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Favorite Songs of the Week

SPIN’s 7 Favorite Songs of the Week: ScHoolboy Q, Crystal Castles, and More

Welcome to our weekly roundup of the SPIN staff’s favorite new songs. Below, sample the best from TDE consiglieres, electro-punk cool kids, and more.

SPIN's 7 Favorite Songs of the Week: ScHoolboy Q, Crystal Castles, and More

Crocodiles, “Telepathic Lover” (Zoo Music)
San Diego duo Crocodiles have been saddled with descriptors as varied as “glam punk” and “dream pop,” but the boys aren’t content to settle easily into any pocket. Their latest single, “Telepathic Lover,” off the band’s upcoming sixth effort, Dreamless (October 21), drifts by so effortlessly, with shimmering keys and acoustics that recall the Church or Echo and the Bunnymen on sunnier days, that you’ll be tempted to dismiss it as indie ear candy. But don’t be fooled: With deceptively paranoid lyrics, the song is an introspective new direction for the formerly fuzzy pair. — DREW FORTUNE

SPIN's 7 Favorite Songs of the Week: ScHoolboy Q, Crystal Castles, and More

Crystal Castles, “Concrete” (Casablanca Records)
Like many Crystal Castles songs, “Concrete” sits at the unsettling limen between EDM and goth. In the adjoining video, Edith Frances tromps backward through some Electric Zoo-like rave wearing a Type O Negative T-shirt and black lipstick, repeatedly screaming what sounds like “Wade on the sleet / Wait with the reeds / Way to come clean,” or something equally confusing and creepy. So if you were wondering whether CC could survive without its former frontwoman, Alice Glass, “Concrete” demonstrates that Frances is just as capable of pouring the slab. — MATTHEW MALONE

SPIN's 7 Favorite Songs of the Week: ScHoolboy Q, Crystal Castles, and More

EZTV feat. Jenny Lewis, “High Flying Faith” (Captured Tracks)
A year and change since the release of their stirring Captured Tracks debut, Brooklyn’s EZTV have announced a sophomore effort, High in Place (out September 30). Lead single “High Flying Faith” is buoyant and uncluttered, with crisp guitar tones and a sweeping baseline leaving room for frontman Ezra Tenenbaum’s melancholic delivery. Inspired by lyrics to psych-rock Skip Spence’s “Broken Heart,” the track serves as an ode to a city in constant flux, a look back at the many changes New York City has weathered since the group’s inception. Together with an always-sparkling Jenny Lewis, EZTV’s chorus harmonies balance the pensive mood with an eagerness for what’s to come. — JEFFREY SILVERSTEIN

SPIN's 7 Favorite Songs of the Week: ScHoolboy Q, Crystal Castles, and More

Jonwayne, “Jump Shot (Letherette Flip)” (Self-released)
Stones Throw rapper-producer Jonwayne has been releasing a slow trickle of singles this year following the 2015 release of the now-ironically titled Jonwayne Is Retired. — the latest of which, “Jump Shot,” has now been remixed by Ninja Tune producer duo Letherette. The breathe-easy original was already plenty ethereal in its gently moaning vocal loop and distantly clanging cowbell, but the remix is even dreamier, with new-age-spa synths coating the proceedings and the bells now echoing in another dimension altogether. “Write a track without a hook, and now it’s ready to blow,” Jonwayne raps, and indeed, it might float right out the window if you’re not careful. — ANDREW UNTERBERGER

SPIN's 7 Favorite Songs of the Week: ScHoolboy Q, Crystal Castles, and More

Russian Circles, “Mota” (Sargent House)
This thundering epic is too smooth to be math-rock, so what is it? Mogwai given a slippery jolt of blast beats? Don Caballero with all the knots untied? Explosions not in the sky but on the ground? Perhaps the title is a clue: It means weed. — DAN WEISS

SPIN's 7 Favorite Songs of the Week: ScHoolboy Q, Crystal Castles, and More

ScHoolboy Q feat. Miguel, “Overtime” (Top Dawg Entertainment)
Some people are probably still traumatized by how south Nas’ Life Is Good went when Miguel took a swing at the hook of “Summer on Smash.” But huge misses like that are rare for the WILDHEART; remember, he arguably gave Wale his crossover career. Miguel now lends his aphrodisiac charm to the Blank Face LP highlight “Overtime.” Smacked between the title track’s soulful anguish and the bleak prison pipeline laid out on closer “Tookie Knows II,” the jam reads like a sex-positive respite. ScHoolboy Q glides over the sonic aquatics and manages not to say anything embarrassing (remember that “drool on your boobs” line?). This is how you follow up “Studio.” — BRIAN JOSEPHS

SPIN's 7 Favorite Songs of the Week: ScHoolboy Q, Crystal Castles, and More

Yohuna, “Apart” (Orchid Tapes)
Clichéd as it sounds, hindsight really does inspire emotional clarity. But waiting for 20/20 can’t be easy when you’re not, as Wisconsin-born Johanne Swanson has described herself, “a patient person.” The ethereal singer-songwriter successfully pushes herself to hurry up and wait on this atmospheric charmer, though, opting to let go of what sounds like the kind of relationship that only sees progress when “soaked in booze.” — RACHEL BRODSKY