Best Songs of the Month

Autre Ne Veut's Age Of Transparency is already one of my favorite albums of the year, but picking songs is difficult. The singles released—"Panic Room," "Age of Transparency," and "World War Pt. 2"—are early standouts, and others like "Never Wanted," "Over Now," and "Get Out" make this an album worth playing from front to back. Although it sits at dead center of this nine-song album, "Switch Hitter" is an outlier. The album has an ethereal, almost spiritual soul, but "Switch Hitter" is fiery pop—sharp, chaotic, and menacing. It's bubblegum pop on bad acid, and it's fantastic.—Confusion

Pell's talent and potential became clear with one listen to Floating While Dreaming. Now, superproducer and all around boss Dave Sitek (TV On The Radio) has identified that talent too, and is releasing Pell's new album LIMBO on his own label Federal Prism.

The first single from that album is "Café Du Monde," produced by Sitek. The track boasts jagged production which Pell rides with ease, switching between quickfire bars and a melodic flow with ease. Hopefully this is the beginning of a fruitful partnership between these two.—Constant Gardner

MED, Blu, and Madlib have an album dropping in October. 100% produced by Madlib, with a host of features. The fact that we get some Madvillainy madness over this dusty throwback funk as the first glimpse is amazing, especially when Doom is truly playing the role of a horrible neighbor. It's almost as if the world knew that I'd been revisiting a lot of DOOM's material and realizing that he truly is the god MC. I'd also say you should check for Blu's verse as well; just when you're like "is he just going to up and quit rap," he smacks you upside your head and makes you remember why you fucked with him in the first place.

Or maybe that was just me.—khal

These two have dropped hit after hit on us over the past few years, and their collabprative project sent the internet into a frenzy. Born from six days of recording in Atlanta, at times tracks feel unfinished, awkward, or as if they should ahve been left to Future, but "Diamonds Dancing" is not one of those. Both artists find a common comfort zone, part celebratory part wounded pride, while Metro Boomin, Allen Ritter, and Frank Dukes kill the beat.—Constant Gardner

Buy What A Time To Be Alive here.

One of the most appealing aspects of Lontalius' music has always been the homebrewed, lo-fi charm. Moving from SoundCloud to a label could have stripped Lontalius of one his strongest assets, but the result on "All I Wanna Say" would imply the move has only further highlighted his talents. His understated voice compliments the gorgeously soft composition on "All I Wanna Know," with its gentle 808s and sweet core melody. Regardless of the context, Lontalius is more than capable of delivering.—Joe Price

Chalk this one up for Mick. This beef won't reach Drake/Meek levels, but that's not for lack of quality material. "HeadAss" is absolute fire, thanks in equal part to Kaytranada's murky, murderous production and Mick's inability to hold his tongue. Four minutes later, the spotlight has turned squarely on Vic Spencer, who may have been punching above his weight when he went after Mick last week.—Graham

If you're in the market for spacy, sparkling production and layer-cake harmonies, you've come to right place. Boasting production from Gianluca Buccellati (of Tei Shi fame), "Wilinout" is the kind of ultra-smooth track that distills the end of summer into a bittersweet half-smile. Track by track, IYVES is letting the world know she's a voice to be reckoned with. —Graham

It's a cross-generational UK love in for the remix of Little Simz' "Dead Body," with the legend Kano and the young gun Stormzy coming with full intensity over the rumbling beat. There are no throwaway verses here, and after Kano's kills his verse, we basically get a whole new song from Simz over a switched up beat from Prezident Jeff.—Constant Gardner

Related: Little Simz Interview: "Women Can Be Kings"

With the amount of music available at an all-time high, brevity is key. Verse, chorus, verse, repeat. Uptempo singles with big hooks and lots of repetition rule, but every now and then, a song like "Clean" comes around and forces you to slow down. 19-year-old singer/producer Japanese House takes her time, letting the song breathe before layering on celestial vocals and immersive, slowly morphing production. The result is a gorgeous, epic piece of music that feels colossal in the context of modern music's fleeting sounds.—Confusion

Kelela is back! Not that she left, exactly, but more that we've been waiting a while now for her second official project. Announced at the beginning of the year, the Hallucinogen EP was originally scheduled for release in May, but was pushed back, and now we've finally got our second sample, "Rewind," which follows the Arca-produced "A Message."

"Rewind," which Kelela produced with Kingdom and Nugget, feels like a future Fade to Mind party classic—airy, hopeful vocals about love on the dancefloor paired with a thumping beat. It's recognizably Kelela, but an exciting evolution of the sound she presented on Cut 4 Me. So far, the new EP is sounding stunning.—Constant Gardner

Hallucinogen drops October 9. Pre-order here.

Taken on its own, Rotterdam singer Sevdaliza's "That Other Girl" is an alluring look at an affair—sensual, unpredictable, and an all together engrossing listen thanks to a seductive performance and forward-thinking production.

