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      9 Spellbinding Songs About Magic

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      Lady Gaga’s latest has inspired a playlist.Lady Gaga debuted her madcap video for “Abracadabra” in a Mastercard commercial during the Grammy Awards on Sunday night.Dear listeners,If you’ve noticed anyone walking around with their paws up, speaking in tongues and raving about the floor being on fire, allow me to explain: In an ad Sunday night during the Grammy Awards, Lady Gaga debuted a new single. It’s called “Abracadabra,” and it’s a gloriously nostalgic return to form, reminiscent of the infectious gibberish hook of “Bad Romance” and the go-for-broke electro-sleaze she perfected on “The Fame Monster” and “Born This Way.” Rejoice, ye elder millennials: A star has been reborn.As I’ve been strutting around all week with “abracadabra, abra-cadaaaabra” on an endless loop in my head, I’ve been thinking about how many great songs throughout pop music reference magic — as a tried-and-true metaphor for the mysteries of love, or just as a thematic excuse to get a little weird. (For Gaga, it’s a little bit of both, but always with emphasis on the latter.)The ’60s gave us spellbinding classics like the Lovin’ Spoonful’s “Do You Believe in Magic?” and the Drifters’ “This Magic Moment.” But “Abracadabra” is just the latest proof that pop still has magic on the mind: In the last year or so, there have been not one but two Top 20 hits called “Houdini.” (Though never forget that Kate Bush beat them both to it.)Since a definitive playlist of every song ever to conjure magic would be incredibly long and contain quite a few overindulgent duds, this collection reflects my own tastes. Which is to say that it omits Eminem’s “Houdini,” as well as the song it samples, that other “Abracadabra,” by the Steve Miller Band. Personal preference! But it does feature enchanting tunes from Electric Light Orchestra, Siouxsie and the Banshees, Screamin’ Jay Hawkins and, of course, Gaga’s latest incantation.Like a poem said by a lady in red,LindsayListen along while you read.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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      Doechii’s Victory Lap, and 10 More New Songs

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      Hear tracks from Valerie June, Coi Leray, Destroyer 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.Doechii, ‘Nosebleeds’Doechii was tearful and emotional — but primed with facts — when she became the third woman to win a Grammy for best rap album. She was also prepared; “Nosebleeds” was released almost immediately. Over stark, pushy, bare-bones electronic sounds, she gloats, “Will she ever lose? Man I guess we’ll never know” and declares her readiness for arena concerts: “I look good from the nosebleeds.” The track is barely over two minutes, but its last stretch segues into an entirely different sound: a double-time beat with Doechii cooing that she needs no advice from anyone who’s “never suffered.” The moment was hers to seize. JON PARELESLady Gaga, ‘Abracadabra’She’s overheard your theory that nostalgia’s for geeks — and she couldn’t care less. Lady Gaga mines the sonic and aesthetic shards of her own past on the insistent “Abracadabra,” the third single from her upcoming album, “Mayhem.” Fashioning an anthemic chorus out of self-referential nonsense syllables (“abracadabra, morta oo Gaga”) is so “Bad Romance,” but the verse’s thumping house piano refines the more recent sound of her mixed-bag 2020 release “Chromatica” into something sharper and more urgent. Gaga’s not forging new ground here so much as she’s remixing her former selves, reminding her many imitators who they learned their strangest moves from and grasping so strongly at dance-or-die self-seriousness that she somehow ends up doubling back into absurdist fun. LINDSAY ZOLADZValerie June, ‘Joy, Joy!’The resolutely upbeat Valerie June insists that everyone can find “that joy joy in your soul,” no matter what. Her twangy, wavery voice, doubletracked in not-quite-unison, rises over a brawny two-chord vamp that gets buttressed by saxophones, cymbals, cranked-up lead guitar and a string section, massing to overpower any doubts. PARELESGiveon, ‘Twenties’“Thought that if I put you first enough / we would last for sure,” Giveon laments, with neat wordplay, in a vintage-style soul ballad complete with strings and electric sitar. The reminiscences quickly lead into recriminations over “six years gone down the drain,” and none of the retro trappings cushion the pain. PARELESMoses Sumney featuring Syd and Meshell Ndegeocello, ‘Hey Girl(s)’Moses Sumney has revamped “Hey Girl,” a slow-jam come-on from his 2024 album “Sophcore,” to make it more gender-fluid by handing over verses to guests. Syd teases, “You say you ain’t done this before,” and Meshell Ndegeocello moves evolutionary goal posts, intoning, “I am not a woman, I am not a man / I am a water- and carbon-based life form you’ll never comprehend.’ The track’s easy-rolling syncopation and suavely supportive horn arrangement welcome them all. PARELESWe 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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      ‘Smurfs’ Trailer Shows Rihanna as Smurfette and Promises New Music

