Hey, hi, hello everyone. Anthony Fantano here, internet's busiest music nerd. Hope you are doing well, and it's time for a very purple weekly track roundup. My thoughts, my opinions, my feelings, on a bunch of tracks that have dropped over the past week or so.

Without any further ado, we have the worst tracks of the week.

Oh my god, there's handful of them. They are as follows.

We have Fred Durst and mgk. I mean, look, they gave it the good old college try, and as far as classic Limp Bizkit vibes go, it's not too bad. You know, Fred Durst still sounds like his usual Fred Durst self, vocally, but some of mgk's verses are just too terrible for words. The "dried cum on the ass" line? Why would he say that? Why ever would he say that? I don't know. Anyway, it's weird. It's annoying. But also, you know, so bad it's kind of good... a little bit. But, still, bad. The song is "Fix Your Face," I should say.

We also have Madonna. The highly anticipated Confessions II kicks off with a supremely weird and weak single. Like, not only are the vocals bland, but the beat is just merely okay, and the song is kind of... the momentum of the song, rather, is completely ruined by these lengthy spoken word passages that just go nowhere fast. What is going on? You know, Confessions on a Dance Floor is such a classic album for Madonna. She is rarely an artist who looks back or tries to redo anything. She's always changing, always evolving. This is one of the rare instances where she's going to try to do a proper sequel album, and it's sounding like it's rough out of the gate. What are we doing? Yeah, did not like this new single. "I Feel So Free," of course, is the title.

Also not really digging this new "I Can't Love You Anymore" song with Ella Langley and Morgan Wallen. But of course, you know, they're two of the blandest and most uninteresting artists out there currently on the country scene, so that's not really a surprise. Do I really need to explain it?

And then we have this new one from Beck, who unfortunately is kind of just giving us the same bland faux singer-songwriter country vibes that he did on Morning Phase, which I think is one of his most uninteresting albums ever. Just a really kind of shocking, continued fall from grace from somebody who was one of the quirkiest and most kind of interesting and most enigmatic and most unique genre fusers on the popular music landscape, back in the day. And it just feels like anything that made him sort of intriguing or subversive has just been kind of lost on some of the most recent projects. I don't know, I don't know. But, yeah, "Ride Lonesome" is the name of the track.

The tracks I was kind of meh on, on the fence with.

They are as follows. You might like them more than me. Still giving them a shout out, even if I'm not crazy, head-over-heels for them. Here we go.

We have one over here from Trim and slayr. "Chröme" is the title of the track. I feel like Trim's verses just drag on a little bit too long. Slayr oddly sounds a lot like Future on this track, but, you know, there is at least some chemistry there. And the production isn't too bad, I'll say that.

We also have Panopticon, who is giving us a very loud, very furious, lengthy new single that I wish had more standout melodies and dynamics. I'm hearing a little bit of that sort of like, you know, rustic American folk instrumentation coming back into the fold a little bit on this "The Great Silence, Extinct" track. But, you know, outside of that, it does feel a little too one-dimensional for something of this size and of this length.

We also have a new one over here from 2Slimey and Noah Mejia. "Money Dumb" is the name of the track. And, yeah, I feel like this one's uncharacteristically kind of sweet and sleek and poppy for 2Slimey. I mean, you know, if you're looking for something that has a bit of a modern rap rage, underground flair to it, but is going a little bit easier on the ears, I suppose you can give this a try. But I think he's made more interesting work in recent months. I'll say that.

We have a new one over here from Lucy Dacus, a track that I'm a little on the fence with but I am open to it kind of growing on me in the context of a new record. "Planting Tomatoes" is the name of the song, and, surprisingly, it's like one of the most upbeat Lucy Dacus songs ever, at least in terms of, you know, the instrumentation and the production and everything. It's got almost like a fuzzy indie-tronic feel to it. It's, I would say, a little dancey at points as well, with kind of the slightly blasted out beats. If there's something that I feel is kind of holding the song back, it's that the increase in volume and punch and groove that Lucy is bringing to the table kind of drowns out her voice a little bit, unfortunately. But, you know, maybe with repeated listens it will do a little bit more for me. And I'd definitely be intrigued to see if, like, Lucy doubles, triples down on this kind of sound direction vibe on forthcoming tracks in this new album cycle for her.

