Oh, hi everyone, Sothony Zentano here, the internet's busiest music nerd, and it's time for a Weekly Track Roundup where I go over what I felt were my favorite and least favorite tracks of the week.

That is the point, that is the deal, that is the plan, let's go ahead and do it. Also wanna do a shout out by way of Austin, over here. It is this record from Kaátaìra, and Austin says this is her favorite metal album in a while:

"It's an all-acoustic meld of black metal and traditional Brazilian music that doesn't sound gimmicky at all. Very powerful and beautiful listen. One of those situations where it's almost impossible to believe it's one person creating it."

I've heard the record as well myself, and it has a lot of interesting highlights on it for sure. And, you know, as far as like anything black metal is concerned, it's incredibly unique, I'll certainly give it that. You know, the Brazilian influences and instrumentation are very much there, but it still sounds quite dark and grim. So this will be linked down below so you guys can check it out.

Worst tracks of the week.

We have a handful of those. We have a few. They are as follows.

Oh, NAV and Quavo hitting us with this "MUTT" track, which is boring and sounds like a dated flop single from over 10 years ago, and yet they are still trying to force this same formula. And yeah, it's still uninteresting at this point, maybe even more so now that, like, it's, it's not on trend anymore.

We also have Lizzo over here hitting us with a new single, which I think is a flopperino. It's titled "Bitch," and, you know, I think it's kind of off to an okay start, but then Lizzo tries to force this terrible interpolation of, you know, "I'm a bitch, I'm a mother, I'm a..." – yeah, it does not work. It's cheesy, it's corny. I don't know why Lizzo can't put out a single or a standout track that isn't just trying to rip off another song at this point. It's confusing, it's befuddling, especially for somebody who has the vocal chops and potential that she does. I'm just sort of wondering why the Lizzo comeback is proving so difficult to mount.

Moving on from there, we also have this, you know, Lady Gaga track, "Glamorous Life" from Devil Wears Prada 2. Yeah, it's, it's a very melodramatic, cheesy, over-the-top ballad, but you know, it's for a soundtrack. I'm not expecting that much of it. And on top of it, she already put out a banger with Doechii for the same soundtrack. I'm not really asking for much more, honestly. In fact, I've been seeing a lot of hate for that track recently, along with the music video that's recently been put out. And I don't know why. It's a fun music video. Like, what the fuck do you guys have up your asses that you can't have some fun with this music video? But whatever.

Meh – tracks I was on the fence with, but still wanted to shout them out...

You might like them more than me. They are as follows:

Starting with the new JPEGMAFIA track, "Baby Girl," from the forthcoming Experimental Rap album. And yet this track sounds like pretty much typical everyday JPEGMAFIA to my ears, even down to the so-so metal riff that feels like a leftover from his last album. You know, Peggy is an artist who album after album after album has, you know, proven that he can evolve creatively in a lot of different ways. And I'm just not sort of hearing that on this song. And even if I wasn't really crazy about, you know, the mix behind previous singles like, you know, "Don't Rely on Other Men," it was, it was still a unique track for him. And on top of it, the way he sort of like built upon that song instrumentally and kind of tweaked the mix too, made it sound so much more epic and impressive when we finally heard it in a final form on, you know, Peggy's last full-length LP. But I don't know if this track is going to get a similar treatment in terms of any kind of like additions or alterations. It just seems like a very, you know, average song for him to be landing on a record of this title. But, this does seem to be like a very kind of meta, tongue-in-cheek, wrestling eel kind of album cycle. So I'm really not sure what to read out of any of it, honestly, especially given the beef with Earl. It's all a bit much, but it's his music career. He's gonna do with it what he wants.

We have a new one from Madonna, which I will say I enjoy more than her last single for sure from the forthcoming Confessions II. Obviously, "Bring Your Love" has a Sabrina Carpenter team-up on it, which is pretty awesome in concept, but in practice, this is just a pretty dated dance track with, you know, some very kind of average Sabrina Carpenter appearances. Was hoping for more of a blowout, but, you know, fingers still crossed that Confessions II ends up landing on target mostly.

We have a new one from Madeon over here, Slayyyter on the track as well, which, given the Slayyyter inclusion, I was kind of hoping for something that was like a bit more aggressive, rough around the edges, thrilling, exciting. This just felt very milk toast as far as like, you know, modern dance and dance pop, is concerned to my ears, which was kind of a letdown, I think.

We have Big K.R.I.T., "Sunset Vet," which is very kind of like chill, sleek single, that has a, you know, kind of southern rap and pop rap blend to it. It's okay. I've heard him put out better tracks in the past.