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      The first preview of the animated feature shows the singer in her “blue era” and assures fans that new songs from her will be featured on the soundtrack.Music superstar, beauty mogul, fashion designer and … Smurfette? Rihanna’s next big role may not be what you were expecting.On Thursday, Paramount released a trailer for “Smurfs,” giving us a first look at the singer as the elflike, blonde-haired, blue-skinned creature. In an animation style that blends smooth 3-D rendering with elements that evoke the classic hand-drawn cartoons, Smurfette leads her cohort into the real, live-action world on a quest to Paris to find Papa Smurf after he mysteriously disappears.The trailer begins with Rihanna, in human form, addressing the audience.“I can’t wait for you all to see it this summer,” she says, with sunglasses largely covering her Smurf-blue eye shadow. She had teased the trailer in an Instagram post on Wednesday, which was a short video captioned “in my blue era.”The animated movie also features an ensemble cast including Nick Offerman, Natasha Lyonne, Amy Sedaris, Nick Kroll and Dan Levy, and is directed by Chris Miller, who previously helmed “Shrek the Third” and “Puss in Boots.” It will be a musical-comedy reboot of ‘The Smurfs’ film franchise, which last had an installment with “Smurfs: The Lost Village” in 2017.In addition to playing Smurfette, Rihanna is a producer on the movie. But, in what will most likely be the biggest news for her fans, who have been clamoring for more music since her album “Anti” was released in 2016, the trailer ends with a message advising people to “presave” the movie’s soundtrack, which will feature new music from Rihanna.It also says the movie will include the song “Higher Love,” recorded by Desi Trill and featuring DJ Khaled, Cardi B, Natania and Subhi.“Smurfs” is set to release on July 18. More

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      A Tribute to Marianne Faithfull

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      Hear 10 tracks from a long, winding career.Danny Kasirye for The New York TimesDear listeners,We lost one of the true greats last week when Marianne Faithfull died at age 78. A pop star turned punk rocker turned cabaret chanteuse, Faithfull was also a style icon, an actress with remarkable screen presence and a wonderfully unfiltered memoirist, among many other things. She will be greatly missed — but what a life she lived!Today’s playlist is a celebration of Faithfull’s long and varied musical career, which began at 17 — when she was signed on sight by the Rolling Stones’ manager Andrew Loog Oldham — and stretched until her late 70s. I had the honor and pleasure of interviewing Faithfull in 2021, around the release of what is now the final album she released in her lifetime, “She Walks in Beauty,” which found her reciting Romantic poetry atop compositions produced by her friend and collaborator Warren Ellis. She was then recovering from a nasty bout of Covid-19 that had put her in a coma, but her resilience was something to behold.That toughness and durability was a through line of her career, as she sprung back from multiple near-death experiences and returned with music that seemed supercharged by those struggles. She was a bold, intuitive and one-of-a-kind artist, as you’ll hear on the following 10 tracks.Also, apologies for this newsletter going out a day late. My personal advice: Steer clear of that norovirus! Thankfully I’m now on the mend and The Amplifier will return to its regular schedule on Friday. Til then!It is the evening of the day,LindsayListen along while you read.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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      The Super Bowl Finally Embraced Rap. Is There Also Room for Country?

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      Since Roc Nation’s partnership with the N.F.L., hip-hop stars like Snoop Dogg and Kendrick Lamar have been center stage at halftime.The Super Bowl halftime show was at a low point in 2019. Despite an unrivaled television audience, Rihanna turned down the National Football League’s invitation to perform, keeping solidarity with Colin Kaepernick, the exiled quarterback who had repeatedly knelt during the national anthem to protest racial injustice.The pop band Maroon 5 headlined instead, underwhelming nearly 100 million television viewers. Jon Caramanica, a music critic for The New York Times, called it “an inessential performance” that was “dynamically flat” and “mushy at the edges.”The N.F.L. was quick to respond, courting Roc Nation, the entertainment company founded by the billionaire rapper Jay-Z, in an attempt to strengthen its music and social justice initiatives. Over the past six years, Roc Nation has prioritized hip-hop and R&B, bringing rap to the Super Bowl spectacle for the first time with a celebratory 2022 performance by Snoop Dogg, Dr. Dre, Kendrick Lamar, Eminem, Mary J. Blige and 50 Cent. Sunday’s show will feature Lamar and the guest star SZA.“The N.F.L. needed to do something to bring life to what is supposed to be their signature event, and that was accomplished,” said Jemele Hill, a writer for The Atlantic who is producing an ESPN documentary on Kaepernick with the director Spike Lee.An overdue emphasis on hip-hop and R&B — Usher and the Weeknd have also headlined under Roc Nation — means that other genres have been sidelined. Country music is ascendant culturally but has rarely been part of the Super Bowl; halftime shows by Coldplay and Lady Gaga feel long in the past.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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      The Vocal Coach Who Helped Timothée Chalamet and Other Stars Sing Onscreen

