The Antlers, “Rolled Together.” The Antlers tackle ill-fated romance with a tenacity that few, if any, art-rock troupes dare. With their latest album, the trio fine-tunes its form for a dive into an abyss where sonic complexities rival and reflect emotional ones. Among the finer tracks from Burst Apart, “Rolled Together” bears the imagery most crucial to the record. Eschewing narrative or dialogue, bandleader Peter Silberman hews to a smoldering sensation through a recurring pair of lyrics: “Rolled together with a burning paper heart/Pulled together, but about to burst apart.” From its shimmering opening, where a gospel riff seams to Silberman’s similarly inflected crystalline falsetto, “Rolled Together” churns stunning layers in and out of focus. M. Sean Ryan
Drake, “Dreams Money Can Buy.” Drake’s new track, “Dreams Money Can Buy,” samples Jai Paul’s recent “BTSTU,” opening with Paul teasing, “Don’t fuck with me,” like a little child before Drake’s stalwart collaborator, Noah “40” Shebib, drops the beat. Synths that sound like guitars recorded backwards swell as Drake returns to his lyrical bread and butter, the uneasy intersection of fame and romance. Though Drake the celebrity’s problems have only grown (“And lately I do bitches the meanest,” he admits, not enthusiastically), Drake the rapper is clearly hitting his stride. Ross Scarano
jj, “No One Can Touch Us Tonight” and “Ice.” Swedish duo jj offers up two new tracks this week, “No One Can Touch Us Tonight” and “Ice,” that further sculpt the Balearic House-influenced sound of their first two albums. “No One,” in particular, ditches a portion of the group’s trademark lazy-dream atmosphere for percussive drive, though the tropical-island-meets-drugged-out-club mood remains largely intact. “Ice” transfers the proceedings to a snowy hamlet, as vocalist Elin Kastlander lays her rich, sorrowful voice over a crescendoing line of drums, crystal guitar tones, and copious echoes. If these songs are any indication of jj’s next record, they point more toward a chiseling of the wheel rather than any stark reinvention of it. Kevin Liedel
This article was originally published on The House Next Door.
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