Oh, my gosh. Hey, everyone. Anthony Fantano here, Internet's busiest music nerd. It's time for a weekly track roundup. My thoughts, my feelings, my opinions on a bunch of songs that have dropped over the past week plus, as I did not do one of these the week before. It wasn't a huge release week for singles, but I'm going to talk about some tracks from that time period, along with some tracks that dropped more recently in this of songs.

Worst Tracks of the Week.

We have a couple. We have a few. They are as follows.

One, starting with Imogen Heap, who is coming through with this new collab track, doing a song with, I guess, this AI version of herself, which – I guess the AI for it was all done and the music, everything, in-house. So we're not talking like suno-udio, that level of AI. But even with, presumably more thought and care going into the AI itself in this specific instance, presuming the AI is just more more personal, tailored to Imogen Heap's needs, we really just end up with a very bland, ambient pop cut that doesn't really go much of anywhere, frankly. Yeah, just really not feeling this one, honestly.

We also have this new one over here from Hayley Williams and David Byrne, a team-up that you like to see, but it's a team-up for the upcoming Netflix movie, The Twits, its soundtrack. "Open the Door" is the name of the track. It's cheery, but also very, very mind-numbing. Could be a fun movie, and obviously, a kids' movie venture, that thing. So not expecting the world of this track or anything like that, but it is what it is.

Meh, the tracks I was on the fence with.

Just shouting them out because you might like them more than me, honestly. They are as follows. Boom.

We have Bob Vylan, "Sick Sad World". Cute Daria reference there. I do like the messaging and the politics of the track, but I do also think the rock instrumentation hanging in the background sounds a bit too regimented and rigid in the DAW as it were. I wish it just rocked harder in terms of the performance, but the messaging and the perspective is certainly there. I do appreciate the commentary of the track, that's for sure.

All right, we also have Primitive Man coming through with this "Natural Law" track, which is 15 minutes long. It's massive, it's droney, it's doomy. I would say the last third has some pretty gnarly dissonant passages, but it really does, I think, take a minute to get up to full power as it were. Not every moment in this lengthy track is an edge-of-your-seat moment. I'll say that.

We also have Oklou, who is coming through with this deluxe version of her recent Choke record. Here we have an additional track, "Viscous", featuring FKA twigs. It's like some very sterile, terminally online pop, which I know Oklou's fans love because if that's your thing you pretty much enjoyed the last record. Now we're hearing FKA twigs in the mix with it. As you guys probably already know, I wasn't crazy about the record. I'm still not crazy about this. But if this is your thing, I just wanted to make you aware that the song is out. I would say FKA twigs matches the energy of the song pretty well, compliments it pretty well. It's a cool crossover. It's a sensible crossover.

We also have Megadeth, who apparently are going to be coming through with their last album point blank period, which given how underwhelming and boring a lot of the production and guitars were on the last record, I was actually surprised to hear that the drums and the riffs on this "Tipping Point" song, even though Dave Mustaine's vocals are not mind-blowing, obviously, was shocked here. The drums and guitars kicked ass on this new track, frankly. The solo in the latter half is pretty good as well. Yeah, I mean, standard by thrash standards, but Megadeth is one of the most legendary thrash bands out there at this point. Essentially a legacy act. They don't need to reinvent the wheel. If anything, they're probably going to try to hand in a crowd pleaser on this final record and really give the fans what they want.

All right, we have a new one over here as well from Skrillex, who is in the mix with Chris Lake and Anita B Queen. It's a bit of a heavy bop. I could see it getting some spins at the DJ set, but it's definitely not that trademark Skrillex sound or anything like that. I wouldn't say there's much anything trademark about the song at all, frankly. It's a head nodder, and I can leave it there.

We have one over here as well from Fred again.., who has a lot of input from Danny Brown, BEAM, PARISI as well on this OGdub track. But it's really his production in the beat that predominantly makes the song with some very, very, very subtle, spacy vocal touches here and there in the background. It's all right. It's okay. Not to blow me away or anything like that.

We've also got the best tracks of the week.

They are as follows. Got quite a few of those.

We have a new one from test plan over here, "Gone". If you're looking for some really noisy, intense, shouty, over-the-top noise and goth rock, test plan has you on this new single. Believe me, the vocal performance on this track is absolutely insane. It is a five-minute monster, and every moment is thrilling and intense.

We've also got a new one over here from Preoccupations. "MUR" is the name of the track. It's got a booming, interesting experimental intro for Preoccupations. But then it goes into their trademark combination of indie rock and goth rock. It's very spacy, it's very dark, it's very moody, very Joy Division influenced, I would say. And the chorus pops certainly more than I think the last single that we heard from the band as they gear up for this new album cycle. So digging in this as well as the messaging and the clips of their new music video, too.