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      “Help” is a word that the vocal coach Eric Vetro uses often to describe his contributions to the careers of celebrities. This season alone, he’s helped several actors with the musical demands of roles as varied as Maria Callas (Angelina Jolie in “Maria”), Bob Dylan (Timothée Chalamet in “A Complete Unknown”) and a young Good Witch of the West (Ariana Grande in “Wicked”). He also worked with Monica Barbaro to honor Joan Baez’s vibrato in “A Complete Unknown” and Nicholas Galitzine to become a boy-band dreamboat in “The Idea of You.”During a recent video interview, Vetro’s high-profile résumé came into sharp focus. The memorabilia behind him in his Los Angeles home, which was unaffected by the recent fires, included a guitar that Shawn Mendes had given him. He proudly pointed to platinum records from the Recording Industry Association of America certifying a million in sales for Ariana Grande’s single “The Way” and Rosalía’s album “Motomami.” Then he turned to a wall of selfies with his famous students: “There is Katy Perry. Camila Cabello and Sabrina Carpenter are right here.”He explained that his clients’ technical and emotional needs vary, and that holding their hands through the psychological ups and downs of being a famous talent is a big part of his work. So many jobs “rest on this one person’s success,” Vetro, 68, explained. “That’s a tremendous amount of pressure.”Vetro helped both Monica Barbaro as Joan Baez and Timothée Chalamet bring out their characters’ signature sound in “A Complete Unknown.”Searchlight PicturesWhile growing up in upstate New York there were early signs that Vetro was more into behind-the-scenes guidance than stardom. He would correct a cousin while they sang Christmas carols and lend a hand to friends learning songs for musicals. As early as fifth grade, when a fellow student who was popular and athletic asked him for assistance with a song, Vetro remembered, “We just bonded. And that made me think, ‘I have something special here. This is my identity.’”His parents were skeptical, especially his father. “He would say things like, ‘What makes you think that anybody of note would want to work with you?’” when as a boy he would bring up stars like Bette Midler as examples of people he wanted to work with.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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      Marianne Faithfull Was an Unforgettable Style Paragon

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      Marianne Faithfull, who died on Thursday at 78, “seemed to touch all the moments,” helping define the look of the 1960s with an influence that is still seen today.She was a figure out of fiction, right down to her Jane Austen name. The daughter of a baroness and a British major (a spy during World War II), Marianne Faithfull — who died this week at 78 — was discovered by the Rolling Stones’ manager, Andrew Loog Oldham, at a record release party in the 1960s while still in her teens. “My first move was to get a Rolling Stone as a boyfriend,” she was often quoted as having said. “I slept with three and decided the lead singer was the best bet.”The bet paid off for both parties. Mick Jagger and Ms. Faithfull dated from 1966-70 and during that time she recorded a series of pop songs, most memorably “As Tears Go By.” Mr. Jagger wrote imperishable Stones hits like “Wild Horses” under the direct inspiration of Ms. Faithfull — lovely, feckless, druggie and unfettered. She was “a wonderful friend,” Mr. Jagger wrote on Instagram this week, “a beautiful singer and a great actress.”She was also a style paragon from the outset.“She seemed to touch all the moments, from Mod to rich hippie to bad girl and punk, corsets to leather to the nun outfit she wore when she performed with Bowie,” the designer Anna Sui said this week by phone. “She was there, through all those periods — performing, participating in events, acting and singing and also in the tabloids, very much in the eyes of anybody loving those periods.”Ms. Faithfull was introduced to much of the world through her relationship with Mick Jagger, but her style and talent made her fame last.PA Images, via Getty ImagesA British journalist once described Ms. Faithfull, in the late 1960s, as “the flowing-haired, miniskirted, convention-knocking epitome” of a “drug generation” that her elders were challenged to understand. What more accurately she epitomized was a spirit of bohemian laissez-faire better located in class than any particular era.Cultured, if not conventionally educated, Ms. Faithfull was as offhand about her looks as only a natural beauty could afford to be. And she was as indifferent to the strait-jacketing conventions of the bourgeoisie as those of her background (she spent her early years in an upscale commune her father founded in Oxfordshire) often are.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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      Jacob Collier, Megan Moroney and Clay Aiken Issue Holiday Albums

