Listen Up

Languid R&B, upbeat indie-pop, self-reflective pool rock and more new music this week

Monophonics: Last One Standing California-based band Monophonics makes music that sounds plucked from another era, with tinges of Curtis Mayfield and Al Green. There’s a timelessness to their releases and their newest single, “Last One Standing,” is no exception. The seven-minute song ebbs and flows: there are groovy, cinematic cuts carried by drums, a bass guitar and horns, and crescendoing choruses built around vocalist Kelly …

M. Ward: Unreal City

Filmed on the streets of Paris, the Beatrice Pegard-directed video for M. Ward’s latest track, “Unreal City,” brings the spirit of New Wave filmmaking into the present day. Clémence Poésy stars as the adventuring, everyday heroine and her movements bring the beautiful of the song to life. “Unreal City” appears in advance of M. Ward’s forthcoming album, Migration Stories, recorded within Arcade Fire’s Montreal studios.