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      Mitski’s Sharp Take on a Creative Life, and 12 More New Songs

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      Hear tracks by Arca featuring Sia, Kelis, Tambino 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.Mitski, ‘Working for the Knife’Mitski monumentalizes an artist’s self-doubts — the creative impulse versus the editorial knife — in “Working for the Knife.” The track begins as a trudging march with stark, droning synthesizer tones, but Patrick Hyland’s production expands into ever-wider spaces with lofty, reverberating guitars. Mitski sings about missteps and rejections at first, but her imagination perseveres: “I start the day lying and end with the truth.” JON PARELESArca featuring Sia, ‘Born Yesterday’This unexpected collaboration just had to happen. Sia has a memorably broken voice and a songwriting strategy of victim-to-victory that has brought her million-selling hits, both on her own and behind the scenes. Arca, who has made music with Björk and Kanye West, has an operatic voice and a mastery of disorienting electronics from eerie atmospherics to brutal beats. In “Born Yesterday,” Sia wails, “You took my heart and now it’s broken,” confronting a partner’s betrayal. Arca twists the electronic track all over the place, bringing in and warping and subtracting a four-on-the-floor beat, pumping up the drama as Sia decides whether she’ll be “your baby any more.” The twists never stop. PARELESTainy with Bad Bunny and Julieta Venegas, ‘Lo Siento BB:/’Cynics might see a Tainy-produced track featuring Bad Bunny and the beloved pop-rock icon Julieta Venegas as the type of collaboration engineered in major label conference rooms. But “Lo Siento BB:/” is a seamless matchup that leverages both artists’ capacities for pointed vocal drama. Venegas’s sky-high melodies and funereal piano transition into El Conejo Malo’s signature baritone. Sad boys, sad girls and sad people, consider this your new anthem. ISABELIA HERRERARobert Glasper featuring D Smoke & Tiffany Gouché, ‘Shine’The Black church has been close to the center or at the very root of many big changes in American popular music; and over in the jazz world recently, gospel has been reasserting its influence. The pianist and bandleader Robert Glasper is a main driver of the trend, and this week he released “Shine,” an early single from the forthcoming “Black Radio 3,” featuring the rising M.C. D Smoke and the vocalist Tiffany Gouché. Glasper gifts the session with a signature sparkly harmonic vamp, and D Smoke projects farsighted conviction on his verses; Gouché’s vocals are beatific. This is the trinity that made the first “Black Radio” a smash, and has fed Glasper’s star formula: a gospel core, backpack-generation rap wisdom and bravado performances from female singers. But the track’s low-key showstopper is the bassist Burniss Travis, who’s doing more here than you might at first realize, which is exactly the intent. GIOVANNI RUSSONELLOglaive and ericdoa, ‘Mental Anguish’This is one of the standout tracks on “Then I’ll Be Happy,” the new collaborative EP from the rising hyperpop stars glaive and ericdoa. At the beginning, it has some of the parchedness of early emo, but then lightning-bolt squelchy synths arrive, and fraught vocals that sound like they’re being microwaved in real time. JON CARAMANICAJames Blake featuring SZA, ‘Coming Back’James Blake is smart to let SZA upstage him in “Coming Back.” It starts as one more slice of his usual keyboard-and-falsetto melancholy, but when SZA arrives she challenges both his morose narrative — “Don’t you have a clue about where my mind is right now?” — and his stolid music, as she bounces syllables around the beat and brings new zigzags to the melody. Blake rises to the competition, chopping up the production and pepping up his tune. Even so, the song may not convince her to come back. PARELESJustin Bieber featuring TroyBoi, ‘Red Eye’It has been clear for a long time, but just to spell it out: Justin Bieber is the world’s savviest beat-shopper. While the lyrics of “Red Eye” flaunt the prerogatives of glamorous bicoastal American living — “You should be hopping on a redeye”— the track, by the British producer TroyBoi, plays with electronics, reggaeton, Afrobeats, dubstep and dembow: so digital, so professional, so perky, so slick. PARELESC. Tangana and Nathy Peluso, ‘Ateo’Latin pop’s geographical borders are dissolving. C. Tangana, a rapper turned singer from Spain, and Nathy Peluso, an R&B-loving singer from Argentina, find a meeting place amid the light-fingered guitar syncopations of bachata, a style from the Dominican Republic. “Ateo” translates as “atheist,” but the song quickly makes clear that desire and bachata add up to “a miracle come down from heaven”; now they’re believers. PARELESKelis, ‘Midnight Snacks’Kelis’s first new song in seven years sneaks up on you. Full of whispered astral funk and understated steaminess, it’s a welcome return for one of R&B’s left-field luminaries. CARAMANICATambino, ‘Estos Días’Tambino lets genres slip through his fingers like fine grains of white sand. On “Estos Días,” a sliced-up baile funk rhythm blends into dance-punk verve, only to burst into the soaring drama of a pop ballad. The track is a meditation on the protests that spread across the world last year, and the police violence that continues to plague marginalized communities. “Nos mata la policía,” he intones. “The police kill us.” But in the trembling fragility of the Peruvian-born artist’s voice, there lies a kind of radical hope. “Yo voy hacer mejor/Dejar todo el dolor,” it quivers. “I’m going to do better/Leave behind all the pain.” HERRERASusana Baca, ‘Negra del Alma’Susana Baca, the Afro-Peruvian songwriter and folklorist who has also served as Peru’s Minister of Culture, marks the 50th year of her career with her new album “Palabras Urgentes” (“Urgent Words”), connecting age-old injustices to the present. “Negro del Alma” is a traditional Andean song commemorating a complicated past, when Andean natives met Afro-Peruvians and fell in love. Baca complicates it further, meshing disparate Peruvian traditions of marimbas, hand percussion and horns. But her voice carries through the song’s anguish and determination. PARELESSuzanne Ciani, ‘Morning Spring’Suzanne Ciani’s “Morning Spring” is the first taste of “@0,” a new charity compilation showcasing the works of ambient creators past and present. Here, orbs of synth bubbles float to the surface like a cool carbonated drink, while others wash beneath, ebbing and flowing like the low tide. Ciani — a synth pioneer recently celebrated in the documentary “Sisters With Transistors: Electronic Music’s Unsung Heroines” — renders an aquatic concerto, its symphonic movements receding and transforming at every turn, like the curling crests of ocean waves. HERRERAKenny Garrett, ‘Joe Hen’s Waltz’As his contribution to “Relief,” a forthcoming compilation benefiting the Jazz Foundation of America’s Musicians’ Emergency Fund, the esteemed alto saxophonist Kenny Garrett provided an unreleased outtake from the sessions for his standout 2012 album, “Seeds From the Underground.” With a teetering melody and a swaggering mid-tempo swing feel, “Joe Hen’s Waltz” pays homage to the saxophonist Joe Henderson, nodding to his knack for slippery melodies that seem to move through a house of mirrors. In Garrett’s quartet at the time, much of the energy was being generated by his partnership with the pianist Benito Gonzalez, whose playing is rooted in Afro-Latin clave and the influence of McCoy Tyner, but has an effervescent phrasing style of its own. RUSSONELLO More

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      Aneesa Folds, Back on Broadway, Is Still Getting Used to This

