Our The Songs of the Week column highlights great new songs and looks at notable releases. Find our new favorites and more in our The best songs on Spotify playlist and other great songs from emerging artists, check out our New Spotify sounds Playlist. This week, we take a look at some intriguing comebacks from some very current artists.
News and updates:
We all headed south with Zach
Lana Del Rey said it herself: the music industry is going country. And while LDR's new country-trap experiment with Quavo is falling by the wayside, Zach Bryan is back to dominating the country landscape with his new album, the timely The great American bar sceneThere's a lot to be said for the raw authenticity Bryan consistently brings to his music: he's vulnerable on tracks like “Towers,” a masterful storyteller on “Oak Island,” and devastatingly personal on pre-release single “Pink Skies” (one of our favorite songs so far this year).
The record is another strong effort from one of the genre's leading outcasts, and the collaboration with John Mayer, “Better Days,” is one of its strongest offerings. Mayer shines in a setting like this, one not unlike his 2017 LP, The search for everythingwhere honesty is the motto of the game. “And I wasn’t wanted right when I was a little kid/So I’ll pray that these better, shaky days just stick around for a while,” Bryan sings. Mayer is primarily on hand for harmonies and guitar, which is just as well, as his ability to rip off a solo with a twang blends perfectly with the soundscape Bryan has crafted throughout the album.
While more and more artists are trying to cash in on the mainstream appeal that country music offers these days, Bryan and Mayer carry this sound around like it's a well-worn denim jacket they've had for a long, long time. Maria Siroky
Childish Gambino, Renaissance Man
Bando Stone has made a grand entrance. He is the protagonist of Donald Glover's new sci-fi thriller comedy Bando Stone and the New WorldAnd “Lithonia” is the first installment of the soundtrack, and what is supposedly Childish Gambino’s “final” album. In keeping with the “the end is nigh” feeling, “Lithonia” doesn’t sound like a teaser for what’s to come, but instead sounds like the film’s sweeping, epiphany-laden climax. The heavy guitars and power ballad beat certainly help, and Glover’s impassioned tenor is definitely giving “a fictional pop star a revolutionary realization.”
In fact, “Lithonia” is much closer to the expansive makeover she employed in 2016. Wake up, my love! Instead of the newly released 3.15.20 redux AtavisticGlover sounds absolutely captivating when he abandons genre for the sake of storytelling and creating a feeling; but unlike the equally narrative-driven soundtrack work Glover created with KIRBY for the Amazon series SwarmGlover ups the drama and even brings a bit of pop-punk angst to “Lithonia.”
Sure, the trailer for Bando Stone and the New World It's enough to get excited, but “Lithonia” seems to exist as long as a Childish Gambino hit. and A specific narrative turning point within the universe. The layers are superimposed and Childish Gambino continues to demonstrate why he is, indeed, a modern Renaissance man. Paul Ragusa
Kendrick dances on the grave of Drake's reputation
Christ, man.
Now that the storm between Kendrick Lamar and Drake has passed, the dust has begun to settle and the victor is writing the history books in real time. Notice I didn't specify who the victor was… that's because I don't have to; you guys filled in that blank perfectly.
Drake might have literally had the last word with “The Heart Part 6,” but that’s only because K.Dot didn’t need to respond. The cut was easily one of the least talked-about tracks of the entire feud thanks to the deadly one-two punch of the chilling “Meet the Grahams” and the merciless “Not Like Us,” a track that has become an unlikely candidate for song of the summer. (Hell, they’re playing a song with the line “certified lover/certified pedophile” in it.) Damn baseball games.)
Lamar’s Juneteenth concert seemed to be his victory lap, especially considering the fact that he performed “Not Like Us” a whopping five times in a row before walking away to play the instrumental piece one more time. And yet, it turns out he still had one last turn left to take: queuing up the music video for “Not Like Us.”
With imagery as striking as the song it represents, the video for “Not Like Us” finds Lamar metaphorically (and almost literally) dancing on the grave of Drake’s reputation. Crowds of people sing and dance along to the song’s most memorable lines as symbolic images of exploding owl piñatas and Kenny doing push-ups flash by. Like the lyrics, there are easter eggs, claps, and the general feeling that Lamar has just about everyone on his side.
What really makes the song and video better, though, is that even when you ignore the nitty-gritty, they're just… Really very goodWithout context, “Not Like Us” would have a fun, memorable beat with an energetic, charismatic performance from Lamar, and the video would be equally eye-catching. If anything, the music video for “Not Like Us” proves that Lamar understood that to fully dominate the fight, it wasn’t just about slandering, it was about showcasing his talent. Jonah Krueger
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