Robin Pecknold: Out Of Sight, Out Of Mind (The Five Keys Cover)

Out of the blue, Robin Pecknold of the Fleet Foxes releases a fun cover of the 1956 single “Out of Sight, Out of Mind” by the R&B singing group The Five Keys, with the message “happy holidays.” His rendition starts out sweet and nostalgic, before blooming into a dissonant frenzy of banged chords and noise. It feels like a much more realistic interpretation of the …

Erykah Badu: But You Caint Use My Phone

Since releasing her seven-minute take on Hotline Bling and another track “Phone Down,” her R&B highness Erykah Badu has had us waiting impatiently for her mixtape “But You Caint Use My Phone”—for which every song is related to the device that keeps us connected (or not). The Hotline Bling remix is renamed “Cel U Lar Device,” there’s a cover of New Edition’s “Mr Telephone Man” …

Abelard: I’m OK For Now

There are notes of ’80s and ’90s pop and R&B in Melbourne-based Abelard’s “I’m OK For Now” despite its sumptuous electronic make-up. The producer (who previously remixed the Seinfeld theme to the internet’s delight) samples vocals from the ’80s disco jam “Change of Heart” by Change and sprinkles digitalesque artifacts all over. His style—self-described as “glitterwave”—is sweet, a little nostalgic, while being pointedly current. If …