Okay. Hey, hi, hello, everyone. Anthony Fantano here, Internet's busiest music nerd. I hope you're doing well. It's time for a Weekly Track Roundup. We are going over those tracks. A bunch that have dropped over the past week or so. My thoughts on them, positive, negative, somewhere in between. Either way, we're talking about them. Let's hit the tracks.

Worst tracks of the week.

We have actually more than I would like, honestly.

Here we go. Let's start with the new Snail Mail. While I am very excited and happy to hear there's a new Snail Mail album on the way, the first return single over here, "Dead End", is not really stopping me in my tracks. It's just about some of the most just drab, underwhelming, low-energy indie songwriting that I think I have heard in a minute, and there's not really much more to say about it other than that.

I was also not really crazy about, surprise, surprise, the new Rob Zombie single over here, "(I'm a) Rock 'N' Roller". Yeah, it's maybe just trying a bit too hard to be edgy and failing immensely to be so in any measurable fashion.

We've also got this new track from Lightning Bolt, surprisingly. They had a split project on the way from OOIOO, which I don't know if I've ever learned to say that act's name correctly, but I mean, really two blasts from the indie past over here. Was really looking forward to spinning this Lightning Bolt track because for a long time, they have been one of my favorite noise rock bands, point blank, period. But "CLOUD CORE" to my ears, they just don't really lock into a groove. And there's something about the drumming and the bass playing that feels just like very chopped, and looped, and repetitive, and not really energetic and free flowing like a lot of the duo's classic material, unfortunately. And it just makes the track a bit of a slog to listen to. I hope other new recordings don't feel as, I don't know, regimented, I'll say.

Next, Def Leppard are back, "Rejoice". "Rejoice" for Def Leppard. I mean, I will say, for a lot of these '80s hard rock groups, hair metal groups, that sort of thing, many who have tried to release recent singles have come across sounding very out of their element, very much a mess, very much overproduced, very much boring, very much generic. Def Leppard, in a lot of ways, at least feel like they're capturing a bit of an old sound here. It does have a bit of a classic vibe to it. It doesn't sound necessarily tired or completely out of touch with its roots. But even when Def Leppard were at their best, they were writing pretty mediocre hard rock, I'll say that. So it's not like "Rejoice", even if it does sound better than a new Mötley Crüe track, it's not like it's that much better in the grander scheme of things.

Moving on from there, Flo Milli, who I'm surprised to see in this portion of the video, but this new "Flo Jackson" track, I feel like is not really her beat. On top of it, her punch lines on this song are hella weak, including that Joe Jackson line, which is just awkward as hell. Not really feeling this one at all, honestly.

All right, meh. The songs I was on the fence with.

You might like them more than me, though. They are as follows.

We have a new one from T.I., Pharrell on the production. It's a little one-dimensional, and Pharrell's beat does have a rough start, but once the song gets going, I think there's a lot of potential here, and a new record from T.I. could be good. We'll just have to wait and see. It's not a bad one for sure. It's not a bad one by any means.

We also have a new one from SPELLLING over here who has been reenvisioning, with some guests and collaborators, tracks from her latest full-length LP. This one featuring Brendan Yates of Turnstile fame, although it very much seems to be pretty much the O.G. version of "Portrait of My Heart", but with Brendan Yates' vocals mixed in there and not playing a very complementary roll. I don't know. I think I would have much rather him do some interesting feature portion on the song than just muddy up the vibe of the entirety of the track. I'm not really feeling this direction for this different version.

We have Strictly 4 The Scythe. The Scythe being a new supergroup featuring Denzel Curry, Ferg, formerly A$AP Ferg, Bktherula, TiaCorine, and Key Nyata. This Strictly 4 The Scythe record is on the way this year. Our first taste of this album comes in the form of "Lit Effect feat. LAZER DIM 700", and it's a bit of a Memphis vibe, but distorted, like a lot of modern underground tracks tend to be these days. If there's anything holding the song back for me, it's that everybody vocally just comes across as a little too low energy, a little too trying to play it just cool, and I don't know, as expressionless as possible in a way. I'm hoping for maybe just bigger bangers, bigger moments deeper into this project, especially since the tracklist is looking pretty tight. But still, given all the names, given how crazy this crossover event is, just all the talent in this supergroup, I'm still very much looking forward to seeing what The Scythe is going to do.

All right, we also have a new one from Joji over here, which is titled, "Last of a Dying Breed". It's okay. Got a very repetitive chill, electronic beat, moody vocals. Definitely not the most standout song so far from this new album cycle and series of teasers Joji has been subjecting us to, but, Piss in the Wind, still very much looking forward to it.

We have Harry Styles, who has treated us to the first track of his forthcoming album. Kiss All The Time. Disco, Occasionally, is the title of the album. And "Aperture" is the name of the first track on the record, the first single. Been hearing some rumors that he was influenced by the likes of LCD Soundsystem on this album, and that is very much coming across on this track. It's very much giving LCD, "Someone Great", but if it were remixed and sung over by Ezra from Vampire Weekend. That is literally the vibe of this track, and it's got a linear progression to it, some interesting growth points, very subtle in terms of how it moves and changes. Not a big chorus or anything like that, but maybe that's not going to be Harry's vibe for this record. Maybe he is setting us up for his electronic album. We will just have to see. But I will say for now, I feel like this first teaser, it's okay. He's definitely taken a risk on the track. I admire that. I can give it an 'A' for effort and trying something different, trying something unexpected. But is it a song I see myself really coming back to over and over? No, not particularly.

