danny L. Harle from the PC Music circle — that juggles whistling, triangle, birdsong and the giggles and gurgles of Harle’s baby daughter. “I’m so nonphysical,” Polachek exults, over the sustained bass tone that cushions the chorus. Nonsense: The song is built for dancing. PARELESSoccer Mommy, ‘Rom Com 2004’“Rom Com 2004” could have been a straightforward indie-rock love song, vowing “Just let me be yours like no one else before” over a march beat, guitar chords and a chorus with a proud leap in the melody. But Soccer Mommy — Sophie Allison — handed over her demo to the producer BJ Burton with instructions, she has said, to “destroy it.” He obliged with glitches, distortion, speed variations and exposed moments — making the song more appealing because it plays hard to get. PARELESTurnstile featuring Blood Orange, ‘Alien Love Call’From the forthcoming Turnstile album, “Glow On,” comes this shoegaze space-soul collaboration with Blood Orange (Dev Hynes). The video compiles mayhem-esque live footage more in keeping with the hardcore band’s usual rhythms, but perhaps this is the meditation before the rage. CARAMANICADave McMurray, ‘Dark Star’Dave McMurray is a longtime Detroit tenor saxophonist with decades of experience in rock, jazz, pop and R&B, mostly as a side musician. But he’s just released his second album for Blue Note as a leader: “Grateful Deadication,” a tribute to the Grateful Dead songbook. His cover of the classic “Dark Star” channels the epically trippy M.O. of a Dead performance: McMurray declares the melody over Wayne Gerard’s twinkling, distorted guitar; eventually, a dug-in backbeat sets in. Then a coolly grooving section opens up, and the saxophonist dishes out a solo that’s laced with greasy Motor City attitude but still takes its time, as if to bask in the California sun. GIOVANNI RUSSONELLOHalf Waif, ‘Swimmer’The songs on “Mythopoetics,” Nandi Rose Plunkett’s new album as Half Waif, suffer and exult in all-consuming love. As “Swimmer” leaps from everyday sensation to all-out devotion and need — “I want to know they can’t take this away from me” — synthesizer arpeggios and vocal harmonies swarm around Plunkett’s ardent voice, like a suddenly racing heartbeat and an uncontainable obsession. PARELESYas, ‘Idea of You’A viscous tar pit of a track — slow, oozing bass tones, sparse drum-machine taps and gaping silences — hints at the difficulty of pulling free from an increasingly destructive relationship. Yas (the songwriter, singer, producer and violinist Yasmeen Al-Mazeedi) sings about being “in love with the idea of you” amid details of mental and physical abuse. The negotiations aren’t quite over; her voice rises to a fragile soprano as she decides, “You think that I want you back — I don’t.” PARELESKoreless, ‘White Picket Fence’Koreless — the Welsh producer Lewis Roberts — swerves between pastorale and rave on “White Picket Fence.” A keening female voice, uncredited and possibly built from samples, floats at first over a stately harpsichord; then fuzzy synthesizers arrive with a pulsing beat under that vocal melody, before it gets stretched and chopped up; then it’s sent back to harpsichord territory. In the video, directed by FKA twigs, club creatures climb out of a futuristic green car alongside a bucolic creek, where fishing ensues; urban artifice meets Nature. PARELESKarol G, ‘200 Copas’To a friend who’s still tearful about her ex, the Colombian songwriter Karol G (Carolina Giraldo Navarro) doesn’t mince words in “200 Copas” (“200 Drinks”); she dismisses the guy with profanities after all the suffering he caused. Yet her 21st-century bluntness gets a traditionalist backing; while the rest of her album, “KG0516,” traverses modern Pan-American pop with all its technological tricks, “200 Copas” is an old-fashioned waltz backed by a few acoustic instruments, nothing more. The lyrics are decidedly impolite, but the predicament she sings about is not new. The new video has her leading a beach-bonfire singalong: solidarity against undeserving men. PARELESTainy and Yandel, ‘El Plan’“Dynasty” is a new collaborative album from Tainy and Yandel, two titans of reggaeton celebrating 16 years of eminence. With its sinister harpsichord, muted marimbas and a piercing dembow riddim, “El Plan” recalls the mid-00s reggaeton that required listeners practice dancing in front of the mirror. It’s all about the thrill of an after-hours dance-floor chase — the electrifying, will-it-or-won’t-it-happen energy of a night at the club. “Estoy esperándote y tú