Alright everyone, Nothony Waytano here, the internet's busiest music nerd. Hope you're doing well, and it's time for our Weekly Track Roundup.

My thoughts, my feelings, my emotions on a bunch of music that has dropped over the past week or so. That is the plan, so let's get into it.

Worst tracks of the week.

We have a handful. We have a few of those, unfortunately:

We're starting off with, yes, the new Orville Peck song, "Too Little, Too Late". It's a little bit less of a good-quality, emotional country ballad and more of like a, I don't know, like a power pop tune or a piece of pop rock with kind of Southern flair to it. And I just don't really think it complements Mr. Peck's vocal range or his vocal strengths. I'll say that.

I'm also really not digging this new Noname and DRAM crossover squatter. The production is really low quality. The recording is kind of thrown together. It feels like both of them are doing this on the most shoestring budget that you can imagine. And the results are not great. This just kind of feels like both of them punching far beneath their respective weights.

And also not really liking 3OH!3 coming out with new music, especially terrible synth slop like this. "MY FRIENDS" is the title of it. It's a horror of a track, annoying, obnoxious, like maybe I would play it at a party to get people to leave. That's kind of the vibe that it's bringing, truly, and honestly.

Meh.

The songs I was on the fence about. Not really crazy about them, but still wanted to shout them out and draw some attention to them because, you know, maybe they should be on your radar:

Starting with this new one from The Game and YG and Swizz Beatz and Timbaland all together. Yeah, it's not too bad of a track, honestly. Starts off strong enough with The Game, on a good opening verse and kind of a throwback old school beat. YG in the second half, I'm not really that nuts about. Look, it starts a lot stronger than it finishes, and I will leave it there.

After this, we have the new Quadeca song, which has some interesting moments on it — "Hell of a Time" is the title — but it just feels a little bit too kind of cluttered and all over the place to my ears. There are a lot of elements to this track that just make it feel a little at war with itself. It's not nearly as cohesive instrumentally as the other Quadeca singles we have heard thus far as of late. So I'm a little on the fence about it as a result.

Also, this new Mannequin Pussy and Militarie Gun crossover is okay. And definitely we'll draw some attention to the fact that these guys are performing and doing a bunch of dates, which is pretty cool.

We have also here Kirin J Callinan, who has come through with a very interesting, lengthy new single, almost like, trying to call back to some like 90s [David] Bowie, like some forbidden Bowie in a way. It's very synthy. It's very groovy. It's very dramatic. It's not too bad. It's certainly a more interesting offering than a lot of what was on his last full-length LP. I wonder if we'll get more like this. It's a very ambitious single, I will say that. And awesome bass lines, really sick bass lines, throughout the track for sure.

We have FLO over here, forthcoming album THERAPY AT THE CLUB. And I'm always excited to hear these guys maybe get a bit more modern and ambitious. And certainly this song is that to a degree with the storytelling and the more, I guess, big-budget production — "Remedied" is the name of the track — but the more that I listened to it, kind of the super overproduced details and the vocal layering, it just kind of felt like a song from Sing 2 or The Trolls movie. I'm not too crazy about it, even if I do think the humor and message of it is well-intended.

We have this Fiona Apple track which is a part of this Apple original series, which is very dramatic and sung in a very interesting fashion. Fiona really kind of digging into her lower range, but it is like a very short piece and doesn't really extend out too long. Can't see myself kind of going back to it within the context of just like, just itself as a song.

We also have Corey Feldman, who is rocking like crazy with some Red Hot Chili Peppers' grooves and a grandiose, ambitious Aerosmith-type ending. And it's not too bad for the Feldman. It's not too bad. He has put out far worse songs, and dare I say, some portions of it kind of rock. The vocals are grating for sure, but there's a there there. Corey's like improving. He's becoming true rock. I'll say that.

We also have a new one over here from The Avalanches, which, this latest crop of singles has hit fans in some really interesting ways because, obviously, the outfit has kind of progressed and evolved so far past the days of their debut. And now this era, this new batch of singles feels like the furthest removed. And this new one featuring Karen O, it's got some beautiful elements to it, but it's very short and very one-note and doesn't really go or progress anywhere once it establishes itself, and then it just kind of like disappears into the ether. I'm kind of hoping that it ends up being like a transitional moment in the tracklist that brings us into other things. It's pretty as a motif, but really could have used a bit more structure to keep it interesting.

Best tracks of the week.

Geez, Anthony, what are those? Let's see:

We have this new one from Russian Circles over here. Very curious title, "Eluvial" it is. And these guys are back to their usual old post-metal tricks. It's instrumental, it's dramatic, some sinister chord progressions, really heavy, epic ending, eight-minute runtime. It's a heavy hitter. And again, I'll say quite dynamic, a nice listen, for sure. And looking forward to their forthcoming album Nine.

We've also got a new one from Protomartyr over here. Yes, it's true. It does not live up to its title "Sounds We Cannot Hear". In fact, you can hear it. They lied. But I'm actually glad I can hear it because it's one of the band's best and most ambitious songs, the freaking horns. The strings, all the orchestrations, everything really kind of pairs very well with the band's kind of trademark, dour, post-punk, goth rock style. And yeah, it's just a good tune to boot. Very layered, very wonderful.

