Elkka “Right Here” Here’s one for anyone who loves the energy and urgency of Basement Jaxx in pop diva banger mode and/or is searching for a dance track with the kind of big hearted vulnerability of Robyn at her best. “Right Here” is thrilling and ultra dramatic, the kind of song that feels like it should be soundtracking a crucial cathartic moment. I won’t be at all surprised if this ends up in some tv season finale down the line. Buy it from Bandcamp. Metronomy x Pan Amsterdam “Nice Town” (Alain Ogue Remix) The original mix of “Nice Town” is an enjoyable 80s electro pastiche, and accurate en ..read more

Chappell Roan “Good Luck, Babe!” Chappell Roan’s primary songwriting partner is Dan Nigro, who’s best known for his work as Olivia Rodrigo’s primary songwriting partner. Roan and Rodrigo have different enough vibes that it wasn’t obvious to me that they had this in common, but knowing they share a collaborator makes their musical similarities come into sharp focus. The main thing I’ve noticed about Rodrigo is that it’s as though all her songs were written with the specific goal of becoming karaoke classics, and covering a range of what makes a great karaoke for different types of singers. Nigr ..read more

Of Montreal “Yung Hearts Bleed Free” “Yung Hearts Beat Free” is an overtly horny song with a somewhat lackadaisical energy to it, like we’re just catching Kevin Barnes in a resting state. In other words, this is a lot like Barnes in Skeletal Lamping mode but without the manic freakiness that coursed through nearly every track of that record. This isn’t to say it’s boring in comparison – the groove is top shelf for Of Montreal, and I like how the lyrics declare a lot about who Kevin is and why they’re like that with some degree of certainty. I take this as being above all else a song about agin ..read more

Lip Critic “In the Wawa (Convinced I Am God)” “In the Wawa (Convinced I Am God)” seems like it should be full-on punk-style satire, and it’s not NOT satire. There’s no way you shout that title phrase and follow it up with “so I’m gonna get any sandwich I want” and have it not be funny. But the velocity of the music and the intensity of the vocals introduce some doubt. Like, maybe he’s right? Maybe he’s seeing the cosmos clearly? Maybe he’s right to get buck wild in this convenience store? It’s the kind of crazy you don’t want to engage with, like the existential stakes of this aggressive weird ..read more

Audrey Powne “From the Fire” “From the Fire” is a gorgeous piece of music that’s all the more impressive when you take into account that it’s very much a work of auteurism – Audrey Powne is the composer, the arranger, the producer, the lyricist, the singer, and the trumpet player, and she excels in all of those roles. I’m particularly into the keyboard chords and the trumpet solo, which she openly credits to her love of Herbie Hancock and Roy Hargrove. The lyrics were inspired by the bushfires in Australia back in 2019 and evoke the notion of a cleansing fire and rebirth. With this in mind, th ..read more

Andra Day “Maybe Next Time” “Maybe Next Time” opens Andra Day’s second album with a message to the listener: “Now I wish I could write you an album full of love songs but I can’t seem to get one.” And then she explains herself by getting into her problems with a guy who she describes as being very insecure and defensive. (Her language is more vivid than that.) Her vocal phrasing is smooth even in the busiest parts of the melody – it doesn’t seem like a stretch to guess that Erykah Badu is a formative influence here, it’s a similar flow and tone – and conveys a nuanced blend of irritation, bitt ..read more

Jessica Pratt “Get Your Head Out” Here in the Pitch is one of the best sounding new records I’ve encountered from the past few years. It’s like the audio equivalent of very beautiful black and white photography printed on matte paper so the blacks are especially deep and the grey tones are rich and nuanced. It’s an album where the tonal palette is so carefully selected and the reverb is so precisely calibrated that elements as ordinary as the human voice, an acoustic guitar, or a vintage organ get nudged into painterly abstraction without losing form and function. There’s a poetry to this soun ..read more

The Marías “No One Noticed” “No One Noticed” is a song about contemporary long-distance romance, but one where the lyrical emphasis is placed almost entirely on feeling lonely and desperate for intimacy. There’s a lot of love and affection in María Zardoya’s vocals and in the delicate and dreamy quality of the arrangement, but the emotional undertow of the song is in the awareness that this “virtual connection” is just a temporary solution for her real problem. The music builds up the romance but undercuts it the second half as she considers what would happen if she were to fly to their city ..read more

Broadcast “Colour in the Numbers” The opening track on Spell Blanket, a collection of demos Broadcast created between 2006 and 2009 for a follow-up to Tender Buttons that never came to be, is a brief recording of Trish Keenan singing a snippet of a hook while walking around outside. It sounds like it’s just come to her in a flash of inspiration, there’s a slight hestitation as she sings some of the words as though she’s figuring out the phrasing as she’s going along. You can hear her steps, you can hear some ambient noise. The song sounds like it would’ve been amazing, perhaps even something c ..read more

Justice featuring Rimon “Afterimage” The beauty of Justice’s early material was that it was elegantly crude. They were big and loud and dumb, but also rather thoughtful in their craft. They were masters of artful clipping. Their new record still has some of that going for it, but it’s all much more…tasteful? A little more refined? Or just a little more normal? In any case, a lot of the record sounds like a tribute to the past 25 years or so of French house in general and Alan Braxe in particular. The vibe suits them, especially on a song as ecstatic as “Afterimage.” You know how baking website ..read more