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SPIN Singles Mix

SPIN Singles Mix: Courtney Barnett, Car Seat Headrest, Boogarins, and More

Welcome to SPIN’s Singles Mix! SPIN staffers have rounded up their favorite, must-hear tracks for your personal playlists. Collecting the finest from Brazilian psych-pop performers, fed-up Danish pop crooners, and more, these are the songs you need to know right now.

SPIN Singles Mix: Courtney Barnett, Car Seat Headrest, Boogarins, and More

Boogarins, “6000 Dias” (Other Music)
Boogarins‘ 2013 debut, As Plantas Que Curam, found the Brazilian band wading in tropical rock waters, and their latest single, “6000 Dias,” has the group going a little deeper. On the second cut from their new record, Manual, out on October 30, singer Dinho Almeida takes it easy over sputtering drums and layers of expansive, psychedelic guitars. When the soaring outro swoops in, you won’t mind being swept away. — NATHAN DILLER

SPIN Singles Mix: Courtney Barnett, Car Seat Headrest, Boogarins, and More

Car Seat Headrest, “Times To Die” (Matador)
“All of my friends are getting married… all of my friends are making money,” sighs Will Toledo (a.k.a. lo-fi wunderkind Car Seat Headrest), echoing the anxious sentiments of any 20-something with a Facebook account. Peer-group anxieties aren’t the only thing keeping Toledo up at night — his six-and-a-half minute rumination also revolves around, as a press release reads, “Judaism, Hinduism, the Book of Job, expensive restaurants, and the music business.” Such heavy themes should sink “Times to Die” into the Red Sea, but Toledo parts the waters with sweetly casual guitar work and home-brewed production flourishes. — RACHEL BRODSKY

SPIN Singles Mix: Courtney Barnett, Car Seat Headrest, Boogarins, and More

Collie Buddz x IAMSU! x Berner, “Wake and Bake” (Ineffable Music)
Simple concept: The best part of waking up is sticky icky in your cup. (Or bowl, fine.) Who better to impart their love of the good leaf than this summit of reggae and West Coast hip-hop, clanked matter-of-factly over steel drums. If it makes weed sound too routine, well, routine’s also catchy. — DAN WEISS

SPIN Singles Mix: Courtney Barnett, Car Seat Headrest, Boogarins, and More

Courtney Barnett, “Shivers” (Mom + Pop)
The signature song by Boys Next Door, earliest incarnation of the Nick Cave-starring post-punk outfit The Birthday Party, is a proto-power ballad that’s already well-covered territory. Impressive, then, that Courtney Barnett makes it so thoroughly her own on this Jack White-produced B-side. It probably helps that the song’s famous opening lines (“I’ve been contemplating suicide / But it really doesn’t suit my style”) strikes the same balance between the tragic and the mundane that made her Sometimes I Sit and Think, And Sometimes I Just Sit such a singular listen, but it’s Barnett’s smoky-but-unimpressed voice that gives the rendition its unusual blend of sexy and sardonic. — ANDREW UNTERBERGER

SPIN Singles Mix: Courtney Barnett, Car Seat Headrest, Boogarins, and More

Kill J, “You’re Good But I’m Better” (No3)
Despite the boisterous title, Danish singer Kill J‘s latest effort isn’t a competition — it’s a heartfelt plea from someone who isn’t being treated as they deserve in a relationship. Even as she pointedly asks if she has to “slit my f–king wrist to get an answer out of you,” her vocals stay smooth and controlled, peaking in epic heights atop a chill, processed hum. Someone that cool under pressure is indeed superior to whatever sap they’re singing to. — JAMES GREBEY

SPIN Singles Mix: Courtney Barnett, Car Seat Headrest, Boogarins, and More

Matt Corby, “Monday” (Elektra Records)
Two years since his last release, 2013’s Resolution, 24-year-old Australian singer/songwriter Matt Corby sought solace in a seaside cottage for the recording of the upcoming LP, due out on Elektra Records in early 2016. Corby laid down his new track in ten minutes, using only the sound of his own voice, stomps, and claps. “Oh, I was never lost / I chose never to go home,” he proclaims, lulling us with rich, bittersweet harmonies that stir questions of faith within. — MEILYN HUQ

SPIN Singles Mix: Courtney Barnett, Car Seat Headrest, Boogarins, and More

Lxury and L.A. Priest, “Show” (Greco-Roman)
Signed to Disclosure s imprint Method Records, U.K. producer Lxury specializes in the same pristine house-indebted bumps ‘n grinds, but he flexes a little bit more beachside bass grunts and melodic flourishes than his label heads. In a pairing that’s delightful in practice and on paper, he’s teamed with LA Priest — the solo project of Sam Dust, from dance-pop outfit Late of the Pier. “Show,” out on Joe Goddard’s (of Hot Chip) co-founded label Greco-Roman, is a bubbling hot tub of sneaker-scuffing beats and funky keyboards that squeak like leather on leather, overlaid with Dust’s easy float of a voice. — HARLEY BROWN

SPIN Singles Mix: Courtney Barnett, Car Seat Headrest, Boogarins, and More

Lawrence Rothman feat. Angel Olsen, “California Paranoia” (Downtown Records)
A lot of noise has been made of this year’s wave of classic ‘70s-sounding singer-songwriters (Tobias Jesso Jr., Father John Misty) and producers-turned-songwriters like Emile Haynie. Enigmatic (and Ariel Pink-affiliated) Los Angeleno Lawrence Rothman falls somewhere in between, and maybe not anywhere that exists just yet: a slew of guests including Charli XCX and Kim Gordon add color to his debut LP. From its first listen, “California Paranoia” sounds like Leonard Cohen scoring The O.C. His voice laps soothingly at a backing track that skips and shuffles like a vinyl needle, gentle strings (and, eventually, Olsen’s distinctive purr) buoying his deadpan claim that “it never rains in California.” — H.B.

SPIN Singles Mix: Courtney Barnett, Car Seat Headrest, Boogarins, and More

Shunkan, “Paleontologist” (Art Is Hard)
It took a little time, but Shunkan have finally shaken off the grit and grime of their early work. The New Zealand-based band still coated their debut single for their new album in copious amounts of noise, but “Paleontologist” does just what the profession it takes its title from suggests. This is a skeleton uncovered by careful excavation, a delicate instrumental and searching vocal laid bare and put on display for all to see. — COLIN JOYCE