Review: Single from Normani’s debut album is decent if unremarkable slow jam

R&B/HIP-HOP

Normani featuring Gunna, “1:59″

In August, it will be five years since the R&B artist Normani released “Motivation,” a deliriously catchy and kinetic single that proved the former Fifth Harmony member had major potential as a solo pop star. In the time since, though, Normani has been relatively quiet, save for a few decent if unremarkable one-offs like the 2022 ballad “Fair” or the slinky 2021 Cardi B collaboration “Wild Side.” Normani will finally release her feverishly anticipated debut album “Dopamine” on June 14, and its first single, “1:59″ is … another decent if unremarkable slow jam, this time centered around a looped acoustic guitar lick and featuring a lusty, sing-songy verse from the rapper Gunna. It’s all well and good for an album track, maybe, but we’re still waiting for that world-conquering bop.

LINDSAY ZOLADZ, New York Times

POP/ROCK

Johnny Cash, “Well Alright”

He wasn’t always the stoic Man in Black. Cash also had a droll side, as revealed in this song reconstituted from demos he recorded in 1993; a latter-day band, including Marty Stuart on guitar, now fills out the original tracks. In “Well Alright,” previewing “Songwriter,” an album due June 28, Cash is deadpan and droll, singing about a liaison that starts at a laundromat. Even the Man in Black had clothes to wash.

Pearl Jam, “React, Respond”

Pearl Jam’s new album, “Dark Matter,” doubles down on the band’s longtime strengths: ferocious hard-rock riffs, neo-psychedelic guitar tangles and Eddie Vedder’s urgent moral compass. “React, Respond” hurtles ahead, with guitars blasting in unison and then ricocheting in stereo, as Vedder calls for unified, purposeful action, insisting, “We could be fighting together/Instead of fighting ourselves.”

JON PARELES, New York Times

Teddy Swims, “Hammer to the Heart”

Swims, a songwriter born in Georgia, leans into 1960s soul and ratchets up the masochism in “Hammer to the Heart,” which wallows in his surrender to a femme fatale. A steady chug, reverbed guitars, a string section and even chimes provide the retro backdrop as he confesses, “I’m such a sucker for the pain,” wallowing in the drama.

Thom Yorke, “Knife Edge”

Menace and dread, familiar Radiohead modes, suffuse “Knife Edge” from Yorke’s soundtrack score for the Daniele Luchetti film “Confidenza.” It’s a waltz set to halting electric-piano chords and uncanny resonances, with a melody that could almost be a lullaby. But Yorke’s tidings are ominous; he gently counsels, “If I were you I’d run away/Get out while you still can.”

JON PARELES, New York Times

New releases

• Dua Lipa, “Radical Optimism”

• Kamasi Washington, “Fearless Movement”

• Mdou Moctar, “Funeral for Justice”

• P.O.D., “Veritas”