TRACK OF THE WEEK
Khalid
Young Dumb & Broke
Young, sure: at 19, Khalid Robinson is a goddamn millennial falcon. But the former army brat with the wistful R&B croon certainly isn’t dumb, and if he keeps putting out songs as good as this hummable humdinger, won’t ever be broke, either. More decrepit listeners might detect echoes of the Cure’s Close to Me amid Young Dumb & Broke’s palliative organ spiral, but that just adds to the bittersweet vibe of taken-for-granted golden years turning to ash.
Fall Out Boy
Champion
FOB have been gearing up for that notoriously difficult third post-reformation album since recent single Young and Menace – a catastrophic excursion into EDM histrionics – saw them seemingly short-circuit their emotional GPS. Thankfully, Pete Wentz and co are back on track with Champion, a gritted-teeth tale of triumph via masochistic endurance, built on some road-tested riffage.
Kendrick Lamar ft Rihanna
Loyalty
Anyone who has accidentally handed over their Tesco Clubcard at the Waitrose checkout while trying to claim a free latte knows that loyalty can be a slippery philosophical concept. Who better to debate the pros and cons than RiRi and Ken? The volcanically hot pair fluidly fence over a nervy, serpentine slow jam created, remarkably, by someone putting Bruno Mars’s cheerfully facile 24k Magic through a digital spiralizer.
Major Lazer ft Anitta & Pabllo Vittar
Sua Cara
Turns out the word “twerk” sounds a lot more appealing in Portuguese. In what feels like a rather opportunistic attempt to either slipstream or eclipse the world-gobbling Despacito, Diplo drafts in Brazilian pop star Anitta and drag queen Pabllo Vittar to add some fire emoji to the latest in Major Lazer’s production line of future-hedonism floorfillers, complete with dancehall stomps and nose-flute solo.
Belle and Sebastian
We Were Beautiful
More of a shy “still here!” wave than booming “we’re back!” statement, this appealing curio from the indie leviathans takes its sweet time to get going, though the relative novelty of hearing the patron saints of Breton T-shirts and library cards unleash a breakbeat will likely get you past its dreamy longueurs to what’s a pretty kickass chorus.