Also, we have a new one here from PinkPantheress, who has essentially given us a new massive triple disk deluxe version of her brand new record. You have a full disk of the original Fancy That album. You have a disk of remixes, which features new versions of various tracks from the LP, from Nia Archives, Basement Jaxx, which is a cool crossover, obviously, Kaytranada, and many more. And then you have another version of the where it's like a bunch of key tracks, bigger singles, that thing, but with features from the likes of Kylie Minogue and a lot of other names, one of which is one with Bladee for the song "Stateside". It's actually like a really cool reinvention of the song. Overall, the production is wildly different, too. Very synthy, very blissful, really for the Drain Gang fans, and it's a really solid vocal performance as from Bladee, I would say. Just a really cool track that showcases the creative and aesthetic crossover between PinkPantheress and the world of Drain Gang that I think many on the surface wouldn't necessarily presume is there.

All right, we have Lianne La Havas, who's coming through with a brand new track over here. "Disarray" is the name of the track, although it is a very calming and cerebral ballad with a lot of tense and jazzy chords, contemplative lyrics, diaristic lyrics, where Lianne is really going over some things, mulling over some things in her life that are itching at the back of her head, bothering her. It's the writing about stuff that makes you imagine, wow, these are the things that keep this artist up at night, essentially. That's the vibe of the writing on the track. Stripped back guitar, vocal, wonderful vocal performance. Very beautiful, very beautiful. Very intimate, I would also say, compelling moment for Lianne, emotionally, on this new single. Even though it's not like a track that pops, it is a track that gets you thinking.

All right, moving on from there. We have a new one over here from Kelly Lee Owens, "Ascend", single from an upcoming EP. It's a nice hard-hitting bit of techno with some ascending sections that I enjoyed quite a bit. Revving synths, great beats, awesome groove, cool momentum. Love the tense buildups on the song for sure.

Also liking this new crossover, recent crossover from Danny L Harle, Caroline Polachek, "Azimuth". This is a total freaking banger. One of the best tracks they've put together so far, in my opinion. Awesome that it's coming out of nowhere. I hope it's going to be landing somewhere interesting somewhere soon, maybe in terms of a larger project.

We've also got to Gorillaz coming through with the second taste of the forthcoming album, The Mountain. And as I suspected, in my recent track review for the last single, we're going to be getting some South Asian influence on some of the production here, and we are getting it on this track in spade. You're hearing those big, huge, again, Indian-flavored horn and reed sections. But what makes this track crazy is that you've got this verse from Trueno over it who's rapping in Spanish on the track. It's this massive, insane cross-cultural blend of several different things at the kickoff of the song. Then it busts into this crazy hip hop midsection with Proof in the mix. And then it goes back to the original idea somewhat in the last leg. Even though it's one very lengthy song, it's over seven minutes, it's like several songs packed into one, honestly. It's quite an odyssey, I'll say that. I haven't quite dug that much into the overall theme or the messaging of the track. I feel like I haven't really had the opportunity to yet, but it is, I think, at least in terms of title, feeding into this continual, maybe "dictator" messaging or concept, because the track is titled "The Manifesto". The last track did have almost like a cult theme to it. So it could be connected in that way in terms of the narrative and the storytelling. But very cool and interesting track from Gorillaz, for sure.

All right, we have a new one over here as well from Dry Cleaning, "Hit My Head All Day". Very cool, moody experimental rock track with a cool, lengthy, linear, really locks you in, hypnotic quality to it that I'm liking quite a bit. Good finale, good finish on it as well. For as long as it is. They really do justify every moment that the track lasts for sure.

We have a few more. "Second Best" over here, The Last Dinner Party. Really awesome theatrical bit of glam rock from them. Might be my favorite single, so so far from this forthcoming album, The Pyre, just killer vocals, great guitars. It's amped. Again, it's theatrical, it's dramatic, it's captivating. The band continues to smash it.

And last one over from Allie X that I want to shout out, "Reunite", which is a very interesting song. It's like a combination of a pop soul tune, a synth pop track, and then a '90s family sitcom theme song. It's got a lot of different moving parts to it, but they all come together way better than you might assume given those genre tags. The song is very solid, and I'm liking how well all the various elements and influences in it work together. Again, much better than you might presume. But yeah, Allie X killing it once again on a new single.

All right, we have the Weekly Track Roundup out of the way. Hopefully, you guys got some good recommendations out of this.

Anthony Fantano, Weekly Tracks. Forever.