Hey, hi, and hello, everyone. Anthony Fantano here, Internet's busiest music nerd. And it's time for the Weekly Track Roundup, where I give you some thoughts on a bunch of songs that have dropped over the past week or so. Whether I loved these tracks, hated them, or felt somewhere in between

All right, worst tracks of the week.

They are as follows. Bam.

We're starting over here with Sleep Token. New track over here, "Caramel". God, how has this band gotten boring since their last album. And the chorus of like, "Stick to me like caramel." It's like a bad RnB song. What is going on here? And the guitar sound terrible. This song should be illegal. Who does this appeal to? I'm sorry. If this is your type of metal, you have the blandest taste in metal known to man, or you're just afraid of listening to pop music. Just listen to pop. If you're going to water your metal down to this degree, just listen to a goddamn pop song and have some fun. Why does your song about sticking to somebody like caramel need to be all heavy and moody and annoying? Just listen to a goddamn pop song and have some fun. Lighten the fuck up.

Anyway, we also have Sexyy Red over here. The more I've revisited this single, as much as I typically am a Sexyy Red supporter, I'm not crazy about this one. I'm really not crazy about this one. I think it's It's just okay. Instrumental is, well, I mean, less than okay. I guess that's what I'm trying to say. It's very unambitious for Sexyy Red. It's not fun. It's just very shouty and in your face, and it just doesn't feel like a good time in the way that a lot of great Sexyy Red songs usually do. It's just like, weirdly shouty, and aggressively annoying, and is not all that catchy. Again, instrumental choice on this was pretty unimpressive too. The flows were just not memorable. Yeah, I feel like she's written catchier songs. I'll say that, much catchier songs, and I'll move on from there.

G-Eazy. I feel like he's written a song over here, "Fight and Fuck", that, spiritually, is just a bad Linkin Park song here, but it doesn't have the heavy guitars, and it's just tackier lyrically than even the late era Linkin stuff. It just feels like a weird point of reference there, inadvertently, and made much, much, much worse.

All right, moving on from there. Ed Sheeran coming back with a vaguely exotic pop bop bop on this one, "Azizam". And yeah, it's terrible. We don't need this. I thought he was going to start to tone things down a bit and just do the acoustic thing and get off the mainstream track and all he wants to give us another "Shape of You". Like, what is going on? This is just obnoxious. Please stop. The era for this is over. Just let it be in the past.

We also have The Dare, coming through with a revamped version of his recent New York project with another disk of material, several tracks. "LCA" is one of them. It just sounds like a louder, more aggressive, more annoying version of some of the worst songs on the album. It's just shocking that the inspiration and abilities of this project are just so narrow. I'm hoping that if anything develops into the future with the dare, it's like... just a wee bit of versatility would be nice rather than just dropping worse versions of tracks you've already released.

All right. Meh. Tracks I was on the fence with.

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

A new collaborative track between Lil Yachty and Veeze. Yeah, I mean, I love the soul chops on the instrumental. The vibes, I think, are there, but vocally, it's a very low level of charisma between these two. It's chill, it's listenable, but I feel like it could have been a lot more.

All right, we also have a Rachel Chinouriri, who has come through with a new ERP, 2342. Sorry, it's one track off of it. Not quite as catchy as her recent "Isaac" single that she put out recently. But I do like the punchier approach on the instrumental side that she is taking on this track. I feel like the songwriting could have been boned up a little bit, but it is interesting to hear her hop on a more in your face, groovy or more drum-heavy instrumental, that's for sure.

All right, we also have The Marias over here. They've dropped a couple of singles. "Back to Me" is one of them. And while I'm still underwhelmed on the instrumental front, as I have been in the past with the Marias, I think the tune on this one is really solid. I like the straightforward narrative approach with the story of trying to get this person back with you, romantically, so on and so forth. It's a very nice listen. I'll say that's pleasant all around.

Jerskin Fendrix, an artist who is known for the Poor Things soundtrack, has come through with a Jerskin Fendrix freestyle where he is pretty much doing a very Geordie Greep jazz fusion type art rock experience that is very lyrical, very over the top, maybe to the point where it feels like it's trying a bit too hard, but there's a there there. There's a there, and I guess I'll leave it at that. If that's really the itch that you need scratched, I would give this a try if that description, if that comparison piques your interest at all.

All right, we also have The Hives, back with another album, striking while the iron is hot, really following up their last LP pretty quickly. The first single is, enough is enough. Really going back to the "I Hate to Say I Told You So" vibes. They've never really left. There's like that punky garage rock blend. That's their MO. They're sticking with it, sounding passionate to this day with it, at least. I feel like the song is generic by Hives standards, but at least they perform it with some gusto. You can at least give them that.

We also have HAIM, "Everybody's Trying to Figure Me Out". Another weirdly bland single for them. I'm surprised. I'm just not really feeling the new tracks like I have past the singles. I feel like the writing has been a little underwhelming, and they're not really advancing or evolving their sound whatsoever. It just feels like very so-so pop rock, and it's not really growing in any way whatsoever. I don't know. I'm just at a loss with it a little bit.

We also have Counting Crows, who miraculously, after all this time, with "Under Aurora", sound exactly like Counting Crows. Also very little in terms of any evolution or exploration, but there's something about that '90s piano rock pop sound that just still sounds pretty decent, though I will chalk most of that up to just having lived through that era and maybe feeling a touch of nostalgia for it. But yeah, the tune isn't bad. It just sounds like your average Counting Crows song, I suppose.

