Hi, everyone. Anthony Fantano here, the internet's busiest music nerd. I hope you're doing well. And it's time for a Weekly Track Roundup. My thoughts, my opinions on a bunch of songs that have dropped over the past week or so. They are linked down below, so you can check them out for yourself, whether I loved them or hated them or felt somewhere in between.

Without any further ado, the worst tracks of the week. We have a handful of those. They are as follows. Let's make this as painless as possible.

One, Clancy, forthcoming album from twenty one pilots. Our third taste of the record with a new single comes in the form of "Backslide," and I'm not liking it. The quirky annoying white guy pop rap vibe is not working for me. Aren't we coming back to the Trench? Why aren't we rocking? The last single was so dang fun and good on the storytelling side. The riffs were great. And some harrowing bits as well, dealing in depression and just like personal life crises. This I'm just not really getting as much out of, unfortunately.

We have a new one from Teddy Swims, who has put out a bunch of new tracks and singles I've Tried Everything But Therapy Part 1.5. So adding to the material that's already out there. But to me, this just feels like modern pop soul music for advertisements. That's really all it sounds like to me. I glean nothing from it.

Also, gleaning nothing from this new track that has Southside, has Ken Carson, and also has Destroy Lonely on it, "President." It is just a total boring, uninspired, vapid, rage mess, and that's really all I have to say about it.

Normani has come through with a new single that I was I'm actually pretty excited about, but the title of it is "159," and it features Gunna. She's throwing it back to an older R&B style and trying to go for a really, really, really potently sexy vibe. But vocally, I feel like she's not really making this style of R&B her own. And on top of it, if you are going to do a sexy chemistry dynamic with a featured artist, with a collaborator, you have to make sure that that collaborator's voice and performance style has sex appeal. I feel like Gunna's doesn't, and therefore it doesn't really work.

Motley Crüe, "Dogs of War." What is this cover? Is this what happened to them in the war? Are they zombies? Either way, this multi-phased metal mess has bits that sound like old-school nu metal that sound like Ghost for whatever reason, and it's all unflattering from front to back. We can leave it there.

Girl in Red has covered the Talking Heads classic "Girlfriend is Better." But I feel like, honestly, what's missing is the trademark strange, eerie, awkward vibes that made Talking Heads so special. What we have here is just the Grooves presented in a much smoother fashion. The vocals are played pretty straight as well. And as a result, I feel like a lot of this song's distinct flavor just went the window on this cover. It just does not work, in my opinion.

The tracks I was on the fence with, they are as follows. You might like them more than me. So I'm just going to give them a quick I can give him a quick shout-out.

We have a new one from Chris Stapleton who is doing a little bit of Tom Petty over here. While I think it's a very passionate, fiery performance on the track with Chris' latest stuff, we're still in Ford Truck Month country rock mode, and I just feel like it's not as great as some of his earlier stuff, in my opinion.

Nilifer Yanya has a new one out, which I'm not really crazy about, to be honest, because while I do think the vocals are pretty strong, the song and instrumental feel maybe a little too demo quality. I know her stuff usually trends toward the lo-fi side a little bit, but I feel like this went down that road just a little bit too much. And as a result, the song does not pop as hard as it possibly could.

We have a new one from JT of City Girls who continues to go solo, which you can't really blame her, considering how much of a mess the other half of the City Girls is proving to be right now, the Diddy connections and all. But this new one over here, "OKAY," is just, well, okay. There's not really much to say about it other than that. It's just your swagged standard trap cut with a lot of brags, an attempt at charisma, but I don't know if it's quite getting there, to be honest. Just seems really basic.

Also, speaking of basic, this new The Decemberists ballad, which is a swing at a love song. It kind of misses because I feel like with a love song, there really should be some passion at play, like a little bit of fire in its belly to really sell you on the idea that there is a genuine feeling of love and infatuation fueling this track. But it feels like some very subpar poetry with not a whole lot of feeling behind it, in my opinion. So very basic, acoustic guitar passages, too. So, while it's not terrible, it's not really all that special or inspired either.

"Crybaby," new one from Cults. I've never been a huge Cults fan, but I feel like this basic, somewhat neo-psychédelic vintage pop cut over here isn't too bad. It's not too bad at all. So if that's your thing, most definitly give it a shot.

We have a new one over here from Christine and the Queens, which is a low-key Cynthia, a little ballad on "Rentrer Chez Moi." Obviously, some French lyrics as well. It's a little alluring. I didn't It didn't exactly blow me away, but it was nice while it was on for sure.

And oh, yeah, one more. We have Cakes da Killa over here who has come through with a bunch of extra deluxe tracks from his new Black Sheep project, which is now expanded.

And also one more very odd shoutout. AJJ, Kool Keith, Kimya Dawson have crossed over for a new single that makes absolutely no sense whatsoever. Why would these three ever do anything together in any possible world? But for whatever reason, the timeline we're in is the timeline that is occurring in. It's actually wild. I simultaneously wince a little bit, but I highly respect how fucking out there it is. Absolutely for sure. And we can leave it there. It'll definitely surprise you. I'm a little on the fence with it because of how nuts it is, but it'll definitely surprise you if you give it a shot. It's the most unlikely collaboration you may hear all year, not denying that.

All right. Best tracks of the week They are as follows.

We have this new one over here from YG titled "Knocka". It is advertised as a knocka, short for a trunk knocka, and it certainly is. I think it's one of his biggest bangers in a long time. West Coast vibes all the way. Sticky bars, great flows, good chorus, too. It works.