We also have Korn for Diablo 4 coming out with a new track that, you know, it's not great. Jonathan Davis is really not in his bag lyrically on this one, but instrumentally and esthetically, it's as listenable as anything from, like, Korn's Issues era, you know. So I mean, if you really want something that instrumentally goes back to that but doesn't really have much else to it, you know, vis-à-vis usual Korn vibes, you can give it a listen. But you know, again, it's just kind of alright. Not that it needs to be the most amazing track ever. It's like, you know, a tie-in with a video game. I would actually say it's, like, a little bit better than expected for just something that was simply going to be a tie-in for a Diablo game.

So miraculously, we have a new one over here from The Chainsmokers, which I'm a little blown away by. It also has Oaks on the track. "Echo" is the name of the song, and I'm gonna say, as far as, like, modern, main stage festival EDM kind of goes, it's listenable. We have found the first listenable Chainsmokers song. I can't believe it. It's, like, passable. It's okay. The drops are fine. The instrumentation isn't too cheesy. Oaks brings some solid vocals to the table, and the song is pleasant too. It's just like a song from Chainsmokers that doesn't make me nauseous, and I feel like that's pretty cool. That's good. I appreciate that.

We also have one over here from a forthcoming album from Basement. "Head Alight" is the name of the song and, you know, it's got like a nice kind of throwback alt-indie vibe to it. It's a little, you know, kind of Basement quality in terms of the recording, but the chorus is super snappy. I mean, you know, the band's kind of overall sound on this track, I will say, is a little bland but, like, the songwriting is there and I can appreciate it at least on that front. I'll be looking forward to seeing like what else Basement offers on this forthcoming album for sure.

We also have one over here from 8485, which I think could have used a little bit more oomph on the production side. The vocals really kind of drown the production out quite a bit. And, you know, again, just wish there was a little bit more punch instrumentally to this one because the song itself seems, you know, pretty solid. It's just a little out of whack with the vocals, in my opinion.

Alright, best tracks of the week.

We have a bunch of those. They are as follows. Let's go.

"Blackberry Marmalade," a new one from Vince Staples, brand new single. And he's going in a bit of a rock direction on this one, surprisingly, but it's got a great groove. Some pretty dark lyrics and an even darker, I would say, music video that is pretty disturbing, honestly. But, you know, what is Vince Staples without his trademark, very sort of grim, dark worldview, and also sort of a sense of humor as well. I think he's really kind of experimenting on this one. It's sounding very solid. I think this in part could have been like set off by him recently very publicly digging on recent work, on new work from Paris, Texas. It sort of seems like he's really kind of digging on the rock, kind of hip-hop fusion stuff they've been doing and is kind of taking a note of that and seeing how it sizes up for him, just trying it on. And I think it works pretty well, honestly. I think it works pretty well.

Next we have a brand new single from Show Me The Body. "Dance in the USA" is the title of this one, and it's got kind of like some big over-the-top blasted riffs that go through a very kind of mid-paced dance groove, picks up in the second half. It's punk, per usual. It's heavy, it's gruff, it's rough, it's amped, it's energetic. That's exactly why Show Me The Body continues to be one of the more interesting punk bands on the East Coast. And they have a new album coming out very soon, so keep an eye and ear out for it.

We also have over here Otoboke Beaver who are feeding us with another track, a very sort of like meta one. Obviously, it's been years since their last album and fans have been anticipating the release of a new record from them since they kind of broke with Itekoma Hits. And the name of this new track is "Is the New Album Out Yet?" And yes, it is a frantic, fast, short, loud, quirky, punchy, to the point hardcore punk tune that is, you know, really over the top and kind of classic Otoboke Beaver vibes and energy.

