Jason Isbell’s Bare-Bones Breakup Tune, and 7 More New Songs

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Jason Isbell’s Bare-Bones Breakup Tune, and 7 More New Songs

Every Friday, pop critics for The New York Times weigh in on the week’s most notable new tracks.

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, and sign up for The Amplifier, a twice-weekly guide to new and old songs.

Jason Isbell, ‘

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Jason Isbell’s new album, “Foxes in the Snow,” is decisively unadorned: just Isbell singing over his acoustic guitar. It arrives following his divorce from Amanda Shires, who has her own songwriting career and was a member of his band. Over bare-bones fingerpicking in “Eileen,” Isbell sings about separation, regrets, self-deception and how “It ended like it always ends / Somebody crying on the phone.” He contends, “Eileen, you should’ve seen this coming sooner,” but adds, almost fondly, “You thought the truth was just a rumor, but that’s your way.” It’s not about blame — it’s about getting through.

I’m With Her, ‘

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The virtuoso string-band supergroup I’m With Her — Sarah Jarosz, Aiofe O’Donovan and Sara Watkins — has reconvened with the intimately ambitious “Ancient Light.” The verses are in a gently disorienting 7/4; the instruments mix acoustic and electric, juxtaposing fiddle tune and math-rock; the lyrics lean into the metaphysical. As the song begins, Jarosz sings, “Better get out of the way / Gonna figure out what I wanna say / I been a long time comin’,” and it only gets more cosmic from there.

Car Seat Headrest, ‘

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Will Toledo’s band Car Seat Headrest has announced its first album since 2020, “The Scholars,” and it’s a full-scale rock opera. The first single, “Gethsemane,” is an 11-minute suite that ponders faith, morality, creativity, free will and love as the music unfurls with stretches of ******-rock keyboard minimalism and roaring power chords that echo the Who’s “Tommy.” Toledo sings, “A series of simple patterns slowly build themselves into another song / I don’t know how it happened,” but the structure is ironclad.

Illuminati Hotties, ‘

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Sarah Tudzin — the songwriter and producer behind Illuminati Hotties — cranks up distorted guitars and harnesses quiet-LOUD grunge dynamics in “777,” a song that nearly explodes with joyful anticipation. “I wanna figure you out,” she declares, but she’s already sure that she’s won any gamble: “You’re my spade / lucky 777.” All the noise doesn’t hide the pop song within.

The Ophelias, ‘

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​​”I want your head on a stake / I want your head on a platter,” sing the Ophelias, an indie-rock band from Cincinnati, turning “I” into a peal of vocal harmony. “Salome” adapts an incident from the ****** into a seething, churning, implacable crescendo of guitars, drums and voices, calmly announcing, “The knife sways heavy in my hand.”

Yaeji featuring E. Wata, ‘

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Yaeji, a New York City musician with Korean roots, and her co-producer E. Wata transmute a hand-clapping game into a mutating electronic beat in “Pondeggi.” She chant-sings cryptically about the truth versus disinformation: “Watch where you’re going, head distraction / Keep, keep scrolling till you’re rolling in passive.” There’s a warning under the nonchalant surface.

Nathy Peluso, ‘

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“You make me erotic like 1990s salsa,” the Argentine songwriter Nathy Peluso exults in “Erotika,” and she revives the style to prove her point. Piano, percussion and a swaggering ***** session help her seduce a partner — and herself.

Lyra Pramuk, ‘

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The electronic composer Lyra Pramuk sets things swirling in “Vega,” an assemblage of electronic and vocal loops that gets more menacing as it goes. A pulse gathers into a fitful beat; wordless sounds float in stereo; glitches and bleeps slice through. And eventually, Pramuk intones, “Tell me your name” and “Tell me your story.” Is this an acquaintanceship or an interrogation?

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#Jason #Isbells #BareBones #Breakup #Tune #Songs

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