A bit of a controversial cut over here from none other than Porter Robinson, "KNOCK YOURSELF OUT XD," is the name of the track. I've been seeing a lot of fans split on this track, some saying that it's annoying and it's dumb, and it's childish, and it sounds like crappy owl music. Others are going gaga for it. I'm enjoying it myself. I think it's really fun, innocent, childlike, throwback, synthy emo pop. It's giving a little Anamanaguchi vibes. I'm liking it quite a bit. I think it's quite good, even if it is consciously being a little Peter Pan syndrome, I suppose. I think it's a fun little cut. It's very catchy. I think people need to turn down the cringe-o-meter and really give it a chance because I think it is well written and it's very bright and it's very exuberant and it is very youthful in a way that's actually more self-aware than I think some people are giving it credit for.

Pallbearer has a brand new massive 10-minute cut where I'm actually sold a bit more on the vocals with this one than I was on their last single. Also, very long, epic, multi-phased du-metal track with a slick and pretty sick sax solo on the back end, as well as some very cool little synth passages that are stuttering and fluttering on the back end, too. Sign me up. "Endless Place" is the name of this track. Give it a shot

Also liking a track that I have a link down below to this new EP from Maruja. I've been talking up this band for a minute now as I think they are one of the best art rock, art punk, linear, post-punk, post-rocky adjacent bands that are out there right now. They continue to be with this new release for sure. "One Hand Behind the Devil" is the title of the track. Give it a shot for sure.

We also have Mabel over here who is coming through with a bit of an R&B throwback, but this time, great song, great production. I'm saying this time in comparison with some other R&B cuts that we've discussed so far. This is actually like if you're looking for some throwback R&B. This is tasteful. Great funky grooves on the production side, good solid vocals, standout chorus. It's got everything you need, nothing you don't. And yeah, "Vitamins" is the name of the cut.

Moving on from there, we have Louis Cole, who's doing a bit of a team up on a forthcoming album with the Metropole Orkest, orchestra, short for, I'm sure, and Jules Buckley, "Things Will Fall Apart." The horn hits on this thing are massive. The beats are crazy. It's giving a little hip hop, bit of Stevie Wonder, bit of Neo Soul, bit of prog funk. It's got a little bit of everything to it, just like a lot of Louis Cole's music typically does. But I feel like the instrumental layers and the production are just on another level in comparison with everything he's done up until this point. It's just crazy what the orchestra bits are doing to this track. It's some fire, it's some magic, it's some fireworks. Give it a spin.

Knocked Loose comes through with another great single. This one over here, "Suffocation," features none other than Poppy. The riffs and production go hard as hell. It's going to be one of the heaviest things you've heard in your life, I guarantee it. Poppy adds a little bit of vocal versatility to the equation that I think plays over really, really well.

Kara Jackson, singer-songwriter extraordinaire, poet extraordinaire, comes through with a brand new cut with her, of course, wonderful finger-picked guitar, her unique vocal delivery, and some great verses, too. It is a lovely little love song. Make sure to give this one a spin. It's entrancing as all hell.

We have Joey Valence and Brae. This track is quite interesting. These guys, if you've heard some of their viral TikTok-y hits before, they've got kind of a Beastie Boys appeal to them. But this track over here has a mix of a few different things instead. We have a little bit of "Let Me Clear My Throat," a little bit of old-school hip-hop electro stuff going on. And on top of that, some Lil John too for a of a track where the guys are the ones who get to be the baddies on the floor. "The Baddest" is the name of the track. Give it a shot.

Moving on from there, we have Iglooghost, who has come through with a just mind-bending, futuristic rager raver of a cut that is just difficult to make heads or tails of, but endlessly groovy and exciting from front to back. Loving this one for sure, for sure. Excited for this new album cycle too from Igloo.

Johnny Cash is going to be coming through with a posthumous album very soon. Songwriter, I guess this one was shelved quite a while ago. If this song over here, our first taste of it is any indication as to why, maybe it's because the album is strangely horny. "Well, All Right" is the name of the track. On the song, Johnny is shooting his shot at the laundromat with quite a bit of innuendo. It's kind of funny, kind of cute, and yeah, a little bricked up, too. But I'm liking it. It's a fun one.

Bat for Lashes has at least a handful of singles out so far. The Dream of Delphi is the new record that is on the way. But this song, "Letter to My Daughter," is absolutely beautiful, stunning, personal, moving. Read these lyrics, you'll be moved to tears, I swear. And the synthy, spacy production is very lovely as well. Excited to hear an expansion of that when the entire album is out for sure.

Fnally, we have Arooj Aftab, who is an artist I'm just learning about through this upcoming album through this single, "Raat Ki Rani," is the name of the first teaser track from it. It's like this really beautiful combination of various Middle Eastern music styles on top of it, jazz, too. It's very meditative. It's very entrancing. It's very beautiful. The vocals are super nuanced, and I just don't really know what to say about it beyond that. It's a little bit of a beauty that's beyond words, in my opinion, and I'm pretty excited to hear what else this album has to offer when the entire thing is out for sure.

So, I think we're just going to leave it there. The Weekly Track Roundup, everybody. That is it. It's in the can. It's in the can. Those are all the recommendations, all the recommendations for this week.

Anthony Fantano, Weekly Tracks, forever.