A shocking entry within the litany of to-the-left-to-the-left kiss-off anthems, Flo’s “Cardboard Field” is cheeky, assured, ever so barely righteously impolite. Flo — Jorja Douglas, Renée Downer and Stella Quaresma — is a vividly gifted British R&B lady group that launched a number of sturdy songs final 12 months, however this was essentially the most placing, stuffed with arched-brow dismissals, self-love affirmations and, on this acoustic rendition, mellifluous harmonies that talk bliss amid collapse: “You ain’t gonna change, boy/What’s the purpose in stringing me a-loh-ohngggg?” JON CARAMANICA
Becky G and Karol G, ‘Mamiii’
This blockbuster 2022 hit — the inevitable collaboration between the 2 “actual Gs,” Becky (the American granddaughter of Mexican immigrants) and Karol (from Colombia) — strives to be the final word kiss-off to a poisonous ex. “I gave you my coronary heart,” Becky G costs because the track begins, however she has undoubtedly taken it again, altering her telephone quantity and evaluating the ex to a rat and a venereal illness. Over the bounce of a reggaeton beat, with sisterly harmonies, the breakup turns right into a female-bonding expertise: offended, amused, unforgiving. JON PARELES
Monster and Massive Flock, ‘Cappin’
The obvious retort to the current uptick in utilizing rap lyrics in court docket instances is that this: Rappers — like all artists — lie. In fact they do. Rap is historical past and reportage and in addition embellishment and fancy. Inserting an unreasonable reality worth on a set of phrases maybe based mostly on precise expertise that additionally occur to rhyme and have narrative coherence and are offered in an entertaining method — that’s a idiot’s sport. Thus, “Cappin,” a track by the rappers Monster and Massive Flock, a track made beneath the presumption of surveillance. Every part they rap about? Falsehoods, they insist. In the event you’re listening looking for proof, look elsewhere. “Why you so severe?” Monster raps. “I can’t play?/I ain’t received no pistols, these props/I act like I be within the combine, however I’m not.” It’s a intelligent gimmick that serves as a reminder that what seems in a track isn’t essentially true, and by extension, that loads of true issues by no means seem in any track. CARAMANICA
Fally Ipupa, ‘Formule 7’
The Congolese songwriter, singer, guitarist and producer Fally Ipupa has delved into types new and outdated, releasing an album a 12 months since 2016. He celebrates many years of Congolese rumba on “Formule 7,” his seventh album, and its eight-minute title track is extra like a spotlight reel, cruising by a number of eras, configurations and rhythms of Congolese music. It spotlights six-beat drumming, intertwined guitars, synthesizer and accordion obbligatos, call-and-response vocals, singing and rapping, cheerfully claiming an entire continuum of concepts. PARELES
Ela Minus and DJ Python, ‘Kiss You’
The ticks, glitches and muffled drumbeats of DJ Python’s manufacturing mirror the insistent longing Ela Minus sings about in “Kiss You.” She insists on a sure equilibrium — “I’m not holding on/I’m not letting go” — as sustained chords and twitchy digital rhythms come and go. That is stasis as a taut steadiness of competing forces, all digital, and all topic to vary at any second. PARELES
Manuel Turizo, ‘La Bachata’
One of many 12 months’s greatest bachata songs got here not from the long-running style kingpin Romeo Santos however as an alternative from the Colombian singer Manuel Turizo. “La Bachata” is each folksy and ambitiously trendy — Turizo has a comparatively skinny voice, however the lushness of the fashionable manufacturing bolsters him. Santos can generally sing with a coyness that feels impossibly dreamy, however Turizo, much less certain by custom, pushes onerous into the beat, a stressed interloper. CARAMANICA
Mabe Fratti, ‘Cada Músculo’
Mabe Fratti, from Guatemala, brings maximal emotion to the Minimalist buildings she builds from her vocals and the gutsy riffs she performs on cello. “Each muscle has a voice,” she insists in “Cada Músculo” (“Each Muscle”), as she layers her cello and electronics into her personal orchestra. The strain — muscular and psychological — solely grows. PARELES
