Hey, hi, hello, everyone. Anthony Fantano here, the internet's most purple music nerd, apparently. And it's time for a weekly track roundup – my thoughts, my feelings, my opinions on a bunch of tracks that have come out over the past week or so.

Worst Tracks of the Week.

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

New Machine Gun Kelly, "Miss Sunshine" is the name of the track. The deeper we go into this Lost Americana album cycle, the clearer it becomes that mgk is just doing a pop album now. He's just trying to go in a pop direction, and I just don't really feel like this sound is his strong suit. It's too sugar-coated and too gross and too awkward. I just feel like this is not a genre that his voice and his style plays well into, but I guess we'll see whether or not people take to it once it's finally out, but we'll just have to see.

We have also this new Tame Impala single, "End of Summer". Frankly, I could not wait for this track to end, because it just sounds like some mall dressing room fatter. Why, Kevin? Why? Come on, man. I mean, I didn't expect the Tame Impala project at this point to go back to the early psych sounds of the project – the band, as it were at this point – especially after how well Currents did commercially. But with that being said, this is just bland dance floor, wallpaper stuff. What is going on? I mean, even the drop in the second half is just completely not interesting. The progression is boring. The vocals are uninspired, the instrumentation is just so toothless and spacy to the point where it doesn't really do all that much. It's just so flavorless and agreeable. I don't really get much of anything from it. Just shockingly uninspired.

We have this new one from Drake as well with Central Cee. "Which One". He's got the goofy patois out again. The Work, Work, Work, Work, Work Rihanna obsession is in rotation as well. Yeah, it's cringe. It's annoying. There's also some pretty awful Central Cee bars in there. I feel bad for the Drake fans that have to pretend to like this. Iceman is on the way, though. Iceman cometh very soon.

We have the tracks I was meh on, on the fence with...

but you might like them more than me. They are as follows. Again, not crazy about these, but you might dig them. You might go crazy for them. I think they're still worth shouting out. You may enjoy them more than me. I want to make you aware of them. They are as follows. Bam.

We have another one, a new one from The World is a Beautiful Place. They have a new record on the way. They've been teasing toward it with a lot of tracks, with a lot of singles. This one over here, "Dissolving", is almost like this mix of a little bit of shoegaze and super textured, heavy '90s alternative rock with heavily touched up lead vocals, which I'm just on the fence with. I like the band a lot more when they're going in somewhat ferocious post-hardcore emo-type direction. This felt like it's okay for them, personally.

We also have a new one from Offset of Migos fame, obviously. "Professional" is the name of the track, and it's fine. It's passable pop rap with a bit of a Southern flair, nothing too crazy, nothing too mind-blowing.

We also have a new one from Lola Young over here with a track that deals in issues surrounding substance struggles, but also this interesting connection that you have with the person who is providing the substances. The track is called "Dealer", and it's an interesting storytelling exercise. I'll say that, even if I found the instrumentation just to be bland for a modern pop alt rock type song.

We have Logic over here, continuing to tease toward his forthcoming Sidequest project where he seems to be just doing a little bit of everything. It seems like stylistically, there will be no boundaries on this Sidequest project, which I suppose makes sense given the title. This one over here is very melodic, it's very quirky, it's very trendy. It just seems like one more instance of him trying his hand at a random sound and getting mixed results, I suppose. But the track is "RIGHT TO BE" if you want to check it out.

We have Jamie xx over here who has come through with, I think, one of the more underwhelming tracks of this cycle that he is doing over here. But I suppose the one majorly interesting aspect of this new track over here, which is titled "Dream Night", is not only that it's entrancing, I guess you could say that, but also, I guess the track features vocal sampled from Terry Callier, which I think makes for some definitely surprising source material, I guess you could say. So yeah, okay one from Jamie. I think I preferred a lot of tracks off of the recent album a lot more, but it's cool to see him really back at it and consistently putting out new material because it really has been far too long.

All right. We have also this new one, Legend in My Hood is this forthcoming project from Culture Jam. "Damage Control" is the name of the track, and it features Wale and Pusha T, teaming up for a couple of verses that seemingly aren't all that connected. We have Pusha T mostly going at like Birdman, and Young Money in general, again, on this track. Not with any bars that I think are likely to get a response or anything like that, but Pusha T – when he has a free opportunity – he's going to try to stir the pot a little bit. That is what the man does. Wale delivery and performance was pretty good on the track, too. It's just, again, it seems like one of these producer-type projects where you just grab as many artists as you can from around the place to hop on some beats, and they just do what they see fit in the moment.

