Lucy Bedroque’s “C Section” and other songs you need right now

Listen closely to the lyrics and you’ll notice just how exhilaratingly filthy this otherwise spritely-sounding track by Lucy Bedroque is. The Los Angeles artist has a knack for melody and fantasy that just stands out amid the crowded playing field of hyper-rap. —Steffanee Wang

“I like that feeling of your hand in my mouth,” Ninajirachi crows; “I like the feeling of us moving around,” underscores declares. The pair’s joint remix of “Perfect Pinterest Garden” is seriously sexy, flipping Porter Robinson’s anti-idol anthem into a steamy beckoning. — Vivian Medithi

I loved GEN F star Lily Konigsberg’s 2021 album Lily We Need To Talk Now, so I was elated to hear she’s back releasing music after some years of quiet. Her returning track “Free Byrd” is a folksy rock driver with a killer chorus: “But I’m Free you’re my baby and I love you but that couldn’t be me.” — Tobias Hess

Though written in grief, Raveena’s “Blissed Out” is surprisingly light. Over a twinky beat the singer expresses the sweet thoughts she wishes she could pass along to her lost loved ones. The part that gets the tears gushing, though, is the record’s end: a string-led sound bath with voicemails from her late mother. — Kylah Williams

British rock trio mary in the junkyard are following up their personality-filled, heart tugging July album Role Model Hermit with a soft, violin-backed ballad “Jane,” which is about lead vocalist Clari Freeman-Taylor’s period, who she’s named Jane and calls “annoying and too honest.” “You speak in such an urgent way / Soft and sane,” she sings, evocatively. — TH

Alabama-raised, Brooklyn-based artist A.G. Sully’s new song combines slinky r&b harmonies with an almost cosmic atmosphere of organs, bass synth, and harmony stacks. It creates nice space for Sully to ask the song’s impossible titular question. This track is both a journey and a reprieve. — TH

Maryland rapper Dragnutz raps in concentric circles on “Hold Your Breath,” repeating bars in a delirious swirl. The 80-second song is mostly its looping hook, but the bar you’ll probably find yourself muttering some at the end of his lone mini-verse is a line he chants three times in a row: “We in LA bruh, high off ket.” —VM