Moving on from there, Modest Mouse sounding as catchy as they did like back during the Good News era, miraculously, on this "Picking Dragons' Pockets" track, which I think is composed really well. Love the guitar work, production's really crisp. And again, it's been years since the band has been writing songs this snappy. So, I'm excited to see if they kind of come through with another record that showcases those sharp songwriting chops that we were hearing during that era.

Next, here we have this new single from Latto, kind of doing her thing with GloRilla over this old Soulja Boy song from the debut record. Like, literally just note for note the same instrumental, but honestly I think it's a pretty fun track. I feel like this piece of production complements her vibe and it's really braggadocious bars, and her and Glorilla continue to have really good chemistry. I think their voices complement each other well, and they have a similar kind of charisma that I think works well on a track. So, not really sure what else to add, other than I'm really looking forward to Big Mama. It might not be one of the best rap projects we hear of the year, but for sure there's probably gonna be some bangers on there like this one.

We have also over here Kim Petras, who's hitting us with some hyper-pop flavored production, on a very well-written song over here, mind you. Definitely one of the catchiest tracks I think that she's dropped for this new album cycle. "Need for Speed" is the title of the song, and we will leave it there.

Also moving on, horsegiirL has a new album on the way, if you didn't know, and "earth is turning" is the name of the latest single to drop from it. And it's really kind of entrancing, beautiful, glossy fusion of techno and house. It's very tasteful, it's very wonderful, but it has those classic horsegiirL, campy sort of touches that kind of bring you deeper into the farm lore and that sort of thing.

We also have Genesis Owusu, "Life Keeps Going," I think my favorite song of the new album cycle so far. It's spacey, it's post-punky, it's dramatic, it's well written, it's catchy as hell, and Genesis's vocals continue to be super bold and in your face and quite memorable.

We also have che who's hitting some of the new song over here, "Tell U Sum." It is distorted, it's really sort of rage-coded in a lot of ways, but there are some variants there that I feel like kind of make it stand out, make it special. The super melodic and anthemic lead vocals. The fact that you have this prominent, I guess, accordion sample throughout the track that makes it sound almost like some pirate rap. And, I don't know, I respect that heavily. I'm definitely respecting the pirate rap over here. I do really think che has something going with this song, seriously.

All right, we have a couple more for you. This new one over here that is super loud, super blasted out, super in your face from Boundaries, "Skies Cast Amber Black." Definitely one of the most guttural and bestial pieces of metalcore you are going to hear this week, I guarantee it. They have a new record on the way.

Butthole Surfers giving us another taste of this forthcoming album of, I guess, older tracks that are now finally seeing the light of day. This track over here, "Imbuya," is really noisy, chaotic, features some pretty big breakbeats, and feels almost like a precursor to Viagra Boys. I mean, they are an influence on Viagra Boys, so, you know, songs like this just kind of make sense. I feel like maybe they're kind of hearing the fact that this sort of thing is in the water now and is somehow relevant again, and, you know, why not put this stuff out? Because it sort of seems like there's a demand for it, even if it's like older shit from a legendary band, frankly.

Alright, a couple more. We have this new one from Baauer over here, "Better." It's a bop of a track. One of the most fun house tunes you are going to hear this month, I guarantee it. My god, the chops and the sample work are great. The kicks are so bassy and rotund and just get you moving. And the progression is fantastic as well. Love what Baauer did on this one. It's trim, it's punchy, it's anthemic, it's just wonderful. New Baauer album on the way too.

And finally, we have Action Bronson with a really unlikely team-up with Lil Yachty and Paul Wall on this "Triceratops" track. And miraculously, it comes together really well. They have kind of an oddball mixture going on and just ends up being miraculously really cool. And a really, really interesting instrumental as well, something I feel is kind of unlikely for a lot of modern rap tracks, but reminds me of the era of blog hip-hop that Action Bronson came up in. I feel like this song would have played really well on one of his early mixtapes, which I think is pretty neat too.

Anthony Fantano. Weekly tracks. Forever.