Shamir is pure, candy-coated joy. The video for "Call It Off," which might be one of the bounciest breakup songs ever written, shows Shamir's lanky frame and mischievous facial expressions literally softening into plush as the 20-year-old artist transforms into a puppet made in Jim Henson's studio. Watching the video wouldn't be so much fun if the song itself weren't equally great; hearing Shamir's artfully fluctuating voice against buzzy synthesizers, hypnotic beats, and cowbell flourishes is a serious mood lifter. By mixing disco levity with playful energy, Shamir is coltish enough to be unpredictable but also confident enough to be a star. — Molly Long
The xx have done "quiet" plenty of times, and their band member and house producer Jamie XX has done "radiant" in his own productions, too. "Gosh," from Jamie's forthcoming solo LP In Colour, is so precisely stunning because it does both things simultaneously: a skipping garage beat and rough-and-tumble vocal sample give way to a beautifully shimmering, endless-sounding melodic line that recalls the saucer-eyed gorgeousness of peak-era Orbital. Kids will be getting high to this all year, and for years to come—and they'll be all the blissfully better for it. — Larry Fitzmaurice
The first new Mas Ysa song in a while is a pretty epic one, featuring surging beats, project mastermind Thomas Arsenault's urgent-as-ever wailing, and some surprisingly delicate acoustic guitar interludes. But it's not just sonically massive; there's a kind of desperate emotional vastness to "Look Up" that distinguishes it from the other larger-than-life electronic jams that tend to swallow stadiums in 2015. To be honest, it has more in common with the sorts of melodramatic pop songs written by Future Islands, Wu Lyf, and, like, Springsteen; it's life-affirming and spiritually restless at the same time. — Patrick D. McDermott
Over a Boi-1da and Vinylz beat that's so radio-ready you'll swear you've heard it before, Lil Durk and Jeremih take turns crooning. As we pointed out when the track first dropped, the pair actually sound super similar. It's a good thing, though, cause the finished product is a sturdy, low-key, vaguely unexpected Durk moment that's allegedly already won over his female fanbase. Plus, it's another Jeremih feature to add to your ever-growing playlist of songs he's made better. — Patrick D. McDermott
It is insane to think that Built to Spill have been writing songs like "Never Be the Same" for 23 years, but their musical hero Neil Young's been doing it for way longer so there's no reason not to expect that Doug Martsch and co. can pull off the same trick. Built to Spill have become a jam-band concern over the last decade, which isn't a bad thing—I mean, have you ever listen to Built to Spill...on weed? But this cut from their forthcoming Untethered Moon finds the Boise veterans doing sweet and simple, just the way they always have. — Larry Fitzmaurice
A couple months ago I tweeted at FADER favorite UNiiQU3 and asked what her favorite jersey club remixes of "Coco" were. She recommended two: DJ 93rd's, and DJ Big O and Sliink's. 93rd's was out at that point, but I've had to wait a minute to hear Sliink's. The rollout is perfectly timed, though, now that the original has cooled off a little, so I can shamelessly play this edit everywhere, as often as I want. — Alexander Iadarola
YAST's "When You're Around" carries many of Swedish pop's sonic benchmarks, from its dusky vocals to its characteristically warm production to the fact that the whole song produces mental imagery of rain collecting on a windowsill. But here's the neat trick: YAST made a song that sounds as American as it does Swedish, like a sleepy, less noisy version of Dinosaur Jr. —an aesthetic that Londoners Yuck perfected over the last few years, too. Swedes sounding like Brits who were originally ripping off Americans: wrap your head around that one. — Larry Fitzmaurice
This isn't the first time that Warp-signed duo Darkstar and former FADER cover star Zomby have worked together—they actually go way back, and, despite the title, "Quandry" comes over like an absorbing expression of friendship. Playful xylophone-evoking notes perform a back-and-forth dance atop a bed of frayed-edge synth pads, and the climax teems with life, like a shoal of tropical fish darting through a coral reef: weaving in and out, but moving in the same direction. — Ruth Saxelby
Canadian bruisers No Joy have previously gained attention for purveying a damaged, sweetly aggressive form of shoegaze, but on "Everything New," they turn their aggression inwards, achieving a floating form of sonic psychedelia that bears a little similarity to Cocteau Twins' gossamer mindlessness. Play this and that Jamie xx track back to back and watch your stoner friends start to foam at the mouth (or, don't—be nice to your friends!). — Larry Fitzmaurice
I don't know about you, but I didn't see this one coming: Mad Decent are releasing Glasgow experimentalist Rudi Zygadlo's new single. Admittedly, there were glimpses of shining pop ambition on his two Planet Mu albums, but he often privileged texture over narrative. On "Slow Carz," however, he goes straight for the summer anthem jugular. In the eleventh hour, we seem to get along/ We can stay in love, although we know it's wrong, he sings intriguingly before the song bursts. It's one for the road, for sure. — Ruth Saxelby
Lao's Soundcloud is a good thing to keep your eye on. He's always uploading bootlegs and one-offs, and pretty much all of it is really good. A couple years ago he threw up "Talisman," dedicated to the Aztec war god Huitzilopochtli, a track which is basically ice-cold grime injected into tribal guarachero. This week he uploaded his VIP version of the track, and it pretty much inverts the equation; it layers a minimal eski grime track with those propulsive tribal shakers, and the effect is pretty startling. — Alexander Iadarola