Okay, and here we are, Weekly Track Roundup time. My thoughts, my feelings, my opinions on a bunch of songs that have dropped over the past week or so. Maybe a few holdovers from the week before because I kind of skipped the Weekly Track Roundup last week. But either way, a bunch of songs to recommend to you or just, again, give some thoughts on because there's a lot out and about. It's been a pretty big release week. So with that being said, let's get right into it.

Worst tracks of the week.

We have a handful of bad tracks; they are as follows. Bam, U2 are back. They are just pummeling us mercilessly with singles from this forthcoming album. This one that caught my ear, or I wish it didn't catch my ear. "The Greatest Show On Earth" just kind of sounds like a song they've written at least 13 times now. And it's just a process of diminishing returns at this point. Why do they keep writing the same damn song over and over? But it just gets progressively worse, slower, more boring. U2, they don't need to stop, but they need to stop doing this.

Moving on from there, Taylor Swift is giving us the acoustic version of "Patient Zero" because we needed that. Yeah. Taylor, unfortunately, keeps releasing versions of her worst music ever.

We have Tate McRae, who has hit us with "Housewife," a very bland new single that is one of her most uninspired to date.

And yes, Grimes teaming up with VADAKIN for "ACCELERANDO," which is just an absolute mess of a song. Terrible production, annoying vocals. The A and B parts contrast so hard they feel like they're different tracks entirely, just being violently mashed together for no reason. If this is what Psy Opera is going to sound like, we should buckle up for maybe the worst Grimes album we have heard so far.

And yes, in addition to that, brakence, who I'm very hot and cold on seemingly with these latest singles, dropped a single I hated, dropped one that I loved, dropped this one that, frankly, I really could not stand titled "bitE & body," which sort of sounds like a bad homespun new metal emo Incubus or something. The vocals are awful. The riffs are terrible. I really don't know how else to categorize this other than excruciating, just like really excruciating to experience in real time. And yeah, not really feeling it.

Meh tracks.

Let's move on to the tracks that I didn't hate, but I wasn't blown away by either. They are as follows.

New one from Zach Bryan over here. New EP out, which I'm looking forward to digging into because it looks like he's trying some different stuff on this project, but this one featuring Lana Del Rey, Lana Banana herself, "Lies," is a very boring, simple Lewis Capaldi-type piano ballad with no instrumental flavor whatsoever. Their vocals don't marry all that badly, I'll be frank. I just wish there was better songwriting going into the piece and that they had put more forethought into the production instead of just, like, hopping on the most agreeable set of chords they could cook up in about five minutes.

We also have a new one over here from Twisted Teens, "Stalks," that I'm not too crazy about. I mean, it sounds just very similar to a lot of the highlights from the past two records they've dropped this year. The band is dropping three albums in one year; they're going to sound a little too similar. So I'm not blown away by this track, but I still very much am looking forward to their sub-pop debut over here. And it's really cool that they are kind of getting the buzz that they have been getting and building up the momentum. They've just done it by virtue of dropping so much material in a short period of time, which has not allowed for a whole lot of evolution in that time. It's still a bold, lo-fi rocker with some awesome pedal steel, though. It's just a little samey to my ears. But if you're new to Twisted Teens, you might dig it more than me.

So we have over here a collab, a crossover from Tiffany Day and glaive. I don't mind this weird little bit of electro with "MEANT TO BE," but I do think the glaive vocals hold it back quite a bit. It's just really not my style.

And A$AP Rocky comes through with a slow burner on a new track over here, "Shroom Clouds" with reggie and Jeremih. It's chill, it's smooth, it's melodic. I just wish it had a bit more oomph to it. But if you wanted to do something more easygoing, I suppose it's passable. It's fine.

We also have one over here from Matt Proxy, "iphone," a track that has a lot of cool indie rock flavors going into it at points. I wish it was just longer, had another verse, had another section. It felt like it built up so much and had so many interesting and solid ideas going into it for it to just kind of dissipate suddenly out of nowhere. So, I don't know, I'm a little on the fence with that one.

And then KATSEYE, dropping "Unloveu." Not bad for kind of a ballad, a bit of a slow burner from the group, but those vocal drops in the first half and kind of the lead-up to the more harmonious vocal sections are a little rough. I guess it's cool to hear them doing a song that doesn't sound like a total frickin', meme flush down the toilet. But I can't say maybe this is their strong suit either. Maybe we just need to give it time, do more attempts at something like this, and it could improve.

And Grand Theft Auto, the new soundtrack is packed with collabs and new songs, old songs, and everything in between. This one over here, you're not going to believe this. It has Justice, Tame Impala, SZA, King Gizzard, and the Lizard Wizard on it all at once. "Flower in a Hurricane." It literally sounds like Dire Straits. If you could take the riff and kind of vary it a little bit and then do a different thing. It's entertaining. It's cute. It's sleek. Very 80s. Kind of reminds me of the Vice City era for the franchise. But yeah, not too bad. SZA's vocals are quite nice.

