The Playlist: Bruno Mars Gives His Funk a Flashy Makeover

Bruno Mars - 24K Magic [Official Video]
Justice, Randy Justice - "Randy" Video by Justice

Justice, the French electronic duo, have always had a flair for iconography, and not just in their stage show. So the video for Randy a new single from their third album, Woman, due on Nov. 18 is true to form. Directed and designed by Thomas Jumin, it features a choreographed flow of graphics and footage on 25 vintage televisions, stacked in a wall-like installation. Its an effective tactic for a disco-esque song whose lyrics reek of motivational camp: Dont stop/Try to make your mark/And make your mind up. (The vocals, by Morgan Phalen, are in a thin falsetto.) The most transfixing moments in the video, which was filmed in real time, involve simple shifts in perspective: a slow zoom-in on a single screen, or the pulsating light show set to an industrial breakdown that kicks in just after the three-minute mark. NATE CHINEN

Alicia Keys feat. ASAP Rocky, Blended Family (What You Do for Love) Alicia Keys - "Blended Family (What You Do For Love)" ft. A$AP Rocky Video by aliciakeysVEVO

Laying it bare, paring it back, opening up: these are now the core principles for Alicia Keys, if they werent already. HERE, the title of her forthcoming sixth album, carries an implicit pledge: I am fully present in this moment, for you. And thats precisely the message conveyed in her soothing new single, Blended Family (What You Do for Love). Produced by Ms. Keys and Mark Batson, its a stepmothers note of reassurance: Hey, I might not really be your mother, she begins, over an acoustic guitar loop. But that dont mean that I dont really love ya. A sparse hip-hop beat kicks in, and Ms. Keyss encouraging tone is eventually co-signed by ASAP Rocky, who raps his verse from the other side of the parent-child arrangement: I remember having four stepmoms at 9/Love Christmastime and birthday was fly. N.C.

Ricardo Grilli, Arcturus

Ricardo Grilli is a postbop guitarist with a sideline interest in the cosmos. He crowded his new album, 1954, with tracks bearing titles like Cosmonauts and Radiance. Rather than a gimmick, the concept feels like a natural fit for Mr. Grilli, who was born in So Paulo but now lives in Brooklyn, and has a taste for the ultramodern. Theres an attractively questing quality in the albums opener, Arcturus, named after the brightest star in the Northern sky. Featuring an A-list rhythm team the pianist Aaron Parks, the bassist Joe Martin, the drummer Eric Harland it has a driving rock groove over which Mr. Grilli unfurls a coolly billowing solo. N.C.

Zeds Dead feat. Rivers Cuomo and Pusha T, Too Young Zeds Dead - "Too Young" (ft. Rivers Cuomo & Pusha T) Video by Zeds Dead

The post-Avicii kitchen-sink approach to big-tent dance music is one of that worlds most perverse strengths so long as the beats-per-minute are appropriate, almost anyone can be co-opted into the style, regardless of how apt they sound. Too Young, the new single by Canadian production duo Zeds Dead, appears to exist largely for the novelty of getting Rivers Cuomo and Pusha T on the same song, the sort of overlap that last had frisson around the Judgment Night soundtrack era, and which the mash-up craze of the early 2000s should have killed for good. Instead, on this harmlessly dopey track, Mr. Cuomos vocals are light and tart, and Pusha T delivers his snarling rhymes clearly enough for Sesame Street. J.C.

Mary J. Blige, Thick of It

Theres almost no limit to the Mary J. Blige-ness of the new Mary J. Blige single, Thick of It. An affronted list of grievances delivered as if from the foot of the bed, it has a measured pace, a soulful arrangement and an air of embattled dignity. Ms. Blige, who wrote the song with Jazmine Sullivan, isnt issuing a snapshot of reconciliation here, as anyone could tell by scanning the end rhymes in the chorus:

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Theres a verse rapped in sure-footed triplet cadence, but all of the songs tension comes from the pained rhetorical in the introduction: Should I stick it out? Ms. Blige sings in her confiding lower register, before springboarding up an octave. Are you worth this fight? Are we worth this fight? N.C.

Orrin Evans, Half the Battle

Mr. Evans is a pugnacious, intuitive jazz pianist who has long divided his time between New York and his native Philadelphia. Hes also an avid pop-culture consumer now in his 40s, which explains the throwback allusion in the title of his new album, #knowingishalfthebattle. (If that doesnt ring a bell, you obviously didnt watch G.I. Joe: A Real American Hero, a Reagan-era staple of the after-school cartoon block.) The album puts Mr. Evans in dialogue with two different guitar heroes from his hometown, Kevin Eubanks and Kurt Rosenwinkel. He hasnt often worked with guitarists, but the evidence suggests that he should keep exploring in this vein. Half the Battle, featuring Mr. Rosenwinkel, is a shadow-realm prowl suspenseful in its harmonic irresolution, an excellent disquisition on the dark grandeur of the unknown. N.C.

Josienne Clarke and Ben Walker, Something Familiar Josienne Clarke & Ben Walker - "Something Familiar" Video by Rough Trade Records

The British folk duo Josienne Clarke and Ben Walker have often seemed to pine for pastoral bygones, working mainly with her sweet, somber voice and his fingerpicked acoustic guitar. Their elegant new album, Overnight, due Oct. 14, indulges this fantasy with a hushed but cleareyed purpose. It includes a version of the traditional English ballad Weep You No More, Sad Fountains, but theres also a bone-dry cover of Dark Turn of Mind, by the American singer-songwriter Gillian Welch. Most of the originals feel just as lean, with a few sweeter outliers like The Waning Crescent, which inches toward 60s mod. One of the loveliest offerings is Something Familiar, a swaying waltz about the bittersweet transience of a choice moment and, just maybe, the mirage-like beauty of a mythic past. N.C.

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Source: http://www.nytimes.com/2016/10/08/arts/music/playlist-bruno-mars-joyce-manor-mary-j-blige.html