Yes, yes, it is that time. It is that time. It's freaking weekly track roundup time. It's mustache time. The fall-winter mustache is here. Apologies to those who hate that thing. All right.

Well, weekly track roundup. My thoughts, my feelings, my everything on a bunch of tracks that have dropped over the past week or so.

The worst tracks of the week.

There are at least a couple of those. They are as follows.

This new Linkin Park track. God, it's so melodramatic. It's so bland. The new vocalist who I will talk about in the video on the Fantano channel very soon is just not doing anything for me. And also "The Emptiness Machine". The Emptiness Machine. That's the idea. That's the concept. That's the inspo. The Emptiness Machine. That's where we're going with this. The Emptiness? Seriously? Really? That's it? The commentary on the track, socially, is just so plain and so vague and so uninspired. It's just baffling. Yeah, shocked that this came out and saw the light of day.

We also have one from Central Cee, as well as JRK 19, which is like this bilingual drill cut that's obnoxious, honestly, really not getting a whole lot out of it, though I'm sure Central Cee fans are going crazy. We can say that. All right.

The tracks I was meh on, not crazy about myself, but you like them more than me.

They are as follows.

We have one from Sexyy Red, who, shockingly, I was just not really crazy about on this new track, "U Kno What to Do". I mean, it's not terrible, but maybe it's just a bit too synthy and clubby. As far as what I look for in a sexy red track, I have underplayed some of her singles before that I ended up liking a little bit further down the road, but I don't know if this is going to be one of them, honestly.

Moving on, though. We also have a new one from A$AP Rocky with J. Cole in the mix as well. "Ruby Rosary" is the name of the track. I feel like J. Cole does pretty well on this track, but I just don't know if this type of instrumental in this mood is Rocky's vibe, like if it's his strong suit. You know what I mean? It's very dramatic. And again, J. Cole places a pretty thoughtful verse toward the end of the track. But the two verses Rocky brings to the table before that, I feel like he struggles to match J. Cole's very moody contemplative lyrical direction that he's usually on, especially with a handful of bars that just stick out as jokey and weird and silly and just not really matching the energy of the instrumental. I feel like it would have made more sense to put J. Cole on a banger, especially since that's more rocky speed, but whatever.

All right. Opeth, metal and prog outfit extraordinaire on their millionth album, The Last Will and Testament, is on the way very soon. I am pointing toward the second single to drop from the record. It's track three, which is just like title three, essentially third part of the record. Yeah, it's just a very decent piece of prog metal with some great chemistry between the guitars, bass, and drums. They are jamming. There's great rips. There's awesome licks. I could, I guess, take or leave the vocals which I'm not super crazy about in the grander scheme of things. But at least the band is sounding good. Still sounding good, still sounded tight, still sounding like they're doing their prog thing. They're still knee deep in the prog stuff. But I will say, I feel like their approach, guitars-wise and production-wise, has a little more bite to it at this point than it did when they were first flirting with doing some old-school prog stuff. So it's cool to hear some progression.

All right, we also have a mxmtoon who's come through the new single, featuring Kero Kero Bonito, which is very cute. It's like some nice, light, easy-going pop rock. No more, no less. It's cool. The Kero Kero Bonito crossover, I think makes a lot of sense. There's some cool creative commonalities there that makes it a sensible collab. The name of the track, if I didn't say, which I know I did not, is "The Situation".

We also have one for Megan Thee Stallion. I think seeing the success of the song "Star", she's hungry for another cross-cultural hit, which is coming in the form of "Neva Play" with the RM of BTS. And yeah, it's all right. The 1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7, 8 hook, I think is pretty played out, but the RM feature is fine. Megan, I feel like she plays a little reserved on this track, or maybe she's coloring by the numbers in a way. Yeah, it's just very, I think, par of the course, given everything she did on her latest album. It just feels like a bit of an afterthought, I guess you could say. It's all right.

Okay. Jungle, hitting us with a single titled "Let's Go Back". Jungle? Nostalgic? No way. Yeah, this just feels like a piece of indie pop soul from the early to mid 2000s, trying to do something from the '70s is the vibe. It's not bad. It's cute while it's on. I'll say that. I've never been a big Jungle boy, and this track is not really swaying me, honestly. But if you're a fan of the band, I can see why you would dig on this.

