Y: Jonas Brothers, “I Believe” – I’ve been to the year 2019. Not much has changed, but the Jonas Brothers are back, baby! The Disney Channel alums’ new album is hit-or-miss as a whole, but it’s still enough to make me concede that a reunion may have been a good idea after all. 10 years after Lines, Vines, and Trying Times, their latest record, Happiness Begins does what the Jonas Brothers do best; tug at my residual preteen heartstrings with cheesy, daydream-esque summertime hits. I’ve already listened to“I Believe,” which Nick Jonas says was written for his wife, Priyanka Chopra at least 10 times today and there’s no end in sight. —Lisa Fischer
Oh yes: Róisín Murphy, “Incapable” – Out of all the contemporary near-pop (but for the mass popularity), dance-inflected divas (your Robyns, your Carly Raes), no one’s house bangs harder than Róisín Murphy’s. After last year’s string of double-sided singles (effectively, an album’s worth of material that she rolled out over the course of a few months), the Irish singer-songwriter is back with “Incapable.” This one plops in at a slightly slower pace for house (the production reminds me of Deee-Lite’s face-tripping “Pussycat Meow”). House music typically tends to pound its emotional subject matter down your throat for the sake of simplicity, but Murphy is a conduit of complications here, asking big questions (“Never had a broken heart/Am I incapable of love?”) as the layers pile on and the sound design itself complicates, impeccably complementing Murphy’s lyrics. Ugh, how is she so good so often? —Rich Juzwiak
Oh yes: Róisín Murphy, “Incapable” – Out of all the contemporary near-pop (but for the mass popularity), dance-inflected divas (your Robyns, your Carly Raes), no one’s house bangs harder than Róisín Murphy’s. After last year’s string of double-sided singles (effectively, an album’s worth of material that she rolled out over the course of a few months), the Irish singer-songwriter is back with “Incapable.” This one plops in at a slightly slower pace for house (the production reminds me of Deee-Lite’s face-tripping “Pussycat Meow”). House music typically tends to pound its emotional subject matter down your throat for the sake of simplicity, but Murphy is a conduit of complications here, asking big questions (“Never had a broken heart/Am I incapable of love?”) as the layers pile on and the sound design itself complicates, impeccably complementing Murphy’s lyrics. Ugh, how is she so good so often? —Rich Juzwiak
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