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      There has been an am-I-dreaming quality to Aneesa Folds’s life lately. That much she wanted to make clear.Yes, that was her in the glittering gold jumpsuit at the Tony Awards, performing in knockout voice with the troupe Freestyle Love Supreme. But a few mornings later, sitting in a booth at a hotel restaurant in Manhattan’s theater district, she was still doing a mental double take at the memory of Broadway stars saying hello to her backstage “as if I wasn’t a pedestrian.” And meeting a reporter for a profile interview? That wasn’t normal either.“I love that you’re talking to me as if this is regular for me,” she said, and laughed.On the other hand, she is on her way back to Broadway with Freestyle Love Supreme. Founded by Thomas Kail, Lin-Manuel Miranda and Anthony Veneziale, the longstanding hip-hop improv comedy troupe got fresh attention with the rise of “Hamilton,” which led to a Broadway run two years ago. Now, it’s back for a limited encore engagement that starts previews on Thursday and opens Oct. 19.Folds, who even offstage has an easy charisma, is a relative newcomer to the group. When she and Kaila Mullady joined in 2019, they were entering what had been all-male territory. Then, as now, they had only a week’s worth of rehearsals to acclimate before stepping in front of the first audience.At the Tony Awards, from left: James Monroe Iglehart, Lin-Manuel Miranda, Leslie Odom Jr., Wayne Brady and Folds.Sara Krulwich/The New York Times“You’re going into this space with all of these people that have been doing a show for 18, 19 years,” said Folds, 28. “They know each other like the back of their hands, and they’re like, ‘OK, we’re just going to improvise.’ And then you go to Broadway the next week and they put you onstage.”In 2019, she spent rehearsals in survival mode, trying to soak up as much knowledge as she could about the mechanics of the show. This time feels different — more like “playing with your friends,” she said.But to Kail, the show’s director, it was obvious even in the jam-session audition ahead of the original Broadway run that Folds, with her boldness and talent, belonged.“I was in the session with Chris Jackson and James Iglehart, who have both been in the group for a long time and have both been on Broadway for a long time,” he said in a phone interview. “She was doing her thing, like full Aneesa, and they looked at me and they were like: ‘Bro. Bro.’ I was like: ‘I know! Like, try to be cool. She’s still in the room.’”If Folds could turn back time — the way Freestyle Love Supreme does in one of its signature bits — and tell her child self what she is up to now, it might come as something of a shock. Growing up in Jamaica, Queens, she loved singing and felt safe blending in with a choir, but she was mortified whenever her talent was singled out for praise.“I was afraid of my voice,” she said. “I just was very insecure.”She had teachers who pushed and prodded her, though, and a mother who agreed when they encouraged her to do things like perform in the school musical. Her mother also found programs that helped her daughter blossom, like the Wingspan Arts theater conservatory in Manhattan and the Young People’s Chorus of New York City.From left, Chris Sullivan, Christopher Jackson, Andrew Bancroft, Folds and Iglehart during Freestyle Love Supreme’s Broadway run in 2019.Jeenah Moon for The New York TimesStill, musical theater — which, when you get right down to it, is what Freestyle Love Supreme does — was a tough sell for Folds as a child, partly because, she said, “it felt very white to me.”“I didn’t really see myself,” she added. “I just didn’t know if I could be in that world, if I was allowed to be in that world, to take up space in that world. And I was a very, very shy kid. I didn’t really speak much.”At Repertory Company High School for Theater Arts, in the Town Hall building on West 43rd Street, Folds emerged from her shell, making jokes and rapping in the cafeteria. (That’s also when she came up with the rapper name Young Nees, which she uses in Freestyle Love Supreme.) And thanks to Miranda’s “In the Heights,” a show she first listened to on a Young People’s Chorus trip to Austria, then saw repeatedly on Broadway, she thought there might be a place for her after all.“That was the show that made me feel like, OK, they’re changing musical theater,” she said.But not nearly fast enough. This spring, Folds told Playbill that most of the racist encounters she has had in her life have been in theater.“When I wasn’t doing Broadway,” she said, “I was doing a lot of regional shows. I’ve been in a lot of spaces where I was the only person of color, so as you can imagine, I’ve heard all sorts of things.”Like comments from wig designers who didn’t know how to work with Black hair — remarks so painful and common that Folds pulled in her shoulders to make herself smaller as she spoke of them.“When I get into a wig chair, I start apologizing,” she said. “Like: ‘I have a lot of hair, this is all mine, I have locs. I’m sorry, I’m sorry.’”Once, she said, she was assigned to actor housing in a home whose white owner had a collection of mammy dolls, and took them out to show her.This season, productions by Black artists are abundant on Broadway, but Folds said she feared those higher numbers will be a mere blip before the industry reverts to its old ways.“I really pray and hope that it doesn’t,” she said. “So that the little girl that’s sitting in Queens, New York, who maybe wants to do musical theater, does see herself.”It was during a visit home, when Folds was a college student at the Hartt School at the University of Hartford, that she first saw Freestyle Love Supreme. An instant fan, she wanted to do what they did. “It felt like everything I was good at,” she said.Freestyle Love Supreme, Folds said, “felt like everything I was good at.”Lia Clay Miller for The New York TimesSo in 2019, the year after the troupe started an academy, she applied. And while Kail said the program is not meant to be a training ground for new members, people there quickly told him they had found someone.With the addition of women, Folds said, suddenly the group had a wider pool of topics to talk about onstage. She particularly relishes the memory of a woman shouting “period cramps” when Veneziale was collecting audience pet peeves for the cast to rap about.“He didn’t hear her,” Folds said. “Which men often don’t. And I was like, ‘I’ll take period cramps.’”She did her rap, the crowd screamed with delight, and women came to the stage door and raved about it.“It’s awesome to be one of the women in the group,” Folds said. “We’re here and we’re switching it up.”Freestyle Love Supreme has led to work for her on other projects, including Miranda’s recent animated musical for children, “Vivo,” and his film adaptation of Jonathan Larson’s “Tick, Tick … Boom!,” out next month in theaters and on Netflix. In that movie’s recently released trailer, she is in the opening shot.All this contributes to Folds’s pinch-me feeling. A small, doubting part of her wonders if she is where she is because her higher-profile colleagues are also her friends. A more brisk and confident part knows that she didn’t fall into any of her success — though if she’s a pleasure to be around, that doesn’t hurt.“My name does mean friendly and well-liked,” she said. “I try to live up to it. Be nice: That’s the first rule of theater.” More

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      Youngboy Edges Past Drake for Billboard No. 1 Album Slot

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      “Sincerely, Kentrell” narrowly beat Drake’s “Certified Lover Boy” to earn this Louisiana rapper his fourth Billboard chart-topping album in two years.In a close race for No. 1 on the Billboard album chart, the new release by YoungBoy Never Broke Again, a 21-year-old from Baton Rouge, La., narrowly beat fourth-week sales for “Certified Lover Boy,” the streaming smash by Drake, who was dethroned after three straight weeks on top.YoungBoy’s “Sincerely, Kentrell” tallied 137,000 album units in total (including 186 million streams and 10,000 in traditional sales), enough to squeak by the 135,000 overall sales units for “Certified Lover Boy,” according to Billboard.“Sincerely, Kentrell” becomes the fourth No. 1 album in less than two years for YoungBoy, who is incarcerated awaiting trial in Louisiana, where he faces federal charges that he possessed an unlicensed gun as a felon. YoungBoy was among 16 people arrested in Baton Rouge in September 2020 on drug and firearm charges, not long after his album “Top” became his third No. 1 in less than a year.YoungBoy — among the most popular musicians on YouTube — has been dogged by legal problems since signing with Atlantic Records as a teenager in 2016. In the current case, his lawyers have said he did not possess any of the contraband himself and are seeking to suppress evidence they say was unconstitutionally obtained, according to court filings.In its first month out, Drake’s “Certified Lover Boy” earned the equivalent of over 1 million sales in the United States, including more than one billion streams, and it held off a formidable challenger in Lil Nas X’s debut album, “Montero,” last week. This time, “Certified Lover Boy” settled for No. 2, although it is expected to contend for the top spot again next week.The rest of the Top 5 is rounded out by “Montero,” at No. 3; Kanye West’s “Donda,” repeating its position at No. 4; and Olivia Rodrigo’s “Sour,” which also held steady at No. 5. More

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      Kendrick Lamar, Dr. Dre and Snoop Dogg to Share Super Bowl Halftime

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      The N.F.L. announced the three Southern California natives will share billing with Mary J. Blige and Eminem at Super Bowl LVI in Los Angeles.The N.F.L. announced Thursday that five performers would share headlining duties at the Super Bowl, with a distinct nod to West Coast hip-hop given the game’s location at SoFi Stadium in Inglewood, Calif. Three Southern California natives and rap titans — Dr. Dre, Snoop Dogg and Kendrick Lamar — will take the stage alongside Mary J. Blige and Eminem during the halftime show scheduled for Feb. 13, 2022. The game will air on NBC.“The opportunity to perform at the Super Bowl Halftime show, and to do it in my own backyard, will be one of the biggest thrills of my career,” Dr. Dre said in a statement.The halftime show for Super Bowl 56 will be the third produced by Roc Nation, the entertainment and sports company started by the music impresario Jay-Z, as the N.F.L. pushes to modernize the show and appeal to a more diverse audience. Jennifer Lopez and Shakira were dual headliners of the 2020 performance in Miami Gardens, Fla. The Canadian pop superstar the Weeknd performed at halftime of February’s Super Bowl in Tampa, Fla., before a crowd limited by coronavirus pandemic restrictions. He reportedly spent $7 million of his own money on the production, in part to ensure that the spectacle would wow TV audiences.Organizers said the expected return of the Super Bowl’s usual capacity crowd at SoFi Stadium, the $5 billion venue near Los Angeles International Airport that opened in 2020, would restore energy to the festivities.“This year we are blowing the roof off the concept of collaboration,” said Adam Harter, the senior vice president of media, sports and entertainment at PepsiCo, which sponsors the show. “Along with the N.F.L. and Roc Nation, we continue to try and push the limits on what fans can expect during the most exciting 12 minutes in music.”The Super Bowl is typically the most watched broadcast of the year, despite ratings declining in five of the past six years, notably among the advertiser-coveted demographic of people aged between 18 and 49. In February, 96 million people watched the Super Bowl between the Tampa Bay Buccaneers and the Kansas City Chiefs, the game’s smallest audience in 15 years, despite the N.F.L.’s biggest star, quarterback Tom Brady, leading Tampa to victory. That decrease was in line with overall drops in viewership for sporting events held amid the pandemic.If advertiser interest is any indication, though, this season’s Super Bowl could mark a resurgence. NBC said earlier this month that it had nearly sold out of Super Bowl advertising spots, which cost a record $6.5 million for 30 seconds.Kevin Draper contributed reporting. More

