Hi, everyone. Anthony Fantano here, Internet's busiest music nerd. And it's time for a Weekly Track Roundup. My thoughts, my feelings, my emotions, on a bunch of tracks that have just dropped over the past week. And yeah, just basically thought I would categorize them according to whether or not I loved them, hated them, or felt somewhere in between.

All right.

Worst Tracks of the Week.

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

Will Smith with Yuki Chiba, "Team Tomodachi". I don't really want to know how this remix came together. All I know is that it's painfully awkward to hear Will Smith flexing lyrically in the way that he is on this track. It just feels weird. It just feels odd. It just comes across as strange. And I'll leave it at that.

After this, we have BabyTron, sadly, with "A Nightmare on Yo Street". A new project on the way that this track comes off of, apparently. It's after Halloween. It's too late for a spooky track, especially a spooky track with terrible singing on it. And for a guy who punches in as often as he does, the bars are not on tempo. It feels off in a way that is painfully awkward and is just not really working. I know that sometimes there is a bit of a looseness. He's finding a beat, a talk-rapped Midwestern vibe. It is a thing now. Thing these days. But just really not feeling this one, unfortunately.

All right, moving on from there, though.

The tracks I was on the fence with.

They are as follows, Ba-Bam.

We have one over here from Yeat and Quavo. Sounds like a decent, ragey, synthy leftover from Yeat's recent album. It's okay. It's not too bad. It's passable. We can say that. All right.

We also have Wheeler Walker Jr., who has come through with a deluxe edition of his latest record. One track features Danny Brown. I'm not crazy about the song itself, but the Danny feature is cool and is most definitely worth checking out. But yeah, if you're looking for some very raunchy, tongue-and-cheek, comedy country, Wheeler Walker is your guy.

We also have Snoop Dogg, who has come through with a new track titled "Gorgeous", featuring Jhene Aiko. He's got a new album on the way with Dr. Dre in the mix, which, I mean, of course, I'm excited about that, given that we're talking about two legends who really came up together here. But I feel like this new track over here is just a bit too smooth and glamorous and doesn't really have too much bite to it, I guess. However, I don't know. At their respective ages, I don't know how much grit I can really anticipate on a forthcoming Snoop Dogg and Dr. Dre project. But again, it's very smooth. It's very trying to be sensual, I suppose. Yeah, it's not bad, but it's not amazing either.

We also have Mogwai, who has come through the new one, a new album on the way as well. "Lion Rumpus" is the name of the track. It's got some pockets where the feedback and the high pitch tones are maybe a bit too deafening and intense. But if you're looking for an instrumental rocker with an emphasis on rocker, you're going to want to give this Mogwai track a listen for sure, because it's dense, it's heavy, it's colorful. Maybe something the shoegaze fans can get into as well. It's definitely a riffy and entrancing. So there you go. Mogwai, still at it after all these years, and still one of the best bands to come out of Scotland, period.

All right, we have Magdalena Bay, who have dropped a new version of the track, "Image", but this is a remix that also has vocals on it from Grimes. It's not as strong as the original, but if you're looking for a version of the track that isn't as glitzy or as peppy and instead sounds like it was geared toward the Goth Club, then give this one a shot. It's not too bad. It's good for what it is. We can leave it there.

All right, we also have Flying Lotus, who, after dropping a couple of new teasers, new singles, has seen fit to put out a whole freaking EP of new stuff. This track over here, "Let Me Cook", is one of the cuts off of it. It seems like between all the tracks on this project, he's flirting a bit with electronic music, with psychedelic and electronically-infused revisions of neo-soul and that thing, which isn't too bad. It's cool that after a bit of a break, he's experimenting and trying some new stuff. I'm not exactly super enamored with it or anything like that. I do think for this style, for this lane, what he's doing isn't exactly stand out per se, but it's clear that he's paying attention to what exactly makes the genre work and makes it appealing in the first place. I guess I'm just waiting for him to put a more interesting spin on it per se, which Flylo has been known to do when experimenting with various genres and styles.

We also have Ethel Cain, who has a brand new single out titled "Punish". Which everybody has very much been looking forward to. It's a bit of a long one. Linear. Has a super distorted and thick and somewhat shoegazy climax at the very end. The vocals are very foreboding as well. It's got an ominous vibe all around. If you're heavy into the music of artists like Chelsea Wolfe, for example, I would say this is definitely going to be something you're going to want to check out. With that being said, though, I think the vocals are okay. The progression leaves a bit to be desired. The climax doesn't reach quite as high as I would have liked, and it does peter out pretty quick once it does reach its peak. I do think the vibe is there. The intentions are good, but I just wish the execution and the textures and the production were just a bit stronger, honestly.

