Keeping up with new music can be exhausting, even impossible. From the weekly album releases to standalone singles dropping on a daily basis, the amount of music is so vast it’s easy for something to slip through the cracks. Even following along with the Uproxx recommendations on daily basis can be a lot to ask, so every Monday we’re offering up this rundown of the best music released in the last week.
This week Santigold returned with a surprise release, Blood Orange reminded us why he’s such a singular voice, and Tyler, The Creator and ASAP Rocky joined forces. Yeah, it was a pretty good week for music. Check out the highlights below.
Santigold — I Don’t Want: The Gold Fire Sessions
[protected-iframe id=”a3e04c44f5699e2134a35c89e14bdc2b-60970621-76566046″ info=”https://open.spotify.com/embed?uri=spotify:album:1K4OziXY7LkBrG6biiSQ1c” width=”650″ height=”380″ frameborder=”0″]
It’s always a good time for a surprise album, and Santigold‘s latest really turned an orchestrated press blitz to her advantage. I Don’t Want: The Gold Fire Sessions is an exploration of dancehall from an artist who always seems to be ahead of the curve, or at least right at the apex of the curve. Following up 2016’s 99¢, Santi is just the artist to turn a quiet summer into a sweaty dance club.
The Growlers — Casual Acquaintances
[protected-iframe id=”9086743abadeb1dcfa21534cc0a53f89-60970621-76566046″ info=”https://open.spotify.com/embed/album/3mAUwWAQKkBlsMThgz3TMz” width=”650″ height=”380″ frameborder=”0″]
Living in Southern California, The Growlers have established what is a virtual cult of fans. Their annual festival draws young people in costumes for an event that is less about the (usually great) lineup and more about the formation of a scene, so much so that it’s easy to forget that The Growlers are an actual touring band that put out albums. This latest record features “demos, works-in-progress and other unfinished business from the band’s City Club sessions,” but that doesn’t make it an odds and sods offering. In fact, the band is boasting that it actually resulted in a coherent and vital offering that stands up to their previous studio offerings.
Oneohtrix Point Never — The Station and We’ll Take It EPs
[protected-iframe id=”26622fd1161deb463e8566426b20a8ea-60970621-76566046″ info=”https://open.spotify.com/embed/album/4NEkbJ2qycAWEH2SSvmihc” width=”650″ height=”380″ frameborder=”0″]
Hot on the heels of releasing one of the best albums of the year, Age Of, Oneohtrix Point Never is back with a pair of new EPs featuring a trio of new songs. One of these new tracks, “Trance 1,” originally appeared in an edited arrangement as a tribute to The Voyager Spacecrafts’ Golden Records, while the others, “Monody” and “Blow By Blow,” are completely fresh. Sure, it might be more for 0PN completists, but what his recent output has argued is that maybe more people should file themselves into that grouping.
Jazz Cartier — Fleurever
[protected-iframe id=”f148119d2e0dda9404f899fa6fdcd5c3-60970621-76566046″ info=”https://open.spotify.com/embed?uri=spotify:album:3eUG46qXFv43R7IzZARnPH” width=”650″ height=”380″ frameborder=”0″]
As wild as it might seem, this is actually Jazz Cartier‘s first proper studio album. Following a series of well-regarded mixtapes, Cartier now brings Fleurever, which finds him shining a light on his native Toronto, featuring loads of talent from the region. KTOE, WondaGurl, Daniel Worthy, Lantz, DZL, Krinny, 4th Pyramid and more turn out to support.
Tony Molina — Kill The Lights
[protected-iframe id=”b3af4d8ef08c1bf68b81dc3f4f91f541-60970621-76566046″ info=”https://open.spotify.com/embed?uri=spotify:album:7EPHzkk2dzoZpjHR8PB1ZY” width=”650″ height=”380″ frameborder=”0″]
The Bay Area’s Tony Molina takes a different path to grand statements on his lovely new album, Kill The Lights. Brevity is the name of the game, as he rattles through ten songs in fifteen minutes, with only a couple passing the two-minute mark. That’s enough time for a dive into jangle pop, ’70s-inspired piano ballads, and all-around locked-in songwriting.
Blood Orange — “Charcoal Baby”
Blood Orange mastermind Dev Hynes has quietly crafted a signature style that is unmistakably his own. As I noted in my write-up for his excellent new “Charcoal Baby,” he’s “an indie songwriter with a flair for pop collaborations, a man who makes every musician he works with better, and an artist writing about race and America in ways that are both original and illuminating.” Every new offering from him is another reminder of just how lucky we are to have him around.
DJ Khaled — “No Brainer” Feat. Justin Bieber, Chance the Rapper, and Quavo
The last time this team got together, the song, “I’m the One,” went straight to No. 1. “No Brainer” isn’t guaranteed the same level of success, but it’s easy to imagine hearing this song for the rest of the year while shopping, blaring from other cars, or just generally taking over all aspects of our lives. Bieber, for his part, is the star, laying down an effortless hook that lodges itself into your brain by its conclusion.
King Princess — “Holy”
Though technically not a new song, King Princess offered up the video for “Holy” this week, from her debut EP, Make My Bed. The song, along with her current hit “1950,” find an artist straddling the alternative and pop worlds for a sound that sounds perfectly at home in the contemporary music scene. Expect big things to come.
Maggie Rogers — “Give A Little”
We’re still waiting for pop songwriter Maggie Rogers to get the breakthrough she deserves. But while we wait, she keeps dropping excellent bops that should be ubiquitous in a perfect world. Her latest sounds like the song Haim wishes they wrote for their last album.
Tyler, The Creator & ASAP Rocky — “Potato Salad”
It’s hard to believe that in 2018, ASAP Rocky would be turning to Tyler, The Creator to help him get back to the top tier he seemed to own in recent years. But that’s where we are, and their collaborative tracks finds both in top form for their loose freestyles. Bonus points for the repurposing of an old Kanye West beat.