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      Lil Nas X’s ‘Montero’ Debuts at No. 2, While Drake Holds at the Top

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      Over its three weeks out, Drake’s “Certified Lover Boy” has logged the equivalent of just over 1 million sales in the United States.Drake holds the top spot on the Billboard album chart for a third week with “Certified Lover Boy,” while Lil Nas X starts at No. 2.“Certified Lover Boy,” which had arrived on the chart with the biggest opening-week numbers in over a year, has since cooled down a little. In its third week out, it had 222 million streams in the United States and sold about 4,000 copies as a complete package; altogether, it was credited with the equivalent of 171,000 sales, according to MRC Data, a tracking service owned by Billboard’s parent company.Those numbers let “Certified Lover Boy” hold the top spot by a comfortable margin. Over its three weeks out, the album has logged the equivalent of just over 1 million sales in the United States, including nearly 1.3 billion streams. Since the arrival of “Thank Me Later” in 2010, a Drake title has been No. 1 on the weekly Billboard 200 album chart 30 times.Drake’s closest competitor this week was “Montero” by Lil Nas X, the rapper and meme virtuoso whose “country-trap” song “Old Town Road” was a chart-busting phenomenon two years ago, notching a record 19 weeks at No. 1. In its opening week, “Montero” had the equivalent of 126,000 sales, including 147 million streams, landing at second place.With 15 songs, “Montero” — which features guest spots by Elton John, Megan Thee Stallion, Doja Cat and Miley Cyrus — is Lil Nas X’s first official LP, after “7,” an eight-track EP released in 2019, at the height of the “Old Town Road” craze. (Still, it was nominated for album of the year at the Grammys.) “7” also peaked at No. 2 on the album chart.The other big debut this week is “Sticker” by NCT 127, a “sub-unit” of the 23-man K-pop group NCT. “Sticker” opens at No. 3 with the equivalent of 62,000 sales, mostly from copies sold as a complete package, like CD boxed sets. Its 11 songs had 4.7 million streams in the United States.Kanye West’s “Donda” is No. 4 and Olivia Rodrigo’s “Sour” is No. 5. More

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      A Record Store Obsession That's Adventurous and Soothing

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      ‘The trick to crate digging is to simply go at it: Dive into the sections, flip through the jackets and trust your gut.’I was stuck trying to write in my Brooklyn apartment, overthinking a sentence as usual.In these moments I turn to my records.For inspiration, I tend to need music from some faraway place and time. Perhaps an underground spiritual jazz reissue from 1974 or an Afro-disco record from ’80. Something with noticeable ringwear and audible crackles. Maybe even a pop or two. I’ve learned that this is the music that people come back to decades later. These are the songs you hear in a bar or a film and try to Shazam before the final note fades.On this day I also needed some air, so that meant walking 15 minutes to Head Sounds Records in Fort Greene to plow through the stacks. I went right for the jazz section, and that’s when I saw it: Pharoah Sanders, “Live at the East,” released on Impulse! Records in 1972 — nine years before I was born. I had to snatch it before some other crate digger scooped it up.Pharoah did the trick. The hypnotic swing of the opening track, “Healing Song,” was the meditative balm I needed to quell my writer’s block.But it’s not just the music that heals; the practice of discovering it to begin with, especially when it’s on vinyl, works wonders, too. Whenever life gets heavy, I go to the record store.The fact that shops like Head Sounds and Academy Records Annex in Greenpoint have survived the pandemic and, in some cases, are even thriving, speaks to the heart of New York City, a place that accepted me with no strings attached.“A turntable is there for you to sample the work,” Mr. Moore writes. “But the trick to crate digging is to simply go at it.”Laila Stevens for The New York TimesI’m from Landover, Md., a small town outside Washington, which also counts the comedian Martin Lawrence, the boxing legend “Sugar” Ray Leonard and the basketball great Len Bias as natives. I grew up in a musical family with a mother who played all kinds of pop, funk and soul around the house; a grandmother who loved traditional gospel; and aunts, siblings and cousins who embraced everything: a homegrown strain of funk called go-go, rap groups that were new at the time like De La Soul and N.W.A., R&B luminaries like Al Green and Marvin Gaye, and pop superstars like Madonna and David Bowie.My cousin Eric, a D.J., had an ear for buzzing underground musicians. In the late 1980s, fresh off a trip to California, he told us about a guy named MC Hammer who was making noise in the Bay Area. Around 1994, he popped in a cassette of this rapper from Chicago named Common Sense. By the time he had shortened his name to Common, his star was rising in underground hip-hop.Indirectly, Eric and the rest of my family were teaching me the concept of crate digging. While it was fine to like what I heard on the radio, there was less-heralded talent that deserved the same attention. I walked that perspective through high school and into my career as a music journalist, author, editor and curator.Long before I moved here in 2016, I’d hop buses to New York City to dig for records. It seemed there weren’t that many shops to choose from. It was the mid-2000s, music streaming was starting its domination of the industry, and many mom-and-pops were being forced to close.“Record stores as we know them are dying,” Josh Madell, co-owner of Other Music in Downtown Manhattan, told The New York Times in 2008. “On the other hand, there is still a space in the culture for what a record store does, being a hub of the music community and a place to find out about new music.”Mr. Madell, whose store eventually closed in 2016, was onto something. Just as record stores were failing, vinyl also started to make a curious comeback. The Recording Industry Association of America found that the shipment of LPs jumped more than 36 percent between 2006 and 2007. There was no clear-cut answer for the resurgence. Fellow heads will tell you there’s nothing like analog sound. While digital music sounds cleaner, vinyl sounds warmer and fills the room. There’s also nothing like poring over the album jacket and diving into the liner notes. It’s a time capsule.When New York City became the epicenter of the coronavirus outbreak in 2020, local record store owners found themselves in familiar territory: Even though vinyl sales had surpassed CD sales last year for the first time since the ’80s, would the record shops, along with many of the city’s other indie storefronts, survive? Turntable Lab, a niche record shop in Manhattan’s East Village, closed its doors that year to focus on online sales. Other stores like Academy and Limited to One, also in the East Village, managed to keep their leases, but pivoted to online sales to make ends meet.Nowadays, crate digging is done as much online as it is off. A stroll through the virtual music emporium Bandcamp can unearth everything from South African boogie to forgotten ambient. But clicking around doesn’t replace the act of visiting your favorite record store and discovering a rare find that either you’d been looking for, or didn’t know you needed until you saw the cover. Every place is different: Where Head Sounds is in the back of a barber shop, Academy is a vast spot with a bit more dust on the album jackets.A new shop, Legacy Records, just opened on Water Street in Dumbo. I visited a few weeks back and landed an original copy of the Fugees’ 1996 album “The Score.”Store employees tend to let you do your thing. A turntable is there for you to sample the work, and of course they’re around to answer whatever questions arise. But the trick to crate digging is to simply go at it: Dive into the sections, flip through the jackets and trust your gut. More often than not, you can judge the music by its cover (if a band from the ’70s had the word “Ensemble” in its name, the album is probably great).In a time where we’re all trying to navigate space and distance (or just being in public again), the idea is to foster community around music, even if the spirit of competition is still there. I wanted to get the Pharoah album before anyone else got it. That I could be the one talking about it was an incentive.For me, crate digging is preservation. It takes me back to my childhood in Landover, to playing my cousin’s EPMD albums when he wasn’t looking, and dropping the needle on De La’s “3 Feet High and Rising” at my aunt’s house when heads were still trying to fathom the group’s psychedelic blend of hip-hop (they’re also the subject of my next book). Buying records to share with the world is what I’m supposed to do. I’m just paying it forward like my family taught me.Marcus J. Moore is the author of “The Butterfly Effect: How Kendrick Lamar Ignited the Soul of Black America.” More

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      Drake’s ‘Certified Lover Boy’ Holds at No. 1 for a Second Week

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      The rapper’s latest album repeats at the top of the Billboard 200, and Kacey Musgraves’s “Star-Crossed” opens at No. 3.In its second week out, Drake’s hit new album, “Certified Lover Boy,” lost 61 percent of its sales, but it still holds at No. 1 on Billboard’s chart, while the latest LP from the Grammy-winning country star Kacey Musgraves opens at No. 3.“Certified Lover Boy” had the equivalent of 236,000 sales in the United States, down from 613,000 in its debut week, according to MRC Data, Billboard’s tracking arm. Almost all of its total was attributed to streaming activity, with songs from the album garnering 305 million clicks — still a huge weekly number, beaten this year only by the opening weeks of J. Cole’s “The Off-Season” (325 million), Kanye West’s “Donda” (357 million) and, of course, “Certified Lover Boy” (744 million).Musgraves’s fifth studio album, “Star-Crossed,” starts at No. 3 with 77,000 sales, including 38 million streams and 47,000 copies sold as a complete package. Musgraves’s last LP, “Golden Hour,” won album of the year and best country album at the 2019 Grammys.West’s “Donda” holds at No. 2 in its third week out, with the equivalent of 79,000 sales. Olivia Rodrigo’s “Sour” is No. 4, and “The Melodic Blue” by the rapper Baby Keem, a protégé of Kendrick Lamar, opens at No. 5.Also this week, Metallica’s self-titled album from 1991 — known to fans as the “Black Album,” and featuring breakthrough hits like “Enter Sandman” and “The Unforgiven” — jumped 149 spots to No. 9 thanks to a 30th-anniversary reissue. More

