Hello, everyone. Anthony Fantano here, internet's busiest music nerd. I hope you're doing well. And it's time for a weekly track roundup. That's what we're doing. Yes, going to go over a bunch of tracks that have dropped over the past week or so, whether I loved them or hated them or felt somewhere in the middle about. Okay? Okay. Cool. All right.

Worst tracks of the week.

We have a handful of those. We have a few. They are as follows. Bam.

"Streets of London", new track from Zach Bryan, who I thought was done with music. I thought he was just going to go study some in France or something, and he was quitting. He is or he was, but I guess not. He's decided he's going to stay, but he's going to drop one of his most underwhelming ballads ever. I mean, pick what you're going to do. Are you going to stick around and make music? And if you're going to do so, is it going to be painfully mid in comparison to everything you dropped up to the point when you said you were going to bow out of music? I don't know. This just feels like some foot in one place, the other foot's in the other place stuff. Whatever he's going to do, I just hope he commits to it going forward.

We also have Lil Yachty, "Won't Diss You". This is just drivel. One of his most annoying singles ever in a long time. I just don't really get the appeal or selling point of this. I feel like he's really lost his way in terms of songwriting capacity or what even his sound is at this point.

We also have a single from Machine Gun Kelly's forthcoming Lost Americana album. This track, "Vampire Diaries", essentially sounds like a Camp Rock cut that Demi Lovato would sing, just basically some Disney-fied pop punk. If that's what you're looking for, it passes that muster at the very least. But if you're looking for more from your rock music, you will be sorely disappointed.

And a new Drake single, "What Did I Miss?" If you haven't heard this one, not much, honestly, not much. Just a bunch of crocodile tears about how he feels betrayed by people who just like Kendrick, but also were wriends with him after their beef, but whatever.

The tracks I was on the fence with.

zbut you might like them more than me. You may like these songs more than me. I'm not saying they're terrible. I'm not saying they're the worst songs in the world. I'm just saying I did not enjoy them as much as some other tracks. And hey, they might be songs you go crazy for. I still felt like they were worth shouting out. They are as follows.

New single from the band Shame, "Quiet Life", really bringing back some Smiths and some the Jam vibes on this cut, though I did find the drums to be maybe a little sloppy, but still a lot of energy and passion going into this performance. And Shame does usually bring some good, well-embodied influences to the table.

We also have A$AP Rocky, "pray4dagang", new track with KayCyy on it as well. Probably the spaciest and most dramatic of all of the A$AP singles so far from this album cycle. And yeah, it was okay. It was all right. Maybe not as much punch as some of the other cuts that have been teasing toward the album so far. But crazy slow album roll out. I'm going to say that. We need this record, man. We just need this A$AP record to happen for all of our sanity's sake.

We also have The Hives, who I think make some very valid points with this new "Legalize Living" track, though I do think in terms of guitar work and performance, this is the mildest of all the singles they've done so far. But still, I like the messaging on this one quite a bit.

We also have Foo Fighters, "Today's Song", a track that in some respects, it's a bit of a mix. It's got a raw passion to it, like a Foo Fighters song from the early to mid 2000s. But simultaneously, the production and mixing leaves it sounding like a Foo Fighters song that I downloaded off of Kazaa during that same time period. Just sounds like a mangled MP3 or something. I don't get why it sounds so grody, but it is cool that it's sounding at least a little bit more rootsy or rustic than some of the music they've been dropping as of late.

We also have FLO teaming up with Kaytranada on this new track over here. "The Mood" is the title of it. I thought it was maybe a wee bit overwhelming, but still, with that being said, it is an interesting approach and angle for a track as it's essentially about just not being in the mood, just don't want to do it right now. It's not feeling particularly sexy at this very moment. We're just trying to hang out. We're just trying to relax. It's got a cool bump in danceable Kaytranada beat. Different angle, different vibe for this topic, which I just thought was interesting, even if the song didn't blow me away itself.

We have also Ethel Cain, Hayden coming through with a new single over here, "Fuck Me Eyes", which I thought was underwhelming. As a ballad, maybe overdoing it a bit on the run time, frankly, considering how little it evolves across the entire thing, but I suppose it is what it is. We're really going back to the sound of the breakthrough album. So if you're really looking for that Preacher's Daughter energy, atmosphere, it does seem like we are getting a pretty hardy return to that.

