Best New Tracks Of The Week: 10/20/24
5. First Rodeo - Kelsea Ballerini
Kelsey Ballerini's vulnerabilities continue to be the highlight of her music. While the track does have a gentle swaying instrumental and a pretty memorable chorus it's really the bearing of her soul that she displays through second-guessing and pure admiration that fully sells the song.
4. the cost of giving up - Poppy
While Poppy has become pretty damn hit-or-miss since a great 2020 effort, you can't say she doesn't occasionally hit the mark. It's the songs where she manages to slice directly between her girlish dreamy pop side and her crushing dark metal instincts that hit the hardest. the cost of giving up throws it back a few years in her discography to when she had that sound even more honed in and it's all the better for it.
3. Defense - Panda Bear (feat. Cindy Lee)
I'll be the first to admit that this song may not have lived up to the impossible level of excitement generated purely by the fact that a Panda Bear and Cindy Lee collaboration was dropping in the first place. But it was also a track that grew on mew with awkwardly timed refrains playfully reverberating with the hypnogogic pop swagger of both artists involved.
2. Perfect Stranger - FKA Twigs
The second offering from one of the most highly-anticipated releases of 2024 is much more dialed in than Twigs' expansive lead single. By comparison Perfect Stranger is a much more straightforward dancy art-pop number about the intimacy you can only experience with someone whose a complete stranger. As with all her music the production is precise and the mixing is expansive but it manages to pack a punch in all the right moments.
1. She Cleans Up - Father John Misty
I don't know how Josh Tillman does it. With yet another absolutely killer new single he served up one of the biggest jams of the fucking year. This song doesn't just pack swagger-heavy refrains one on top of another but does it with hilarious lyricism and unbelievable catchiness. His new album is quickly skyrocketing to straight up album of the year potential with tracks like this.