Kelsey Lu over here, "Better Than That," a very interesting song that I am a little on the fence with. Maybe I will end up loving it a lot more once I hear it on the album it is about to appear on with all the other tracks that are yet to be released. Clearly, I'm digressing too much. What I want to say is that I feel like the first half of the song really meanders just a bit too much, like the pianos and vocals don't have too much of a strong sense of direction, but when it all sort of like coalesces in a much tighter fashion toward the back end of the song, I feel like it really reaches an awesome climax. And maybe with more listens I'll sort of like, you know, come to adjust to that very kind of loose intro that the song is delivering. But still an interesting one nonetheless.

We have Cheekface, "MFT" – least grating single for this new album cycle, but still not a song I'm blown away by. I barely got a chuckle out of many of the lyrics the band brought to the table. And Cheekface, I typically do find to be like, you know, very witty. I feel like in a way they're almost painting themselves into a corner a little bit prematurely. And, I don't know, hopefully future, future material, they kind of allow themselves to stretch out and explore a little bit more and breathe between releases so they can maybe chart a new path or something? But, yeah, "MFT," it's a new one from Cheekface, still, running the, the, the geek rock game, I'll say. We can say that.

Best tracks of the week

We have some of those for you. Here they are. Boom.

New Four Tet remix for one of my favorite tracks of his ever, "Love Cry," from RamonPang, who is a fantastic DJ, producer, social media music commentator, suggester, curator, tastemaker, great guy, cool dude all around. Cool performer and great taste to boot. Really awesome figure in the electronic music space these days. And love that he got the chance to team up with Four Tet and do this remix, like in a formal fashion, the Four Tet endorsement. That's fantastic. That's amazing. Really cool stuff for Ramon to do. Shout out to him. He's that guy.

We also have Nia Archives, who is hitting us with an interesting new single over here. Not so much the typical jungle and breakbeat flavors that she is known for, even though this forthcoming album is emotional junglist, as she hides in the couch cushions. Either way, on this track over here, she's going almost in a little bit of a pop-rock direction. "Boys in Blue" is the title of the track. You know, it's a new sound. It's a different sound for her. I don't know if I like it as much as her typical, you know, production, but the hook is incredibly catchy. It's kind of like an anti-snitching anthem, but, it's, it's a fun one for sure.

Okay, we have one over here as well that I am enjoying from Loathe with NOWHERE2RUN. If you love metalcore, mathcore, you love just like massive pounding, crushing, monolithic riffs, noisy production, you are going to get a lot out of this track. Again, if I didn't say "Revenant."

We also have one over here from Kenny Mason, "BOUNCE WIT ME." It's a very simple trap track, very catchy flows, very laid-back beat. Again, we've heard it before, but it just somehow works again. Kenny does it justice. He's got a few snappy bars here and there. Wish it was longer, but it's still quite good.

We have Ibibio Sound Machine, who's hitting us once again with that futuristic combination of synth pop and electronic music and Afrobeat with this "Return to Sender" track. You know, regardless of whether or not I'm in love with a particular album cycle these guys are doing, they always eke out like a handful of like really banger singles and deep cuts, and just continue to stay consistent, groovy, vibrant, and fun. I'll leave it there.

We also have Horse Lords over here who are sounding rockin' and minimal on this "First Galactic Utopia" track. New album from them on the way. But yeah, if you're looking for some straightforward, very dry, jammy rock instrumentation riding along some strange time signatures, you are going to love this for sure, for sure.

And shout out to David Byrne over here who collabed with Natalia Lafourcade on a track over here. Their voices intertwine beautifully on this new collab cut from them, which I am really enjoying. David Byrne's latest record, Who Is the Sky?, is out now too. Wasn't crazy about it, but still, you know, crossovers like this are always exciting.

And we have Bleachers who is hitting us with a bit of a low-key ballad over here, "i'm not joking." When we played this on New Music Friday, chat did not really care for it. And yeah, I will say I do wish my myself it were a little quirkier in terms of its overall sound and performance, but I think Jack kind of nailed it on this one. I really like what him and the band are doing on this cut. I like the sort of like nasally, pained, emotive vocals at the forefront. The keyboard chords are great too. Again, I think Bleachers really did a decent ballad on this one, and I'm liking the variety of tastes and flavors from, you know, all the teasers so far too.

I think that is going to be it, everybody. The Weekly Track Roundup is done. It's in the can. Hopefully you got some good recommendations out of this video, and I will see you in the next one.

Anthony Fantano, Weekly Tracks, forever.