Welcome to our weekly roundup of the SPIN staff’s favorite new songs. Below, sample the best from Trinidadian pop singers, Norwegian disconauts, and more.
Annalie Prime, “Guns of Hysteria” (Tommy Boy)
New York City has been blessed with its first nice-weather days of the year, and sure — the unseasonable donning of shorts and skirts might have something to do with global warming, but it might also have something to do with Annalie Prime’s summery new single. The Trinidadian folk-pop singer’s feisty vocals optimistically promise to bring everything she’s got to a hectic, passionate relationship (“Whoa, honey, I’ve got the guns of hysteria / and if you want to start a war / I’m gonna fight back”), but her boasts carry a sunny enthusiasm — perfect for kicking back or running to the cool surf at the beach. — JAMES GREBEY
Lil Yachty featuring Quavo, Skippa Da Flippa, and Young Thug, “Minnesota (Remix)” (Self-Released)
In the same vein as other recent high-profile surprise album drops, flame-haired rapper (and Yeezy Season 3 model) Lil Yachty released his debut mixtape, Lil Boat The Mixtape, on SoundCloud yesterday. Of the 14 tracks, the standout is “Minnesota (Remix).” Now featuring Quavo, Skippa Da Flippa, and Young Thug, it unfolds in typical Yachty fashion: first as a piano-centric slow jam, then evolving into an unconventional banger with the ridiculously catchy falsetto hook, “It get cold like Minnesota.” — MEGAN BRADLEY
Lindstrøm, “Closing Shot” (Smalltown Supersound/Feedelity Recordings)
The SoundCloud image accompanying the latest space-disco epic from Hans-Peter Lindstrøm looks like a scattered mess of footprints; appropriate, considering the amount of uncoordinated boogieing the jam is bound to inspire. An incandescent synth-pop hoedown, “Closing Shot” achieves a euphoria that seems insultingly easy, like something the Norwegian dance-floor maestro just started humming to himself while watching a climactic chase scene in one of the Lethal Weapon movies. Hope for a long credit sequence. — ANDREW UNTERBERGER
MSTRKRFT, “Little Red Hen” (Last Gang Records)
Toronto techno shredders MSTRKRFT, featuring Jesse F. Keeler of Canadian punk duo Death From Above 1979, have come screaming back like a power surge from wherever they’ve been hiding for the past five years. Dispensing with the wry Justice-league bounce of their last album, 2009’s Fist of God, on “Little Red Hen” Keeler and DJ partner Al P. twist the innards of their synthesizers (and likely most of their listeners) with relentlessly grinding, leather-on-leather squeals. It’s Hell’s Club on speed. — HARLEY BROWN
P.O.S, “sleepdrone/superposition” (Doomtree Records)
The last we heard from Minneapolis rap powerhouse P.O.S was back in 2012 when he unexpectedly canceled a tour and announced that his kidneys were failing. Four quiet years and one emergency transplant later, he has returned back and better than ever with the nine-minute epic, “sleepdrone/superposition.” Featuring contributions from Lizzo, Alan Kingdom, Astronautalis, Hard_r, and punk icon Kathleen Hanna, the track hits so hard and with such an immediacy that one would never have thought its creator was, just a few years earlier, near death. But then again, we should’ve learned to expect nothing less from P.O.S, especially as he triumphantly declares: “I ain’t waiting for nothing / I just show up to shine.” — EVAN SIEGEL
The World Is a Beautiful Place & I am No Longer Afraid to Die, “Even More Forever” (Topshelf Records)
When you’re an emo/post-rock-revivalist collective with a roster nearly as oversized as your band name, life on the road doesn’t always feel good. Released as part of a 7″ called Long Live Happy Birthday, “Even More Forever” addresses that discomfort, with leader David Bello wailing, “This isn’t easy / We count dollar menu hunger / As something that isn’t cold that we can eat.” Whatever doesn’t kill you, right? — RACHEL BRODSKY
Xiu Xiu, “Falling” (Polyvinyl)
We’d seriously be surprised if Xiu Xiu’s dense, aching reinterpretation of the theme to David Lynch’s singular television mystery Twin Peaks found the same kind of mainstream success as Julee Cruise’s Australian chart-toppping original, but not because Jamie Stewart’s oddball indie project hasn’t mined a new depth of emotion in Angelo Badalamenti’s desolate love song. And did we mention that “Falling” is only the first cut from an entire double LP of Xiu Xiu Twin Peaks covers? This is quite possibly the beginning of a creative and commercial Peaks pile-on (the long-awaited third season is due in 2017), but at least we finally get the eerie atmospheric soundtrack our real lives have been missing. – ANNA GACA
