Okay, okay, okay. Hi, everyone. Anthony Fantano here, internet's busiest music nerd. I hope you're doing well. It's time for a weekly track roundup.

My thoughts, my feelings, my opinions, my beliefs on a bunch of songs that have dropped over the past week or so.

All right.

Worst tracks of the week.

They are as follows. We just have a couple of those.

One is this new Meek Mill track, "Cybertruck". Why the title? It just seems like a generic Meek Mill track that has nothing to do with Cybertrucks. Just seems like a lame tie-in. Maybe even an ad, who the heck knows. But yeah, it's about as average as a Meek Mill track gets. And for whatever reason, it's titled "Cybertruck".

There is also Gwen Stefani and Blake Shelton from Gwen's forthcoming album. She's going a little country, and it sounds boring. Yeah, that's what "Purple Irises" is pretty much in a nutshell.

And speaking of cybertrucks, Da Baby is standing on one, for whatever reason, on this new track from his forthcoming, "How TF". Is this a mixtape? Mixtape. And yeah, the track is called "Did It". It's about as average as Da Baby gets. The guy has really painted himself into a corner, but there's really no surprises there.

All right.

Meh, the tracks that I was on the fence with.

They are as follows. You might enjoy them a little more than me. Here we go.

We have a new one from Yola who had a really great combination of rock, country, and soul going on with her last full-length LP, which I believe Dan Auerbach had a hand in, instrumentally and production-wise. And great vocals, great songwriting, killer record all around, lots of stellar highlights. She has a new single out titled "Future Enemies", and I'm a little on the fence with it. I mean, the songwriting is there, the vocals are there. I'm not sure if taking things in a more like electronic direction on the production side is working all that well, but I still think the songwriting is very much there for the most part. So shout out to her.

We also have St. Vincent, who is coming through very soon with an all-Spanish version of her latest full-length LP. So basically all the same songs, just the lyrics are in Spanish now. And with that being said, we have the song "Ombre Roto" or "Broken Man". Yeah, just basically a Spanish version of the same song. And yeah, basically, if you ever wanted to hear that song and the rest of this record in Spanish, very soon you will have that ability. So it's coming. It's on the way. Spanish version of the album.

We also have a Tommy Richmond, who is hitting us with a brand new single, new album, Coyote, on the way. This track is titled "Whitney". And while the vocals are grating, and I feel like the production runs just a tad bit too thin, I will commend Tommy for switching it up on this track. He's hitting us with some nice synth funk chords, a groovier, peppier, faster beat. I feel like he's not just simply trying to remake "Million Dollar Baby". It seems like it's in his usual style. It's in the wheelhouse, but he's changing it up. He's switching it up, taking a risk. And I think it's I think it's a solid tune. It's just the vocals just get grading to me after a while. But hey, if that is Tommy's appeal and it's working for you, then let it appeal.

Moving on from there. Teddy Swims gives us a very average piece of, I guess, glitzy pop soul on this new one, "Bad Dreams". That one's just okay.

We have Poppy handing us a new track that very much sounds like a Slipknot song, sans like the steel drums and all that. "They're All Around Us". I mean, again, formulaically, sounds like a Slipknot song, but it's some decent production. And cool to hear that she's still very firmly in that metal lane with her music these days.

But we also have a new one from Indigo de Souza who has a brand new EP out, and one of the tracks off of it is "Evil". She's really going in deep with the autotune on these tracks and giving us some weird indie electronic pop. And the lyrics are hilarious on this track. I can give it that. I will give it points for hilarious lyrics, but I really do feel like the autotune is heavy-handed and doesn't necessarily complement her voice as well as it possibly could.

Father John Misty has a brand new album on the way, and a new single out from it, "Screamland", is the title, and I'm not as into it as I wish I was. It's just got a very grating, deafening, heavy, noisy, harsh, harsh, harsh, chorus that sounds like if Imagine Dragons was a noise pop band. I like the forlorn piano chords. I like the vocals for the most part on the verses. I need to dive into the lyrics a bit more, but the hook is really just not working for me at all. And I don't know if it's something that is going to warm up to me at all as we get closer to this album's release.

Best tracks of the week, though.

Quite a few of those. Let's get into them. Bam.

