ListenUp

New songs by Braids and High Water, powerful nostalgia from Garbage and more in this week's music

Braids: Joni Montreal-based three-piece Braids is making some of the most intricate electronic pop we’ve heard: take “Joni” where Raphaelle Standell-Preston’s voice snaps and stretches, yelps and exhales—setting the pace for the ricochets of synth and drum hits. Braids releases a slower-paced music video to match, where Standell-Preston figures things out with a fictional partner while telling herself: “We don’t know where we are going …

Popular Songs You Probably Didn’t Know Were About Drugs

Drug references run deep in the history of music. In a way, music almost serves as a record of drugs and their popularity throughout the decades—from psychedelics and marijuana in the ‘70s to hip-hop’s love for dirty Sprite in the 2000s. For every song unmistakably dedicated to drugs, there are probably five others laced with subtle references blowing right past us. Cool Material recently rounded-up …

Unknown Mortal Orchestra: First World Problem

After the wild success of their third album Multi-Love, New Zealand/American Unknown Mortal Orchestra has released a new track: “First World Problem.” The song (whose cover art is by Henrietta Harris) is everything we’ve come to expect from UMO—boppy, upbeat and with just a little modern-day anxiety in the lyrics.