Dan Deacon revisits one of his recurring subjects — death — with jubilant fatalism and a racing pulse in “Sat by a Tree,” from an album due in January. He considers the aftermath of his death — “It’s a short life, sadly unrehearsed/But when I die if you think of me think of me think of my best first” — in a track that’s frenetically alive, zooming along with countless minimalistic layers, electronic and orchestral, from dance-floor drumbeats to hoedown fiddles all surging with major-key exuberance. The video, not for the squeamish, shows swarming carnivorous insects reclaiming a body (Aparna Nancherla) for the soil. PARELES

Sotomayor, ‘Quema’

The centuries-old, clip-clop beat of cumbia spread across Latin America long ago, in part because it meshes easily with much younger styles, from rock to electronic dance music. On “Quema,” Sotomayor — the duo of Mexican siblings Raul and Paulina Sotomayor — gestures briefly toward traditional percussion, then rolls in 1980s-flavored synthesizers, with a drum machine, a fuzzy bass line and bubbly arpeggios. Paulina’s vocals start as matter-of-factly self-confident rapping and rise into melody, as she sings about dancing on burning ground. A cameo by the traditionalist Puerto Rican rumba singer Totin (Arará) Agosto adds a folkloric seal of approval across generations. PARELES

Desert Sessions, ‘If You Run’