Review: Rihanna's new 'Wakanda Forever' single is a prayer, not a banger

POP/ROCK

Rihanna, "Lift Me Up"

Rihanna, who hasn't released a solo song since her 2016 album "Anti," returns to music on the soundtrack for "Black Panther: Wakanda Forever." The title of "Lift Me Up" has a gospel resonance, and the song is a hymnlike call for intimacy and security: "Keep me close, safe and sound." Harp plucking — perhaps from a West African kora — and a string section support Rihanna and an African duet partner, the Nigerian star Tems. For all its structural clarity, the song doesn't try to be a banger; it's a prayer and a plea.

JON PARELES, New York Times

SZA, "Shirt"

"In the dark right now, feeling lost but I like it," SZA sings on the moody, midtempo "Shirt," a long-awaited single produced by Rodney "Darkchild" Jerkins. The wildly cinematic, Dave Meyers-directed music video of the song features SZA and LaKeith Stanfield killing a bunch of people and a plot as jam-packed as an entire feature film, but perhaps the most exciting part is the wittily lyrical, acoustic guitar-driven new song SZA previews over the clip's credits.

LINDSAY ZOLADZ, New York Times

At 75, Pop would be fully entitled to continue the kind of cranky, sepulchral, jazz-tinged musings he offered on his 2019 album, "Free." Instead, he's back to flat-out, buzz-bombing, hard-riffing rock with a new single, "Frenzy," backed by a credentialed band including producer Andrew Watt on guitar, Duff McKagan from Guns N' Roses on bass and Chad Smith from Red Hot Chili Peppers on drums. Proudly foul-mouthed and convincingly irate, Pop lashes out in all directions, fully aware of his standing: "I'm sick of the freeze, I'm sick of disease/So gimme me a try before I [expletive] die."

JON PARELES, New York Times

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