A well-timed holiday remix that doubles as shameless Oscar campaigning? Yes they are Ken! Ryan Gosling and Mark Ronson’s “Barbie” showstopper “I’m Just Ken” is reimagined in three different formats — acoustic lament, club banger and Christmas novelty — on the newly released “I’m Just Ken” EP . “I’m Just Ken (Merry Kristmas Barbie)” reworks the arrangement into a stately, vaguely festive bit of chamber-pop; Thankfully, Gosling doesn’t fill the lyrics with Christmas puns, but simply whispers a wistful, “Merry Christmas, Barbie … wherever you are.” LINDSAY ZOLADZ
“We put the trap on the entrepreneur,” British drill rapper Central Cee spits on his first solo single of the year, following high-profile collaborations with Dave, Drake and PinkPantheress. In his signature knottily conversational flow, Cee boasts about his hustler mentality and sudden success, never forgetting where he came from: “Went from a Toyota Yaris to Urus,” he raps. “I still got the same work rate as before.” ZOLADZ
Flagboy Giz grew up in hip-hop, but he’s also a proud bearer of New Orleans tradition as a member, since 2015, of Wild Tchoupitoulas tribe of Mardi Gras Indians. The title of his 2023 album “Disgrace to the Culture” refers to the way his music determinedly mixes hip-hop with New Orleans lore. Twitchy trap programming and a low-slung piano riff join hints of brass-band sousaphone and Mardi Gras tambourine to bring “Fell in Love at the Secondline,” a flirtation mapped out on city streets. JON PARELES
A ferocious beat, relentless yet transformative — with percussion, vocals and programming — drives “Survivor,” a knowing vow of defiance in the face of every obstacle. “I am the lawless, formless, mindless, flawless chaos of the sun/I am the seed of life and love, you see the blaze, you better run” cries Genesis Owusu, born in Ghanaian and living in Australia. The track is brutal, full of paradoxical wordplay — and completely confrontational. PARALES
Iza, a Brazilian singer and rapper, didn’t just break up with “Que Se Vá” (“Let It Go”); he also cancels the ex’s credit card. His delightfully beautiful departure, with laugh-out-loud verses, is propelled by Afro-Brazilian rhythms, programmed hand claps and a chorus of harmony that cheers through. PARALES
Kesha puts aside her pop and rock reflexes for the sad “Eat the Acid” from her 2023 album, “Gag Order.” He sings about indelible drug revelations and warns, “You don’t wanna be changed/like it changed me.” With vivid keyboard drones, a cappella moments, processed vocals and distant, ethereal harmonies, Kesha pushes the experimental boundaries of songwriters like Julia Holter and Björk. PARALES
Medicine, ‘That’s OK, Friend’
Medicine, the indie-rock band Brad Laner has led since 1990, thrives on overload, layering poppy tunes within a pile-on of instruments, vocals, electronics and distortion. “That’s Alright, Friend” — the opening track on its 2023 album, “Silences” — bashes out a six-beat stomp behind Julia Monreal’s joyous voice as bells, electronics chatter and layered guitars ring out on his melody. Then the track begins to float into new territory, deviating at several stages before ending up somewhere like a psychedelic sea chantey, as Monreal repeats the title in reassurance amid the noise. PARALES
A vocalist sits on a stool in a dark-lit subterranean jazz club, beret-clad, he’s bopping through standards. Even if you think more or less when you hear the word “jazz,” that’s probably not what the name “Esperanza Spalding” brings to mind. But in 2018, Spalding deviated from the old songbook, at the elbow of piano maestro Fred Hersch, during a weeklong stand at the Village Vanguard. Some tracks from those dates were released as an album earlier this year.
Yes, he wore a beret and sat on a stool, and the lights were low. (He also left his bass at home.) Still, Spalding created a healthy distance between himself and the old material. On “But Not for Me,” though he enjoys Hersch’s piano banter, Spalding seems certain that this Gershwin tune was not written “for” him. “They say Russian plays boast a lot of gray skies,” he sings, before tapping into the next line. “And then there are words I don’t really understand, ’cause it’s like Old English: ‘hi-ho, sayang and lackaday?'” she says. “That’s how I feel – confused by the whole situation.” The audience laughs easily, agreeing that old material shines best when cast in the light of the present day. GIOVANNI RUSSONELLO
The Secret Society by Darcy James Argue, ‘All included’
Darcy James Argue and his airtight big band, Secret Society, have long made a cottage industry out of dynamic torque, and Argue rarely wastes a note. “All In,” from their aptly named album “Dynamic Maximum Tension,” begins with a soft, distorted drum beat, then a procession of rich harmonies – filled with enough dissonance to tighten the energy – before a heavier beat begins. Horns swell over a percussive, string-muted piano part from Adam Birnbaum. Even as the sound becomes successful, that catalytic dissonance never goes away. RUSSONELLO
“From the Dancehall to the Battlefield” is the culmination of a long project for pianist and multivalent artist Jason Moran, who has spent years exploring and elevating the legacy of James Reese Europe, a pioneering bandleader who once also the first Black American to lead US troops into battleas a lieutenant in the 369th Infantry Regiment (the notorious “Harlem Hellfighters”) during World War I. Europe also led the regiment’s orchestra, which made waves in France and helped pave the way for the big band of the Jazz Age.
On “From the Dancehall,” Moran leads a 10-piece group through a rotation of material, putting Europe in conversation with the 100 years of jazz history that followed in his wake. A highlight comes on “Flee as a Bird to Your Mountain/Ghosts,” as Moran pairs a European dirge-like composition — played by a European band whenever an infantryman dies on the battlefield — with the spiritualist Albert Ayler’s free-jazz classic “Mga multos.” Brian Settles, a well-known tenor saxophonist in the Washington (town of Europe) jazz scene, brings the melody to “Ghosts,” smoothing and savoring his notes, then transitioning into a trembling, heart-warming solo. RUSSONELLO
A thunderstorm rumbles through “Anestesia” (“Anesthesia”) by Conexión Divina, a Los Angeles-based three-woman band that plays a regional Mexican style called sierreño, featuring melancholy love songs. On “Anestesia,” Liz Trujillo sings about the intense longing she needs to numb. Whether it’s blinding infatuation or post-breakup regret, the desperation is palpable. PARALES
In “El Que” (“He’s That”), Angelica Garcia wrestles with an inner demon that “trembles, steals energy, controls and taunts,” preying on her own self-doubt. A throbbing electronic pulse emphasizes his vulnerability; he fights against booming drums and a choral chant, achieving a tense standoff. PARALES
On her 2023 album, “Goodbye, Hotel Arkada,” harpist Mary Lattimore embraced electronics and processing while keeping the plucked and resonant tones of her instrument at the heart of her music. “Music for Applying Shimmering Eye Shadow” is minimalistic and meditative with little exact repetition. Basking in the slow alternation of two echoey chords topped with ever-changing fragments of melody, it really, really shines. PARALES