We have a new one from Future Islands as well. Maybe a quick little post-album, non-album, single. "Glimpse" is the title of it. Yeah, your usual Future Islands fare, though I will say what makes this track a little standout for me is that the production, especially the synths, are a little spooky. Spooky vibes? A little spooky-ooky-ooky from Future Islands. I'm liking it. They could even get spookier if they wanted to, honestly. The tune is not the strongest, but the vibe certainly is. So it could be cool to hear the band experiment a little more in this direction.

Best tracks of the week.

We have some of those for you as well. They are as follows, some bops.

We have Undeath, who has come through with another taste of their forthcoming album. "Disputatious Malignancy" is the name of the track. I feel like performance-wise, this one's going a little harder than the last single. There's also a really cool change-up in the middle of the track that I think goes hard as hell, too. I mean, very standard old-school, boilerplate death metal, but the band has been sounding a little bit more aggressive performance-wise, and I think it's paying off with a fiery-ass track like this. So again, death metal fans, death metal heads, keep an eye and an ear out for this one.

All right, moving on from there. Phil Elverum, Mount Erie, he's back. New album on the way. Night Palace. And he has seen fit to give us two tastes of the forthcoming album, the very short "Broom of Wind", which is a mournful short, (for Phil's standards) quirky little rocker. Meanwhile, "I Walk" is a much more dense, lush, lofi type of dirge, ballad type song from Phil, which I am liking a lot as well, maybe a bit more gratifying than "Broom of Wind", but very exciting, very excited to hear this forthcoming album. The first two tastes meet that usual Phil standard of quality. So no reason to not be hype, in my opinion, for anybody who's been riding with Phil's music up until this point. And hey, if you're new, there's always now to start. Yeah.

All right, moving on from there. We have a new one over here from a producer, multi-instrumentalist, composer, you could say as well, Terrace Martin, who has a new record on the way, which has a very interesting and quirked up a little title. One of the singles from the album is "Forever", featuring 9th Wonder, and he's doing a cool old-school throwback synth funk thing, With the talk box, it's kicking ass. It's sounding great. It's got a sick groove to it as well. Yeah, really looking forward to what this West Coast legend has to offer on this record, especially if more of it is as good as this track.

All right, we I also have one over here from, is this Machine Girl, with "Motherfather", which I'm really loving the direction of this track over here. It feels like Machine Girl's usual digital, hard core, disorienting, glitchy, jittery production style. But there's something sweet and cutesy about some of the synths and some of the electronics worked into it. Plus on top of it, on the hook, there's this huge, almost like grungey switchover with these hyper-aggressive vocals. It's a versatile track. It's a visceral track. It's a colorful track and really excited to hear more on this forthcoming Machine Girl album. Seems like a pretty cool and interesting switch up.

We also have a couple of new tracks from Jane Remover as well, "Magic I Want U" ... "How to Teleport." Two great cuts, the second of which has almost like a bit of a Latin flavor to it. But "Magic I Want U" has like a bit of an early to mid 2000s, a bit of a pop rock thing going on that I think is really cool. Production is creative as hell. Songwriting is on point. Jane Remover continues to kill it with this new round of tracks.

Also, miraculously, really enjoying the new Halsey track. Sounds like a goddamn amazing little pop punk Avril Lavigne type rocker. An anthem, if you will, titled "Ego", that could most definitely open up an episode of Dawson's Fucking Creek. It's incredible just how much the track kicks ass. A lot of, I guess, killer vocals throughout track as well. The more I've been reading into it, the more I've been intrigued by the multiple persona angle that she's going to be taking on with this new album. Really looking forward to seeing how all of this plays out with the new Halsey. If you guys have been following me, I'm not really the biggest Halsey guy, but some of the stuff she's been experimenting with lately has been definitely piquing my interest. That's for sure. All right.

And finally, finally, finally, finally, shout out to Blu & Exile, who have come through with another teaser from their forthcoming album. Blu & Exile, getting another one up on the boards, which I am very excited about, given just how great, historically, their collaborations tend to be. But "Gold" is the title of the track. It's got some great bars, some killer production, and a great vocal features from Nana, as well as Ahmad Anwar, some killer singing on it, too. And yeah, it's just, I think, a lot stronger than the previous single, "The Closer", that was dropped with Aloe Black from the album not too long ago. So things are looking up for the forthcoming Blue & Exile, that's for sure.

All right, everyone, that has been the Weekly Track Roundup. Thank you very much for watching. Hopefully, you got some good recommendations. I will see you in the next one.

Anthony Fantano. Weekly Tracks. Forever.