We have also Bright Eyes hitting us with this "First World Blues" single over here, which is surprising, not only because this is a lot less, I guess you could say, overly produced in comparison with much of the new Bright Eyes material, but also on top of that, this is a ska song. This is an honest to God ska song with almost like a second wave ska flair to it. And I don't know if this is a style that compliments Conor's voice all that well, but it is fun and rough around the edges. I can most certainly give it that, but I don't know if I would be excited for an entire album of stuff like this, but it's cool to see Bright Eyes and Conor are still willing to experiment at this time after all these years.

We have also La Dispute, who is really, really, really, like teasing toward this next full-length album with a lot of material, a lot of songs, breaking up new tracks and all these EPs. One in particular from the latest that I want to point out, "Sibling Fistfight at Mom's Fiftieth / The Unsound", is this lengthy storytelling cut that is maybe, for my taste, a little too on the nose in terms of the family fight literally unfolding at the birthday party. Again, I feel like with it being so literal, the point it's trying to get at does get a little lost in the mayhem of all of that. But still, it is cool to see a lot of speed back at it after all these years because, God, it was back maybe in 2019 when the last album came out. For sure, they are one of these bands in post-hardcore, and emo and screamo, that continue to have a songwriting and a lyrical style unlike almost any other out there on the scene today.

All right, moving on. We have Amaarae, who has hit us with this new single, "Girlie-Pop!", which kind of sees her messing around with this Jersey Club type beat and groove, which is very popular, very trendy right now. But I think the influences and grooves and esthetics that typically inspire and inform her music are a little drowned out going in this direction. I think some of her unique appeal is lost in the process of just doing this Jersey Club thing. The vocals still are A plus per usual. I will say that. All right.

Best tracks of the week.

The songs that I was quite impressed with, they are as follows.

Here we go. New one from Wednesday over here, who I think have really dropped maybe their hardest single of all time with "Pick Up That Knife". I mean, the band has come through with their usual indie country fusion start, but then as we get toward the very end of the song, it gets really aggressive, and really explosive, and super nasty, and distorted, and the vocals are just on another level. Crazy stuff. Crazy stuff from the band. Absolutely, positively.

All right, we also have a new one over here, something to consume from this which will be the forthcoming project from Die Spitz, "Throw Yourself to the Sword", is the name of the track. And it's this almost like indie-fied brand of metal with some heavy sludgy riffs, some quality lead vocals, too. It's quite badass. I'm liking it a lot, actually. I'm pretty excited to try this project when it eventually drops.

We have this new one over here from Mei Semones, "My Ideal". Apparently, it's from this forthcoming project of like, Chet Baker tribute tracks, and so on and so forth, and the performance, the vocals, everything, all the jazzy details on this new recording from "My Ideal" are absolutely beautiful. Mei completely smashes it. It's a beautiful rendition. Absolutely stunning.

We also have Mac DeMarco over here, hitting us with that "Holy", little homespun singer-songwriter track with some light grooves and deep vocals. It's absolutely mesmerizing and very well written. Really liking this era for Mac with these new teasers, feels like he's really continuing the simplicity of that massive multi-hour project of b-sides and stuff that recently dropped, but just getting some more focused songs out.

We also have this new one over here from Lupe Fiasco, "SOS". Love the wordplay on this track. Love the jazz rap instrumental. Love the relentless flows and rhyme schemes, Lupe killing it once again. Lots of gas left in the tank for Lupe.

We also have also a collab, a crossover track from Conociendo Rusia, as well as Mon Laferte, "Esto Es Amor". A beautiful duet of a track with a bit of a throwback flair on it, which I don't know if we're looking at a whole new project of songs that sound like this, but considering how well it compliments Laferte's voice, I wouldn't mind it. I wouldn't mind it one bit.

We have also Kim Petras, hitting us with "Freak It". This just absolutely insane, coked-out hyper take on Y2K era pop. Banger vocals, banger beat, very funny attitude, Liking this a lot. A lot of personality. Very fun. I think one of her best singles ever, frankly.

We also have Car Bomb over here who are hitting us once again with just vicious, mathy, dizzying drums and riffs. Explosive production. Great vocals as well that remind me of some throwback groove metal stuff. Liking this song quite a bit as well from them. The title of this one is "Blindsides".

And finally, shout out to Anamanaguchi, who I think have dropped the best single for this forthcoming album anyway, which has really been teased to be their rock album, their direct, no fuss, no must no fuss type rock album. It's got a '90s alt rock vibe, the heavy, fuzzy guitars, but they've also worked in some of those 8-bit synthesizers in the background to back the melody up. So it does have that old-school Anamanaguchi flair, even if it does feel like some lazy, again, fuzzy '90s alternative rock. Really, really great chorus on this one as well that I have that will have you sing along instantly.

And that is going to be it. Those are the weekly tracks for this week. Hopefully, we got some good recommendations.

Anthony Fantano, Weekly Tracks, Forever.