The 4.5 Best Songs You Need to Hear This Week
Did you miss us? Did you have a nice summer? Because the 4.5 best songs you need to hear this week certainly did, which is why you haven't seen us in a while. But it's (legally) fall again which means we're back in the swing of things, scouting the best music out there for your listening pleasure. These are the best songs of the week. Welcome home.
Candy, "Super Stare"
Candy, the absolute world beaters from Richmond, VA, just dropped what might be one of my favorite songs of the year. The track opens up with this absolutely uncontainable chugging riff that will make you want to put your head through a brick wall, and only proceeds to get heavier from there. The entire song falls apart under its own weight, devolving into pure chaos in the best way. This is probably what it sounds like to jump out of a plane without a parachute, and it truly rules.—Gabe Conte, digital producer
TNGHT, "Serpent"
TNGHT, the mind meld project of the DJs Hudson Mohawke and Lunice, has long specialized in the kind of guttural, screw-face inductive trap that causes your brain to contract into a peanut and rattle around in your skull. And now they're back, for the first time since 2013, with "Serpent," a song that feels like it was designed for the express purpose of fucking with you. As far as dance music goes, it's off-kilter chaos, the noise palette spare: there's a xylophoney thing, some cans, whoops and battle yelps, and then out of nowhere this bass that just sort of dumps on you. And that's it.
Functionally, the song sounds more like a prompt than anything, an attempt to take a pupu platter of sounds and make a dance track. It's almost as if the mandate was "none of this should even work on paper" but then they made it go hard anyway.—Chris Gayomali, site editor
Tove Loe, "Are U Gonna Tell Her? (ft. MC Zaac)"
There has been not nearly enough buzz around Tove Lo’s stellar new album, Sunshine Kitty, which is chock full of bangers, from the bright, but mournful “Glad He’s Gone” to the anthemic and mournful “Mateo.” My favorite cut is the transcendent “Are U gonna tell her.” The track is underscored by an infected, arpeggiated bass line, which gives the lyrical morning-after a distinctly sinister vibe. As it repeats ad nauseam—underneath minimal orchestration, restrained vocal performances, and the occasionally throwaway whoop—it seems to say “sure, what we did was twisted, but we’re definitely going to do it again.”—Daniel Varghese, tech and lifestyle commerce writer
Gang Starr feat. J. Cole, "Family and Loyalty"
Pop culture consumption in 2019 has largely fallen back on nostalgia. I would venture to say: that sucks, as it's led to the return of far too many shows/acts/tropes that probably should've stayed extinguished. Gang Starr's "Family and Loyalty," however—the duo's first song since 2003—isn't a nostalgia play. It features a timeless DJ Premier beat, incorporates previously unreleased verses by the legendary Guru that don't suck (which is not usually the case for previously unreleased verses of deceased, legendary rappers), and J. Cole holds his own when it's his turn on the track. Gang Starr forever.—Alex Shultz, editorial assistant
And our .5 of the week…
Samantha Jade, "Bounce"
Very simply, this divine Australian pop song features some of the year's strongest production, and, clocking in under 3 minutes, is a lovely confection worth savoring on repeat. Samantha Jade did what she had to do.—Brennan Carley, associate editor
Originally Appeared on GQ
