Okay. Hey, hi, 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. My thoughts, my feelings, my conceptions around a bunch of tracks that have dropped over the past week or so.

Okay, cool.

Worst tracks of the week.

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

We have "Higher Love", basically – really – DJ Khaled and Cardi B doing this sugar-coated nightmare for the Smurfs soundtrack? No, no, absolutely not. No, we are not doing that. All right, moving on from there.

We have Yung Lean with "Forever Yung", this really awkward pop and post-punk sounding jammer where the vocals are absolutely awful. I think there are contexts, and he's even obviously dabbled in punk music a bit in the past on other projects and sidequests, musically speaking. But I don't think this track right here, I don't think this is one instance where it's really worked, honestly. This is weak, this is limp. This is not really hitting, in my opinion.

Also, we have an interesting team-up, Don Toliver, LV, or Louis Bag, with Pharrell Williams. It's not that I think Don Toliver's performance is terrible, and it's not that I feel like what Pharrell does on the track is terrible. I just don't think it's a match made in heaven. I don't think they're really complementing each other here. I don't think Don fits over this production. I think his vocals and his style work much better in the context of a lot of atmosphere, a lot of space, a lot of vibes. I feel like that's the backdrop that his vocal style was forged within. And now hearing it over a beat that's a lot peppier and more rhythmic and fruitier just feels like, again, a very odd mismatch. And he seems very much conscious of the fact that he's in a much different space than he typically is, but I don't think he adjusts well to the new setting. As tempting as I'm sure it was to get Pharrell in the mix on this one. All right.

Meh, the tracks that I was not too crazy about.

They're okay. You might like them more than me. Here they are.

We have Suki Waterhouse, actress, musician, wearer of many hats with a brand new single titled "Dream Woman". And yeah, it pretty much just sounds like a track from Lana Del Rey's Ultraviolence production and all. Nothing too crazy. Definitely over the top drama coming through on the instrumentation, and the vocals aren't bad. It's just a derivative, and the songwriting isn't necessarily mind-blowing either.

We have Selena Gomez, Benny Blanco, featuring Gracie Abrams, bringing Gracie into the fold on a single from their forthcoming collab album. And "Call Me When You Break Up" is a nice little pop rocker that's not too bad. I mean, I think Selena's and Gracie's vocals maybe meld together just a bit too much, and the production is a tad bit generic, but outside of that, I do think the tune does have something to it. "Call Me When You Break Up". It's catchy.

We have Quavo coming through with a pretty decent trap single over here. "Trappa Rappa". It is what it is. And yeah, it's pretty straightforward. Nothing too crazy. Verses are solid. I wish the choruses popped more, but it just sounds like he's just doing his thing stripped down, just giving us some straightforward dark grimy trap rap. That's about it. Vocals still stand out. Still sounding solid vocally after all these years.

We have JENNIE, of Blackpink fame, coming through with a new single from her forthcoming album. Doechii in the mix as well. I got to say, I think Doechii carries the hip hop, trap pop style fusion going on, and the instrumental is okay. I'm getting some like a Beyoncé energy I would say, coming through on some of these shouty choruses. It's fine for what it is. I think it's got some nice production details, bouncy beat, but really, at the end of the day, I feel like Doechii is truly the selling point of this track, lyrically, and I think she provides the most exciting energy throughout the track, too.

All right, "cLOUDs", new one from J. Cole, a bit of a freestyle musical side quest. It's okay, beat's bland. Flow is locked in, but average for Cole's usual standards. The thing I'll give it is that I think he is making some very fair and valid points on the track in terms of art and technology and music consumption and artists owning their art and so on and so forth. A lot of these comments come up on the back end of the track. And again, I think he is actually speaking to something substantive on this track. So there you go. All right.

And Brian D'Addario of Lemon Twigss fame, going on a solo venture with a new single, "Till the Morning". Nothing too crazy, a bit of '60s pastiche, I'll say, in terms of the tune, but I think the instrumentation brings an interesting combination. There's definitely a gospel or spiritual element to some of the chord changes as well as the organs on the track. I'll say the drums and bass are giving a little early Jackson 5 a little bit as well. I'm liking the mix of influences. They don't come through in the most bold and stand out of ways. But if you're looking for something that's a nice solid little modern throwback, this is it. All right.

Best tracks of the week.

Got quite a few of those. Here we go. Let's hit it.

The Wiggles. Wiggle Up, Giddy Up!, the band's forthcoming album. It's a country affair, seemingly. We have one single that I want to point you guys toward over here featuring Dolly Parton. It's titled "Friends", and it's literally about having friends. Some legitimately good chord changes and instrumental switch-ups on the track. Dolly's parts on the song are absolutely adorable. And I like the vibe of the song overall. I mean, one could make criticism saying that the Wiggles may be selling out following the country wave with this forthcoming album. But as long as the songs are quality, I don't really care how desperate they are to get that country bag. So here we go. Wiggle up, giddy up. Forthcoming Wiggles.

