Listen Up

From ambient and experimental to neo-soul and lo-fi hip-hop, some of our favorite new songs

Andy Shauf: Try Again Joyful and a tad flirtatious, Toronto-based Andy Shauf’s “Try Again” depicts an awkward run in with an ex. But it’s far more than a note about loneliness: Shauf does an excellent job at developing the cast of characters, an impressive feat for the just-under-four-minute track. “Somewhere between drunkenness and jealousy / I watch her talking to some old friend / What …

Danger Mouse and Sparklehorse feat. MF DOOM: Ninjarous

Danger Mouse (aka Brian Burton) has unveiled a previously unreleased song made in collaboration with Sparklehorse, the inimitable MF DOOM and Patrick Carney of the Black Keys. When Burton recorded 2010’s Dark Night of the Soul with Sparklehorse, he produced more music with frontman Mark Linkous, who’d pass away a few months before the record’s release. “Mark and I worked on a lot of music …

TNGHT: WHAT_IT_IS

TNGHT (aka Hudson Mohawke and Lunice), after seven years apart, return with their widely anticipated II EP. From it comes “WHAT_IT_IS,” a noisy, Timbaland-esque track with vocal samples, drums and space-like sounds. The end result proves enjoyably odd, courtesy of an unconventional formula. Other tracks on the EP follow suit, although most are darker and more aggressive. From boom-bap and early 2000s hip-hop to modern electronic, …