Taken with its incredible 3D video, "That Other Girl" becomes its own world, a multi-faceted art piece that invites deeper interrogation while also being simply mesmerizing. A labor of love, Sevdaliza teamed up with experimental visual artists Pussykrew last December to craft an uncanny, surreal world of amorphous, melting objects, outsized outfits, and contorted bodies. While this sort of extreme treatment might overwhelm some songs, it only serves to intensify "That Other Girl." A perfect marriage of a great song and imaginative imagery. If you're in the U.K., you can catch Sevdaliza in action at our first No Ceilings London show.—Jon Tanners

Ghostface Killah and MF DOOM, two rap legends, don't need to team up as DOOMSTARKS. They don't need help generating interest in their music and both have unimpeachable legacies, so this seems like a true passion project, two gruff, vicious rappers having fun making dark, bombastic music.

"Lively Hood," part of Adult Swim's singles series, is an ode of sorts to New York, in all its gritty, grimy, glory. What could be better?—Constant Gardner

Making quick judgements on music is usually never a good idea. However, less than thirty seconds into Jimi Tents’ “Landslide,” not only was I already positive that I was going to love this song, but I was also sure that Jimi had just earned himself a new fan.

“Landslide” begins with a beat that feels laid-back but versatile. There’s a clear summer vibe to it, but it’s not the sort of track that only sounds appropriate in the summertime. Instead, it has the power to transport listeners back to those warm days, no matter what time of year it may actually be. But unlike other songs, the production is carrying the song for Jimi Tents, he’s definitely doing his part—making the combination feel that much better. The young Brooklyn-native has a strong, memorable voice that only needs to be heard once to be recognized. As a result, “Landslide” becomes a song that can be played on repeat for hours without it ever feeling old—trust me on that one. And as a New Yorker, it always feels nice to find another young artist who’s properly representing the home team.—Adrienne Black

We've had albums from Kendrick, Schoolboy Q, and Ab-Soul and now, finally, Jay Rock is the man from TDE in the spotlight. His album 90059 is out today, and the Cardo-produced "Vice City" is one of the immediate standouts. Black Hippy reunites over a hypnotic, twinkling beat that still bumps hard, and the simple but effective black and white video is the perfect accompaniment. Kendrick and Jay Rock kick things off in fine style, and when Schoolboy Q comes in for the final verse it's a wrap.

Black Hippy for the win.—Constant Gardner

Kacy Hill wowed us with "Experience" at the end of last year, and then signed to Kanye West's G.O.O.D. Music, but then disappeared into the shadows. We're happy to wait if the rest of the music we get is this good. For "Foreign Fields," Kacy teamed up with the incredibly talented Jack Garratt, and the resulting song brings together the best of both their worlds, starting slow with gentle piano and building to a frenzied, glorious ending.—Constant Gardner

First off, this Cairo Mayeson beat is fucking crazy. Anyone would sound good over this beat. Let's get that out of the way.

But this isn't to discredit Ta'East, because what he does on this beat is what makes "WithTheShit" such a special song, and one of the strongest introductions to a new rapper in 2015 so far. Ta'East is sharp and precise with his words, completely aware of the space that surrounds each one.

A lot of rappers can tag along with the beat, but few seem to be comfortable in the negative space; for Ta'East, that seems to come naturally. My only complaint is that he didn't rap during those last 40 seconds.—Confusion

"Wanna Be Me" is called a bonus track Young Thug's new Slime Season mixtape. A bonus track on a free mixtape doesn't really make sense, but maybe it's just an acknowledgement that this song is like nothing else on the project.

It almost certainly won't be a fan favorite—"Wanna Be Me" is a bittersweet, weird, melodic, unintelligible, Auto-Tuned song, reminiscent of when Wayne was making brilliantly unfocused pop like "Prostitute Flange" in the mid-2000s. But Young Thug is better than Wayne at writing pop songs—or, at least, he could be.

Thug's ear for melody is an underrated weapon. It's easy to focus on his voice, his absurd ad-libs, or the millions of other distractions, but he's got a gift for structuring a song (even when it only takes him 10 minutes) and when London On Da Track supplies the production, there is potential for something really special. That's the key though: potential. "Wanna Be Me" sounds clumsy and unfinished, but that's part of its charm for now, and it's a sign of things to come from Thug. Remember, less than a year after Wayne made "Prostitute Flange," he released "Lollipop."—Confusion

"It's funny 'cause we thought this album would be all party and cheerfulness but . SURPRISE. it's not!!!!!" say Hinds about thier debut album Leave Me Alone. They continue, "Please don't think we've turned into depressive people or something, we've always been humans, it's just we're now showing it to you."

We're excited to hear how those emotions manifest themselves across the album, but for the meantime we've got "Garden." The Spanish fourtet's music has always had a lo-fi, carefree feel about it, and that is still present and correct here, but with a little extra bite to some of the vocals in the song's enjoyable four-minute sprawl. —Constant Gardner

Unfortunately, it seems like most of the best songwriters in music end up pandering to the masses. When you can write a song so perfect that anyone with a sensible ear will appreciate it, the tendency is to make as many people as possible appreciate it. By doing this, most great songwriters avoid risks, experimentation, and being weird. Thank God, Autre Ne Veut embraces these things.

His album Age of Transparency comes out October 2 on Downtown Records, and it's shaping up to be one of the year's best.—Confusion