It’s Friday, which means that it’s time to look back at the best new music we’ve heard over the last few days. This week, there’s that Kendrick Lamar verse that the Internet has been going batshit about (rapper records good verse! A nation gasps!), along with the return of Juana Molina, the studio debut for Lee Ranaldo’s new band, Blood Orange doing his best Prince impression while covering Drake, Kitty Pryde actually singing (and doing a pretty decent job of it), new spaced-out electronic music from Oneohtrix Point Never, and more. All this is streaming for absolutely nothing after the jump, so click through and get listening!
Big Sean feat. Kendrick Lamar and Jay Electronica — “Control (HOF)”
You may have heard something about this. It has to be said, however, that Kendrick Lamar’s coruscating verse is made to look all the better by the fact that Big Sean’s contribution is so terrible.
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Juana Molina — “Eras”
Yay for the return of Argentinian experimental doyenne Juana Molina, whose album Un Día was one of the great pleasures of 2008. This new track is from her upcoming album Wed 21, which is out at the end of October. On this evidence, it may be somewhat less oblique than its predecessor, although that doesn’t make it less interesting.
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Lee Ranaldo and the Dust — “Lecce, Leaving”
The debut studio offering from Lee Ranaldo’s new band, which features fellow Sonic Youth refugee Steve Shelley, along with guitarist Alan Licht and bassist Tim Lüntzel. This is a slow-burning piece that starts out in the same reflective mood that characterized Ranaldo’s solo debut Between the Time and the Tides, but then explodes into life about three-and-a-half minutes in with a vintage head-melting Ranaldo solo. Excellent.
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Brian Reitzell and Daniel Lopatin — “Bling Ring Suite”
Some suitably dreamy incidental music from The Bling Ring, courtesy of Daniel “Oneohtrix Point Never” Lopatin and collaborator Brian Reitzell. Sadly, embedding is disabled, but you can stream it right here.
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Blood Orange — “Hold On We’re Going Home”
Dev Hynes has been busy in the studio with former Sugababes Mutya, Keisha, and Siobhan of late, but he found the time to record and release this cracking Drake cover, which sounds like Prince more than anything else. And yes, that’s a compliment.
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Earl Sweatshirt feat. Frank Ocean — “Sunday”
The entire album has already leaked, but even before it did, we were loving this track, mainly because it finds Frank Ocean rapping — and doing so rather well, especially when he pays out on Chris Brown. Beyond that, the track is a claustrophobic evocation of weed paranoia and late-night alienation, and it’s great.
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Kitty — “Everything Is Embarrassing”
Apparently Kitty (the former Kitty Pryde, for it is she) did this Sky Ferreira cover as something of a joke. Perhaps she should joke more often, because this is a whole lot more palatable than her “serious” rapping.
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Volcano Choir — “Comrade”
True fact: we live in a world where Justin Vernon has performed on not one but two Kanye West albums. Strange days indeed. Here he returns to his other non-Bon Iver project, in which he breaks out his best falsetto and emotes a lot. It’s, y’know, OK.
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Parquet Courts — “You’ve Got Me Wonderin’ Now”
The lead track from Parquet Courts’ new EP Tally All the Things That You Broke, and a timely reminder that punk in 2013 doesn’t have to be tiresome formulaic “anthemic” bilge. Bravo!
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of Montreal — “She Ain’t Speakin Now”
Another new track off the upcoming new of Montreal album Lousy With Sylvianbriar, and not, it has to be said, a highlight. Still, even a kinda mediocre of Montreal track trumps most other bands’ best work, so it still makes for the tenth best song we heard this week. And with that, until next week…