Essential Tracks This Week: Mannequin Pussy, Jlin and more

CJ Harvey

The fall music season is more or less upon us, even if it’s still technically summer for another three weeks. There’s a whole hell of a lot of new music to get through in the coming months, and we’re up for the challenge. This week we have a batch of outstanding new songs from what essentially amounts to a lineup of ringers: punk, psych-rock, electronic, hip-hop and indie folk. Queue up the best new songs of the week.

Mannequin Pussy – “I Got Heaven”

Mannequin Pussy are the rare band that can maintain pop hooks and ferocious intensity in equal measure, a punk band that merges extremes seamlessly. Fittingly, they descibe their new single “I Got Heaven” as a mix of the sacred and the profane, approaching the idea of heaven through the lens of what’s here in front of us on Earth rather than the promise of religion. And it’s a beast. Everything that Mannequin Pussy excels at can be heard in this one song: searing intensity, glorious hooks and melodies, poignant social critique. All in under three minutes.

Out now via Epitaph

Ty Segall – “Void”

There are lots of different versions of Ty Segall: glam Ty, garage Ty, psych-rock Ty, acoustic troubadour Ty, and so on. “Void” swirls a few of those different personas together in one epic sprawl of a song, a trippy cosmic pulse with a deep groove at its center and trippy, repetitive acoustic guitar arpeggios floating on top. The deeper Segall progresses into “Void,” however, he taps further into his krautrock and giallo-soundtrack influences, eventually climaxing with a surge of guitar fuzz that defines much of his work. But he doesn’t lean too heavily on it; “Void” is about a slow kind of disorientation, a journey into unknown vortices that takes the scenic route rather than diving in headfirst.

Out now via Drag City

Jlin – “Paradigm”

The statement that accompanied the announcement of Jlin’s new mini-album Perspective made clear that the Gary, Indiana-born producer is “not EDM, IDM, electronic, footwork or post-footwork.” To hear “Paradigm,” that all becomes perfectly clear—this isn’t a return to the frantic percussion-driven sound of her incredible 2017 album Black Origami. (Not that this would be a bad thing.) More spacious and atmospheric, steeped in the sleek eeriness of techno while maintaining an intricate polyrhythmic approach, “Paradigm” is a stunning example of how Jerrilynn Patton’s music continues to evolve, a constantly moving target that remains a thrill to even make the effort to try to keep up with.

From Perspective, out September 29 via Hyperdub

Armand Hammer – “Woke Up and Asked Siri How I’m Gonna Die”

The statement that billy woods released along with Armand Hammer’s new song “Woke Up and Asked Siri How I’m Gonna Die” pretty well summarizes the surreal and otherworldly vibe of it: “all the parts swirl in a unique orbit, building upon each other and all of a sudden the whole thing is floating.” Produced by JPEGMAFIA, the new single from the New York hip-hop duo is more like a fever dream than a single, a hazy vision of mortality and erotic images, not necessarily in that order, not necessarily separately. And it’s gone seemingly as quickly as it arrives—savor it.

From We Buy Diabetic Test Strips, out September 29 via Fat Possum.

Helena Deland – “Bright Green Vibrant Gray”

On her debut album Someone New, Montreal singer/songwriter Helena Deland had a tendency to craft hauntingly gorgeous material from subtle, slow-burn melodies and arrangements. “Bright Green Vibrant Gray” is another such example of the knack she has for crafting breathtakingly understated material whose beauty creeps up on you through its duration. Beginning with just a gentle juxtaposition of acoustic guitar plucks and Deland’s own voice, with additional elements slowly making their presence known through a soft focus view of comfortingly natural imagery. There’s no great climax here, nothing so obviously powerful, just a song whose soft beauty feels rife for basking in with the coming fall season.