Best Songs of the Week

Drake is to the point in the career when any song he drops is an event. Twitter goes into overdrive, bloggers curse him for ruining their evenings, and he sits back in his Toronto mansion staring at his reflection in a gold plated chalice, smiling softly to himself.

"Draft Day" sees Drake back to straight rapping, taking sorta, kinda shots that aren't really shots at Chance The Rapper and Jay Z over a bouncy Lauryn Hill-sampling beat. Drake we love to hate you, but we're happy you're around.—Confusion

Naysayers be damned, as Jack White is back, and he's sounding better than ever. Whereas 2012's Blunderbuss was a solid effort, it sounds as if Lazaretto, White's forthcoming album, will concentrate on those pure, unadulterated guitar skills that the man possesses. "High Ball Stepper" wastes no time and gets right to business with Jack White skillfully meshing discordant sounds and textures that ultimately come together for a wild and rebellious auditory experience. This, no doubt, should have you revved up for Lazaretto.—Joyce

If you ever watched Pitchfork's Selector series and stumbled across Bruiser Brigade's episode, then you were able to watch what was likely the series' greatest moment. Flanked by Dopehead, Chavis Chandler, and ZelooperZ, Danny Brown hangs out in a boxing ring with his fellow Bruisers, dropping bars to a beat from Mike WiLL Made It. Gradually, their collective energy spills over, each rapper getting more turnt than the last before the entire cypher explodes in one final verse from ZelooperZ. His clip-on mic flies off him nearly as soon as he starts; his lyrics become nearly inaudible. However, that detail is completely beside the point. In a moment of pure, unbridled energy, Bruiser Brigade made us all wonder when we would start to hear more from the members of the group besides Brown.

With ZelooperZ's latest track "Can't Hang," we're beginning to get an answer to that question, as the up-and-coming Detroit MC prepares for the release of his forthcoming LP, HELP. The beat is grating, uneven and scatter-brained, while ZelooperZ summons the same energy he displayed during his Selector cameo, tearing away at anything resembling conventional tempo or cadence. Clumsy, savage, and frantic, the track meets every standard expected of a true bruiser.—Gus Turner

I really, strongly hope Daniel Wilson blows up. I want everyone to hear his music, because I don't see how anyone couldn't love it once they do. Sometimes I have more of an intellectual response to music—I can appreciate why it's good or important or worth sharing—but from first hearing "Will You" to then premiering the rest of the EP, listening to Daniel Wilson's songs just straight up makes me happy. He flirts with a few different styles on the EP, but the overall result is like sitting in the warm morning sun, wrapped in a soft blanket, just staring out of the window and being thankful for life.

I also saw his first ever gig last week. There was an audience of maybe 20 or 25 people, and Daniel was clearly nervous at first, but his voice throughout was perfection, easily moving between a crystalline falsetto and a warmer lower register. It helped remind me just why I fell in love with live music in the first place.—Constant Gardner

From the first days Chicago rapper Kami de Chukwu popped up on our radar, his passion and able flow–simultaneously agile and densely packed– made him a raw talent to watch, another promising emcee from a city positively teeming with talent.

"Bleed"–the lead track off of Porno Music Volume II, the new EP from De Chukwu and partner in crime Joey Purp's group Leather Corduroys–is unhinged deliverance on early spark, a freewheeling verse comprised of alliterative sounds and rhyming syllables careening across a woozy piano-based beat. It's an easy stand out from an EP that you can only be streamed as a single track, an impressive display in spite of its brevity.—Jon Tanners

How To Dress Well announced a new album this week. “What Is This Heart?” will be out June 24 and from the two songs we've heard so far, we're pretty damn excited. "Repeat Pleasure" might be the most pureley pop song that Tom Krell has released, with the vocals clear and up front in the mix, and an absolutely huge chrus of, "Even broken my heart will go on."

If this is the direction How To Dress Well is going in, we couldn't be happier.—Constant Gardner

The next time we cook up a list of the catchiest indie songs currently populating our playlists, Sway Clarke's "Secret Garden" will likely make an appearance. With a lively, bouncing piano melody (recalling Elton John's "Bennie and the Jets") as its basis, "Secret Garden" uses loosely veiled metaphor to craft one of the catchiest songs about promiscuity in recent memory, an ode to wild youth and love that captures the chaotic joy of being young and the minimizing perspective of age.

Of course, all of that detail is ancillary to the fact that Sway continues to write damn good songs regardless of genre classification or convention. We're eagerly awaiting whatever's next.—Jon Tanners

It's difficult to choose a favorite from GoldLink's debut project The God Complex, partially because it is extremely solid debut project, but partially because it feels odd to pull a part from the whole–to analyze a chunk of a succinct unit that defines GoldLink's foray into future bounce, a journey that has undoubtedly confused some rap fans and thrilled others.

"Divine" is not the best display of GoldLink's pure rapping, which remains impressive as our first encounter with it on his "Electronic Relaxation," but rather a microcosm of the tape's aesthetic and a glimpse into GoldLink's potential. The elastic flow, the ability to rap melodically that invites even the non-singers among us to play along, the house influence–"Divine" combines the parts that make GoldLink intriguing in an enjoyable two minutes and forty-seven seconds. It isn't the full arrival of a rap savior, but "Divine" and The God Complex solidify GoldLink's spot as one of rap's most exciting new voices.—Jon Tanners

There aren't too many producers who have impressed me as much as Madeaux has in the last year. He's moving towards the release of his album Love The Machine, and this week he unleashed "Revisionist," a cut that blends the hypnotic thump of the juke/footwork sound with some really beautiful jazzy elements.

It's almost like he has no real genre, just a Madeaux sound that can be thrown atop any BPM or style he sees fit. Dude's going places. Keep an eye on Pigeons & Planes for a Madeaux exclusive coming soon.—khal

Chicago is overflowing with young talent these days, a generation of rappers inspired by and living in the midst of daily gun battles. By now, Chief Keef and Chance the Rapper are household names and we're starting to get a second wave. Enter Lucki Eck$, the latest addition to Danny Brown's tour. Chicago rappers are also benefitting from a tremendous amount of exposure. We've seen Chance and Keef appear on CNN's Chicagoland, and Lucki Eck$, in turn, was the subject of a Closed Sessions clip a couple months back, where we heard the first strains of "All Senses."

Three days ago we received the song in full, a mellow, moody track produced by Hot Sugar. Have a listen.—Crax