perreando sola,” Yandel says. “I’m waiting for you and you’re dancing alone.” Luckily, he knows he’s at the whim of his partner: “Pero tú dime cuál e’ el plan.” You tell me what the plan is. HERRERAMas Aya, ‘Momento Presente’It is easy to reference folkloric sounds, but have little to offer other than mere nostalgia. The instrumentalist Brandon Valdivia, better known as Mas Aya, escapes this fate masterfully on “Momento Presente.” More than a mere collision of past and present, the track is a study in the power of harnessing ancestral knowledge. Over six and a half minutes, Valdivia braids a skittish footwork beat with a flurry of Andean pan flutes, arpeggiated synths and polyrhythms. Halfway through, the voice of an elder reflects on centuries of protest, a reminder that the work of liberation is part of a continuum. One moment the song is celestial, transporting the listener 40,000 feet into the air. In another it is meditative, urging us into quiet introspection. HERRERAMatt Mitchell and Kate Gentile, ‘Trapezoids | Matching Tickles’In recent years the pianist Matt Mitchell and the drummer Kate Gentile have developed a book of pithy, one-bar-long compositions, which they play with small ensembles under the name Snark Horse. Through intense improvisation, taking equal cues from free jazz and metal, they morph and distend and scramble these little melodic fragments. On Friday, Snark Horse released its first album — a boxed set spanning no fewer than 49 tracks and five-and-a-half hours, mostly recorded at a three-day session in late 2019. “Trapezoids” is a Gentile composition, a crooked and incessant spray of notes, with Jon Irabagon’s saxophone further destabilizing the mix. It’s paired on this track with “Matching Tickles,” a Mitchell piece, which he plays more softly and abstractedly, as if it were the echo of another idea. RUSSONELLO More

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      How to Stream New Year’s Eve: 25 Shows From Pop, Jazz and Beyond

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      #masthead-section-label, #masthead-bar-one { display: none }The Best of 2020Best ComedyBest TV ShowsBest BooksBest MoviesBest AlbumsAdvertisementContinue reading the main storySupported byContinue reading the main storyHow to Stream New Year’s Eve: 25 Shows From Pop, Jazz and BeyondIt isn’t too late to make (cheap!) plans to welcome 2021 with music. A host of concerts will be streaming around the globe and major stars will take the stage on TV.Jennifer Lopez will headline “Dick Clark’s New Year’s Rockin’ Eve With Ryan Seacrest” on ABC.Credit…Kevin Winter/Getty ImagesOlivia Horn, Elysa Gardner and Dec. 30, 2020THE AVETT BROTHERS If your appetite for sentimentality hasn’t been sated by holiday films, this may be the livestream for you. In their strummy folk-rock vernacular and tidy close harmonies, the brothers Scott and Seth Avett sing earnest songs about love and family. A slew of special guests — including Willie Nelson, Brandi Carlile, Norah Jones and Loudon Wainwright III — will bolster the star power of this New Year’s Eve performance (the 17th edition of an annual Avett tradition). At 8 p.m. Eastern, nugs.tv. Tickets start at $40. (Olivia Horn)THE BEST OF RADIO FREE BIRDLAND The pay-per-view virtual concert series has brought live-to-tape performances to pandemic-weary cabaret fans since April. To finally welcome a new year, it will present a compilation of them — all captured on the Birdland Theater stage with three cameras and no audience members — featuring Broadway and cabaret favorites such as Sierra Boggess, Reeve Carney, Nikki Renée Daniels, Darius de Haas, Telly Leung, Eva Noblezada, Laura Osnes, Christopher Sieber and Billy Stritch. Streaming on demand from Dec. 31 to Jan. 3; tickets are $10 at events.BroadwayWorld.com. (Elysa Gardner)Justin Bieber will take the stage to perform a full concert for the first time in more than three years.Credit…ABC, via Agence France-Presse — Getty ImagesJUSTIN BIEBER For a pop star, Justin Bieber has become a reluctant performer — often withdrawn when he does appear onstage, and prone to canceling shows altogether. With the pandemic (so far) sparing him the obligation of touring in support of his latest album, “Changes,” this livestreamed show is Bieber’s first full concert in more than three years. The sultry R&B of “Changes” trends mellower than much of his earlier work, making it a suitable soundtrack for an evening in. At 11 p.m. Eastern, justinbiebernye.com. Tickets are $25 (free