Early in her album Black Terry Cat, Xenia Rubinos makes a declaration: “I rule this place with a golden fist.” Rubinos’s musical universe — a smart amalgamation of punk, neo-soul, funk, hip-hop, and R&B — is one she commands with panache, and is rife with vivid details and whip-smart lyrics orbiting questions of inequality, ruminating about grief and loneliness, and pondering what it’s like to lose your head.

– Paula Mejía