Listen along while you read.
1. Chappell Roan: “Good Luck, Babe!”
Chappell Roan’s voice drips with sarcasm on the verses of this synth-pop tune, as she sends an ex off with a shrugging, “It’s fine, it’s cool.” As the song builds, though, the details of the relationship come into focus and Roan allows herself to admit she is neither fine nor cool with how things ended. Still, she knows she deserves better; as she puts it in her impassioned and theatrical voice, “I just wanna love someone who calls me baby.”
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2. Margo Guryan: “Moon Ride”
This one’s not technically a new song — it was recorded in 1956 — but it is newly released, and very much worth checking out. Margo Guryan was a singer-songwriter best known for “Take a Picture,” her breezy and charming 1968 album, which has become a cult favorite over the past few decades. A forthcoming boxed set will showcase other corners of Guryan’s singular career, including early forays into jazz-inspired songwriting. The singer Chris Connor released a version of the coolly absurd, Guryan-penned “Moon Ride” in 1958, but now Guryan’s own recording is available to hear. Though “Moon Ride” has a certain retro-futuristic kitsch about it, Guryan’s phrasing and winking tone sound strikingly modern.
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3. Jordan Hamilton: “Roses”
And now let’s blast back to the present, to hear a new track from another idiosyncratic songwriter who harnesses jazz influences into a unique sound. Jordan Hamilton blends R&B and hip-hop cadences with nimble cello playing on this track from his upcoming album, “Project Freedom.” “Roses” begins with a jaunty, plucked sequence over which Hamilton’s staccato vocals hopscotch. Then, when he picks his bow back up halfway through, the song morphs into a lush, fluid dreamscape.
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4. Tyla: “Safer”
Last year, the young musician Tyla had a breakout global hit with the slinky “Water,” which earned her a Grammy and made her the first South African solo artist in more than half a century to crack the Billboard Hot 100. “Safer,” from her recently released self-titled debut album, is another sleek hybrid of American pop influences and her native country’s amapiano style.