We have one over here also from Cleo Sol, "Fear When You Fly". It's a nice neo-soul tune with an acoustic edge to it. I just wish the... Once again, production was a bit more colorful, maybe spacey, just a little bit of something, some color, some flavor, some wetness. It just comes across just a bit flat, in my opinion, even if the vocals are very solid. The vocals really are the selling point to the whole thing.

And here are the best tracks of the week.

Let's hit them.

Starting with – bam – Denzel Curry, "Still in the Paint", which is pretty much an interpolation of Waka Waka Flame's "Hard in da Paint", and it goes hard as hell. I mean, maybe the second feature is just okay, but honestly, Denzel's flows on the track are incredible. And yeah, it's just awesome to hear him attribute this classic banger track and sound amazing in the process.

Moving on from there, Westside Gunn. Shout out to him. He has a brand new project out Still Praying. "Runway Pieces at the Last Supper" is one very barred up bop from it. I don't stand by every single track on the new project, and it seems like he threw the whole thing together pretty quickly, honestly. But there are some good cuts in the tracklist for sure. This is one of them. I wouldn't say it's a super essential one from him, but it's cool to see him continuing with his tradition of releasing these projects around Halloween time and that thing.

All right, moving on from there. Next, next, next.

We have The Weeknd with Anitta. "São Paulo". Wow. Abel embracing the sounds of Brazilian funk with all that chaotic production and the Jerry vocal chops and the insane bass, the distortion, all that, and it sounds pretty good. I'm also liking the linear song structure and the very chaotic climax that it hits at the very end, too. The only thing that I feel holds it back a little bit is Abel's vocal performance. I feel like is maybe a little understated, a bit too understated for a beat or a track that comes across this hype. But I'm loving the production, loving the direction, loving the genre fusion. It's quite ambitious. And as far as a crossover, a collaboration goes, I think it's better and it's more interesting than the Cardi track. I mean, it's definitely more dynamic and more multifaceted, honestly.

Moving on from there, we have one from SwaVay with James Blake on production, "Shift in Behavior". What a cool little experimental trappy bop. That sounds like it came out of the early 2010s, or at least it feels to me like a single you would have heard during that time where there generally was maybe a bit more experimentation and adventure with what was going on production-wise in a lot of the viral singles of up and coming hip hop artists. But I'm liking this one a lot. It's fun, it's charismatic, it's full of fun little flexes. The production is great. So cool to see these two cross over here.

All right, we also have the legend, Imogen Heap, who's hitting us with some interesting textures, stellar electronics, and just a refined art pop bliss on this brand new single over here, "What Have You Done to Me?" This is quite ambitious and tasteful and creative for a veteran of Imogen Heap's status, and liking a lot. Big respect to this track. Big respect to this single.

All right, we also have King Gizzard and the Lizard Wizard, who is seemingly hitting us with a heavily, very orchestral-leaning, multifaceted rock epic that moves from disco and funk to a bit of pop, and I would like, say, some prog rock at the very end, too, with a very rough and climactic finish. The orchestral touches on the front end are beautiful and interesting and bring the track a lot of high drama. It's an interesting track for sure. I mean, there are some pockets where the vocals aren't maybe as catchy as I would have liked them to be, but King Gizzard and the Lizard Wizard, "Phantom Island", the band is still sounding ambitious and just looking to take on new challenges and pass mixing with flying colors for the most part.

All right, we have The Garden, who's dropped a new EP, Six Desperate Ballads. One track I would love to point to from it is this one: "Open Hearted". It is a very rough and wild, quick, speedy rock cut with some glistening keys in the mix as well, which I think gives it a refined touch a little bit.

We've also got FLO, hitting us with another single, "AAA" is this one. These girls... They just have really perfected... They're nailing down this classic, very serene, very slick, very beautiful, very sensual, throwback 2000s Y2K R&B sound, and they're just executing it excellently. And just continue to do so with this new single, too. New album on the way very soon.

And finally, shout out to Ab-Soul, who has teamed up with JID on a brand new single. And of course, it's barred up as hell. Great flows, interesting beat. Ab-Soul is funny as hell on it. Jid, or J-I-D's flows, are relentless. "Crazier" is the name of the cut. Ab-Soul has really been smashing with all the singles lately, and this one is probably the best of all of them so far. So if you hear any track from this Weekly Track Roundup, make sure it's this one. God damn. So Ab-Soul killing it.

Thank you very much for watching this Weekly Track Roundup. Hopefully, you got some good recommendations out of the video, and I will see you in the next one.

Anthony Fantano. Weekly Tracks. Forever.