Fashion
Ringo Starr Goes Country, and 13 More New Songs
Hear tracks by Japanese Breakfast, Lambrini Girls, SZA 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.
Ringo Starr featuring Molly Tuttle, ‘Look Up’
Ringo Starr maintains his perpetual optimism in “Look Up,” the title track of his new, Nashville-centered album. Written by T Bone Burnett and Daniel Tashian, the song posits, “There’s a light that shines in the darkest days,” bolstered by richly twangy guitars and an unmistakable Ringo backbeat. JON PARELES
The Lumineers, ‘Same Old Song’
The Lumineers — the singer Wesley Schultz and the instrumentalist Jeremiah Fraikes — have set rigorous parameters for their songwriting. The instrumentation is minimal and hand-played; the chords are few and unfancy. “Same Old Song” uses a basic but insistent drumbeat and a few piano chords, with an organ tucked into the background. That leaves Schultz room for wide-open emotions and raw dynamics, as lyrics leap between the mundane — rent, instruments stolen from a van — and thoughts of mortality, depression and tenacity. PARELES
Hamilton Leithauser, ‘Knockin’ Heart’
Much of the solo work of Hamilton Leithauser, the lead singer of the New York rock band the Walkmen, explores the more stately side of his versatile voice, but “Knockin’ Heart,” a single from the forthcoming album “This Side of the Island,” erupts with spiky desperation. “Oh, there’s no one who’s gonna love you like I do tonight,” he sings, just before the chorus explodes into a riot of distorted guitar and stomping percussion. LINDSAY ZOLADZ
Lambrini Girls, ‘Company Culture’
All things patriarchal, capitalistic and obtuse are targets for Lambrini Girls, the gleefully obstreperous English punk duo Phoebe Lunny and Lilly Macieira. “Company Culture,” a blast at workplace harassment from their debut album, “Who Let the Dogs Out,” revs up instrumentally for nearly a full minute — clattery drums, buzz-bombing bass, dissonant guitar — before Lunny lets loose a brutally sarcastic tirade: “Human resources say I’m asking for it,” she barks. PARELES
Spellling, ‘Portrait of My Heart’
Chrystia Cabral, a California songwriter who records as Spellling, proclaims “I don’t belong here!” with mounting vehemence in “Portrait of My Heart,” which will be the title track of her fourth album, due in March. She sings about a psychological and spiritual crisis — “I need a stroke of luck / ’Cause I kicked down all my angels to the dirt” — in a crescendo of choppy drums, layered guitars and orchestral strings, exulting in the drama. PARELES