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      66 Pop and Jazz Albums, Shows and Festivals Coming This Fall

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      Anticipated returns (Abba, Diana Ross), intergenerational collaborations (Lady Gaga and Tony Bennett) and hotly tipped follow-ups (Brandi Carlile, Makaya McCraven) are coming in the new season.When pandemic lockdowns shut down the concert industry last year, some artists forged ahead with planned album releases and answered a question loaded with risk: What would a rollout look like without the regular promotional cycle of in-person interviews, late-night performances and live shows? Many musicians pivoted to streaming; others buckled down on their songwriting and hit the studio. The results of these experiments are largely emerging now.While some of pop’s biggest names are still being coy about whether they’ll make their big returns this season (Adele, Beyoncé and yes, we’re still waiting, Rihanna), this fall’s music calendar is already stuffed with a reunion of disco legends, an all-star Afrobeats festival and the arrival of a slate of buzzy newcomers.Dates are subject to change; check vaccine and mask requirements for individual performers and venues.SeptemberJUSTIN VIVIAN BOND AND ANTHONY ROTH COSTANZO It’s hard to think of an artistic pursuit that Justin Vivian Bond and Anthony Roth Costanzo haven’t tackled between them. Now the longtime friends and iconoclasts are joining forces for a theatrical concert, “Only an Octave Apart,” inspired by their mutual admiration for Carol Burnett’s collaborations with Julie Andrews and Beverly Sills, and for each other. Thomas Bartlett and Nico Muhly, also contributors to Bond and Costanzo’s upcoming album of the same name, will handle musical direction and arrangements. (Sept. 21-Oct. 3; St. Ann’s Warehouse) — Elysa GardnerCORY HENRY His soulful output as a keyboardist, singer and composer has landed Cory Henry attention from the jazz and gospel worlds, and made admirers of pop and R&B fans who pay little attention to either of those genres. He’ll perform Sept. 22-26 at the Blue Note Jazz Club, where other scheduled acts include the adventurous hip-hop and jazz fusionist Georgia Anne Muldrow (Sept. 29-30) and the sentimental favorites the Manhattan Transfer (Nov. 23-28). — GardnerAlessia Cara brings her introspective songwriting to a fresh era of her life on “In the Meantime.”Matt Winkelmeyer/Getty ImagesALESSIA CARA Since landing her first hit with “Here” — a tart, ambling song about being a wallflower — at 18, the Canadian singer Alessia Cara has documented the friction of adolescence and young adulthood with clear eyes and a sharp pen. On “In the Meantime,” her third album, Cara’s youthful unease gives way to mid-20s ennui; she sings about the passage of time (“What if my best days are the days I’ve left behind?” she wonders on one misty piano ballad), romantic disappointment and feelings of inadequacy. Incisive and introspective as ever, Cara continues to position herself as both pop star and self-therapist. ( Sept. 24; Def Jam) — Olivia HornTHE COOKERS There’s something dangerous about putting together an all-star crew of jazz musicians whose careers took off (mostly) in the 1970s. It was a complicated, ungoverned time in jazz, when fusion was upending the genre’s creative economy and even traditionalists were pushing their own boundaries. In the years since, our memory of the era has become a bit simplified, and some of its more rugged straight-ahead jazz — made for labels like Strata-East and Black Lion — hasn’t fully made it into the canon. But the Cookers, a group of luminaries mostly now in their 70s and 80s, have managed to retain the rough-and-tumble spirit of their old work, while accepting the laurels that have rightfully come to them. On their new album, “Look Out,” a bristling collection of originals, the old feeling is newly alive. (Sept. 24; Gearbox Records) — Giovanni RussonelloTHEO CROKER Born into a family of civil rights activists and jazz musicians, Theo Croker was well positioned to carry the mantle of the music and its message. Now in his mid-30s, he has amassed an impressive résumé as a side musician for a diverse array of musical innovators, including the jazz vocalist Dee Dee Bridgewater and the rappers J. Cole and Common. For his new album, the smoldering neo-jazz collection “Blk2Life || A Future Past,” the tables are turned and he’s calling in favors: Guests include Wyclef Jean, Ari Lennox and Kassa Overall, a longtime Croker pal and collaborator. (Sept. 24; Sony Masterworks) — RussonelloThe big-band composer Miho Hazama, whose arrangements thrive on big gestures, exuberance and bravado technique.Nicolas Koch FuttrupMIHO HAZAMA AND THE DANISH RADIO BIG BAND Top northern European big bands have long invited great composers and arrangers from abroad to collaborate on albums. These well-tooled orchestras can offer expert and faithful readings, though it’s often all too apparent that the bands don’t have a particularly lengthy or intimate relationship to the guest’s music. For the upstart Japanese big-band composer Miho Hazama, whose arrangements thrive on big gestures, exuberance and bravado technique, that’s not a huge problem. If “Imaginary Visions,” her new album with the Danish Radio Big Band, feels like a master class in crisply executed contemporary big band jazz, it’s a class worth attending. (Sept. 24; Edition Records) — RussonelloKONDI BAND This intercontinental, intergenerational group’s story began when a YouTube video of the street musician Sorie Kondi made its way to Chief Boima, an American D.J. and producer with roots in Kondi’s native Sierra Leone. Boima’s subsequent remix of Sorie’s song “Without Money, No Family” paved the way for the pair’s ongoing collaboration as Kondi Band, named for Sorie’s 15-pin thumb piano, which lends an undulating backbone to glittering, electronic compositions that draw on West African traditions and contemporary dance music. “We Famous,” Kondi Band’s second album, expands its global footprint with contributions from a third member, the London-based producer Will Horrocks. (Sept. 24, Strut) — HornNAO With her gravity-defying soprano and lithe, darting melodies, the English songwriter Nao glides through songs about falling in and out of love, sounding buoyant even when she’s downhearted or uncertain. She’s joined by kindred jazzy-R&B songwriters on “And Then Life Was Beautiful,” including Lianne La Havas, serpentwithfeet and Lucky Daye. (Sept. 24; Sony Music UK/RCA Records) — Jon ParelesTHE OPHELIAS On their third album, “Crocus,” this Ohio four-piece delivers tender and sometimes unnerving songs of the heart, wrapped in thickets of expressive violin and delicate harmony. But the beauty of the arrangements doesn’t blunt the spikiness of lyrics penned by the group’s frontwoman, Spencer Peppet, as she surveys the emotional wreckage of relationships in the rearview mirror (“Holding you feels like a bomb went off in my chest” she sings, memorably, on “The Twilight Zone.”) Julien Baker, an artist with whom Peppet shares a knack for lyrical vulnerability, lends guest vocals to one track. (Sept. 24; Joyful Noise) — HornPoppy’s “Flux” captures an artist who works in between genres and moods.Burak Cingi/Redferns, via Getty ImagesPOPPY Since her ascent on YouTube several years ago, Poppy has ping-ponged from one identity to another: She’s styled herself as an internet satirist, a cyborgian pop star and, most recently, a nu-metal frontwoman. In every role, her signature move is to unnerve, whether she’s demonstrating a makeup look for a funeral, singing about body culture or screaming atop thrashing guitars and hurtling hard-core drums. Poppy’s upcoming fourth album follows last year’s “I Disagree,” which earned her a Grammy nomination for best metal performance. Titled “Flux,” it lands somewhere between the sonic extremes of her previous work, marrying heavy distortion with sticky pop hooks. (Sept. 24; Sumerian) — HornDAVID SANFORD BIG BAND The composer and academic David Sanford has spent his career exploring the ways big-band jazz and Western classical can feed off each other, with dashes of punk, ambient and experimental music thrown in too. His new album, “A Prayer for Lester Bowie,” pays tribute to the influential trumpeter and composer, a key member of the Art Ensemble of Chicago, who shared Sanford’s proclivity for scrambling prefabricated formulas. The album is a glorious hodgepodge of large-ensemble synchronicity and wah-wah-drenched blazes, with plenty of time devoted to featuring Hugh Ragin, a Chicago trumpeter like Bowie, whose rough and gleaming sound bespeaks a mix of pride and lament. (Sept. 24; Greenleaf Music) — RussonelloSUFJAN STEVENS AND ANGELO DE AUGUSTINE After some synthesizer-powered albums, Sufjan Stevens returns to his pristinely folky side on “A Beginner’s Mind,” a collaboration with the songwriter Angelo De Augustine, full of fingerpicking and delicate vocal harmonies. It’s