All right, we also have a brand new one over here from, of course, Fred again.., Young Thug on the track as well, "scared" is the name of the track. And while I don't know if this is really the kind of beat that complements Young Thug's style, I was happy to hear some vocal inflections here, a delivery that was a lot more expressive, and he was hitting some of those more rubbery, again, I'll use the word inflections, that he's known for, the squeakiness, like, the weird, eccentric elements of his voice that have been a trademark for him for a very long time that were very much not there on a lot of tracks from his latest LP. So while this is a step up vocally a little bit, and who knows how long maybe Fred again.. has been sitting on this feature, I presume it's newer since the track is newer, but still, with that being said, I don't know if they're making for the best mix on this track together. But cool that there's an openness there, an openness to collaborate between both of them.

We also have Red Asphalt, Exhumed, forthcoming album. Another track from them, "Shovelhead". I think by death metal standards, this one sounds like a little bit more 'dime a dozen' than the first single from the record, which had some catchier riffs, though, and some cool call and response vocals, too. This one wasn't hitting quite as well and went by like a bit of a blur. Still looking forward to this car wreck themed record from them, though. It should be a fun one.

All right, we also have a new one from Courtney Barnett, whose like talk-sung vocals, and twangy, alt country-ish, indie garage stylings are still sounding pretty solid to this day, and have even taken on, I would say, some psychedelic influences on this new track, "Site Unseen". New album on the way from her. Shout out to Australia. Shout out to Australia.

And here we are with the best tracks of the week.

We got a couple of those. They are as follows. Here we go.

Yves Remix of Underscores' "Do It". It slaps, goes hard, super energetic, and exciting. Really liking this new spin on the song.

Also, "Down South", Trap Dickey and Key Glock, hitting us with a classic horn sample, some trap beats, and some chill flows, and some head nodding rhymes. Liking this one quite a bit, too. They got some good chemistry on it.

SEBii is hitting us with a really sugary, fun track on the song "SiiMP". Definitely one of his most banger cuts in a while with a beat that is as glitzy, and as white and pink, as this wild outfit over here. Oh, my God.

And also, it took me a second for this to grow on me, but this track from The Scratch, "Pull Like a Dog", is a very odd mix of metal, and I would say some country vibes a little bit, maybe some Americana, however you want to define it. It's definitely got a Midwestern rustic feel to some of the guitars. And then the drummer, as it were, or the entirety of the percussion on this track, is handled by one of those buskers wooden boxes that you're slapping on like crazy, that's the percussion, which is crazy. Meanwhile, you've got these bellowing, crazy harmonized vocal sections that feel like something from a Mastodon song, and super distorted guitar riffs and stuff like that. It's a nutty mix, but it's a unique combination of sounds, and it's an exciting performance. I'll say that even if the percussion comes across maybe a little bit too dry, I am excited to hear more from this band. I mean, who knows? Maybe this will be the one song from them I like, but hopefully digging deeper into their upcoming album, I'll enjoy more. Fingers crossed. But yeah, shout out to The Scratch. Very interesting what they're doing with "Pull Like a Dog".

All right, a couple more.

Jessie Ware is back! "I Could Get Used To This", cool new track from her. It's sleek. I would say it's a little less overproduced than a lot of songs from her last record, which I like. The instrumentation and the vocals feel a bit more live, not quite as touched up. And yeah, really going straight ahead, again, diving just headfirst into some classic disco vibes. But Jessie, I would say vocally, is almost hitting us with some runs and some melodic licks that feel like what she was making her career on originally when she was breaking out, working with acts like Disclosure and stuff like that. Some of her older vocal stylings, I feel like, is what this song is indicative of here, which I feel like is cool. Hearing that melded a little bit with some of the disco flavors she has called her bread and butter lately, I think is a cool way to reinvent herself. So wondering if that's going to happen further on other tracks. We'll just have to wait and see. But still, I could get used to this. It's most definitely a single I could get used to.

We also have James Blake, brand new album on the way. "Death of Love", first track. It's stripped back, it's skeletal, it's beautiful, it's haunting, just like we would expect from none other than James here. Beautiful cut, wonderful cut. The subterranean bass, the wonderful and dazzling, but still strange and harrowing, pinched lead vocals, and the keys, just everything about it is enchanting, but there's like a darkness there, a seriously intense darkness that I feel like we haven't heard in James' songwriting in a minute. So looking forward to hearing if that pervades the rest of the record. We'll just have to see.

And finally, I want to give a shoutout over here to Honey Dijon, "Slight Werk", a great club bop with none other than Bree Runway on the track, delivering a really awesome verse. Lots of charisma, great beats, fantastic vibes all around.

And that is going to be it for the Weekly Track Roundup, everybody. Hopefully, you got some good recommendations I'll just see you for the rest of this week with more reviews, more everything that we do per usual over here on this channel.

Anthony Fantano, Weekly Tracks, forever.