Best Songs of the Week

With so much good music steadily coming through, it's easy to miss out on some of the best. To help prevent this, we've picked some of our favorite tracks from the week. Here are the songs you can't afford to skip, in no particular order.

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2. Dev09 - "Lethal"

dev09 is 18-year-old artist Devin Murphy from South Bend, IN. Her perspective is rooted in suburban disillusionment, and her music is about halfway between bedroom pop and A$AP Mob. The internet has fostered the growth of so many interesting hybrid artists, but dev09's combination of reference points is unique, and there's something intriguing about her that's hard to put a finger on. That's usually a good sign.—Confusion

3. Thundercat - "Them Changes"

Those that discovered Thundercat through his work on To Pimp A Butterfly have a laundry list of great music ahead of them. The man has two amazing full-lengths behind him, and a "mini-album" coming on Monday.

"Them Changes" is the single from the latter, and it's a great place to start: the Flying Lotus collab is the funkiest cut this week had to offer, led by some seamless interplay between the bass (Thundercat's weapon of choice) and some delectable piano. —Graham Corrigan

4. Vince Staples - "Get Paid"

Just when you thought Vince Staples couldn't create a grittier song about getting money than "Señorita" he goes and drops "Get Paid." The track features Staples delivering slick verses about his days of hustle over No I.D.'s menacing, West Coast beats. Just going off these first two releases, Summertime '06 'bout to be some serious heat.—Katie K.

5. Litany ft. Appleby - “Woman”

When it comes to songs that make it onto a summer playlist, they’re usually high-energy tracks engineered to instantly make the day more fun. But some days, it’s just too hot to do anything but simply sit back and waste the day away doing nothing.

For those moments, Litany’s latest single “Woman” feels just right. The production gives off a hazy vibe that is as soothing as lead vocalist Beth Cornell’s voice. With just Beth’s voice, the entire song would be straight hypnosis, but Appleby comes in to pull listeners out of their trance for just a moment. Once Beth begins to sing again with Appleby harmonizing in the background, however, the hypnotic trance feels twice as strong and makes a replay mandatory.—Adrienne Black

Read our interview with Appleby here.

6. Beck - "Dreams"

After his Grammy-winning folk album, Beck's next move was anybody's guess. His first single since is "Dreams," an up-tempo return to form complete with the snappy guitar riffs and drawling nonchalance that populates Odelay and Guero.

Beck has been in the game for a while—"Dreams" will appear on his tenth album, and it's a classic first single: catchy, funky, and a reaffirmation of everything we love about the L.A. native. No matter how you feel about Beck, there's no doubt this album will be yet another polished, inventive take. -Graham Corrigan

7. sjowgren - "seventeen"

I always thought that Youth Lagoon's "17" was the best song with this number as a title, but Bay Area trio sjowgren is making things interesting with this masterfully arranged, fully realized, rock-tinged pop song. This is the group's first real release, following a few SoundCloud demos, and it's a very promising debut. Also, where's Youth Lagoon?—Confusion

8. Ratatat - "Abrasive"

I'm choosing "Abrasive" this week for two reasons: first, it's Ratatat in all their warm-n-fuzzy glory. The second cut off their upcoming Magnifique recalls the days of "Tropicana" and "Cherry," unabashed positivity through a pixellated filter. Second, the band's own Evan Mast singlehandedly revived the lost art form of hand-drawn animation with over 4,000 sketches for the video. A+ for effort, Dr. Mast.

As crisp as the drawings are, however, it's so good to hear that Ratatat sound again. One YouTube commenter described their music as "two hippies with guitars and a kettle of shroom tea," one of the hotter takes on the wire right now. But make no mistake—this isn't a dark, panicky, my-fingers-are-dicks shroom trip. This is the good stuff. The real, real good stuff.—Graham Corrigan

9. Best Songs of the Week Playlist (June 19)

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