On a new song, Mary J. Blige looks in the mirror for self-affirmation

Mary J. Blige, "Good Morning Gorgeous"

On the title track to her forthcoming album (due around February, when she'll perform at the Super Bowl halftime), Blige once again battles and overcomes self-doubt. "I'm so tired of feeling empty," she sings in a gritty croon over a slow-rolling, vintage-style soul track, abetted by a moody string arrangement. But she's got the solution: looking in the mirror every morning with the self-affirmation, "Good morning, gorgeous." She adds, "I ain't talking about getting no hair and makeup/I'm talking about soon as I wake up." The video makes clear she's waking up in a mansion, toned and bejeweled, a long way from "all the times that I hated myself."

JON PARELES, New York Times

Hurray for the Riff Raff, "Jupiter's Dance"

This song is an exercise in tenderness. It is a welcome departure for Alynda Segarra,who typically makes warm folk-punk as Hurray for the Riff Raff, here trading grit for cosmic reverie. In a breathy whisper, Segarra coos: "Seven revolutions around the sun. Blessings on our way, it has only begun." The video juxtaposes celestial NASA images with found footage of people dancing to the Afro-Puerto Rican genres bomba and plena. It is a galactic prayer, a belief in the promise of the future, rooted in the vitality of the past.

ISABELIA HERRERA, New York Times

Grimes, "Player of Games"

Recently "semi-separated" from Tesla billionaire Elon Musk, with whom she has a child, Grimes coos club-ready recriminations in "Player of Games," which she sometimes sings like "play your love games." Over a brisk house track, she asks questions like "Baby, will you still love me?" and "How can I compare to the adventure out there?" as the arpeggios repeat and the four-on-the-floor thumps. "If I loved him any less, I'd make him stay," she asserts, teasing the gossip-industrial complex.

JON PARELES, New York Times