Tove Lo is such a rare gem of a dance-pop singer, and one that leaped directly from hit singles to back-to-back records that felt like the perfect mid-point between sleazy radio-pop and truly morose, self-reflective art. With her taking some time to once again explore a little more and loosen up, her latest record might not hit the fully refined highs of her last three records at first, but that’s more a testament to those records. If anything, her latest record shifts to a simpler pop sound to give her room to have more show-ready tracks and fine tune her specific electronic trademarks going forward. There are house aesthetics merged with a driving house rager on “I’m Your Girl Right,” twisted into pain and pleasure with Tove Lo’s usual melancholic dance flavours for a unique dance floor banger. Though “Des Fleurs” comes off as more of a quirky Stromae single with a glorious swirling piano, it’s still cool to see the flourishes Tove Lo adds, as well as the punch she gives on that soaring final chorus. The cutting production of “Are We On a Break” pushes through the noise better than some other tracks on the record, giving tension to its builds from the get-go, and letting it feel like it’s constantly moving towards something. Not one to hone in on base or Madonna-like tones like this, “Roomie” finds Tove in different worlds, asserting a kind of sassy joy in ways you wouldn’t expect, and bringing out more vintage keyboard sounds that feels fresh for her.
Despite a shift to far-too cheesy aesthetics or lyrics that the title would suggest, Queens of the Stone Age are actually thickening out their sound and looking to their earliest grime on their latest single. There’s a lot of their self-titled debut through the Songs for the Deaf era, while mixing the writing and twisting bridges of their later work, for a fun mélange that shows a band aware of all the finest strengths they’ve had throughout their many incarnations. The crawling pace mixes a sense of dirty sleaze, seduction and perhaps even drunk menace, before exploding into a kind of deranged beauty in its loud and proud choruses. And as that sound warps further and further, the cranking volume and expanding arrangements show they’re trying to really harness their full career’s breadth for something unexpected on this latest record.
There’s a smoky cool and 80s nostalgia baked into the latest Boy Harsher record that makes it equally disarmingly charming and powerfully intoxicating all at once. Blending a daytime/nighttime mix of aesthetics that collide in fascinatingly beautiful ways, and some of the most delicious retro synth and guitar sounds you’ve heard in a while, this is a can’t miss listen for those that want something unafraid to blend nostalgia with pain. “Jeans” exudes this dark and bright power immediately with a ping pong-y hook and deep vocals that feel like they were shouted between cigarette puffs on a foggy morning in Europe. Despite the racing pace of “Tough Luck (When You Don’t Call)” the track pushes against its chipper tones to show an intense darkness, slowly bleeding into the morose sadness of Vangelis’s Blade Runner score, but like it was recorded by New Order for a British club party. “Hard Beat” more than lives up to its name with an instantly mean sound that kicks and flails, feeling more like a hazy light show, playing with more Eastern European synth nostalgia, for something more emotionally complicated, and sultry. This shadowy end feels the most refined on “Ice Pick (Walk Away)” as you’re lured into a night of mystery and wonder, while the guitars hit like jagged neon to set your mind ablaze.
Pulling a full 180 on how Billie Eilish featured on “Guess” a few years back, “Danceteria” sees Charli XCX updating another legend’s track with her own fun, trashy spin. You can feel the extra sense of fun Madonna is having writing new material for the song, and the extra layer of distortion and art-pop dirt that Charli brings enhances the edge the song pushes at every moment. Blending the highs and fears of their careers, there’s also something fascinating to hearing parallel music histories play out one after another. In addition to the musical twists, Charli’s lines and delivery feel like both a natural addition to the track, and a fun throwback to her early career features. With this even heavier club update, the song feels like an evolution you could slot back-to-back with the original, though it’s a shame that they not only remove a hefty chunk of the name-off section, but don’t even add new artists from Madonna or Charli, and honestly, it should have been both, if not both of them doing so in a call and response. That said, that final wave of exploding pop with them yelling each other’s names is a divine experience.
Blending her downbeat country with a selection of retro pop grandeur, Nicole Atkins is ramping her sound up in an unexpectedly massive way. Though jarring at times, it’s an impressive feat to hear an artist take such explosive dives and capture so many eras so magically. The simple intro of “Trippin’ on Teardrops” can make you comfortable in its melancholic country blues, but that wall-of-sound explosion of symphonic proportions sends you back through time to a whole other emotional plain of desperate yearning. While it takes time to get into that proper sound, the feeling in the final mix of “Singing in the Mirror” is a spiritual experience, as you’re surrounded by a full chorus, cosmic harmonies, and a feeling of self-assured joy and hope that will lift your energy or send you into happy tears. The ramp up of scope on “When the Night Falls” breaks through sonic walls again and again, bringing you from a fearful low to a triumphant, and self-assured high by the time the sun-ray-esque guitars are bouncing off her ghostly vocal hits. Her plays to a vintage schtick is enhanced with Chris Isaak’s crooning on “Cue the Symphony” in a Lynchian swing on the record, producing a dream-like song that could be a lost Roy Orbison hit in another world.
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