We also have a new one from Agriculture, an experimental metal act that... I enjoyed their last record quite a bit, especially all the wild, mathy, black metal influences coming together. First taste of this upcoming album, and I'm a little split on it. I mean, they're certainly sticking to their experimental guns, I will say that. You do have some fiery noise rock or noise metal passages. I would say, some eerie, skeletal, stripped back vocal bits, some very forlorn guitar passages as well that are super low key and moody. It's all very jarring, a lot of very extreme and jarring changes across the entire track. I guess I sat back with it and wondered, is all this fitting together to me and feeling cohesive? It did feel maybe a bit too fragmented, but still, part of me does appreciate the variety of it. Maybe once I hear the entire album, I'll get sense of where all the various sounds and ideas are fitting into a greater rubric of who knows how far out into the unknown they're going to go with this record in terms of genre fusions and different stuff. But considering how much the last record leaned into black metal, I was surprised to not really catch that as a primary influence on this track, honestly. So it is cool that they're switching it up and trying something else.

We have the best tracks of the week.

The ones that really floored me. Are as follows. Let's get through them. We have quite a few. Boom.

Starting off with Tyler Childers over here. "Oneida" is the new single on this beautiful little bit of cover art that he has over here. And yeah, love this track. It's a great folksy country ballad with stellar vocals and solid songwriting all around. Enjoying this one quite a bit. This one's probably my favorite Tyler Childers song in a minute. It's been a minute since he dropped a single that really smacked me in the face and grabbed my attention.

We have also the second single from the forthcoming Big Thief album. "All Night, All Day" is the name of the track. I'm really enjoying this one over the last song which really felt like they were going back in their more spacey, boilerplate, indie rock roots direction. This felt a bit folksier, but still holding true to that for sure. This new album cycle of theirs doesn't seem it's going to be as massive or gigantic as their last. So it will be interesting to see where they go stylistically and how they whittle things down into a more condensed listen. But yeah, enjoying this one quite a bit more than the last single, I'll say that.

Also, shout out to the band Street Sects. You guys may know them as the industrial rock and metal outfit whose last record I reviewed, wow, years ago at this point. But the band is making a pretty grand return with a new couple of album cycles, I'm guessing, one under their usual Street Sects name. They're also in tandem ... they're dropping a new track under the name Street Sex, which I'm guessing is also going to be, not guessing, but is also going to be leading to a new album release under that name as well. Now, the "Spitting Images" track under the name Street Sects is a more punchy extreme version of their usual industrial metal and noise style. And it's thrilling as hell. It's exciting. It's a very interesting and intense listen. I'm loving hearing that the duo is essentially back in full and pretty pumped for that record. But I'm also excited for this Street Sex project because this "Turn Blue" cut sees the band embracing some industrial vibes once again, but they are working in vocals and beats and grooves that would work much more in the context of the club on goth night. So showing some versatility here between street sects and street sex. I actually think it's a pretty cool concept and idea to give the fans a project that is a bit groovier, more alluring, more danceable under a totally different project name entirely, and just spoil listeners twice over with two different projects, the two very different moods and flavors. I think that's pretty neat and pretty ambitious of them to do. So shout out to them.

All right, we also have By Storm, formerly Injury Reserve, coming through with a new track "In My Town". I'm really loving the experimental long-form rap/ballad fusion, hybrid, this project. It's like a sound that I feel like they're just inventing as they experiment with it. And while some of the results at first were rough around the edges, I feel like it's really coming together on this new track over here. Richie gives a great vocal performance. I feel like the instrumental and the progression of the track is much more engaging than some other cuts going in this direction that felt maybe a bit too touch and go, a bit too boundaryless and abstract to really grasp a hold of. The focus and progression of this song, I feel like, is a lot more easy to lock into. And yeah, I'm just looking forward to seeing their sound get even bolder going into this direction that I feel like no other group, duo, or single artist is out there experimenting with right now.

We have a Ski Mask the Slump God, who is hitting us with the sequel to "Catch Me Outside" all these years later. It's a fucking bop. It's a banger. He's pretty much given us that old Ski Mask for the most part, though I wouldn't say vocally, he's quite as speedy or as eccentric as he was on that original track as far as his delivery and flow. But he's checking the usual Ski Mask the Slump God boxes, and reminding us of how long he's been here and how he can still rap his ass off like he used to when he originally broke onto the scene.

We have also over here a music project that I'm getting hip to, Racing Mount Pleasant, "Your New Place". I guess these guys changed their name recently or like going forward with this new name here. They have this "Your New Place" single out. If you're really into that linear spoken word, this art rock that Black Country New Road used to be known for before they had their big lineup change, I feel like you're going to get a lot out of this. I was really impressed the instrumentation. There are some points where I was wanting more from the vocals, but even as it currently is, it's still a pretty exciting track. It's cool to hear a new, not a new, but a band that's undergone some style changes, and obviously, again, the name change. Kingfisher is the former name of the band. But yeah, they They've been around for a while, but they're undergoing this change, bringing us a new cycle, bringing us some new tracks, new album on the way, reinvigorated art rock style with some chamber pop elements, post-rock elements, sounding super epic, over the top, dramatic vocals. Again, if you're a Black Country New Road person, old-school BCNR person, I feel like there's going to be a lot here in this track, in this new single, which has multiple songs linked to it. There's going to be a lot in this single for you.

