Our Songs of the Week column spotlights great new tunes and analyzes notable releases. Find our new favorites and more on our Spotify Top Songs playlist, and for other great songs from emerging artists, check out our Spotify New Sounds playlist. This week, we take a look at some intriguing returns from some very of-the-moment artists.
New and Notable:
We’re All Heading South with Zach
Lana Del Rey said it herself: the music industry is going country. And while LDR’s new country-trap experiment with Quavo gets lost on the way, Zach Bryan once again dominates the country landscape with his new album, the well-timed The Great American Bar Scene. There’s plenty to be said for the rough-cut authenticity Bryan consistently brings to his music — he’s vulnerable in tracks like “Towers,” a masterful storyteller on “Oak Island,” and devastatingly personal on pre-release single “Pink Skies” (one of our favorites songs so far this year).
The record is another stacked effort from one of the genre’s reigning outlaws, and the collaboration with John Mayer, “Better Days,” is one of its strongest offerings. Mayer shines in a setting like this, one not unlike his 2017 LP, The Search for Everything, where honestly is the name of the game. “And I wasn’t loved well as a younger child/ So I’ll pray these better, unstable days, they stay awhile,” Bryan sings. Mayer is mostly on hand for harmonies and guitar, which is just fine, since his ability to rip a twangy solo blends in perfectly with the sonic landscape Bryan has designed across the album.
While more and more artists’ work on capitalizing on the mainstream appeal country music offers these days, Bryan and Mayer shoulder this sound like a well-worn denim jacket — one they’ve owned for a long, long time. — Mary Siroky
Childish Gambino, Renaissance Man
Bando Stone has made quite the entrance. He’s the subject of Donald Glover’s new sci-fi comedy thriller film Bando Stone & the New World, and “Lithonia” is the first offering of the soundtrack — and what allegedly is the “final” Childish Gambino album. Fitting with the vibe that “the end is near,” “Lithonia” does not sound like a preview of what’s to come, but instead rings out like the film’s sweeping, epiphany-heavy climax. The heavy guitars and power-ballad tempo certainly help, and Glover’s impassioned tenor is definitely giving “fictional pop star has a breakthrough realization.”
In fact, “Lithonia” is much closer to the expansive makeover he employed on 2016’s Awaken, My Love! rather than the newly-released 3.15.20 redux Atavista. Glover sounds utterly gripping when he ditches genre for the sake of storytelling and curating a feel; but unlike the similarly narrative-driven soundtrack work that Glover crafted with KIRBY for the Amazon series Swarm, Glover dials up the drama and even brings a bit of pop-punk angst to “Lithonia.”
Sure, the trailer for Bando Stone & the New World is enough to get excited over, but “Lithonia” seems to exist both as a Childish Gambino banger and an in-universe, narrative-specific turning point. The layers keep layering, and Childish Gambino keeps demonstrating why he is indeed a modern Renaissance Man. — Paolo Ragusa
Kendrick Dances on the Grave of Drake’s Reputation
Christ, man.
Now that the Kendrick Lamar v. Drake storm has passed, the dust has started to settle and the victor is writing the history books in real-time. Notice how I didn’t specify who the victor was… it’s because I don’t have to — you filled in that blank just fine.
Drake might have literally had the last word with “The Heart Part 6,” but it’s only because K.Dot had no need to respond. The cut was easily one of the least talked about diss tracks of the entire feud thanks to the one-two deathblow of the chilling “Meet the Grahams” and the cut-throat “Not Like Us,” a track that has become an unlikely contender for song of the summer. (Hell, they’re playing a song with the line “certified lover boy/ certified pedophile” at damn baseball games.)
Lamar’s Juneteenth concert seemed to be his victory lap, especially given the fact that he performed “Not Like Us” a whopping five times in a row before walking off to the instrumental playing once again. And yet, as it turns out, he still had one more bend to take — queue the “Not Like Us” music video.
With visuals as striking as the song they represent, the “Not Like Us” video finds Lamar metaphorically (and kind of literally) dancing on the grave of Drake’s reputation. Crowds of people chant and dance along to the song’s most memorable lines as symbolic imagery of exploding owl piñatas and Kenny doing pushups flash by. Just like the lyrics, there are easter eggs, clap-backs, and the general vibe that Lamar has just about everyone on his side.
What truly puts the song and video over the top, however, is that even when you ignore the beef of it all, they’re just really damn good. Devoid of context, “Not Like Us” would still have a fun, memorable beat with an energetic, charismatic performance from Lamar, and the video would still be an eye-catching treat. If anything, the “Not Like Us” music video proves that Lamar understood that to fully dominate the beef, it wasn’t just about the mudslinging, it was about the artistry. — Jonah Krueger