for T-Mobile customers). (Horn)BIG HIT LABELS’ 2021 NEW YEAR’S EVE LIVE Owing to the success of their crown jewel, BTS, Big Hit has contributed substantially to K-pop’s growing global footprint. Their artist roster, which includes lesser-known (in the U.S., anyway) groups like Gfriend and Nu’est, will join forces for this concert, live from Korea. BTS’s past collaborators Halsey, Lauv and Steve Aoki have been tapped to expand the program’s international reach with a collaboration on the so-called “Global Connect Stage.” At 7:30 a.m. Eastern, on the Weverse shop app. The basic ticket option is sold out, but multiview packages are available for about $48. (Horn)BUD LIGHT SELTZER SESSIONS PRESENTS NEW YEAR’S EVE 2021 Post Malone’s ubiquitous, post-genre pop songs can be bacchanalian (for the New Year’s that we want) or brooding (for the New Year’s that we’re getting). At this virtual shindig, streaming live from Las Vegas, he’ll perform a selection with support from Saweetie, the cheeky rapper whose popularity has surged on the back of consecutive TikTok hits. The comedian Lilly Singh will host, with additional performances from Jack Harlow and Steve Aoki. At 10:30 p.m. Eastern, budlight.com/nye and on Bud Light’s Instagram, Facebook, Twitter and YouTube. (Horn)BTS will cap a big year by performing at its label Big Hit’s New Year’s extravaganza. Credit…Agence France-Presse/Mtv, via Getty Images‘DICK CLARK’S NEW YEAR’S ROCKIN’ EVE WITH RYAN SEACREST 2021’ If the ball drops in Times Square and no one is around to see it, does 2020 actually end? Despite the absence of the usual crowds, Ryan Seacrest and his fellow hosts, the actors Lucy Hale and Billy Porter, will be on hand to capture the ball’s descent from One Times Square, with Ciara hosting a sister celebration in Los Angeles. Machine Gun Kelly, Miley Cyrus, Megan Thee Stallion, Cyndi Lauper and more will perform; Jennifer Lopez is the evening’s headliner. At 8 p.m. Eastern, on ABC. (Horn)‘CNN’S NEW YEAR’S EVE’ Andy Cohen, who co-hosts this broadcast with Anderson Cooper, described it as “an authentic experience” (a year ago, that authenticity manifested with a peer-pressured Cooper struggling through tequila shots on air). This holiday, the pair will be freewheeling masters of ceremony for a lineup of performers and special guests that includes John Mayer, Patti LaBelle, Kylie Minogue, the Goo Goo Dolls, Jon Bon Jovi and Carole Baskin, of “Tiger King” fame. At 8 p.m. Eastern, on CNN. (Horn)CLUB CUMMING’S NYE BLOWOUT For those willing to brave the elements for a live experience, the East Village night spot is offering an outdoor celebration in a socially distanced setting, hosted by Kareem McJagger. The 5:30 and 7:30 p.m. seatings will include a light dinner, with entertainment provided by the burlesque queen Dirty Martini; Emma Craig, channeling Dolly Parton; and Michael T channeling David Bowie; along with the singers Antony Cherry and Militia Vox, the Richard Cortez Trio, “boylesquer” Richard JMV, the drag squad the Covid Destroyers and the Club Cumming Band. At Club Cumming, Manhattan; clubcummingnyc.com, $80. (Gardner)Saweetie will join Post Malone and other pop stars for a Bud Light Seltzer Sessions event.Credit…Vivien Killilea/Getty Images for Boohooman#DANCEAWAY2020 Clear some floor space and consider carb-loading before tuning into this marathon livestream, a 20-plus-hour dance party bringing together an intercontinental lineup of electronic D.J.s. From Melbourne, the longtime techno kingpin Carl Cox will book end the show with sets at 7 a.m. Eastern on Thursday and 3 a.m. on Friday. Other notables on the bill include Honey Dijon (live in Berlin), Tokimonsta (in Los Angeles) and Nicole Moudaber (in Barbados). At 7 a.m. Eastern, on Beatport’s Twitch, YouTube and Facebook. (Horn)NATALIE DOUGLAS The 12-time Manhattan Association of Cabarets Award winner will once again use her supple wit and soulful warmth to kiss today goodbye, this time with an assist from technology. For “A Virtually Natalie New Year 2020,” kicking off at 9 p.m., Douglas and her longtime music director Brian Nash will offer songs old and new, and take requests via Facebook and YouTube. In lieu of a cover charge, viewers are asked to simply pay what they can, at Venmo or PayPal. Streaming live at facebook.com/natalie.douglas.nyc and youtube.com/nataliedouglasmusic. (Gardner)ESCHATON NYE: THE DISSOLUTION The vibe of this interactive theater piece should hover somewhere between spooky cabaret and escape room. Originally conceived