While you’re still digesting that new surprise-drop Wilco album, here are a few great songs also released this week.
CHVRCHES — “Leave a Trace”
After a meteoric rise over the last few years, Glasgow’s CHVRCHES return strong with a new single off their forthcoming sophomore LP that sounds like hard-edged bliss but urges burning it down and walking away.
Protomartyr — “Why Does It Shake?”
The first taste of Detroit garage rockers Protomartyr’s new album starts like it’s in the middle of the song, but for good reason: it reaches unsettling levels of primal percussion and angry distortion in its quest to proclaim immortality. Mosh pit, party of one.
Lana Del Rey — “Honeymoon”
Only sad-girl extraordinaire Lana Del Rey would call one of her most maudlin ballads ever “Honeymoon.” LDR’s soundtrack work (The Great Gatsby, Tim Burton’s Big Eyes) has left her well suited to tackle sweeping, orchestral sounds like this. “Honeymoon” makes me excited to see how far LDR will take this approach — because it’s the most fitting one yet — on her third album of the same name, expected out this September.
All Dogs — “That Kind of Girl”
Columbus, Ohio’s All Dogs play melodic punk that stands out, even in today’s crowded landscape of such bands. “That Kind of Girl,” off their aptly titled forthcoming album Kicking Every Day (out August 28), is a mature retort to a man — nay, a boy — who showed his judgment and carelessness in the course of a break-up.
Jonathan Tyler and Nikki Lane — “To Love Is To Fly”
One of my favorite alt-country up-and-comers, Nikki Lane, proves to be a dynamic foil on this ballad about living shockingly hard (see: the mention of cocaine in the very first line).