This week, a bunch of return players come at us with surprises. Tyler, the Creator drops two songs that were so stylistically opposed that “revolution” could be applied either of them, and Blood Orange’s Dev Hynes co-writes two of the best pop songs of the past month: Carly Rae Jepsen’s “All That,” and Samantha Urbani’s “1 2 3 4.”
Tyler, the Creator — “Fucking Young”/ “Deathcamp”
The Odd Future frontman pulled a Beyoncé (kind of) this week, dropping two singles on his new mobile app. He also conveniently combined them in one video, as seen above. Taken together, the two tracks display a surprising range in Tyler’s ability, with “Fucking Young/Perfect” finding him singing, kind of like OF sidekick Frank Ocean, over some lubed-up ’90s R&B beat. “Deathcamp,” meanwhile, sounds exactly as you’d expect, its beat riffing directly on that old N.E.R.D. song. It’s an impressive intro to his upcoming Cherry Bomb, which is out April 13. And, with not a single rape joke in sight, Tyler could very well be growing up. — Shane Barnes
Carly Rae Jepsen — “All That”
Carly Rae Jepsen came to fame with “Call Me Maybe,” a song that felt like a relic of pop’s past due to its quaint sentiment. Now comes “All That,” a song that specifically sounds like a relic of pop’s (Prince-filled) past. These synths *actually* twinkle. — Jillian Mapes
Waxahatchee — “La Loose”
On her excellent third album as Waxahatchee, Ivy Tripp (out this week), Katie Crutchfield sets a few sad sentiments to happy, synth-tinged tunes. But only one, “La Loose,” sounds a little like The The’s 1983 hit “This Is The Day,” an all-time-great pop single. Atop some of her dreamiest vocal harmonization, Crutchfield sings of a romance she knows is flawed but doesn’t want to cut loose just yet. — JM
Tiara Thomas — “On Me”
R&B singer Tiara Thomas first came across the radar as the understated singer on Wale’s 2013 single “Bad,” as the Jhené Aiko to Wale’s Drake. Since then, she’s released an EP that referenced trap as much as it did acoustic guitar soul, and a handful of promising singles. “On Me,” her new ‘fuck you’ to the haters, is Thomas’s first anthem. The song sounds spacious and is based in semi-ambient electronics, like so much of R&B-pop’s new class, and its message is akin to Drake’s “Energy.” But there’s something appealing about how low-key Thomas is in her performance, despite a strong statement. I like her style. — JM
Samantha Urbani — “1 2 3 4”
All you need to know about Samantha Urbani is this: she has worked closely with (her boyfriend) Dev Hynes, and he has worked on this new song. It’s immediately evident, and “1 2 3 4” does perfectly that thing that is so popular in 2015, which is make dance music great, and maybe even a little noisey. The production here is the standout, its canyons of bass filled with all of the airy percussion so common in PBR&B, with Urbani’s light voice like some kind of whipped cream on top of a pop sundae. And that’s what this is: a hodgepodge of sweet sounds piled atop one another. — SB