Another one, bleood, releasing "how many." This, in some ways, is a pretty interesting track adjacent to the rage scene these days. It's like if you take your typical flow and production from that lane right now, but then make it super, super glitchy and chaotic. Just very glitchy. Like, really glitch it up. Is that sound or is that idea explored as far as it could be? I don't think so. But it's a decent start. It's an interesting start.

Best tracks of the week.

Okay, best tracks of the week. We have a handful of those. They are as follows.

We have a new one over here from Undeath, which is a very raw, nasty piece of death metal. Very brutal performance on this one; "Arterial Bombardment" is the name of the track. Solid riffs all around, classic, blood-caked style.

We have also, over here, a new one from Silvana Estrada adding a little bit of extra material to her latest full-length LP. This is an additional track featuring M. Ward, and their vocals marry nicely. It's a beautiful tune. Great guitar work. "Toto Baila" is the name of that one.

We also have Power Trip over here hitting us with a single with an A side, a B side. Awesome, chunky riffs. Great thrash energy. Energetic vocals. It's a shock to the system. Really awesome to hear the band back in better than ever with these new tracks. "Precinct 3" is the title of this one.

We have also one over here that kind of took me by surprise from PISS. It's kind of a spoken word track that has, like, I'll leave it to you to listen to it and hear what exactly it's trying to get at. It's pretty obvious because it seems like the spoken word sections are sort of read straight from text, which I think the title is referencing, as it is a very lengthy resistance as possible. "Rote Zora. “Resistance is Possible.” Emma, no. 6, June 1984, pp. 39-41." And then there's these kind of heavier riff sections with screamed vocals. It's really awesome contrast. PISS, with these teasers, in my opinion, for their sub-pop debut are really three for three. And one of the more exciting names kind of coming up in hardcore at the moment.

We have also over here, LustSickPuppy, who's hitting us with some awesome, energetic digital hardcore with "SHAKER" goes hard as hell.

And also digging on this new one from Michael Kiwanuka from the forthcoming Fudge album. "Sing" is a really slow-burner, soulful ballad that may not sound like too much at first, but by the end of it, it really blossoms into a wonderful, gorgeous display of layers, strings, vocals, everything. Give it time to warm up because I promise you, once you hit the end of this one, it hits a very beautiful peak. I promise you that.

We're also digging the new femtanyl track over here with "ALL THE TIME." Loving the choppy vocal edits on this one. The percentile consistent beats. This one's got an incredible chaotic energy to it. Not usually the biggest femtanyl guy. However, I have enjoyed various collaborations, femtanyl's made with different artists that I enjoy. And now I'm digging on more of the solo stuff here. So why the hell not? If you're looking for some really kind of terminally online, jittery, chaotic electronics, dig on this one for sure.

We also have one from fakemink, who, in my opinion, had a very, very sort of like dismal showing with his last full-length LP. However, really pulls through on this new collab with Skepta, "Chiltern Firehouse," just a very straightforward, kind of pitched hook on there, solid beat, awesome Skepta verse, and then another hook, and it's out. It's very simple, but it's effective. And in my opinion, way better than a lot of what was on fakemink records. So this is kind of a bounce-back a little bit. I hope he can really kind of hunker down and focus more on putting out solid songs like this one.

Also digging this surprise collab from The Drums & Genesis Owusu with "Blackstar." Awesome track, fun track, cool crossover. Genesis Wusu, given the nature of the production on his latest LP, just really kind of fits into this kind of electro post-punk-y sort of sound. It's really good. It's really good. It's just a very complementary collab. What more can I say?

I'm also digging this crazy-ass remix. Danny L Harle and PinkPantheress with "Starlight." But it's the Skrillex and ring noord remix. The vocal edits are insane. The beats are hard-hitting. The drops are great. Just really cool crossover from those two. Awesome. Again, cool crossover to begin with, and then the remix of the crossover, which is also a crossover; we're crossing over in multiple directions, and it's sounding better every time!

And finally, shout out to Aesop Rock. I wasn't too crazy about the first teaser that we heard from this forthcoming collab with his brother-in-arms, of course, none other than Blockhead, Trouble Mountain. But this second one over here, "Coyote Summer," has a much friendlier, more approachable flow and some awesome sung vocals from Hanni El Khatib. And it's a very nice performance all around from everybody involved. Probably one of the most approachable. Aesop songs I've heard in years. The guy is known for his, like, very kind of naughty, heady, difficult-to-untangle sort of abstract approach to hip hop. Incredibly verbose as well. But this was surprisingly sweet and very fun to listen to. So, looking forward to Trouble Mountain for sure, especially given that it's been a while since Aesop and Blockhead have done a project together.

So, there you go. Another Weekly Track Roundup in the can. Hopefully you got some good ones out of this.

Anthony Fantano. Weekly tracks. Forever.