as an in-person experience, the Eschaton project nimbly pivoted to digital in the spring, maximizing Zoom rooms’ functionality by presenting a suite of interconnected virtual performance spaces, through which guests can meander. The organizers encourage festive attire. At 11 p.m. Eastern, tickettailor.com. Tickets start at $25. (Horn)Tokimonsta will play music from Los Angeles as part of the 20-plus-hour dance party #DanceAway2020.Credit…Timothy Norris/Getty ImagesHIROMI Among jazz musicians, pianists were among the best equipped to handle the doldrums of isolation this year — there’s a lot you can do with 88 keys, and the piano is the rare instrument that’s often performed solo in a jazz context. Over the past two decades, Hiromi has honed her own relationship to the instrument’s vast possibilities. Last year she released a redoubtable solo album, “Spectrum,” and she had just finished a tour promoting it when the coronavirus struck. She’s likely to draw from that material this week, as she does a run of solo shows at the Blue Note Tokyo; on New Year’s Eve, in a nod to her North American audiences, she will perform a livestream from there at 11 p.m. Eastern Standard Time. Passes are $20 at bluenotelive.com. (Giovanni Russonello)JASON ISBELL AND THE 400 UNIT Widely regarded as one of Music City’s great storytellers, Jason Isbell writes deftly about world-weary, embattled characters; his songs strike a tone befitting a year that has left many worse for wear. In May, Isbell celebrated the release of his new album with a livestreamed show at an empty Brooklyn Bowl in Nashville, with accompaniment from his wife, the singer-violinist Amanda Shires. For the holiday, the pair will return, this time with the full band in tow. At 9 p.m. Eastern, fans.live. Ticket packages start at $25; day of, they jump to $30. (Horn)THE JUNGLE SHOW This blues supergroup, anchored by ZZ Top’s Billy Gibbons, convenes annually for a New Year’s show at Antone’s Nightclub in Austin, Tex. Gibbons and his compatriots — including the singer-guitarists Jimmie Vaughan and Sue Foley — will forgo an in-person audience to keep the tradition alive this year, delivering rollicking guitar riffs from the empty club via livestream. At 8 p.m. Eastern, jungleshow.tv. Ticket packages start at $25. (Horn)KISS Never ones to skimp on the theatrics, the glam rock titans are plotting to break world records with the pyrotechnics display that will accompany their show at the Atlantis in Dubai. Tune in for hedonistic guitar anthems and, inevitably, a glimpse of Gene Simmons’s tongue. At 12 p.m. Eastern, kiss2020goodbye.com. Ticket packages start at $40. (Horn)The cabaret star Natalie Douglas is asking patrons only to pay what they can for her New Year’s show.Credit…Walter McBride/Getty ImagesMET STARS LIVE IN CONCERT: NEW YEAR’S EVE GALA After scraping together an ambitious at-home gala just weeks into the pandemic — quite the achievement, with only a couple of mishaps — the Met Opera has leveled up the production value on their digital programs. Their year-end celebration is set to broadcast on location at a neo-Baroque theater in Augsburg, Germany, with performances by the sopranos Pretty Yende and Angel Blue and the tenors Javier Camarena and Matthew Polenzani. At 4 p.m. Eastern, metopera.org. Tickets are $20. (Horn)‘NBC’S NEW YEAR’S EVE 2020’ Carson Daly hosts NBC’s addition to the crowded New Year’s prime time market, welcoming musical guests including Chloe x Halle, Gwen Stefani, Blake Shelton, Sting, Bebe Rexha and Doja Cat. At 10 p.m. Eastern, on NBC. (Horn)NEW YEAR’S QUEENS: GOODBYE 2020! Sixteen alumnae of “RuPaul’s Drag Race” comprise the lineup for this New Year’s glitterfest, with hosting duties split between Alaska, Bob the Drag Queen, Katya, Miz Cracker, Peppermint and Trixie Mattel. Can’t get enough? Season 13 of “Drag Race” premiers on New Year’s Day. At 6 p.m. Eastern, sessionslive.com/NewYearsQueens. Ticket packages start at $49. (Horn)PINK MARTINI’S ‘GOOD RIDDANCE 2020’ For most people not named Kardashian, long-distance trips became an untenable risk this year; lucky for Pink Martini, globe-trotting through music — and traveling back to supposedly simpler times — has always been its stock in trade. A little big band that achieved worldwide renown in the late 1990s, its wide repertoire consists of old show tunes, cabaret fare, romantic songs from around the world and original compositions that sound like all of the above. On New Year’s Eve, Pink Martini will present a streaming holiday