Best New Tracks Of The Week: July 23rd, 2023
5. Ruins - Lost Girls
Jenny Hval's Lost Girls project is back with a seeming shift in focus both sonically and compositionally. The track is more conventional in almost every sense than much of their last album but it works because Jenny is incapable of not standing out. The last minute is really where she seals the deal with her trademark girlish vocals buttoning up the song perfectly.
4. Talk To Me Nice - Tinashe
I've been awaiting new Tinashe ever since I was shocked that her last project ended up as one of my favorite R&B projects of 2021. While this new single doesn't set the world on fire the way some of her best songs do, its more lowkey tone still works. She manages to use her poise to extract obedience out of the track's title refrain and the song is growing on me pretty much every time I hear it.
3. White Horse - Chris Stapleton
Alongside the announcement of his long-awaited follow-up to 2020's Starting Over, an album I still regret not getting a review for out in a timely manner, Chris Stapleton also shared a new single. While the classic rock flavors of this track may catch some fans off guard, Stapleton doesn't feel out of his element using his songwriting and commanding vocals to match the song's grandeur and drama.
2. Knockoff - Poppy
WOW, welcome back Poppy. While I enjoy the title track of her last album a good bit it's been since at least 2020 that I enjoyed a new Poppy song on first listen as much as this. Not only is it a return to her absolutely irresistible hook writing but with a murmuring dark instrumental to back it. The track isn't "dark" like some of her most cutthroat metal crossovers though. The best thing I can compare it to is her crossover with HEALTH on the underrated Dead Flowers.
1. skin in the game - Slowdive
While the first new Slowdive single was pretty good, this song is very much the Star Roving to its Sugar For The Pill. For people who don't live and die by the big three shoegaze bands let me elaborate, this is amazing. It has the gentle cloudiness of their best work and the sturdy patience of their most impactful tunes. The band continues to sound mature as songwriters and producers but without losing a drop of their youthful edge.