high-concept in an unobtrusive way; the songs are inspired by movies, but it’s just as easy to take them as first-person ruminations on character and fate. (Sept. 24; Asthmatic Kitty) — ParelesBilly Strings. His name says it all.Amy Harris/Invision, via Associated PressBILLY STRINGS The path from bluegrass to the jam-band circuit was opened by none other than Jerry Garcia of the Grateful Dead. Lately it has been traversed by Billy Strings, who writes pensive, philosophical songs and breezes through them with his virtuosic guitar picking. On “Renewal,” his fourth album, the core of the music is an acoustic string band — with fiddle and banjo, no drums — that happily takes an occasional psychedelic detour. (Sept. 24; Rounder) — ParelesENDEA OWENS & THE COOKOUT Let’s be honest: A lot of us started the pandemic with a pledge to fill the lonely stretches of lockdown with new and meaningful projects. For Endea Owens, a young bassist on the rise, that vow panned out. A member of the “Late Show” band led by Jon Batiste, she began organizing free “cookout” concerts in her Harlem neighborhood, providing live music and free meals to a broad swath of the often-underserved community, while playing a mix of jazz standards and backyard R&B jams. This fall, not long after Jazz at Lincoln Center reopens its doors for live concerts, Owens will bring her band, now called the Cookout, to Dizzy’s Club for a two-night run. (Sept. 25-26; Dizzy’s Club) — RussonelloTHE DIAMOND SERIES AT FEINSTEIN’S/54 BELOW Soprano Heaven arrives this fall, as the venue welcomes sparkling leading ladies for concert-length performances. Kelli O’Hara (Sept. 28-Oct. 3) and then Laura Benanti (Oct. 5-10) will kick off the series and Megan Hilty follows, Nov. 2-7. Also on tap at the Midtown club: the song and dance marvel Tony Yazbeck (Sept. 21-22); the silver-voiced Broadway veteran Christine Andreas (Sept. 24-25); the flame-haired dynamo Marilu Henner (Oct. 17); the grande dame Marilyn Maye (Oct. 25-30, Nov. 1) the show biz-diva Ruby Manger, alter ego of comedian and actor Julia Mattison (Oct. 13); and “Seussical Reunion Concert,” featuring members of the 2000 Broadway musical’s original cast (Nov. 22). — GardnerDUCHESS The women in this vocal trio — Amy Cervini, Hilary Gardner and Melissa Stylianou — are not siblings by blood, but their sisterly, airtight harmonies have won them a following in jazz circles. The group will appear Sept. 30 at the newly reopened Birdland Theater, where the fall lineup includes beloved regular Natalie Douglas (Oct. 1-2, Nov. 15), Klea Blackhurst in a tribute to Jerry Herman (Oct. 20-22); Marissa Mulder, saluting John Prine (Oct. 3); and the singer-songwriter Christine Lavin (Nov. 22); in addition to weekly installments of “The Lineup With Susie Mosher” on Tuesdays and, upstairs at Birdland Jazz Club, “Jim Caruso’s Cast Party” on Mondays. The jazz club will also host a Sept. 20 concert featuring cast members from the returning Broadway production of “Company,” benefiting the mental health nonprofit Darkness Rising. — GardnerMICHAEL GARIN AND MARDIE MILLIT AT THE WEST BANK CAFE The husband-and-wife duo, who also perform together in the Habibi Kings, continue to hold forth at the West Bank Cafe (and on Facebook), where on the first two Sunday nights of every month you can catch Michael Garin — pianist, singer, raconteur, mash-up maestro — leap between genres with Mardie Millit serving as his comedy partner and lending a lustrous soprano. The Jazz Bandits appear every Friday, while Saturdays bring the piano and vocal stylings of Eric Yves Garcia, followed by the Gabrielle Stravelli Trio, led by the jazz singer and songwriter. — GardnerOctoberKELLY CLARKSON The original “American Idol” diva released her last album, the soulful, stomper-filled “Meaning of Life,” in 2017, and has since turned back to TV, where she dishes out advice to contestants on “The Voice” and hosts a daytime talk show. But Clarkson got back in the studio to capture a bit of holiday magic, and will release a Christmas album — her second — in October. The first single, “Christmas Isn’t Canceled (Just You),” is due Sept. 23. (Atlantic) — HornJOEY PURP Like his fellow Chicagoan and occasional collaborator Chance the Rapper, Joey Purp wears his independent artist credentials with pride. He continues his string of self-releases with his third mixtape, “UpLate,” leaning into his more hedonistic instincts while rapping about conquests, cars and cash with cool detachment. With no features, it’s a relatively insular effort from an artist who tends to work collaboratively. He also contributed production, favoring bouncy, unfussy beats over the flashier aesthetic of earlier projects. (Self-released) — HornLady Gaga and Tony Bennett team up again, for what are to be Bennett’s final studio recordings.Marco Piraccini/Getty ImagesTONY BENNETT AND LADY GAGA The two singers first connected on “Cheek to Cheek,” a 2014 album of jazz standards. “Love for Sale,” their newest, dives into the Cole Porter catalog, and will be Tony Bennett’s last studio recording following the recent announcement that he has Alzheimer’s disease. Lady Gaga is just a year removed from releasing the kaleidoscopic dance pop album “Chromatica,” but once again her chameleonic musical instincts make her flexible voice a natural fit alongside Bennett’s timeless tenor. (Oct. 1; Columbia/Interscope) — Jeremy GordonBRANDI CARLILE Since she released her sixth album “By the Way, I Forgive You” in 2018, the roots rock star Brandi Carlile’s profile has risen considerably. First there was that unforgettable performance of her anthemic song “The Joke” at the 2019 Grammys; then, earlier this year, her resilient and acclaimed memoir “Broken Horses” debuted atop the New York Times best-seller list. Expectations are high for her next album, but the searing “In These Silent Days” rises to the occasion. It’s a confidently composed testament to Carlile’s eclecticism, featuring fiery rockers (“Broken Horses”), politically engaged narratives (“Sinners Saints and Fools”) and a few shimmying folk numbers (“You and Me on the Rock”) that prove her recent live performance covering Joni Mitchell’s album “Blue” in its entirety may have unlocked a whole new phase of her own songwriting. (Oct. 1; Low Country Sound/Elektra) — Lindsay ZoladzTHE DAPTONE SOUL REVUE The 20-year-old Daptone label has been devoted to funk, soul and gospel that harks back to the 1960s and 1970s. In 2014, it gathered its roster on an appropriate stage to record “The Daptone Super Soul Revue Live at the Apollo,” with a parade of singers fronting an impeccable backup band, working up to one bluesy peak after another. Topping the extensive bill were Charles Bradley and Sharon Jones, two gutsy, grown-up shouters who didn’t survive the 2010s. (Oct. 1, Daptone) — ParelesTIRZAH The avant-garde English electro-pop musician Tirzah’s sensuous second album “Colourgrade” is the result of extended jam sessions with her fellow producers and longtime collaborators Coby Sey (whose vocals are featured on the standout duet “Hive Mind”) and the experimental pop artist/Oscar-nominated musician Mica Levi (close friends with Tirzah since their school days). Tirzah’s songs are atmospheric, hypnotic and rarely straightforward, but her low croon has a beckoning allure — like Sade vocals refracted through a gleaming prism. (Oct. 1; Domino) — ZoladzLOST IN RIDDIM Afrobeats, the Nigerian pop that elegantly and ingeniously meshes African rhythms and savvy programming behind unflappable voices, was on its way to conquering the United States when the pandemic struck and destroyed tour plans. But Afrobeats tracks have still been racking up tens of millions of streams. A festival at the Railyards District in Sacramento, Lost in Riddim, presents 20 hitmakers — including Wizkid, Burna Boy, Tiwa Savage and Mr Eazi — offering a two-day immersion in Afrobeats for a U.S. audience. (Oct. 2-3; Railyards District, Sacramento, Calif.) — ParelesMISS RICHFIELD 1981 The toast of Provincetown and “ambassadoress” of her native Minnesota suburb celebrates four decades of drag glory with “40 Years on the Throne,” a multimedia shindig mixing songs, videos and games with audience interplay at the Triad Theater,(Oct. 7-9). The club favorites the Dozen Divas, starring Dorothy Bishop, return (Sept. 24); later, acclaimed jazz singer Sharón Clark will appear with the Chris Grasso Trio (Oct. 16); “Extra! Extra!” will showcase the MAC Award winner Scott Raneri (Sept. 25, Nov. 7); Naima Mora will spin “The Amazing Adventures of a Woman in Need,” a tale of inner life and solidarity in New York that the model and actress co-wrote with Marishka S. Phillips (Oct. 16); and the sessions singer and recording artist Clayton Thomas will deliver “A Christmas Love Song” a couple of weeks early (Dec. 11). — GardnerTammy Faye Starlite will embody the Israeli chanteuse Tamar at Pangea.Al Pereira/Getty ImagesTAMMY FAYE STARLITE Alt-cabaret’s most enchanting chameleon returns, this time in the guise of the