concert, filmed in its hometown Portland, Ore., that will be broadcast twice: once at 9 p.m. Paris time, and again at 9 p.m. Eastern Standard Time. Streaming passes can be purchased for $15 at ourconcerts.live, and can be used to watch the show at any point for the next 48 hours. (Russonello)The pianist Hiromi will perform a livestreamed show from Blue Note Tokyo.Credit…David Wolff/Patrick, via RedfernsCHRIS POTTER Since the 1990s, Chris Potter has been among jazz’s most casually fearsome saxophonists, and left entirely to his own devices during quarantine, he has proved just how deep his virtuosity goes: This month he released “There Is a Tide,” a slinky, coolly funky album for which he recorded every instrument — overdubbing saxophones, clarinets, flutes, bass, drums, guitars and keyboards. Potter has played New Year’s Eve at the Village Vanguard for the past two years, and this week he’ll return to the club for livestream performances on Dec. 31 and Jan. 1, at 8 p.m. each time. There will be no live audience, but he’ll be accompanied by a stellar quartet of longtime associates: David Virelles on piano, Joe Martin on bass and Marcus Gilmore on drums. Tickets cost $10 at villagevanguard.com. (Russonello)KT SULLIVAN AND RUSS WOOLLEY KT Sullivan, the ebullient cabaret veteran and champion, and the producer Russ Woolley will present “What Are You Doing New Year’s Eve?,” a benefit for the Mabel Mercer Foundation, featuring the jazz pianist Jon Weber and the singer and pianists Eric Yves Garcia and Larry Woodard. The virtual festivities, taped live and streaming at 10 p.m., will include a countdown to midnight with champagne, noisemakers and masks. The stream is free of charge, though donations for the fund-raiser are appreciated. At mabelmercer.org. (Gardner)LUCINDA WILLIAMS When she started her own label in 2014, this roots-rock rebel was clear on her artistic mission: To do whatever she wanted. Lately, what she wants is to play covers. In an ongoing virtual concert series that supports independent music venues, Lucinda Williams has devoted full sets to greats like Tom Petty and Bob Dylan. For the sixth and final installment of the series, which coincides with the holiday, she’ll pay tribute to the Rolling Stones. At 8 p.m. Eastern, boxoffice.mandolin.com. Tickets start at $20. (Horn)Lucinda Williams will conclude her covers series with a show devoted to the Rolling Stones.Credit…Jeff Spicer/Getty ImagesYANDEL GOODBYE 2020 This O.G. reggaetonero helped forge a path that artists like J Balvin have followed to mammoth crossover success. With his performing partner Wisin, Yandel came up with the first wave of international reggaeton stars in the early 2000s; two decades after their debut, the pair remain prominent voices in the genre, both together and individually. Their plans for a Vegas-style residency at the Coliseo de Puerto Rico this month were, of course, scrapped. Instead, Yandel will offer fans this free virtual concert, broadcast live from Miami. At 8 p.m. Eastern, on Yandel’s YouTube channel and the app LaMusica. (Horn)YOUTUBE’S HELLO 2021 Lest any one New Year’s special feel too boilerplate, YouTube’s in-house content studio is producing five different, regionally specific variations, each carried by (mostly) local talent. The “Americas” version will offer urbano courtesy of J Balvin and Karol G, modern country from Kane Brown and disco pop from Dua Lipa. On triple duty, Lipa also features in the U.K. special alongside the pop singer Anne-Marie and the shapeshifting rapper AJ Tracey, and in the Indian edition, alongside the comedian Zakir Khan and the rapper Badshah. At 10:30 p.m. Eastern, on YouTube Originals’ channel. (Horn)JOHN LLOYD YOUNG The Tony Award-winning star of “Jersey Boys” — both the original Broadway production and Clint Eastwood’s 2014 screen adaptation — has in recent years parlayed his affinity for pop and R&B classics into a busy cabaret career. To ring in 2021, John Lloyd Young will lend his robust, rangy voice to such material along with originals and perhaps a show tune or two. Young’s live-streamed, hourlong set, beginning at 11 p.m. Eastern, will be followed at 12:15 a.m. Eastern with a V.I.P. after-party and interview, with the singer answering audience questions submitted in advance. From Feinstein’s at Vitello’s, Los Angeles (and available On Demand for a limited time after the event); 818-769-0905, feinsteinsatvitellos.com, $30 plus $5 for the V.I.P. experience. (Gardner)AdvertisementContinue reading the main story More