1. As we pointed out when we debuted its poolside video, "Ladies Hit Squad" features Skepta dropping some very U.K. bars: We don't really need Netflix, I'll give you something to watch/ And after we're done, build a spliff and cotch. He also produced the track, so you really can have your cake and eat it too, or something.
2. "Have You Seen Me" is angel-voiced songwriter Nicole Dollanganger's hardest hitting alt-rock artifact to date. It's got guitar sludge, ghost-town whistling, and a chilling narrative written from the perspective of a kidnapping victim.
3. We called G.L.O.S.S.'s rough-hewn "Give Violence a Chance" one of the year's "first truly urgent punk songs." The Olympia band's queer, aggressively soulful strand of hardcore is some of 2016's most exciting music, in any genre.
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4. This week, Jamie Woon's comeback jam "Sharpness" got a slap-happy edit by Canadian remix king Kaytranada. The drums are particularly wild, probably because they were contributed by BadBadNotGood.
5. Nothing doesn't really write bad songs, and "Vertigo Flowers," from their new Relapse Records full-length, is another ripper. It's the Philly freaks at their most polished and poppy, but it still sounds like something you'd listen to in the bathroom of a dive bar.
6. Apparently "Castrati Stack"—the hypnotic, borderline spiritual first dispatch from Tim Hecker's new album—was inspired by Yeezus, which is kind of a funny thing considering that project borrowed so much from the experimental electronic underground in which Tim Hecker has quietly thrived for years.
7. Chris Brown's crude earworm "Fuck You Back To Sleep" got a pretty high-profile remix this week. The takeaway: Usher is pretty much always welcome on songs that sound like this. Oh, and Zayn too.
8. Montreal pianist Jean-Michel Blais composes meditative modern classical instrumentals. Put on "Nostos" next time you're tidying-up the apartment or laying in bed staring up at your glow-in-the-dark ceiling stars. Trust us.
9. Rihanna recorded a gooey, faithful cover of a Tame Impala song, shortened the title, and stuck it on her long-gestating full-length, ANTI. Then OG Ron C And DJ Candlestick chopped and slopped their own version of her version, and it's somehow even druggier-sounding. Layers, man.
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