HIP-HOP
Jack Harlow, "Common Ground"
On his third major label album, "Jackman," Harlow leans away from the lithe boasts that shaped "Come Home the Kids Miss You," his 2022 breakthrough LP. Instead, he pivots to issues — specifically, on the opening track "Common Ground," the issue of whiteness. It's a fleet, acute look at the ways that white participants in hip-hop cloak themselves, to be present but not quite seen (or maybe vice versa): "Reciting rap lyrics about murder and cash profit/Get to feel like a thug but don't have to act on it." White rappers rapping about the condition of whiteness in hip-hop isn't new, and Harlow has addressed these themes on earlier releases; he raps about these topics with self-awareness and skepticism (though not quite self-indictment). But as he is beginning to become a bigger mainstream rap star, he's not shrugging off the conversation as if it doesn't apply to him anymore.
JON CARAMANICA, New York Times
POP/ROCK
Jessie Ware, "Freak Me Now"
The British pop singer pivoted to disco on her excellent 2020 album "What's Your Pleasure?," but she shifts into a higher gear on its ecstatic follow-up, "That! Feels Good!" The kinetic, house-inflected dance-floor anthem "Freak Me Now" is a highlight, and its vampy attitude and attention to sonic detail finds Ware in complete control of her vision. "That sparkle in my eye, you are a jewel, baby," she purrs on the verse, as if an entire glittering, sweaty congregation of partygoers is orbiting around her confident stillness.
LINDSAY ZOLADZ, New York Times
