Hi, everyone. Anthony Fantano here, the Internet's busiest music nerd. I hope you are doing well. It's time for a weekly track roundup. My thoughts, my feelings, my emotions on a bunch of songs that have dropped over the past week or so. That is what we're going to do. That is what you're going to get. That's the whole point of this video, per usual.

Okay.

Worst tracks of the week.

We have but a one. Maybe there could have been more, but I felt like in this weekly track roundup, we can give a special shout out to The GOAT, director extraordinaire, Mr. John Waters, who has seemingly come out with a single where it's like him barking "Jingle Bells" as if he's a dog as a cover. And then there's a B-side, which is like a very raunchy Christmas tale involving a lot of punk bands and references, but like queering them in a way. It's quite something. It's quite something. John Waters, one of the best to ever do it in the film game, dabbling in a bit of fun, kitschy, campy novelty music that isn't necessarily enjoyable to listen to, but is fun and fun to talk about all the same.

All right, moving on to the tracks I was meh on.

Not crazy about them. Not disliking them a whole lot either. You might enjoy them more than me. They are as follows.

We have Zach Bryan, who has decided to quit touring, pursue his masters. We're going to talk about it very soon in a video. But he has released some new music. "High Road" is one of the tracks, and frankly, not super crazy about it. Just seems like a left on the cutting room floor type of demo. There are moments on this track where the vocals are blatantly out of pitch. The singing performance isn't even that great. It seems like he's going out with less of a bang, more of a whimper. And again, I'll have more thoughts on this track and the current Zach Bryant fallout, if you could call it that, very soon.

Moving on from there, we have SBTRKT, producer SBTRKT, who has been on a very strong run of singles as of late. However, I feel like this latest one, honestly, is one of the weakest and most forgettable of the bunch. It's got some okay two-step grooves and vocal chops, but not much else. "Turn Your Heart Around" is the title of it.

We also have a new one from Charlie Puth, who is ringing in the Christmas spirit with a track titled "December 25th". It's very poppy, it's very synthy, it's very WHAM, not exactly like mind-blowing or anything like that, but I'm not typically a big Charlie Puth guy, and I found this track to be pretty palatable. A decent song to add, a decent new song to add to your Christmas music rotation, especially if you're looking for a bit of a sad one, and I will leave it there.

All right, we also have Matt Champion, who is striking while the iron is hot with another new track. You just put out a new record earlier this year. "SPJ" is the name of this new one. And I'm feeling like he's giving some dark, moody post-punk vibes, almost like King Krule style on the instrumental, but then flirting with elements of bedroom pop and R&B on the vocals and other the bits of the instrumental. It's a cool mix of sounds. It seems like he's still finding his way stylistically and aesthetically as he develops his solo career, and it's definitely been an interesting journey following that so far.

We also have Major Lazer, who is back out of nowhere, Diplo's Major Lazer, hitting us with a new single featuring M. I. A., a single mom anthem as it were. And yeah, it's cheeky, it's fun. The production by Diplo, M. I. A.'s standards is just okay, though, and the song itself is honestly mind-numbingly repetitive, even if there are elements of it that are pretty funny.

Moving on from there, though, Kenny Mason has a new one out titled "Hoodrat", which I wish had a strong bigger chorus element to it. But with that being said, considering that we're getting some cloud rap elements here, some dream pop elements mixing in as well, it's a pretty cool cross-section of sounds. His flows on the track aren't too bad either. "Hoodrat", obviously, is the title. Kenny Mason continues to push forward as an artist who's obviously very deep in hip hop, hip hop adjacent, but still brings an interesting alternative flair to his records and singles.

We also have Jorja Smith, who has come through with a couple of low-key ballads. The bigger of the two, at least from what I can see, is the song "Loving You", featuring Maverick Sabre. It's a very spacey piano ballad, quite dramatic as well, at least on the front end. But I'm not so big on Maverick's feature on the back end. I feel like Maverick's and George's vocals mix in a somewhat awkward way in the second half of the track, and it weighs the song down overall.

Moving on from there, though. Cordae. Rapper, singer, songwriter, has a new single, a record on the way, The Crossroads is the title of it. He has been giving us tastes of it. This latest one, "Syrup Sandwiches", features Joey Bada$$, and it has some Frank Ocean-inspired vocal leads on the front end, a few flubbed bars from Cordae that I think are just okay. A decent Joey Bada$$ feature on the back-end. It's not really the fireworks that I suppose you would really hope for from this team-up.

But the best tracks of the week, though, are as follows.

Here we go. Let's get it.

We have this track that I would like to point out from this new Venus Twins EP. The track is "I Just Can't Get Enough". If you're looking for something that is bringing those 2000s era noise core vibes with a touch of sass core and some industrial elements, too. It's really jarring, it's heavy, it's frantic, it's pummeling, you're going to want to give this a listen. This is crazy. This is some crazy stuff. This is some crazy, intense, explosive stuff. It's going to rip your head off. Venus Twins, new EP out now. Give it a spin.

All right, moving on from there. Shout out to Babymorocco for having a really dope Frost Children feature on the upcoming record that he's going to be dropping. Producer over here, name of the track is "Bikinis & Trackies", and it's got a 2000s electro clash UK hip hop combo element going on to it that I think is pretty exciting. It's hard-hitting, it's fun, it's a little cheeky and visceral, too, following that.

Shout out to this new compilation, this new collection of tracks. It's essentially cover for cover reimagining of Refused, The Shape of Punk to Come, with a bunch of different artists coming through to bring versions of their respective tracks from the album. One particular cover I would like to draw attention to is Igorrr's version of "The Shape of Punk to Come". It is very jittery. Those sequenced drums go absolutely off. The riffs are crazy. It's just an incredible little version. And there are also versions of tracks from the likes of Fucked Up, as well as there's like an Idles remix on there. There's a track from Zulu on the record, too. So yeah, definitely give this project a shot, especially if you're a big fan of this record, a big fan of Refused because it is a classic freaking album when it comes to a loud rock.

All right, moving on from there. Ice Cube has come through with a new version of his big Ego single, "It's My Ego". "Ego Maniacs" is the new version, essentially pretty much the same track with additional verses from Busta Rhymes and Killer Mike that absolutely kick ass. It's actually just a bit more fun and biting now with those guys in the mix. So I'm really liking this new version.

All right, moving on from there. A shout out to Frontierer, whose combination of noise and math core and electronics comes through on this new single, "The Skull Burned", and totally tears fucking ass across the entire track. It's just absolutely fiery, absolutely thrilling, absolutely exciting.

And finally, we have BADBADNOTGOOD, who is teaming up with Tim Bernardes for "Poeira Cosmica". And yeah, it's a really cool combination of BBNG's usually like jazz, vintage instrumental rock, I would say, fusion style with some Bossa Nova and some '60s psych pastiche all mixing together into a very beautiful little tune. So shout out to BBNG on this one.

And I think that is going to be it for this weekly track round of up.

Anthony Fantano, Weekly Tracks, Forever.