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      Our critics on Christmas records from Jacob Collier, Megan Moroney, two “American Idol” alums and more.A holiday album offers musicians a chance to adopt — or reinvent — a classic format and show fans a different side of themselves. Here’s a sampling of this year’s releases, from singers exploring the standards and artists rethinking the meaning of the holidays.Clay Aiken, ‘Christmas Bells Are Ringing’This is Clay Aiken’s second holiday album; the first arrived two decades ago, the year after he gawkily crooned his way to second place on the second season of “American Idol.” In the intervening time, he’s been on Broadway, he’s run (unsuccessfully) for political office and he’s been on “The Masked Singer.” But he never lost his voice — all these years later, Aiken still sings with a lovely flutter, and with real punch, too. His first holiday collection, “Merry Christmas With Love,” was overflowing with earned pomp — a singer who excelled at targeted bombast given free melodramatic reign. His new one, a covers collection, is a touch more polished, though he does convey true mischief on “Magic Moments” and, on “Do You Hear What I Hear,” accesses the kind of pyrotechnic fifth gear that’s the stuff of “Idol” finales, musical theater blockbusters and Christmas morning celebrations. JON CARAMANICACarpenters, ‘Christmas Once More’The Carpenters’ 1978 holiday release “Christmas Portrait” is not only one of the most enduringly enjoyable Yuletide pop albums of its era, it’s also one of the most ambitious works that Richard Carpenter ever arranged: a grandly orchestrated, elegantly realized suite that weaves together an extended medley of Christmas favorites as though they were a single song. That fluidity is preserved on the new collection, “Christmas Once More,” even though it’s a compilation that features remixed and remastered material culled from both “Christmas Portrait” and its slightly inferior though still lovely 1984 sequel, “An Old-Fashioned Christmas.” These 16 tracks represent most of the highlights from each release, including a festive take on “(There’s No Place Like) Home for the Holidays” and a rerecording of the Carpenters’ own 1970 holiday hit “Merry Christmas, Darling,” featuring accompaniment from the Royal Philharmonic Orchestra. Streamlining the best material from the two previous LPs eliminates some of the compositional pomp that occasionally distracted from the warm, down-to-earth intimacy of Karen Carpenter’s voice, and the finely executed new mix gives it an added gleam. LINDSAY ZOLADZJacob Collier, ‘Three Christmas Songs (An Abbey Road Live-to-Vinyl Cut)’Earlier this year the multitalented polymath Jacob Collier recorded a continuous, 14-minute set of three Christmas classics live at London’s Abbey Road Studios. He uses his piano, guitar and voice all in a similarly searching manner, leaping along scales and octaves with a daredevil’s flair. That approach works best here on piano, particularly during a spellbinding deconstruction of “I’ll Be Home for Christmas” enlivened by its twinkling cascade of high notes. Collier’s voice is more of an acquired taste than his piano playing, and despite his impressive range, his showy runs can overly complicate the emotions meant to be translated through these songs. Regardless, though, this recording captures a skillfully executed performance and ends with one of its most enchanting moments, as Collier conducts a choir — its members just happened to be sitting in the audience — in a beautifully understated “Silent Night.” ZOLADZDean & Britta & Sonic Boom, ‘A Peace of Us’“A Peace of Us” brings indie-rock introspection to seasonal sentiments. Dean Wareham, from Galaxie 500 and Luna, and his longtime duo partner and wife, Britta Phillips, collaborated with Sonic Boom, from Spacemen 3, on mostly lesser-known Christmas songs, from John Barry and Hal David, David Berman, Randy Newman, Merle Haggard, Boudleaux Bryant and Willie Nelson, whose “Pretty Paper” is remade as whispery, pulsing electro-pop. The songs play up the mundane aspects of the holiday, and the tone is hushed and hazily retro, with subdued vocals and reverbed guitars alongside the sleigh bells. Even the Lennon-Ono standard, “Happy Xmas (War Is Over),” drifts away instead of building up. JON PARELESBen Folds, ‘Sleigher’Christmas would seem to present a prime topic for Ben Folds, whose piano virtuosity, keen eye and skeptical but ultimately kindly spirit can turn domestic moments into show tunes waiting for a show. “Sleigher” has one standout: “Christmas Time Rhyme,” a song about the annual family reunion where “We arrive half alive from the last weird trip around the sun.” It’s a jazzy waltz that juggles childhood memories and grown-up insights. The rest of the album — including songs from the Mills Brothers and Mel Tormé — struggles to match it. PARELESWe 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