Starting with Imperial Triumphant, the experimental avant-garde progressive way out there metal band is back with a brand new single titled "Eye of Mars". And yes, it's pretty much everything that made me fall in love with their music to begin with. It's heavy, it's experimental, it's totally out there. It's got some prog metal vibes, some death metal vibes, some interesting arrange bits. The bells are insane. The vocals are crazy. It's just an absolute technical thrill ride, but still visceral, not too wankery or anything like that. Just a great, fiery, exciting, thrilling track from Imperial Triumphant.

We have Mogwai, who has come through with a song that I think for them is pretty standard instrumentally and aesthetically, "God Gets You Back", but it still has a really great progression. Really cool to hear the band sounding great after all these years while still very solidly staying in that instrumental, post-rock lane that were known for making their name in to begin with so many decades ago.

We have also Macklemore, who, say what you will about his vibes, his aesthetics, what he was trying to do with this recently released single, "Hind's Hall", where he was basically trying to, through his platform and through his music, draw some very much needed attention to the ongoing genocide in Palestine. And the guy has come through with a new version of the track featuring Palestinian artists on the song, just saying their piece. And you're basically hearing it straight from them on the song. It's actually quite powerful and touching that not only did he put together a cool track here, but he's using this platform to further platform people who are directly connected to this genocide and have been fighting against this ongoing occupation because this is not new for a long time. And yeah, just a really cool crossover. And it's just great that he's taking, I don't want to say a risk, but like saying what needs to be said in a time when it seems like there aren't a lot of artists who are willing to do so, and we'll leave it there.

Not to obligate artists point-blank period, because really it's our politicians and those in power who should be responsible bonding and taking action and doing something. But if artists... I feel like your conscience should drive you there naturally, and clearly, that's the case for Macklemore here. So "Hinds Hall 2". Cool that the track is out.

All right, we have Jean Dawson, who has come through with an interesting switch up, an interesting change of pace on this new single "Houston", because this track surprisingly sees him going in a bit of a spacye, sad new wave direction. It's a little bit '80s, which I know isn't usually his typical vibe, but the songwriting is there, and the vocals are actually really good. It's cool to hear him really getting deeper into singing with more range, more bellowing vocals, more emotive vocals. For the most part, it's working in some really interesting ways, which is most definitely the case with this track.

We have GloRilla, new album Glories on the way. I'm actually messing with this new single. "Hold On" is the title of it. It's got a really hype chorus, high energy bang and beat. Not a whole lot to it outside of that, but it doesn't need much more. So it's a good solid, trappy banger single, and we can pretty much leave that there.

All right, we have E L U C I D, who has come through another taste of his forthcoming album. The opening track, "The World is Dog". And it sounds like if you took some really free form, wild, out there, fast, intense, abstract hip hop flows and put them over like an instrumental to radio heads in rainbows or something. But it really, really works. It sounds sick as fuck. So it's really cool that he's switching things up production-wise on this forthcoming album and really stepping it up musically and lyrically as well. So really looking forward to this album because pretty much every teaser that I've heard so far has been intriguing, to say the least.

Also, a shout out to Bad Bunny for this new single over here, "Una Velita". It's got this vibe that feels like he's going back a little bit to Yoago, like that era, that psychedelic Latin trap combo thing. But it has some killer, killer, killer big group vocal samples laced throughout the track that just add a lot of hype and I think, beauty to the song and the instrumental that I like a lot. It would be cool to hear him indulge in more stuff like this on a forthcoming album for sure.

A couple more.

We have a Bon Iver, "S P E Y S I D E", a brand new track, and he's bringing it back to the indie folk days with some beautiful guitar work, some great vocals, some very stripped back, and solemn vibes. It's working for me. It's sounding beautiful. Recording is solid as well. And fingers crossed, that there's more like it to come on this new EP, and eventually an album, because this is going to be on a soon-to-be-released EP. But would love more, would love more, even more than that. I'm sure there will be.

And then finally, Alice Longyu Gao. Shout out to Alice, who has come through the very interesting peculiar multi-phase single that moves from like art pop to indie rap rock to something else entirely from even there on this new track titled "Bird Without a Nest", featuring Danny Brown, who actually delivers a really great rap verse on the track. One of the most unexpected but also awesome crossovers to happen this year for sure. And Alice and Danny really nailed it on this one. And great production throughout the track as well. Great production, too.

But yeah, that is going to be it for this weekly track roundup. Thank you very much for watching. Hopefully, you guys got some good solid recommendations out of this video, and you're the best.

Anthony Fantano. Weekly Tracks. Forever.