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 [email protected] and sign up for our Louder newsletter, a once-a-week blast of our pop music coverage.
John Coltrane, ‘Blue World’
Last year we got “Both Directions at Once,” an album culled from previously unheard studio recordings that John Coltrane made in 1963 with his classic quartet. On Sept. 27, Impulse! will release “Blue World,” another collection of tracks that — like the “Both Directions” material — the group recorded in one day at Rudy Van Gelder’s famed studio, and Coltrane never seems to have thought of much again. This time the year was 1964, and the group was making the soundtrack for a Canadian new-wave film, “Le Chat dans le Sac.”
The first single available from “Blue World” is its title track: a modal, one-chord retrofit of the Harold Arlen-Johnny Mercer standard “Out of This World,” which Coltrane retitled here, almost certainly for copyright reasons. (This was an independent session, conducted without the involvement of Impulse! or its executive, Bob Thiele, who typically produced Coltrane’s albums during this period.)
Musically, the alterations Coltrane made to the piece were minimal: He slowed it down just a notch from the version he’d recorded in 1962, for the album “Coltrane,” and removed a short passage in which the band dips into Arlen’s original chord changes. That leaves us with a coolly swinging, mid-tempo groove in Coltrane-esque 6/4 time. Jimmy Garrison’s bass sits high up in the mix, as if to emphasize the earth and salt of the world — as much as its liquid blues. GIOVANNI RUSSONELLO
Rosalía and Ozuna, ‘Yo x Ti, Tu x Mi’
Almost no young musician working in pop music has more promise than Rosalía, the Spanish flamenco-trained singer with thrilling ideas about avant-garde pop. And while she explores those ideas in her own work, she is also collaborating widely with performers from a range of Spanish-language styles — earlier this year, there was “Con Altura” with the reggaeton superstar J Balvin, and now she’s released “Yo x Ti, Tu x Mi” with the post-genre singer Ozuna. The latest one is breezy and sweet, edgeless, barely testing either of them, vocally or emotionally. Songs of this sort threaten to render her supernatural talents merely ordinary, especially if accolades for operating at half-speed discourage her from going all in. Fingers crossed that doesn’t happen. JON CARAMANICA
Normani, ‘Motivation’
The track blends the cadences and bump of ’90s R&B with the aesthetics of 2019’s most rap-savvy pop singers — it’s no surprise Ariana Grande is a writing collaborator here; the video is a delightful showcase of the onetime Fifth Harmony member’s arsenal of dance moves. (Jump to the 1:56 mark for an impressive piece of basketball-related choreography.) CARYN GANZ
Young Thug, ‘Lil Baby’
From the new Young Thug album, “So Much Fun,” comes the zenlike “Lil Baby.” At the beginning, he whispers, “Buy a pink Mercedes,” and by the end, he’s declaring, “This year I’m seeing $32 mil/Last year I popped 35,000 pills.” CARAMANICA
G&D, ‘Peace Peace’
“Welcome to the world, son/Now run,” Dudley Perkins announces over a wobbly, clicketyclack beat produced by Georgia Anne Muldrow, the other half of G&D (and his life partner). “Police got a gun/A fight night after night, day after day.” It’s bleak at the outset, but by the end of the track a sense of hope and vision has prevailed, thanks to the wry realness of Perkins’s rapping and the sun-sprinkled buoyancy of Muldrow’s voice. “Peace Peace” comes from “Black Love & War,” G&D’s just-released second album. RUSSONELLO
Vivian Girls, ‘Something to Do’
The band Vivian Girls plays a blend of contrasting moods: soothing but urgent, blurry but crisp, throwback but current. They released three albums between 2008 and 2011 before an extended hiatus and “Something to Do” is a preview of a new LP due next month: heaps of surf fuzz sandwiching harmonies and quick but potent major/minor gear shifts. GANZ
JPEGMAFIA, ‘Jesus Forgive Me, I am a Thot’
A deeply uncategorizable and potently memorable avant-rap excursion from the Baltimore rapper JPEGMAFIA, “Jesus Forgive Me, I am a Thot” changes frequencies every few seconds — belligerent, desperate, coy, abrasive, pleading — over a luscious and slow-moving quiet storm beat. CARAMANICA
Swae Lee, ‘Sextasy’
This song is called “Sextasy” and contains the lyric “Let me save you like a refugee.” That is all. CARAMANICA
Girl Talk and Young Nudy, ‘No Problem’
One of the great pleasures of 2019 hip-hop has been the vocal tone of Young Nudy — it’s somehow knowing and sinister and whimsical all at once. His album “Sli’merre” is one of the year’s best rap releases, and on “No Problem” he’s just as strong, an eerie storyteller with one eyebrow arched. CARAMANICA
George Garzone, Peter Erskine, Alan Pasqua and Darek Oles, ‘Dedicated to Michael Brecker’
A highlight of the new three-disc live set from these four jazz veterans is this tender ballad, written by the tenor saxophonist George Garzone in memory of his friend Michael Brecker, who was among the most influential saxophonists of the Baby Boom generation. (He died in 2007.) Playing in wistful, powdery tones, Garzone gently lifts the quartet off the ground as Alan Pasqua’s piano and Peter Erskine’s cymbals surround him in a wash. They’re filling the air, but somehow they only affirm the feeling of lightness and ascent. RUSSONELLO
Jon Caramanica is a pop music critic for The Times and the host of the Popcast. He also writes the men’s Critical Shopper column for Styles. He previously worked for Vibe magazine, and has written for the Village Voice, Spin, XXL and more. @joncaramanica
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