Beefs make rappers productive. Earlier this week, Kendrick Lamar dropped a brand new salvo in his not too long ago rekindled feud with Drake: a six-minute, multipart rejoinder to Drake’s latest “Push Ups” and “Taylor Made Freestyle.” It begins with Lamar rapping shortly however calmly over a smooth-jazz backdrop, taunting, “I make music that electrify ’em, you make music that pacify ’em.” However after he warns, “Don’t inform no lie about me/And I gained’t inform truths about you,” the monitor adjustments to a tolling, droning entice dirge and Lamar’s supply turns into biting, nasal and percussive. He switches from circulation to circulation with an accelerating barrage of assaults, skilled and private, from recording offers to parenting expertise: “cringe-worthy” is a milder one. This monitor is unlikely to be the final spherical. Lamar posted a follow-up, “6:16 in LA,” on his Instagram Friday morning. JON PARELES
The nation queen Miranda Lambert instructions an environment of smoky guitar licks and smoldering defiance on her new track “Wranglers,” her first solo single since her 2022 album “Palomino.” Lambert spins a third-person yarn of heartbreak and revenge at one thing of an emotional take away through the verses, however there’s a welcome grit in her voice when she will get to the irreverent hook: “She set all of it on fireplace, and if there’s one factor that she realized/Wranglers take perpetually to burn.” LINDSAY ZOLADZ
Illuminati Hotties, ‘Can’t Be Nonetheless’
Is multitasking a worry of going through your self? Sarah Tudzin, who information as Illuminati Hotties, contemplates her personal shattered consideration span with “Can’t Be Nonetheless,” singing, “Oh when issues are transferring too sluggish/I, oh received locations I wanna go.” With chunky, distorted guitar chords and little interludes of whistling — in concord — she smiles via her nerves. PARELES
Ibibio Sound Machine, ‘Pull the Rope’
The London-based, Nigerian-rooted band Ibibio Sound Machine has advanced right into a starkly environment friendly electro-funk band, delivering community-minded messages in English and the Nigerian language Ibibio. “Pull the Rope,” the title monitor of the band’s new album, deploys an octave-hopping bass line, videogame blips and finally a horn part to propel a constructive chant: “Though we’re desperate to set off/Let’s pull the rope, collectively we hope.” PARELES
Niki — the Indonesian singer and songwriter Nicole Zefanya, now primarily based in Los Angeles — cheerfully saunters into an iffy new romance in “Too A lot of a Good Factor.” Over a bluesy bass vamp and brushes on a snare drum, she notes, “One thing tells me that is gonna damage sometime,” however that’s no deterrent. PARELES
Chris Smither, ‘All In regards to the Bones’
The folks-blues stalwart Chris Smither has been considering mortality all through his many years of songwriting; at 80, he’s extra convincing than ever. “All In regards to the Bones,” a modal blues with saxophone becoming a member of Smither’s foot-tapping and fingerpicked guitar, pays tribute to bone anatomy — “Some will make you stronger/Others make you tall” — together with the gruff reminder that ultimately, “they find yourself on the pile.” PARELES
Amy Allen, ‘Woman With a Downside’
Amy Allen has intensive songwriting credit, together with Sabrina Carpenter’s present hit “Espresso” and collaborations with Olivia Rodrigo, Justin Timberlake and Harry Types. Allen whisper-sings “Woman With a Downside,” a sullen, grungy waltz about obsessive need: “It’s transferring so quick, it’s approaching robust/It desires you so dangerous, doesn’t care if it’s fallacious.” Starting with simply acoustic guitars, the monitor thickens with drums, strings and backup vocals whereas Allen’s voice stays quiet and stubbornly fixated. PARELES
Mabe Fratti’s “Pantalla Azul” (“Blue Display”) begins — as a lot of her songs do — with solely her voice and her cello, right here enjoying just a few double stops. She sings, mysteriously, about somebody who desires to go away actuality behind and about seeing her personal creativeness as a blue display screen; in the meantime, samples suggesting voices, pianos and harps arrive behind her, carrying her ever additional away from earthly considerations. PARELES
Nduduzo Makhathini, ‘Water Spirits: Izinkonjana’
“Izinkonjana” is a tranquil, unhurried ballad from the South African pianist Ndudzo Makhathini and his trio, a pearly melody over reassuring gospelly chords and a minor-key trace of Chopin. Halfway via, Makhathini shows some improvisatory prospers, however with out disturbing the composition’s preternatural restraint. PARELES
Caroline Polachek, ‘Starburned and Unkissed’
Jane Schoenbrun’s “I Noticed the TV Glow,” which comes out on Friday, is a coming-of-age horror movie awash in teen angst and smeary ’90s nostalgia, and Caroline Polachek nails that vibe in a brand new unique track from the soundtrack. Vivid and surreal adolescent imagery piles up through the dreamy, downcast verses, however Polachek rips the roof off the track throughout a cathartic refrain, singing yearningly from beneath the crush of guitar distortion, “My coronary heart’s a ghost limb reaching, star-burned and unkissed.” ZOLADZ