Israeli chanteuse Tamar, who sings in English and Hebrew. Developed with the director Rachel Lichtman, Tammy Faye Starlite’s latest creation draws inspiration from her former muse Marianne Faithfull, as well as Françoise Hardy, Juliette Gréco and Leonard Cohen. (Tamar’s version of “Suzanne” includes lyrics from “Ba’Shana Haba’ah.”) She’ll hold court each Thursday in October at Pangea. On Nov. 8 and 15, the old-school champion Sidney Myer — held dear among cabaret fans as both an entertainer and a booker — starts his own new chapter, premiering “Sidney’s Back at Pangea.” And Tweed TheaterWorks returns with its “Sundays @ 7” series, with participants set to include the octave-jumping vocalist and mystic Carol Lipnik (Oct. 17) and the celebrated writer-performer David Cale with his musical collaborator Matthew Dean Marsh (Nov. 21). — GardnerJOHN COLTRANE No jazz recording is more sacrosanct than the John Coltrane Quartet’s 1964 capture of “A Love Supreme.” But perhaps no recording can live up to the fierce combustion of a live jazz show. So there’s reason to celebrate the recent discovery of a 1965 recording on which Coltrane gives a rare club performance of his masterpiece. “A Love Supreme: Live in Seattle” marks the first time that a live version of the suite is being officially released as an album of its own. At this show, verging into the avant-garde, Coltrane augments his quartet with two saxophonists, Pharoah Sanders and Carlos Ward, plus a second bassist, Donald Garrett, and lets the expanded group spontaneously remold his compositions into something new and cathartic. (Oct. 8; Impulse) — RussonelloNATALIE HEMBY Natalie Hemby has thrived in Nashville as a collaborator, sharing songwriting credits on dozens of songs (including the Grammy-winning “I’ll Never Love Again” from “A Star Is Born”) and lately joining the Highwomen with Brandi Carlile, Maren Morris and Amanda Shires. But her voice can stand on its own. On her second solo album, “Pins and Needles,” she sings about love’s enticements and complications, avoiding current arena-country gimmickry for a sinewy, naturalistic 1990s sound that harks back to another of her collaborators, Sheryl Crow. (Oct. 8; Fantasy) — ParelesOLD DOMINION For the better part of a decade, members of this five-piece have been shaping the sound of country radio, both with hits of their own and those they pen for stars like Luke Bryan, Sam Hunt and Kelsea Ballerini. “Time, Tequila & Therapy,” Old Dominion’s fourth full-length, is packed with chipper, harmony-rich country-pop that teeters pleasantly between earnestness and goofiness. “There’s no hard feelings, and no bad vibes,” the frontman Matthew Ramsey sings on one contented tune; the album’s title is his recommended recipe for post-breakup enlightenment. (Oct. 8; Sony Nashville) — HornWORLD CAFE 30 OVER 30 WXPN is a Philadelphia radio station with rock foundations but an eclectic bent, known to public radio listeners across the country for its NPR-distributed flagship program, “World Cafe.” That show — which features live performances and interviews with artists including industry fixtures (recently the Wallflowers and David Crosby) and up-and-comers (Jensen McRae, Shungudzo) — turns 30 this fall. To celebrate, XPN will roll out 30 weeks of special programming on air and online beginning Oct. 11; offerings will include resurfaced archival footage and a collection of new covers by program alumni. — HornZAC BROWN BAND Longtime listeners who may have felt alienated by the country juggernaut Zac Brown’s pair of pop-oriented 2019 releases — his band’s eclectic album “The Owl,” and Brown’s even glossier solo album “The Controversy” — are likely to find “The Comeback” a fitting title for the Zac Brown Band’s seventh studio album. Returning to the raucous, full-bodied sound of the Georgia-based group’s 2008 breakthrough “The Foundation,” “The Comeback” leans hard into many of its proven strengths, from the playful, “Margaritaville”-esque dispatches “Paradise Lost on Me” and “Same Boat” to the lush group harmonies and intricate guitar work showcased on “Out in the Middle.” Don’t be afraid to call it by its name. (Oct. 15; Warner Music Nashville/Home Grown Music) — ZoladzCOLDPLAY After briefly linking up with the Swedish pop impresario Max Martin a few years ago, Britain’s most tender big-tent export has handed him the reins for its new album. “Music of the Spheres” refashions the band’s emotionally generous stadium rock into nimble and soaring pop, and further commits to its eternally optimistic worldview on bouncy songs like “Higher Power,” where a spiritual take on life also extends toward a belief in the extraterrestrial. It also features a formal collaboration with the Korean megastars BTS, following a few years of mutual public appreciation. (Oct. 15; Atlantic) — GordonFINNEAS The artist born Finneas Baird O’Connell is more commonly known as the primary collaborator of his sister, Billie Eilish, with whom he’s won eight Grammys. “Optimist” is his debut solo record, following a 2019 EP. Contrary to his sister’s moody, minor-key pop, Finneas is more of a classic crooner in the model of Rufus Wainwright or Elton John, which you can hear in the exposed “What They’ll Say About Us.” (Oct. 15; Interscope) — GordonXENIA RUBINOS The Brooklyn musician Xenia Rubinos continues to build on the creative ambition of her last album, “Black Terry Cat” from 2016, on which notes of hip-hop, R&B and rock mingled, bolstered by Rubinos’s considerable jazz chops and incisive, often barbed, lyricism. Early singles from her vivid upcoming album, “Una Rosa,” suggest the ways in which her project has expanded: Rubinos layers electronics into her already-eclectic sound, and mutates her vocals to signal alienation and grief. Named for a danza by the Puerto Rican composer José Enrique Pedreira, “Una Rosa” also digs deeper into Rubinos’s Afro-Latino musical heritage, and features more singing in Spanish than her prior releases. (Oct. 15; Anti-) — HornYoung Thug’s forthcoming album, “Punk,” is an intriguing new chapter for a shape-shifting artist.Jessie Lirola for The New York TimesYOUNG THUG The ’20s pop-punk renaissance is in full effect, and its latest devotee is the prolific rap chameleon Young Thug. After releasing the second installment of his “Slime Language” compilation earlier this year, Young Thug debuted a new sound during an NPR Tiny Desk concert this summer: chunky rock guitars, rapid-fire live drumming, and over the top of it all, the rapper pivoting between sharply confessional bars and catchy hooks. A little bit SoundCloud-era emo-rap, a little bit “Rebirth”-era Lil Wayne, the declaratively titled “Punk” is an intriguing new chapter for a shape-shifting artist who’s never content to repeat himself. (Oct. 15; 300 Entertainment/Atlantic) — ZoladzSAMARA JOY The daughter and granddaughter of accomplished gospel artists, this aptly named 21-year-old found her own calling in jazz. Floating from precociously warm, sexy low notes to a silky top, Samara Joy’s voice evokes classic influences and has earned her collaborations with leading contemporary musicians such as the guitarist Pasquale Grasso, whose trio will accompany her at Jazz at Lincoln Center’s Dizzy’s Club on Oct. 17. On Oct. 24, Dizzy’s will host the scat master Ashley Pezzotti and Her Trio; Pezzotti will also join the JALC Orchestra With Wynton Marsalis for “Big Band Holidays” at JALC’s Rose Theater, Dec. 15-19. — GardnerTaylor Mac’s new show at Joe’s Pub is “Sugar in the Tank: New Songs About Queer People.”Willa FolmarTAYLOR MAC The boundary-shattering theater artist returns with “Sugar in the Tank: New Songs About Queer People,” crafted with the music director and arranger Matt Ray, and showcasing the talents of other old friends (along with new ones), including band members who performed in Taylor Mac’s acclaimed “A 24-Decade History of Popular Music” and the costume designer Machine Dazzle. The show runs Oct. 19-23 at Joe’s Pub, where offerings include another reliable source of inspirational irreverence (and Ray collaborator), Justin Vivian Bond (Oct. 5-9); “Kludge,” a collection of music and poetry curated by Laurie Anderson (Oct. 12-16); the neuro-inclusive Epic Players (Oct. 24-25); the enduringly pure and fierce voice of Toshi Reagon, with Big Lovely (Nov. 9-11) and Lizz Wright (Nov. 12-13); Jazzmeia Horn and Her Noble Force, the innovative young vocalist and dynamic big band (Nov. 16-20); and the drag diva Peppermint, in “A Girl Like Me …” (Dec. 5-6). — GardnerBRIC JAZZFEST Picking back up where it left off before the pandemic, this annual jazz festival will bring a mix of rising Brooklyn-based talent and established stars to the arts organization’s sprawling home base in Downtown Brooklyn. Headliners at the three-night festival will include the vocalists Cecile McLorin Salvant and Kurt Elling, both performing on opening night; the Sun Ra Arkestra, an avant-garde standard-bearer, slated for Friday; and Madison McFerrin, the upstart jazz-and-beyond singer