We also have Pain of Truth, who are rocking like hell with some great breakdowns, some clean vocal passages too, but not too clean. It doesn't take away from how sick and gnarly this new song from them is. "Unforgiven" is the name of this track, and yeah, the guitar mix is beefy, and the drums are sounding great. It's some good metalcore for sure.

We've also got Dinner Party, not The Last Dinner Party, but Dinner Party, the collective that features none other than 9th Wonder, Terrace Martin, Robert Glasper, and Kamasi Washington. They have a new collab album on the way, which is pretty exciting. It's got elements of funk and neo-soul. Great lead vocals too. Awesome sax passages. "Peace of Mind" is the name of the track. And it's also the closer to this new album, which is interesting.

Following this, we also have Cyst, which is a new project, new duo, featuring producer extraordinaire Mr. Iglooghost. And of course, his significant other, daisy* (fka BABii), who is holding a baby. They're quite obviously- they're now parents, actually, which is pretty sick. They have a new collab project on the way. Again, under the name Cyst. "Knackered" is the lead single from it. The record is going to be dropping through LUCKYME, and honestly, the music that this track is, it's- it's difficult to define. A lot like many songs from Iglooghost's most recent record. It feels almost like some strange, futuristic, avant-garde, grime, and EDM fusions. It's a little industrial. It's very strange. It's very warehouse. It's very odd. It's very another dimension. Again, super intriguing and stimulating, but also difficult to label, frankly.

We also have, of course, C.O.F.F.I.N., this awesome rock band from down under who have a new record on the way. "Sleep in It". Sleep in that coffin, man. Yeah, it's rough. It's rowdy. It's garage-y. It's a little Motörhead at points too, just some really nasty, badass rock and roll with tons of awesome guitar solos all over it. What more could you want? Gutsy performance as well.

We also have over here Chelsea Wolfe, who has dropped, I think, her best single of this new album cycle. All signs are kind of pointing to Chelsea going into more of an acoustic direction with this record, which she has done in the past, but the instrumentals are maybe a little bit more rocking and layered and well-produced, and it feels almost like she's trying to go toe-to-toe with some of the, kind of mainstream singer-songwriter types of the day.

I would say there's almost even a slight hint of Hozier on this track, but I don't think Chelsea is trying to make a Hozier song. I feel like it just kind of has a bit of a crossover appeal with that audience, but in a very kind of Chelsea Wolf sort of way, if that makes any sense. Nothing I'm trying to put across here is anything less than complimentary.

I love the song. Again, I feel like it's her best so far in this new album cycle. And hopefully, it seems like Chelsea's really kind of shooting for a bit of a breakout moment or something with these tracks, and, I certainly hope she gets it because, I think, the fact that a lot of her albums do run so heavy and dark and strange, it leads a lot of people to kind of under-appreciate the more accessible elements of her songwriting and her song craft just in general. And I feel like tracks like this really kind of flex that muscle very directly in a way that you can't ignore it. So, hell yeah to that.

We also have Enigma POV, forthcoming album from, of course, Channel Tres, new song from the album, another single. We've been getting lots of teasers from this record. And this one over here is "Only One". It's one of the most colorful and funky and pop-centric of the batch so far. Not a bad one for sure. Really enjoying this.

Also, apparently, the visuals and music video for the new Chad Hugo single are AI. Yeah. This is like some AI stuff, I guess, or like built off of AI stuff, or there's like AI elements in the mix. It's not really explained. I'm not really happy about it, but still Chad Hugo, formerly one half of The Neptunes. I'm really excited that he has new music on the way, and the production is great. The song itself, I just wish it was longer. It features Leikeli47 and Tierra Whack, and their chemistry on the song is great. The production is weird. It's left field, but it's drum-heavy and impeccably funky and fun. Also love the "Jump up when ya jump" refrain on the track. Like the song has everything. Great intro, great verses, standout chorus. It just should be longer. I feel like everything about it that is so good could have just been extended into a three or four-minute cut, not something less than two minutes. It really just needs to be longer. I hope that we just kind of see more of Chad and less of AI in the coming days as we get kind of closer to his first solo release.

And finally, we have 2hollis, who, miraculously, I am enjoying over here, despite being a little on the fence with a lot of his work in the past. In this track itself, I was not really impressed with what I saw clips of it floating around online. But actually hearing the entire track, yes, in fact, it is true: when it comes to deconstructed club, when it comes to anything hyperpop or digicore and so on and so forth, this track is for sure redundant. It's very obvious where its influences are coming from. It's not reinventing the wheel, but the songwriting is super solid. And I would say, like, the aesthetics that it's trying to play to are attributed pretty well, pretty effectively. It's not like, coming off as amateurish in terms of its awareness and knowledge of what it is copying and borrowing from. So the details and the production are like there. And again, it's primarily the tune that it's kind of winning me over on this one and making me like it so much.

Anthony Fantano. Weekly Tracks. Forever.