We have AURORA over here, which if you're looking for some art pop that still has a very direct and sharp and a very to-the-point pop appeal, "The Flood", I think, will do you good. That's for sure.

Let's move on to the best tracks of the week.

They are as follows. Here we go.

We have a new one over here from the UK duo Wet Leg. They are back with a brand new track, first single off of a forthcoming record. Obviously, so many popular and fun viral tracks from their last album cycle, "Chaise Lounge", that thing. "Catch These Fists" is the name of the new track. It's punky, got some great bass, very funny vocals, very toxic, self-aware, but toxic lyrics, which were pretty entertaining all around. Liking the energy on this track. It seems like they're upping the energy and the aggression a little bit on this track, and it's making for some slightly more attention-grabbing vibes, I will say that.

We also have Teezo Touchdown and Destin Conrad on a new single, "The Last Time". Really great team up between these two. I will say I'm not super familiar with Destin's stuff, but Teezo, with his love of weird left field pop and RnB and soul all coming together at once, he fits in like a glove on this track, and I think it's some very solid songwriting and creative chemistry all around.

Also enjoying this new By Storm track over here, too. A little bit more than the last one, truth be told. Obviously, if you guys are not aware, I need to say this is the music project that has risen like a phoenix out of the ashes of the once beloved Injury Reserve. And now it seems like with Richie and Parker Cory together, they're just going in much more experimental directions with their sound. And that is the case for this track over here, too, which is like this very left field, weird rap, psychedelic jazz freak out. It's quite exciting and really condensed into a five-minute blizzard of hazy and intense sounds. I'll say that.

We also have a PinkPantheress, tonight. Brand new track. She's going to horny jail on this one. I don't know what else to say. She's just dropping a dance pop track, and she's like, Oh, you want to have sex with me? It's literally the song. Actually, it's super entertaining. Somehow samples freaking Panic at the Disco, and it's great production all around. Good song structure, too. She's not hitting us with that one minute and 30 second, two-minute formula thing at this point. It feels like a fully fledged dance pop song with solid vocals, standout hooks, very flirty, very forward, very fun, very groovy. And it's just cool to hear her evolve and just mature a little bit, creatively speaking. In terms of just the song sounding fuller and more complete and all that, and higher-grade production, too.

All right, moving on from there. Obongjayar has hit us with another single over here. "Sweet Danger" is the title of this one. It's got some great West African grooves. Love that random pop-up in the background. That really got me standing. Out of attention. Grabbed my attention right away and kept me locked in. Not a super varied track or anything like that. It just grows with the layers and puts you in a trance as it goes along, and I love it for it.

All right, moving on from there. Miley Cyrus, the one and only, has come through with a couple of new singles. One I think is okay. The other I am enjoying a lot more, that would be the song "Something Beautiful", which is a strangely intense, soul-infused pop ballad that has only what I could honestly call musical jump scares. She's doing her thing vocally, sounding real smoky, real dark and moody, and so on and so forth. And then all of a sudden, all this bass, and all these horn layers, and all this everything just comes pouring in in a way where it's like, holy crap, the volume. What? The volume jump. Wow! Didn't see that coming and it just blasts you over and over like a Swans track. It is a jump scare. It is an intense explosion of instrumentation. Holy crap. And yeah, it's awesome. It's impressive. It's totally unexpected and wild for Ms. Cyrus. Liking the direction on this track. And look, even though I'm a little less enthused by the other song, I thought it was still impressive and better than a lot of the stuff from her last LP. So it feels like Miley's getting a little adventurous on this new one. I'm liking it.

We also have Laufey, who has come through with a beautiful and very sharp and very witty ballad over here titled "Silver Lining", where she's talking about the horrors of everything in the world and so on and so forth. But the silver lining is that she's with you. It's very cute. It's very endearing. The vocals and the instrumentation, I think, have been upgrading gradually since her breakout record, where I thought it sounded maybe a little bit green behind the ears. This is just coming across more detailed, more experienced, more tasteful, more true to that classic vocal jazz style with just, again, more details, more quality playing and singing.

We also have over here a track from Car Seat Headrest, "CCF (I'm Going to Stay With You)". An eight-minute monster, which features bits of indie and touches of, I would say, like arena rock and '80s rock. It's quite the journey, just like the last single was. A very ambitious, a little lo-fi, all over the place, hyper creative, and looking forward to seeing how this pans out into a new album for sure.

And BABYMETAL has come through with a new single featuring Poppy. I mean, crazy Slipknot-ass riffs all over this track. Great choruses. Poppy's screams are insane. And honestly, this is a crossover that needed to happen earlier. This makes so much sense. We should get a whole album of stuff like this. I don't know. I mean, that's just me.

And finally, Aesop Rock, "Checkers", brand new single from him. He is as left field and as lyrical and as backpack as ever, and hits us with, I think, one of his catchiest instrumentals in a while. Fits it with a solid hook as well. And yeah, just awesome that he still has that spark and that fire and that boldness after all of these years. But yeah, "Black Hole Superette" is the name of the fourth coming out, which I think is probably one of his best album titles, Black Hole Superette.

That's the Weekly Track Roundup, everybody.

Anthony Fantano, Weekly Tracks, Forever.