New Music Friday: 2/20/26
The whole mad swirl of New Music that was to come began Friday
As always, New Music Friday is partly and proudly powered by the public servants at Pause & Play.
"Championship Ring," SleazyWorld Go
In general, I tend to gravitate toward hip-hop that is, for lack of a better word, fun. In practice, this basically means you're more likely to find me listening to De La or J5 than anything on the self-aggrandizing and/or gangsta end of the spectrum, for reasons of topic and tone as well as sonics, but there are exceptions, and SleazyWorld Go's "Championship Ring" is the latest addition to that list. Channeling LL Cool J's "Mama Said Knock You Out," this is three minutes and 41 seconds of scalding vinegar from an artist who's sick and goddamn tired of feeling like he's been slept on, and his anger is captivating. There isn't much going on here from a production standpoint, but there doesn't need to be; the whole thing is fueled by SleazyWorld Go's incandescent fury.
"My Life," Julia Cumming
I've been following Julia Cumming's career since she was in her early teens, mainly because I've known her dad Alec for a long time. I mention him here because "My Life" — the leadoff single from Julia's upcoming debut solo record, sensibly titled Julia — marks the first time I've ever heard her channeling the copious amounts of Bacharach that she no doubt grew up hearing. (Alec didn't write the book on Bacharach, but he did write the liner notes.) I don't know how "My Life" will strike you if you're a big fan of Julia's work with Sunflower Bean, but this is a truly lovely, classically written pop song that leaves me excited to hear the rest of the record. Great (Edgar Wright-directed) video, too.
"Arkansas Mud," Ashley McBryde
Nine times out of ten, there's precious little to be gained from putting a rock sheen on a country record; instead of making the song sound tougher or more interesting, it usually just smooths and flattens everything out. There's a little of that going on in Ashley McBryde's "Arkansas Mud," but overall, I think the production choices here make sense. The way the electric guitars are used to establish a mood in the first 10-15 seconds hooks you before the beat comes crashing in, and all of it helps to counterweight the hackneyed lyrics McBryde spends half the song spitting out. We've all heard a hundred songs about women who are too country to be reined in, and half of them contain the words "Smith & Wesson." This one isn't fundamentally different, but the trappings make it more interesting than most. Extra points awarded for the mandolin solo.
"Stacy," Micah Dailey-White
Micah Dailey-White's bio says his music "draws influences from '80s and '90s pop and R&B," which is a little like saying ice draws influences from water; I haven't listened to all of his new MANIA album yet, but the tracks I have heard do a stellar job of capturing a very specific era, to the point where you come away imagining a parallel universe in which Dailey-White toured with Rockwell and/or Jeffrey Osborne. Anyway, this song is a lot of fun, and I'm looking forward to hearing more.
"Far Away," Labi Siffre
I feel like I'm one of the relatively few people who wasn't particularly moved and/or impressed by The Holdovers, but I'll give the movie full credit for contributing to the Labi Siffre revival. He'll celebrate his 81st year by releasing his first new album in nearly three decades — and if the rest of it is as quietly powerful as "Far Away," then we can add one more item to the list of reasons it was well worth the wait. Beautiful stuff from a voice that sounds seasoned by time, but not weakened one whit.
"Something Blue," Lucid Express
As a devout fan of the type of musical magic that can happen when a sound commonly associated with one particular place is refracted through an unexpected cultural lens, it pleases me to report that Lucid Express gives you everything you could hope to hear after reading the phrase "Hong Kong shoegaze band." Which is to say that "Something Blue" is a fuzzy blast of beauty, shot through with the type of aching sincerity that comes from teenagers forming a band in the midst of political upheaval out of "a need to hold on to something more beautiful than before." This song doesn't cover any new ground, but its treads are worn with love.
"dance! skip! hop!," Tomeka Reid
This week's jazz track comes courtesy of cellist Tomeka Reid, whose new dance! skip! hop! album finds her once again working with guitarist Mary Halvorson, bassist Jason Roebke, and drummer Tomas Fujiwara. If you're a jazz fan, you know jazz cellists aren't exactly common, so Reid would stand apart even if she was content to churn out typical-sounding stuff; as this track makes abundantly clear, she has far more interesting excursions in mind. The record's title track is a ten-minute journey that pogos down happily down the mountain from melodic motif to improvisation without ever breaking stride, setting the tone for the rest of the tracks to follow. Vibrantly restless work from master craftspersons.
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"What I Can't Have," Mod Lang
After exploring the jazz frontier, we bring it all back home with Mod Lang, whose new Borrowed Time album is a tight 'n' bright 35 minutes that reflects lives well spent listening to a steady diet of power pop/garage rock records. If you like crunchy and/or jangly guitars, high harmonies, and big fat hooks, you'll swoon over this set — starting with the leadoff track, "What I Can't Have."
For those who prefer to listen outside their browser, here are this week's recommendations in convenient playlist form:
