Grab new music this week from Ke$ha, Wiz Khalifa, Chevelle, Sam Sparro and more.
Albums of the Week
Ke$ha
“Warrior”
★★★
It takes work to be the trashiest pop star around, but damned if Ke$ha isn’t the reigning champ. From her mall-brat phrasing to party-hearty choruses like “Let’s make the most of the night, like we’re gonna die young,” her second album embraces oblivion as the only natural response to a world run amok.
It also embraces music that’s gleefully unsubtle, from the choppy new wave guitars of “Only Wanna Dance With You” (has she been listening to Taylor Swift?) to the winding low end and swooping bloops of “Crazy Kids.”
Stupid and catchy — it’s an old formula, and here, a good one.
Wiz Khalifa
“O.N.I.F.C.”
★★
Wiz Khalifa is making lots of money, a fact that seems to still surprise him two years after his “Black and Yellow” became a pop hit.
Along with his weed habit, newly acquired cash is the Pittsburgh rapper’s incessant topic on “O.N.I.F.C.” — including within the title, which stands for “Only N – – – a in First Class.”
Since the main thing Khalifa has to say about either subject is that, yep, he’s got ’em, they outstay their welcome on this well-produced but endless album. The best iteration of the idea is “Initiation,” featuring Lola Monroe, which has the album’s catchiest chant: “This is for them Taylors,” a reference to Khalifa’s crew.
Downloads of the Week
Chevelle
“Fizgig”
★★ 1/2
The suburban-Chicago trio Chevelle has been one of the most consistent hard-rock groups around, and this new track from its best-of collection, “Stray Arrows,” builds as subtly and as surely as earlier hits like “The Red” and “Hats Off to the Bull.” Not quite as memorable, though.
Scott Walker
“Epizootics!”
★★ 1/2
A 69-year-old cult hero, Walker follows a strange, singular muse, as this oddly likable 10-minute, multipart epic from the new “Bish Bosch” demonstrates in spades. He whinnies lyrics about “haunted Jacuzzis” and people “squealing B-flat like choirs of pigs seeking revenge” over a shifting backdrop of frayed jazz horns, minimalist electronics and ukulele.
Sam Sparro
“I Wish I Never Met You”
★ 1/2
This keynote track from the Australian lite-soul crooner’s second album, “Return to Paradise,” is dumb even for a self-centered easy-listening breakup ballad: “You have me feeling like a crackhead/I squeeze you out just like a blackhead.” Who’d want to keep someone like that around, anyway?
Willy Moon
“Yeah Yeah”
★
How about that? Another annoying song by someone you’ve never heard of — in this case, a New Zealand singer-songwriter based in London — was selected for an Apple ad. Now, Moon is releasing a self-titled EP featuring this oafish pileup of chants over the Incredible Bongo Band’s sampled-to-death “Apache” breakbeat. Thanks, universe.