Okay. We're moving on to SPY. Really great hardcore act who has a new EP out over here. And "Quit the Act" is the closing track to this project I would like to point you guys to. The riffs are incredible, the vocals are incredible, the energy is absolutely ferocious. And yeah, it's a badass, a little closer to a sick, gnarly EP.

All right, moving on from there. Shout out to Sleigh Bells. Really loving this new single. It's titled "Bunky Pop". If Bunky Pop is its own genre, I feel like this track is inventing it. I mean, it's got elements of pop-punk and Y2K pop and electro-pop, and it's just bringing everything together into this kooky-ass song that has some great vocals, some amazing change-ups, some just insane metal double bass at a few points as well. It's really rippin'. It's really poppy. It's really quite fun and silly, but ultra-aggressive, too, in its own way. Just a really strange combination of a bunch of vibes, and yet the eclecticism of it is pretty much the draw.

All right, moving on from there, we have Rico Nasty, who is coming through with a very aggressive pop and rap fusion on this one. "Teethsucker (Yea 3X)". It's not exactly like her raw old school SoundCloud-type sound. But there is something explosive about it in comparison with a lot of the tracks off her last LP. Rico is still sounding fresh, vibrant, exciting. Looking forward to hearing what is going to be done on this forthcoming album especially with tracks as explosive and catchy as this one.

All right, we have, Queen Herawin, Open Mike Eagle, a track, "Shame". It's a bit of a throwback, boombap, Big Horn, Queens-type cut with some great excited verses being traded back and forth between Open Mike and Queen. I need to dig more into Queen's stuff, given just how great this track is. Open Mike Eagle, bringing some quirky charisma, almost some MF Doom type bars here and there on the track. Liking this a lot. Liking it a lot. A totally unforeseen boperino from these two on this track. Moving on from there.

Perfume Genius, second taste of the forthcoming album. This track also very guitar-driven. "No Front Teeth" is the title. Features Aldous Harding as well. It's got some beautiful change-ups and details. And it's just interesting to hear Mike take the Perfume Genius sound in a new direction. Still after all of these years and still continuing to bring some cool surprises, getting a little twangy and folksy on these new cuts, but still bringing that tender, intimate passion that typically makes Perfume Genius's music so fantastic.

All right, we have a JPEGMAFIA coming through with a "Valentine's Day Freestyle", which I didn't cover last week, so just giving it a shout out here, especially since it has a bouncy beat and some fun flows from Peggy.

Also want to give a shout out to this new single from Obongjayar. It sounds like if you got a single from him, but James Murphy produced it, it's got almost that like indie sleaze, dance party, electro DJ vibe to the of plucked bass lines and the driving beats. It's a fantastic backdrop that I would not have expected would have worked for this guy, and yet somehow it does.

A couple more.

We have the closer from the Maruja EP, which is out now that I want to point you guys to. If you guys are unfamiliar, this band is a really great up and coming art punk and post punk and jazz rock outfit. And this EP isn't quite the very lyrical, spoken word dense apocalyptic stuff that they have been celebrated for creating on a couple of EPs that have really popped off in the underground music scene. With this project over here is the band gearing us up for something bigger down the road, I'm sure of it. But for now, what they have provided us is this instrumental project of different jams and performances, and the band coming together and creating these big chemistry moments where they're just bringing things up to a fever pitch and falling and just playing with their chemistry, reacting off of each other. And this closing track, like pretty much every track on this project, follows very much along that same track. So I just wanted to point you guys to the song and remind you that the whole EP is out now if you want to dig into it. All right.

And shout out, finally, finally, finally, last track in the Weekly Track Roundup, to the one, the only, McKinley Dixon. "Sugar Water" is the name of the single, Quelle Chris and Anjimile featured on the song as well. And like a lot of songs from Dixon in the past, it's extravagant. It's got some big horn sections. It's a really huge show of instrumentation. It's got a very unlikely groove for a lot of hip hop songs as well. It's got some passionate verses. It's just short, but the thing is, on his last record, what made the tracklist work so well was that even the shorter tracks were reinforced by the songs around them. So I presume this is going to be one bite-size moment in a larger tapestry of songs across the record. So what I will say about this moment is it's lyrical, it's ornate, it's beautiful, it's lush, it's harmonious. It really hits you with a lot of gorgeous sounds very fast and disappears just as quickly. But yeah, I'm still really impressed with the wonderful show of instrumentation and passion on this single for sure.

And that is going to be the Weekly Track Roundup, everybody.

Anthony Fantano, Weekly Tracks, Forever.