6 cool things in music include Beyoncé, Bonnie Raitt and Mariah Carey

A half-dozen cool things in music, from two points of view:

Krisanthy Sikkila of New Hope:

1 Bonnie Raitt, "Blame It on Me." On "The Late Show with Stephen Colbert," she was finely featured in a soft spotlight with her band shadowed in evening moonlight. This bluesy number from her new album, "Just Like That," was the perfect nightcap to a long day.

2 Yam Haus, "Phoning It In." Is this the song of the summer? Lars, Jake, Zach and Seth teased the heck out of this new one on socials before its June 10 debut on YouTube. They are living life to the fullest and obviously not sweating the small stuff.

3 Beyoncé in British Vogue. Only Queen Bey could pull off this highly detailed and stylized photo shoot that will leave everyone talking about the red horse, disco balls, motorcycles and fantastic headdresses all the while teasing us with her "Renaissance" album dropping on July 29. "Break My Soul," the new single, is an anthem to everyone sidelined by the pandemic.

Jon Bream, Star Tribune critic:

1 Beyoncé, "Break My Soul." On the first single from next month's "Renaissance" album, Queen Bey liberates us from the pandemic, sleepless nights, bad jobs (not hers) and bad romance (again not hers). She spouts resilience, positivity and platitudes over percolating, breezy beats, with samples from Big Freedia and Robin S. It's a summery smash for the club, beach or cruising with the top down.

3 Mariah Carey's speech at the Songwriters Hall of Fame. In her own scatological, stream-of-consciousness way, she talked about her life, dished self-deprecatingly about her divadom and addressed criticism that's she not a songwriter. It was highly entertaining and inimitably Mimi.