Review: Brazil’s Anitta spices up the Weeknd’s new single

POP/ROCK

The Weeknd featuring Anitta, “São Paulo”

The Weeknd gets top billing on “São Paulo,” but the song is defined by its Brazilian funk-style synthesizer riff and a hook that Anitta borrowed (with credit) from Brazilian funk singer Tati Quebra Barraco. Anitta chants about her irresistible body (and dominates the version edited for video), while the full song gives the Weeknd ample time to bemoan how thoroughly he’s in her thrall.

The Black Keys featuring Beck, “I’m With the Band”

Beck makes a triumphant throwback to his own 1990s rock, abetted by the stomping beat and layered, distorted guitars of the Black Keys. The lyrics announce “a party at the neon graveyard” where “my cellphone is slowly melting” and he’s got “a heart full of napalm.” But there’s more than enough tambourine-shaking exhilaration to push ahead.

Danny Elfman, “Monkeys on the Loose”

Elfman, the soundtrack composer who got his start leading the new wave band Oingo Boingo, is a master of sardonic bombast. “Monkeys on the Loose” isn’t his first Halloween song; he composed “This Is Halloween” for the soundtrack of “The Nightmare Before Christmas” in 1993. His new “Monkeys on the Loose” is an orchestral stomp celebrating anarchic primates who are “breaking everything they can get their little hands on.” It’s clear that he sympathizes with them.

Lola Young featuring Lil Yachty, “Charlie”

Charlie isn’t exactly Young’s optimum partner in “Charlie,” yet sheer desire makes her willing to put up with him even though she knows better. “You’ve got so many red flags, but boy they just turn me on,” she sings, affirming her love and lust over a stripped-down soul vamp. Lil Yachty adds a smug rap verse from her partner’s perspective, but Young’s acrobatically tortured, increasingly raspy voice defines her predicament.

Ilham, “Games”

Ilham, a Moroccan-American R&B singer, cools off the brittle, implacable drum-machine sounds of drill by gliding above them with breathy, barely there vocal lines. “Games” uses hazy, low-fi piano chords and a leaping hook that’s phrased in passive voice — “Games are being played” — to cloak an adamant message: “Give me respect, I want a mention.”

JON PARELES, New York Times

Jamey Johnson, “Midnight Gasoline”