Mid-tempo, melancholic and fabulous

Former Disney star Selena Gomez is only 27, but after 10 years in the pop song game she’s basically a veteran. Rare is an album of liberation and letting go after public breakups and private health challenges (the singer was diagnosed with lupus in 2015 and has subsequently undergone a kidney transplant).

Her first No 1 song Lose You To Love Me addresses the pain of her breakup with Justin Bieber and his sudden return to his former flame.

Relatively understated for a smash hit, Lose You is devoid of a drumbeat, leaving a slow piano twinkle as the backdrop for her tale of love and loss. It’s gotta hurt.

Mid-tempo with a melancholic spine, Rare is at its best when Gomez sheds the self-pity act and plays to her strengths. Ring has a faux-flamenco flavour and taunts any ‘‘puppets on a string’’ who foolishly believe they may stand a chance with her. Dream on, buddy.

People You Know is easily the best song here and deserves to be her next No 1. It’s a gentle, hypnotic, auto-tuned anthem about not holding too tight to the fair-weather friends who populate the lives of the rich and famous.

Rap songs are such a commodity, many artists overcook the braggadocio, but undercook the music itself, leaving you with fast-food levels of satisfaction. However, the music comes first for Mick Jenkins, the Chicago rapper whose new mini-album The Circus is a seamless blend of jazzinfused hip-hop.

Smooth soulful keyboards interplay with gleaming guitars and scattered syncopated beats, creating an immersive experience.

The music is pretty and disarming, but the rhymes are solid, with a relentless style that eschews convention.

In an endless quest to do things his way, Jenkins continues to deliver the goods, while still making challenging choices.

Valerie Teicher Barbosa is the Colombian Canadian singer, better known as Te iS hi, whose new album La Linda is an atmospheric, sensual pop record that’s strong on melody. Her whispered delivery belies a more powerful voice she rarely allows to flare to fruition.

The song Even If It Hurts immediately stands out in an already exceptional field. It’s a duet with underground auteur Blood Orange, whose subtle work has produced hits for acts as diverse as Kylie Minogue, Chemical Brothers and Blondie. Her diverse influences combine into a style she likes to refer to as mermaid music.

Without really being able to understand what that means, this is without doubt an album into which you can submerge yourself.