and composer, who served as a co-curator of the 2021 festival. (Oct. 21-23; BRIC House) — RussonelloCIRCUIT DES YEUX Harnessing the bewitching power of Haley Fohr’s four-octave voice, the sixth album from her project Circuit Des Yeux, “-io,” has an operatic grandeur and a rumbling, Scott Walker-like intensity. Fohr composed these haunting and elemental songs for a 24-piece orchestra, and their bombastic percussion and screaming string sections make “-io” her most ambitious achievement to date. A stirring reflection on grief, oblivion and acceptance, the album sounds like a fearless free fall into the void. (Oct. 22; Matador) — ZoladzGROUPER Liz Harris’s work as Grouper is for listeners who crave mystery, and don’t mind if a song never resolves into legibility. “Shade,” her 12th full-length record as Grouper, compiles songs written over the last 15 years across the country. On tracks like “Followed the Ocean” and “Basement Mix,” her voice, submerged under tape hiss and aqueous piano chords, sounds like a dispatch from a lost civilization. (Oct. 22; Kranky) — GordonELTON JOHN The isolation of Covid-19 led Elton John to try collaborations galore. On “The Lockdown Sessions,” he takes his place (sometimes virtual, sometimes in person) alongside Dua Lipa, Lil Nas X, Miley Cyrus, Stevie Wonder, Brandi Carlile, Eddie Vedder, Rina Sawayama, Stevie Nicks, Charlie Puth, Nicki Minaj and many more. By turns he’s a colleague, a venerated elder, a cover act and a hook singer; all sorts of musicians wanted to latch on to his dramatic melodies and benevolent aura. (Oct. 22; Interscope) — ParelesMy Morning Jacket’s first album since 2015 harks back to even earlier eras of rock ’n’ roll.Amy Harris/Invision, via Associated PressMY MORNING JACKET With a self-titled album, its first since 2015, My Morning Jacket ponders the nature of reality in a digitally mediated, late-capitalist era. The music, harking back to the late 1960s and early 1970s of Pink Floyd and the Allman Brothers, makes even clearer how much the band longs for a vanished analog past. (Oct. 22; ATO) — ParelesARTIFACTS TRIO The self-titled debut album from this iconoclastic group of all-star Chicagoan improvisers, released in 2015, was a direct homage to the legacy of the Association for the Advancement of Creative Musicians, featuring covers of compositions by figures from throughout the history of that avant-garde collective. This time, the trio — Tomeka Reid on cello, Nicole Mitchell on flute and Mike Reed on drums, all association members themselves — is carrying the spirit of homage into the present, with a disc of their own original compositions called “… and Then There’s This.” As on the last album, the intrigue is in the empty spaces, the territory left open by the lack of a piano or a bass or, often, any clear rhythmic pulse at all. (Oct. 29; Astral Spirits) — RussonelloGEESE Last spring, while many of their fellow high school seniors were solidifying their college plans, members of the buzzy Brooklyn rock band Geese were taking meetings with record labels. After announcing themselves with the misleadingly named single “Disco,” this teenage five-piece is set to release its expansive, guitar-forward debut record on the same label that houses post-punk groups like Idles and Fontaines D.C. Titled “Projector,” it’s packed with spiny guitar riffs, angsty, psychedelic musings and plenty of indulgent instrumental breaks. (Oct. 29; Partisan/Play It Again Sam) — HornED SHEERAN Ed Sheeran’s guileless style of pop music made him an unlikely global superstar, largely owing to his intuition for navigating universal emotions through undeniable melodies. “=” (pronounced “equals”), his latest LP, draws from the same genre-agnostic well: The lead single, “Bad Habits,” splits the difference between folk and pop like a polite club banger, while “Visiting Hours,” a tribute to his late mentor, Michael Gudinski, is pure choral pathos. A variety of musicians such as Kylie Minogue, Natalie Hemby and Ben Kweller also contribute. (Oct. 29; Atlantic) — GordonTHE WAR ON DRUGS Over the last decade, Adam Granduciel’s band has developed a conduit between blurry art rock and blue-skied Springsteenian ambition, slowly refining its ethos with the patience of a painter stippling a canvas point by point. On “I Don’t Live Here Anymore,” the band’s first studio record since winning the Grammy for best rock album, still waters mask anxieties about change, love and finding one’s place in the world. Ideal for those who want the experience of standing in a cool breeze while sitting at home. (Oct. 29; Atlantic) — GordonPOSTY FEST If you’re trying to figure out “the kids” — or, if by the miracle of chronology, you’re one of them — you could do worse than attending Posty Fest, a two-day festival curated by the pop-rap trickster Post Malone. This year’s lineup features Megan Thee Stallion, Roddy Ricch, Flo Milli, Jack Harlow and more. The festival will take place outdoors in order to help prevent the spread of Covid-19. (Oct. 30-31; AT&T Stadium, Arlington, Tx.) — GordonNovemberIdles escalates from electronic Minimalism to flat-out stomp and roar.Sebastien Bozon/Agence France-Presse — Getty ImagesIDLES The British band Idles wrings new variations from the post-punk vocabulary of obstinacy, impact, dissonance, talk-singing and ratcheting-up tension on its fourth studio album. The band escalates from electronic Minimalism to flat-out stomp and roar; the vocalist, Joe Talbot, veers from bitter cynicism to dance-floor instructions to howls of “Damage! Damage! Damage!” (Partisan) — ParelesABBA After nearly 40 years, the Abba fan’s plea of “Gimme! Gimme! Gimme! … some more Abba songs, please” has finally been answered. “Voyage” is the Swedish mega-group’s first LP since “The Visitors,” but the lush grooves of songs like “Don’t Shut Me Down” sound like they’ve been retrieved from a time capsule. The new record will be followed by a reunion concert starting in 2022, where the group will perform as holograms. No, seriously. (Nov. 5; Capitol) — GordonART BLAKEY & THE JAZZ MESSENGERS The quintessential band of the hard-bop era was near the height of its powers in 1961, when it traveled for the first time to Japan for a series of performances. With Wayne Shorter on saxophone, Lee Morgan on trumpet, Bobby Timmons on piano and Jymie Merritt on bass, this configuration (the group’s membership rotated constantly) had already recorded a pair of instant-classic albums, “The Big Beat” and “A Night in Tunisia,” but there’s nothing quite like the casual synergy and playful sparring that they put on display live. On “First Flight to Tokyo: The Lost 1961 Recordings,” a previously unheard collection that was recently dug up, no performance is under 10 minutes long. Extended takes on Benny Golson’s “Blues March” and Charlie Parker’s “Now’s the Time” are among the standouts. (Nov. 5; Blue Note) — RussonelloAIMEE MANN The singer-songwriter Aimee Mann’s 2017 album, a glum but elegant collection straightforwardly titled “Mental Illness,” is a good primer for her new project: a song cycle based on “Girl, Interrupted,” Susanna Kaysen’s celebrated memoir about her stint in psychiatric care at McLean Hospital in Massachusetts. Mann’s new songs were commissioned for an upcoming stage adaptation of the book — the details of which remain unknown — and will soon be released on the album “Queens of the Summer Hotel” (a reference to a line from a poem by Anne Sexton, another notable McLean patient). The theatrical prompt puts good use to Mann’s more maudlin songwriting instincts, and gives her occasion to indulge in lush orchestrations. (Nov. 5; SuperEgo) — HornRADIOHEAD Radiohead decisively jettisoned rock’s structural and sonic conventions with its 2000 and 2001 albums “Kid A” and “Amnesiac,” challenging itself to upend expectations with every new track. It’s reissuing the two albums along with a third disc of material from the same sessions as “Kid A Mnesia,” including a few rare songs and radically different takes of familiar ones. (Nov. 5; XL) — ParelesDiana Ross’s first album in 15 years features production from Jack Antonoff, known for his collaborations with Taylor Swift and Lana Del Rey.Rick Kern/Getty ImagesDIANA ROSS You can’t hurry a Diana Ross record. The Motown icon’s first album in 15 years is the beatific “Thank You,” which features some fresh talent: Jack Antonoff, pop producer du jour, contributed to “I Still Believe,” a boisterous disco track that also features St. Vincent on guitar, and Tayla Parx, a frequent Ariana Grande collaborator, helped write the schmaltzy ballad “Just in Case.” (Nov. 5; Decca) — HornSNAIL MAIL On “Lush,” her debut LP as Snail Mail, Lindsey Jordan pushed herself to the forefront of modern guitar pop. “Valentine,” which she co-produced with Brad Cook, expands her tightly manicured sound by incorporating R&B and hip-hop, but still centers her emotive songwriting about the fussy and devastating thoughts that keep us up at night. “You’ll always know where to find me when you