Essential Tracks This Week: Model/Actriz, Jenny Hval, and more

Yulissa Benitez

Not planning on buying anything today? Well, not to worry, because you can still hear this week’s roundup of Essential Tracks without opening your wallet. Today’s batch of best new songs include the latest from dance-friendly New York noisemakers, some spacey L.A. dub, some metal MVPs and more. Queue up this week’s Essential Tracks.

Blurbs written by Jeff Terich (JT), Colin Dempsey (CD), John-Paul Shiver (JPS) and Wil Lewellyn (WL).

Model/Actriz – “Cinderella”

Model/Actriz’s uniquely abrasive songwriting repurposes the jagged shards of noise rock and menacing thump of industrial in favor of something that’s more physically pleasurable—translating harsh textures into pop immediacy. “Cinderella” extends even further along that continuum, one of their most beautifully agitated songs, with a dancefloor-ready pulse and percussive scrapes of guitar juxtaposed against Cole Haden’s vocals, as emotionally bare as they’ve ever been. Though it begins with a campy touch of pomp and flair (“Astonishing, utterly divine, exhilarating, preciously sublime”), Haden undergoes a journey of self-realization, navigating a gauntlet of shame and agony only to come out stronger on the other side: “just know I’ve cleared the way/just know I won’t leave as I came.” – JT

From Pirouette, out May 2 via True Panther/Dirty Hit.

Jenny Hval – “To be a rose”

On her latest single, Hval said “‘To be a rose’ is about how one thing becomes another thing, how we all come from somewhere and someone, and how this is stranger and more powerful than we think.” The Norwegian singer/songwriter sure makes it strange. “To be a rose” is awkward at its onset; its lines over encumbered by syllables and its beat undressed. As it progresses, Hval grows more graceful, tying together disparate verses that only communicate through her as a medium. What begins as an intentional missteps ends intoxicatingly and, most impressively, retroactively contextualizes the stifled introduction as a necessary growing phase. – CD

From Iris Silver Mist, out May 2 via 4AD.

Pachyman – “Hard to Part”

“I may fuck around and leave town,” says Puerto Rican-born, Los Angeles-based musician Pachy Garcia during the middle of the cold-crunching breakbeat delivery system, “Hard to Part.” Serving as an ode to his Los Angeles home, in basketball terms, ol’ Pachyman is a bucket, meaning he will find a beat in a can, mixer, drum, or car. It makes no difference if he’s grinding out that thick-smoke, Lee Perry type o’ scratch, or this new fascination that seems to be cowbell, one-note guitar riff, and the complete understanding that minimalism is not just reserved for ’90s Detroit techno. Dancefloors, we have liftoff. – JPS

From Another Place, out May 23 via ATO

Deafheaven – “Heathen”

The second single from Deafheaven’s upcoming Lonely People With Power finds George Clarke’s actual singing voice continuing to unfold, gracefully caressing the verses, before his more traditional black metal snarl helps the chorus explode. It all flows in a manner they’ve mastered before and continue to showcase here, and they once again prove catchy memorable songs can also be sonically intense. Though not as dark as the first single, “Magnolia,” it manages to find its sweet spot between the overwrought jangle of the Smiths and the depressive violence of Weakling. All of which raises speculation as to which side of that fence the rest of the album will fall. – WL

From Lonely People With Power, out March 28 via Roadrunner.

Satomimagae – “Many”

Satomimagae’s music is gentle and at times incorporeal, the featherlight plucks of her guitar and gentle layers of found-sound underneath them create a space where folk and ambient intersect. “Many” is no different, a gentle song composed of subtle elements—guitar and voice, hypnotic electronic loops and other gentle sonic debris—with the Japanese singer/songwriter professing a mantra of humility: “There are many things I haven’t heard before.” It reaches a climax in volume that’s only a matter of degrees more assertive than how it begins, but in Satomimagae’s world, a little goes a very, very long way. – JT