Following the chart-topping debut of her seventh studio album, Renaissance, at the end of July, Beyoncé returns this week in a timeless duet with Ronald Isley of the legendary music group The Isley Brothers. The soulful collaboration, “Make Me Say It Again, Girl,” is a cover of an Isley Brothers’ classic from 1975, which Beyoncé infuses with her exquisite vocals.
Following Who Cares?, the second studio album of Rex Orange County (aka Alex O’Connor), “Threat” is a breezy and synth-laden departure from the English recording artist’s previous oeuvre of quirky, jazz-tinged bedroom pop. The one-off single marries relaxed percussion, easygoing melody and uplifting guitar with lyrics of insecurity, paranoia and vulnerability. Despite the somber themes, the song’s laidback yet cheerful energy makes for a quintessential summertime bop.
Accompanying the announcement of Irish multi-instrumentalist and songwriter Anna Mieke’s forthcoming, eight-song LP, Theatre (out 18 November), comes the mesmerizing single “For A Time.” The alt-folk track balances sensations both gentle and engulfing. “It’s a song of humid heat, burning summer, a pool,” says Mieke. “Rotting fruit, flies, the density of a greenhouse in August, carpeted stairs, a diving board. But also loss, and that …
