1. Julia Holter's new one, "Sea Calls Me Home," is pure magic, one last beach song before summer's gone for good.
2. The object of Mick Jenkins' Chicagoan affections on the Kaytranada-produced "Your Love" has skin the color of Crown Royal and brings her own water to the party. What's not perfect about that?
3. Nostalgia is a helluva drug, and Metric's "Fortunes" is the perfect new track to kickstart an early-aughts indie retrospective.
4. The title "Daffodlis In Paris" suggests Fe's song about springtime in a the City of Lights, but in fact, it is spare and dark, perhaps better for end-of-summer anxiety than anything else.
5. On "Cardamom," Weyes Blood remembers a departed lover by the spice that he put in her coffee.
6. Major Myjah is the son of a dancehall great, but the moody R&B he's been making, like "Headed For The Dark," sounds like it takes its cues from north of the border. RIYL PartyNextDoor and creeping on the weekend.
7. On "Dope Cloud," gruff-voiced Detroit punks Protomartyr envison a town up in scummy smoke; it's part Mad Max and part The Virgin Suicides.
8. Yumi Zouma's "Right, Off the Bridge" is another perfect post-disco, sunlight-streaked love song meant for a low-energy dance party.
9. We all wished we could've stayed "Seventeen" forever, at least once. This week, actual teenager Alessia Cara released a huge-sounding pop song about just that.
10. Age-old sentiments like baby, you're not alone never sounded as future as they do in the hands of London-based pop innovators like TÃLÃ and Sylas on "Praise."
11. There are almost as many spaces as sounds in Priscilla Sharp's "Floored," which popped up on Ryan Hemsworth's Secret Songs series this week, and that stop-start rhythm builds the most delicious tension.
12. Not exactly a song, but essential for sure: Texan producer Rabit and NON Records co-founder Chino Amobi turn dream team on this mind-lancing 38-min sound collage.
13. The Weeknd's album drops tonight at midnight. We'll probably watch the "Tell Your Friends" video a few more times before then.
