Rihanna Has ‘Wild Thoughts’ And Young Thug Sings: This Week In Music

For the familiar, welcome back. For the newcomers, enjoy.

Track 1. Majid Jordan and PARTYNEXTDOOR – “One I Want”

The OVO Sound labelmates have cracked out a solid hit. The lyrics alone explore just how much financial dedication we can accumulate over time to a significant other. This song urges you to send out a little message to your partner and say “You are worth it. You are the…” followed by this track.

Track 2. DJ Khaled, Rihanna, and Bryson Tiller – “Wild Thoughts”

There are three huge names on this track already, but there’s just one more lurking in the background. You don’t have to listen that closely to recognize Carlos Santana’s 1999 hit “Maria Maria” sampled on this track, guitar solo included. DJ Khaled’s next mega-collaboration project Grateful is due this coming week.

Track 3. Action Bronson – “Let Me Breathe”

Action Bronson’s last studio album, Mr. Wonderful, dropped in 2015 and ever since its release, the borough of Queens and the rest of the world has been waiting for more. But we’ve all learned to be patient, given the fact that the 33-year-old rapper has been busy with his TV shows Fuck, That’s Delicious and Traveling the Stars: Action Bronson and Friends Watch ‘Ancient Aliens’ on Viceland, and his world tours. This week, Action announced his next project will be titled Blue Chips 7000, a nod to his 2013 mixtape Blue Chips 2.

Track 4. Lorde – “Supercut”

Everyone needs to take a page from the Lorde playbook. Her debut album dropped in 2013, and today her highly-anticipated sophomore album, Melodrama, is out. The lesson here is: Don’t rush the process. And we can verify that this album was well worth the wait. Our very own Claire Dodson was a very lucky attendee to Lorde’s intimate pre-release listening party in New York City earlier this week. Read Claire’s recap of the night here and play Lorde’s track “Supercut” as loud as you can.

Track 5. Young Thug – “Take Care”

Young Thug has reinvented himself on his new album Beautiful Thugger Girls. Fun fact: The early working title for this project was a play on the CoverGirl slogan, “easy, breezy, beautiful CoverGirl.” Young Thug’s take–“easy, breezy, beautiful thugger girls”–was truncated to the album we have now, which is slight departure from his hip-hop music style and leads you more into a mellow, singer-songwriter genre.

Track 6. Mir Fontane – “Frank Ocean”

Mir Fontane’s new track “Frank Ocean” is suppose to break necks with double takes. Be honest: Your first thought here was, “wait, there’s a new Frank Ocean track and it’s not at the number one spot on this list?” Calm down. Fontane’s track adapts the melody from Frank Ocean’s “Nights.” It’s a another way of sampling a song, nodding in recognition. If the track was named anything else, it probably wouldn’t fly as much. The journey that gets you to listen to this song is noteworthy enough to make our recommendations list.

Track 7. Travis Scott – “Birds In The Trap”

Travis Scott’s album Birds in the Trap Sing McKnight is one of my favorites from 2016. This week, Scott released the 14-minute short film Birds In The Trap. There are bits of music throughout the film, but it ends where the album begins, with the track “the ends,” featuring Andre 3000.

Track 8. Queens of the Stone Age – “The Way You Used To”

Queens of the Stone Age have release their first single off their upcoming album Villains (hence the “V” on the artwork.) This track is a slow burn, but I promise it builds to a nice groove. Also, “The Way You Used To” is the first new track out from the band since 2013. Again (re: Lorde), trust the process!

Bonus Track. Dance Gavin Dance – “Summertime Gladness”

One of my favorite post-hardcore bands, Dance Gavin Dance, have done something nice–they put out a new song. The band is playing the Vans Warped Tour all summer and were kind enough to give their fans some new lyrics to learn before heading out to see them on stage. On a not so nice note, the song “Summertime Gladness” is a YouTube exclusive, meaning it has not been available for purchase or stream since its release.

This week’s playlist is below, so take these tracks to go! See you next Friday.