1. The new album from Nineteen85's mystery-shrouded dvsn project hit a few days early, and we're glad it did. Its zoned-out slow jams, like the silky title track "Sept. 5th," are helping us make it through the week unscathed.
2. The title of PUP's ridiculously good new punk song—"If This Tour Doesn't Kill You, I Will"—sounds harsh, but if you were holed up in a smelly van with someone who irks you, you might say things like I don't wish you were dead I wish you'd never been born at all too.
3. Slime Season 3 hit this week, and it's another obsess-worthy Young Thug tape stacked with could-be hits. "Memo," with its London on da Track beat and tight hook, is by-the-books Thugger gold, and it might be the first to blow.
4. Rihanna's "Kiss It Better" video drops on Thursday, but the Rih song we've had on loop is "Famous," her feather-ruffling T.L.O.P duet with Kanye, which finally hit streaming services this week. That Sister Nancy sample is everything.
5. Who is Treez Lowkey? We don't know too much yet, but the Virginian's two-month-old self-produced bop "Not At All" has been on loop around the FADER office. Come for the energizing piano chords, stay for Treez's falsetto on the catchy-as-hell chorus.
6. Mash-ups often toe the line between corny and smart. Stööki Sound's interpolation of Desiigner's "Panda"—which injects merky bars from Stormzy's "Know Me From"—is not quite an epic collage, but it's definitely lit.
7. Jessy Lanza's jittery "VV Violence" is both feel-good and angsty, built on chipped synths, bass burps, and Lanza's funky soprano: I say it to your face but it doesn’t mean a thing.
8. On their EP, Uli K—the Bala Club-affiliate and older sibling of brutal reggaeton producer Kamixlo—grapples with gender, identity, and a badly broken heart. Tear-jerking opener "Wish" features sound effects and lots of Auto-Tune, but it's also very human.
9. Told Slant songs tend to involve memorable mantra-like repetitions, and "Low Hymnal" has a couple. The most prominent is its final, though: You can battering ram this life, project mastermind Felix Walworth sings, offering themselves comfort when no one else will. Felix, you can battering ram this life.
10. Ty Dolla $ign's new song "Westside" is basically a 2016, DJ Mustard-backed version of The Beach Boys' classic "California Girls." The East coast, the girls are down to ride, Ty sings, but I rep the Westside.
Listen to Songs You Need in Your Life on Spotify:
