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Favorite Songs of the Week

SPIN’s 7 Favorite Songs of the Week: The Strokes, Cymbals Eat Guitars, and More

Welcome to our weekly roundup of the SPIN staff’s favorite new songs. Below, sample the best from East Coast keepers of the classic rock flame, Norwegian art-pop purveyors, and more.

SPIN's 7 Favorite Songs of the Week: The Strokes, Cymbals Eat Guitars, and More

Cass McCombs feat. Angel Olsen, “Opposite House” (ANTI-)
Count your lucky stars that a world now exists wherein Cass McCombs and Angel Olsen are on the same track: “Opposite House,” the lead single from the forthcoming Mangy Love, set to arrive August 26. Centered around a meditative guitar loop and sturdied by Olsen’s comely vocals, McCombs’ low-key delivery leaves room for sleek string arrangements and warm organ tone. Together they float in and out of reality while asking, “Why does it rain inside?” — JEFFREY SILVERSTEIN

SPIN's 7 Favorite Songs of the Week: The Strokes, Cymbals Eat Guitars, and More

Cymbals Eat Guitars, “Wish” (Sinderlyn)
“We wanted to make a more energetic record,” bassist Matthew Whipple has said of Cymbals Eat Guitars’ fourth LP, Pretty Years (out September 16). Well, the record’s first single, “Wish,” absolutely lives up to that statement, with bounding percussion, a funky bass line, and sunny synths. But oh, there’s still plenty that’s offbeat: For every wiggling beat there’s a skronk of atonal, no-wave sax. Consider your CEG wish granted. — RACHEL BRODSKY

SPIN's 7 Favorite Songs of the Week: The Strokes, Cymbals Eat Guitars, and More

Dogbreth, “Cups & Wrappers” (Asian Man Records)
Their name sounds like a band inside a TV show, and frankly, so does Dogbreth’s music. “Cups and Wrappers” is like Polaris from Pete and Pete: off-pitch anachronistic jangle-grunge that references eating pizza and breaks the fourth wall (“All I wanted to do was put it in a song”). It sounds more unearthed than recently recorded; file between Yuck and Teen Suicide as far as microwave-melted Toad the Wet Sprocket/Dinosaur Jr. hybrids go. Or dub it My So-Called Jam. — DAN WEISS

SPIN's 7 Favorite Songs of the Week: The Strokes, Cymbals Eat Guitars, and More

Fat Joe and Remy Ma feat. Jay Z, “All The Way Up (Remix)” (Roc Nation)
Jay Z had to respond to Lemonade. An entire album of Lemonade responses, like previously rumored, would’ve been ridiculous, but Jay Z needed a verse that was Jon Snow-esque: a return from Jack White-assisted death to show he’s still king of New York. The culture collapsed on him again when he did that through a Guru reference: “You know you made it when the fact / Your marriage made it is worth millions / Lemonade is a popular drink and it still is.”

And that’s not even the best part of the song. Remy Ma’s verse stands out with the palpable hunger coursing through it: “One of these bitches, two of these bitches gotta die / Three of these bitches, four of these bitches gonna cry.” Throw your X’s up. — BRIAN JOSEPHS

Listen to “All the Way Up (Remix)” via TIDAL

SPIN's 7 Favorite Songs of the Week: The Strokes, Cymbals Eat Guitars, and More

Fifth Harmony, “That’s My Girl” (Syco)
Harmonizers learned that this song existed when Tinashe told SPIN she’d written it for the quintet last fall. Since then, it’s been a nail-biting wait until 7/27‘s release. And boy, does it live up to our every expectation: “If you’re feeling me / Put your five high,” the quintet sings as a colorful chorus explodes in technicolor funk and squelchy horns signal the stomping arrival of pop’s best girl group in a decade. — BRENNAN CARLEY

SPIN's 7 Favorite Songs of the Week: The Strokes, Cymbals Eat Guitars, and More

Jenny Hval, “Female Vampire” (Sacred Bones)
“I’m so tired of subjectivity,” avant-pop shaman Jenny Hval laments on “Female Vampire,” her foreboding opening transmission from upcoming concept album Blood Bitch. Understandable: Hval’s brew is probably a little too unnerving and confrontational to ever be as universally lauded as deserved, but if the rest of the LP is as generally bewitching as this Stereolab-experimenting-on-PJ Harvey jam, we’ll be stating its otherworldliness as fact soon enough. Here it comes. — ANDREW UNTERBERGER

The Strokes, “OBLIVIUS” (Cult Records)
Back from the Voidz, Julian Casablancas is suddenly busy with the Strokes: performing a one-off gig at Port Chester’s Capitol Theatre, headlining Governors Ball, and putting the band’s new EP, Future Present Past, out on his label, Cult Records. Arriving June 3, the short-player features four tracks (three originals, one remix), including the just-shared “OBLIVIUS,” a trashy but satisfying hodgepodge that’s in character for 2010s Strokes, who continue to be fond of taut guitarplay, corny spelling, and Doc Brown‘s idea of what the future would sound like. Fifteen years removed from the summer of ’01, Jules’ croon still gives us shivers. — KYLE MCGOVERN