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Anna Domino, ‘Happy to Go’
Clacking typewriter keys tap syncopations on “Happy to Go,” a relic of 1980s downtown New York minimalism. It’s from an expanded reissue of Anna Domino’s 1984 debut EP, “East and West,” arriving in December. “Happy to Go,” previously unreleased, assembles little motifs on analog synthesizers and guitar — methodical and a little blurry — behind Domino’s deadpan, rhyming R.S.V.P.: “I’d be happy to go / It’s far, you know.”
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Meshell Ndegeocello with Willow, ‘Hunger Strike’
Meshell Ndegeocello and many guests transform other people’s songs on her new album, “Synonym.” Most were hit pop love songs, but “Hunger Strike” revives a 1991 Seattle grunge curio from the only album by Temple of the Dog. Chris Cornell of Soundgarden wrote it and was backed by musicians who would become Pearl Jam; the track was Eddie Vedder’s recording debut. Ndegeocello replaces guitar picking and power chords with tolling, otherworldly sustained tones and wordless vocals; Willow wails “I’m going hungry!” And percussion comes clattering in like an underclass uprising.
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Mogwai featuring Iggy Pop, ‘Underground’
The Scottish band Mogwai has been making dramatic, largely instrumental rock for three decades. It welcomed guest vocals from an idol, Iggy Pop. At 79, he’s still a troublemaker. “Underground” revisits proto-punk with a drone-y track that suggests an electronically enhanced Stooges rocker. Pop intones, incontestably, “Underground, you’re my home.” He’s been doing assorted guest vocals lately; “Got a job,” he boasts in “Underground.” He makes each job count.
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What’s New in Instrumental Music
John Leventhal, ‘When I Walked to the River’
“National Drift” is an instrumental album by John Leventhal, a producer, songwriter and studio musician with Rosanne Cash (his wife), Shawn Colvin, Sarah Jarosz and many others. It’s a working musician’s sketchbook of improvisations, with pensive guitar solos alongside a few tracks as a one-man studio band. Leventhal communes with his instruments, letting melodies speak plainly rather than showing off. “When I Walked to the River” is a band track, an unhurried shuffle that ambles through loosely connected tunes, sharing a mood while changing keys.
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What’s New on the Charts
bôa, ‘Duvet’
Sampling and TikTok have repeatedly revived “Duvet,” a 1998 single from the British band bôa, which reunited in 2023 to grab its second chance. Now the song is No. 93 on the Billboard Hot 100. “You don’t seem to understand / A shame, you seemed an honest man,” Jasmine Rodgers sings, a vulnerable voice over a taut rhythm section. (She’s the daughter of Paul Rodgers, the singer in Bad Company and Free.) The song’s desperate emotion — “I am falling, I am failing, I am drowning” — waited decades for its destined audience.