change your mind,” she sings on the title track, like someone who intimately knows how feelings can’t be ignored. (Nov. 5; Matador) — GordonDONNA McKECHNIE One of musical theater’s true triple threats, Donna McKechnie was already a Broadway veteran when she scored a Tony Award singing, dancing and acting in the original company of “A Chorus Line.” In “My Musical Comedy Life,” at the Green Room 42 from Nov. 11-13, she’ll share songs and stories tracing her career, including numbers from “Company,” “Sweet Charity” and “Promises, Promises.” The venue’s fall lineup also features the two-time Broadway World Award winner Mark William (Sept. 25); the “Dear Evan Hansen” alumnus Michael Lee Brown (Oct. 2 and 9); the multi-artist showcases “Broadway Belters Sing!” (Sept. 29, Oct. 6) and “Whitney Houston: A Celebration in Song” (Nov. 6); the musical actress Bianca Marroquin (Nov. 10); and, on Tonys night, Sept. 26, “Hold Me Closer Tony Extravaganza: Tony Award Viewing Party,” hosted by the Skivvies. — GardnerDamon Albarn wrote lyrics for “The Nearer the Fountain, More Pure the Stream Flows” during pandemic lockdown.Torben Christensen/EPA, via ShutterstockDAMON ALBARN Remarkably, the prolific musician from Blur, Gorillaz and many more projects is releasing what’s formally just his second solo album. “The Nearer the Fountain, More Pure the Stream Flows” originated as an orchestral piece, but was lyrically fleshed out during lockdown. Here, the acid wit of Damon Albarn’s earlier work further peels away to reveal contemplative lyrics about the passage of time, among other openhearted ideas, set against a shimmering musical backdrop of strings and synth textures. (Nov. 12; Transgressive) — GordonCOURTNEY BARNETT Witty, dense lyricism and uneasy ruminations on modern life are this Australian musician’s bread and butter; since her breakout EP arrived in 2013, they’ve earned her scores of fans. On Courtney Barnett’s third album, “Things Take Time, Take Time,” she seems unburdened: her tone is lighter, her guitar tamer. “Don’t worry so much about it,” goes the amiable thesis of “Rae Street,” “I’m just waiting for the day to become night.” The record was produced with Stella Mozgawa, of the indie-rock band Warpaint, and features contributions from Vagabon and Cate Le Bon. (Nov. 12; Mom & Pop) — HornJONI MITCHELL Following last year’s revelatory “The Early Years,” the second volume of Joni Mitchell’s ongoing collection of archival releases charts one of the most astonishingly productive periods of her career, from 1968 to 1971 — or, in terms of Mitchell’s discography, from her promising debut “Song to a Seagull” to her enduring masterwork “Blue.” (“Clouds” and “Ladies of the Canyon” came in the years between, if you can believe it.) Across five discs and 119 tracks, “Joni Mitchell Archives Vol. 2: The Reprise Years (1968-1971)” provides an intimate glimpse into the process of a peerless songwriter’s rapid evolution, including some previously unheard early versions of Mitchell classics like “All I Want,” “A Case of You” and “California.” But just as compellingly, the many live recordings in this collection also chronicle Mitchell’s increasingly confident command of larger and larger audiences, including an unreleased 1968 set in an Ottawa coffee house (taped by the devoted Mitchell fan Jimi Hendrix), her famed 1969 Carnegie Hall debut and a breathtaking 1970 London show that features backing vocals from her partner at the time and one of her “Blue” muses, James Taylor. (Nov. 13; Rhino) — ZoladzBen LaMar Gay’s “Open Arms to Open Us” bubbles with the sounds of mixed percussion, stringed instruments from across the globe and digital overlays.Sebastien Salom Gomis/Agence France-Presse — Getty ImagesBEN LAMAR GAY For Ben LaMar Gay, a love song can also be a kind of self-affirmation, and a low-key theory of everything. Likewise, as his career wears on, the walls between the various corridors of his artistry — as an electronic musician, a jazz-trained improviser, a postmodern folklorist — continue to disintegrate. The 17 tracks on “Open Arms to Open Us” bubble with the sounds of mixed percussion, stringed instruments from across the globe and digital overlays. One thing that stays relatively clear is Gay’s voice, a wise and confiding baritone, which he barely alters with any reverb or effects. (Nov. 19; International Anthem/Nonesuch) — RussonelloROBERT PLANT AND ALISON KRAUSS Much has changed since “Raising Sand,” the 2007 Grammy-winning and chart-beating collaborative album between Robert Plant and Alison Krauss, but on “Raise the Roof,” their voices still fit together like a pair of dusty boots nestled atop a welcome mat. Fans of Led Zeppelin’s folksier side will appreciate Plant’s return to Appalachian bluegrass, and the covers of artists from Merle Haggard to Bert Jansch to Geeshie Wiley. T Bone Burnett returns as producer. (Nov. 19; Rounder) — GordonMAKAYA McCRAVEN The drummer, composer and producer Makaya McCraven has become one of the most talked-about improvising musicians in the game largely thanks to his method: He tinkers with his band’s live recordings until they’ve become something murkier, groovier and more kaleidoscopic. He typically doesn’t pull from old recordings or archival aesthetics, but instead remixes his own group’s music. With the release of last year’s “We’re New Here,” an affectionate reworking of Gil Scott-Heron’s final album, that changed: McCraven strapped on his headlamp and wandered deep into the archive. On “Deciphering the Message,” McCraven’s newest album and his first for Blue Note, he delves into the label’s own back catalog, using samples and clips from classic recordings as a centerpiece around which his band improvises and embellishes. (Nov. 19; Blue Note) — RussonelloThe newest entry in Taylor Swift’s series of rerecorded albums will be “Red (Taylor’s Version).”Angela Weiss/Agence France-Presse — Getty ImagesTAYLOR SWIFT In the most prolific chapter of her career so far, Taylor Swift is both exploring new sounds — the moody cabin-pop of last year’s twin releases, “Folkore” and “Evermore” — and revisiting her early work. Swift’s ongoing project of recreating her first six albums in an effort to reclaim control of her master recordings continues with “Red (Taylor’s Version).” This new edition of her 2012 album comes with nine previously unreleased tracks; among them are “Nothing New,” featuring Phoebe Bridgers; Swift’s own version of “Better Man,” which she wrote for the country group Little Big Town; and an extended cut of the fan-favorite song “All Too Well.” (Nov. 19; Republic) — HornSUZANNE VEGA In 2019, the folk-influenced singer-songwriter, author and occasional theater artist Suzanne Vega embraced another outlet for storytelling, performing a two-week residency at Café Carlyle. Her New York-themed set was released last year as “An Evening of New York Songs and Stories” — now the basis for “Two Evenings of New York Songs and Stories.” The show arrives Nov. 26-27 at City Winery, where the fall roster veers from other troubadours — including John Hiatt and the Jerry Douglas Band (Sept. 26-27), Rodney Crowell (Oct. 14), Graham Parker (Nov. 1 and 8), Marc Broussard (Nov. 2-3), Joe Henry (Nov. 14) and Vanessa Carlton (Nov. 22) — to the actress and comedian Janeane Garofalo (Oct. 11) and “A John Waters Christmas” (Dec. 12), with the Pope of Trash ringing in the holy season. — GardnerDecemberANA MOURA Ana Moura is firmly rooted in the smoky, fatalistic traditions of fado from her birthplace, Portugal. But album by album she has been connecting ever more widely to the former Portuguese empire and to 21st-century technology. On “Mázia,” the melancholy richness of her voice is backed not only by the Portuguese guitarra but also by beats from Portugal, Brazil, Angola and Cape Verde, and she’s perfectly at home with blues-rock guitar, electronics and flecks of Auto-Tune, even as the melancholy richness of her voice comes through. (Dec. 3; Universal) — ParelesALSO THIS FALL100 GECS The 2019 debut album of Dylan Brady and Laura Les’s internet-inspired future pop launched 1,000 think pieces about the duo’s chaotic approach to musical collage. That LP was conceived over email, but “10000 gecs,” the follow-up, was recorded in person in Los Angeles. Their way-way-way-left-of-center approach to the pop mainstream is grounded by the studio drummer Josh Freese (Guns N’ Roses, Katy Perry), but there’s still enough manic genre collision to launch 10,000 more think pieces. (Dog Show) — GordonKEVIN ABSTRACT The impending breakup of the all-American boy band Brockhampton hasn’t slowed the creative momentum of Kevin Abstract, its most visible member. Befitting his ongoing work to collapse artistic distinctions — famously, Brockhampton includes a handful of nonmusical members — his third solo album flits between genres and moods. The hard-hitting rap of “Slugger” bleeds into a softhearted track like “Sierra Nights,” which sounds like a coming-of-age movie. (Question Everything/RCA) — Gordon More