The Charli Xcx

With the release of Grab Bag: 2007-2023, The Greyboy Allstars, once again, redraw the boundaries and redefine the terms of their iconic brand of West Coast boogaloo. The title of this eighth LP from GBA could suggest a random assortment of miscellaneous tracks, yet rest assured there is nothing random, nothing miscellaneous about these nine stellar cuts, previously unreleased over the past decade and a half of the quintet’s illustrious 30-year history. Perhaps stylistic and sonic outcasts resulting in their exclusion from previous albums, here they seamlessly come together to highlight the more experimental side of the quintet’s ever-evolving sound and vision.

On 2018’s Chris, French singer-songwriter Héloïse Adelaïde Letissier embodied a masculine alter ego to cover a variety of subjects. With this five-track follow-up EP, Letissier leaves the Chris persona behind and gets a little more personal. On “Je disparais dans tes bras” [“I disappear in your arms”], she rejects a lover’s mixed messages over a kinetic beat—doubling down on 2019’s dance-floor sizzler with Charli XCX “Gone.” “People, I’ve been sad” and “Nada” are more measured and thoughtful, with Letissier opening up about painful childhood memories and heartbreak with vulnerability. She sings, “Voglio fare l'amore con questa canzone” [“I want to make love with this song”] in Italian on the bubbly, synth-driven title track featuring Caroline Polachek, exuding a playfulness that is hard to resist.