The Chronicle’s guide to notable new music.

NEW ALBUMS

Regina Spektor, “Home, Before and After” (Warner)

In 2019, just before the pandemic, piano-playing pop singer Regina Spektor played a five-night run on Broadway at the Lunt-Fontanne Theatre. The experience has shaped “Home, Before and After” — her first album in six years — infusing the spirit of New York across its 10 tracks. Yet while songs on the album like “Lovelogy” areabout traipsing around New York City, the sentiment can be applied to seeking joy in any metropolis.

“Let’s go to the movies/ Iwill sing you a song about nothing at all,” the Russian-born New Yorker sings, and you can almost see the lit-up movie house marquee flashing overhead.

Spektor’s eighth album was produced in tandem with John Congleton (St. Vincent, Sharon Van Etten) and even applies a programmed drum beat on the rhythmic step of “Up the Mountain.” Spektor is scheduled to perform in the Bay Areaon Saturday, June 25, at Napa’s Oxbow RiverStage andon Oct. 25 at the Warfield in San Francisco.

Third Eye Blind, “Unplugged” (Mega Collider Records)

Formed in San Francisco, Third Eye Blind celebrated the 25th anniversary ofits breakthrough self-titled debut album this year. “Unplugged” has the band performing reimagined versions of songs inits catalog, including a handful of acoustic takes from the debut, like “Semi-Charmed Life,” “Losing a Whole Year” and a harmonic, psychedelic rendering of “How’s It Going to Be,” featuring bouncy, bellowing horns.

Singer Stephan Jenkins said that guitarist John Mayer and the late creative mastermind Virgil Abloh were inspirations in the creation of these interpretations.The nationwide Summer Gods: 25 Years in the Blind tour follows the release of “Unplugged,” butthe band hasn’t announced any stops in its hometown.

Sessa, “Estrela Acesa” (Mexican Summer)

A month before lockdown orders in March 2020, Brazilian singer and multi-instrumentalist Sessa spoke to The Chronicle ahead of his concert at the Chapel. He’s a rare modern Brazilian musician who masterfully channels Gilberto and Veloso, while getting the raw emotion behind his Portuguese lyrics across to English speakers.

“我觉得在家里的问题语言,the sound and possibilities of expression,” he humbly said back then.

Now on his sophomore album, we get more of his gorgeous music, with softly stated acoustic guitar strums and Brazilian percussion. His lead vocals arebacked by a chorus of female singers on tracks like “Sereia Sentimental” and “Canção da Cura,” creating decadent layers. The passionate poetry of his lyrics shines with a soft romantic flair, one that can only be conveyed in the beautiful timbre of Brazilian Portuguese.

SONG OF THE MOMENT

Kate Bush, “Running Up That Hill” (EMI)

The resurgence of the 1985 song from the British new wave pop singer is the very definition of a “song of the moment.” All it took was one excellent placement in the pivotal conclusion of an episode of “Stranger Things” season fouron Netflix and Bush’s defining hit has re-entered mainstream consciousness.

“Running Up That Hill” has vaulted to the Top 5 of the Billboard Hot 100 singles chart, which is quite a feat as the list is typically filled with new pop music singles, and has topped the charts in multiple countries around the world. Thiscould only have been possible in the music-streaming era. And as wild as it is to consider that a 37-year-old song can once again top charts today, the lasting effect is how new generations are now being exposed to Bush’s everlasting brilliance.

LOCALLY MINDED

StTropez, “Older Self” (self-released)

StTropez is a side project of sorts for a quartet of Oakland musicians who first came together 15 years ago. The band’s new EP, “Older Self,” is a reflection of how they’ve changed and grown over time and brought their musical lives back together again.

On the opening track, “Cold Heart,” singer Sanjay Vora deliversreverb-laden vocals that come across with the inherent beauty of something from the Fleet Foxes’ catalog. On “Inside Out,” Vora transports you to an island, as Lalin St. Juste’s backing vocals loop alongside crisp percussion from Jeremy Fisch and twisty guitars in the arrangement from producer Aki Ehara.

If Ehara and St. Juste sound familiar, it’s because they’re both members of local band the Seshen, and St. Juste recently put out a solo album that The Chronicle highlightedthis month. But the St Tropez output stands on its own as escapist tunes on the surface that are actually about settling back into a familiar feeling.