Okay, we have Princess Nokia, who's hitting us with this interesting "Drop Dead Gorgeous" track. It's been a while since we've had a nice new formal Princess Nokia single. Well, it's been a minute since a proper album, too. And on this track, we see Nokia experimenting with a slightly different sound, like some EDM beats, some very low-key, almost spoken-word-type rap vocals. And it's chill, it's groovy, it's fun, it's playful. It's a ballsy little cut that I think is a lot of fun, and hopefully leads to more new material soon around the corner, fingers crossed.

We also have freaking Maruja over here. Their new single over here, "Saoirse", is not the most over the top or fiery track they've put out so far for their forthcoming album – they have dropped a few singles – but I could see this track being a really beautiful moving transition point that brings us from one song to another in the midst of the tracklist. The segues at the start and at the end seem to be very quick, like it's coming from and leading into something. It should be a really amazing album that these guys drop. If you're looking for some, again, heavy on the spoken word, art punk with some ambitious instrumentation, a lot of fire, a lot of passion, you got to be paying attention to these guys. I think they're one of the most interesting groups out there right now. They're doing it. They're doing it like heck.

We have Joey Valence and Brae, who are also dropping a new record, really striking while the iron is hot, following up their record last year with the record Hyper Youth. This here, we have the title track, and yeah, it lives up to its title in terms of it just being like some very hype old-school hip hop with a big "Let Me Clear My Throat" type vibe, but some new punchy bells and whistles, and that classic established, shouty, ballsy, high adrenaline, Joey Valence and Brae vibe and momentum that you've come to know and love.

All right, we have JID and Eminem teaming up on this "Animals Pt. 1" track. Both of these guys are rapping their asses off for almost six minutes, and it's fucking killer. Even the Eminem bits of the track are very funny and entertaining, the various flow switches JID throws out there on the track are crazy. Just loving that they really brought out the best in each other on this song. And this track is attached to a whole "prelux "(quote, unquote) EP that's teasing toward the new JID album. So there's actually more where this came from, other great tracks on that little EP, too. So go listen to the rest of it.

We also have this new track from Danny L. Harle with PinkPantheress in the mix. The vocals are solid, and I'm liking hearing Pink over just some harder techno-type beats on this track. It's a really cool combo. It matches or rather mismatches with a very gentle, easygoing vocals in a really interesting way. I'm liking the direction that this track goes in quite a bit, and hopefully, maybe we'll hear PinkPantheress on some a bunch of Harle instrumentals in the future. I guess we'll just have to see.

We also have Geese. Geese coming through with their first single for their forthcoming album, "Taxes" is the name of the track, and loving the hell out of this track, too. I mean, once again, the band has just found ways to make these old-school hard rock vibes and flavors sound new and exciting and passionate. And I'm just loving the slow buildup of this track and just that burst of bright, wonderful guitar arpeggios around the midpoint of the track. It just brings things to such an epic finish. Few bands out there are doing it like Geese right now. I'll leave it right there.

We have a couple more.

Digging on this new Frost Children track, really bringing back that crazy MySpace era, ElectroPop and ElectroClash, sounding amazing on this new track, honestly. I mean, if that's not your era, I get it, but as somebody who appreciates that sound, they're doing it so much justice, and "Falling" is the name of the track. It kicks absolute ass, in my opinion.

We also have Deftones. Deftones hitting us with a new single. The title of the track is "My Mind is a Mountain", and it's very short, brief. I mean, short-ish for Deftones. A very brief, straightforward, to the point cut. It's the opening track from their forthcoming album, and it's the most ferocious, biting, legitimately raw single the band has released in years. Kicks actual fucking ass. Even Chino sounds like mad as hell on the cut. The guitars are nasty, man. Even during some of the cleaner, those blissful, stereotypical Deftones passages that you come to expect. I mean, they are in there a little bit, but even those passages sound like a real nasty in comparison I mean, relatively is what I want to say, so good on them.

Finally, a shout out to Ana Frango Elétrico, Brazil's own, coming through with a brand new single. Excited to hear a new project from that project for sure. It's just a killer combination of various shades of Brazilian music and disco and funk. It's very glamorous, it's very smooth, it's very groovy, it's very pristine and well put together. This new single is for sure classy as hell and endlessly danceable, and I'm loving the hell out of it.

That is going to be it for this weekly track roundup, everybody.

Anthony Fantano. You. Weekly track roundup. Music, recommendation, forever.