Okay, I meant for these posts to be a way for me to highlight music I've freshly gotten into outside of new releases. (Just like I meant to post something a little different between this and the last Top Ten Tuesday, but it's still in the works. I'm trying really hard to have it ready for next week.) But the problem is I didn't listen to a whole lot besides new releases last month, so that objective has mostly fallen by the wayside, at least this time around. At any rate, it's still a list of 10 really good songs, as usual accompanied by my wordy, gushing descriptions! It's pretty pop-oriented again, because that's just who I am lately, but hopefully there's still enough diversity that something peaks your interest, no matter your taste.

10. Janelle Monáe - Django Jane


Janelle Monáe will forever be one of my favorite artists because The ArchAndroid revolutionized my musical life back in 2010 when I was otherwise listening almost exclusively to cute indie pop bands and sad folk singers. And while I'm happy for Monáe's newfound success as an actress, the announcement of her new album, Dirty Computer, couldn't have come at a better time because I've been hungry for new music for a while. So far, she's released two tracks, and while "Make Me Feel" may be the bigger critical darling, I have to champion "Django Jane" a bit. Monáe's rap skills are vastly underrated, in my opinion, so to have an entire track devoted to them - and one with such an empowering and necessary message, at that - just feels right. A lot of attention has been paid to the instantly iconic line, "We gon' start a motherfucking pussy riot/Or we gon' have to put 'em on a pussy diet." But Monáe also speaks more specifically to her own critics and the sidelining of black female voices with rhymes like, "Remember when they used to say I look too mannish?/Black girl magic, y'all can't stand it."

9. Phoenix - Fior Di Latte (A. G. Cook Remix)


I'll be honest: I don't care much at all about Phoenix, I've never heard the original version of this song, and I doubt I'll be seeking it out. But none of that matters because this remix isn't really about Phoenix; it's about A. G. Cook and his ability to turn a song completely inside out in the most satisfying way possible. Aesthetically, it draws on the same universe of sounds as Charli XCX's Pop 2 and Hannah Diamond's recent releases, which means it's right up my alley. The first minute and a half is almost normal (well, if you consider wavy processed vocals and discordant electronic layers normal, which I do at this point), even a bit beautiful. Then everything starts to break down, the vocals cutting in and out, abrasive bursts of drum machine kicking in, the synths forcefully embedding themselves into the main melodic line. By three and a half minutes, there's not really a "song" left in the aftermath of Cook's gleeful destruction, just vaguely recognizable elements of it that have been smashed up into thousands of crystalline rock candy pieces.

8. Nadia Oh - Is That You


Okay, I'll admit this up front so no one gets the wrong idea: Colours is not a very good album. I was curious about it because I'd seen it described as PC Music before PC Music was really a thing, and that's true to an extent. But, to me, the best PC Music releases are only deceptively shallow, in the sense that what at first seems very frivolous and surface-level is actually a front for emotions that are very earnest and real. Colours, on the other hand, is just shallow, and it doesn't help that Nadia Oh's voice lacks personality and, even auto-tuned to death, melodicism. Why, then, have I included her on this list? Because, very occasionally, she and producer Space Cowboy hit upon something that actually works for an entire song. "Is That You" is silly and empty and cheap-sounding but in a super fun and addictive way. Its two crowning achievements: the Blogspot-referencing lyric that definitely lets you know this song is from 2011 (I say, while posting on Blogspot in 2018) and Nadia's wobbly, pitch-shifted chirp of "Is that you," which has the surreal quality of an auditory hallucination.

7. Carly Rae Jepsen - Your Type


For some reason, ever since Emotion was released in 2015, I've made the active decision to avoid jumping on the Carly Rae Jepsen bandwagon. It's not that I had anything against her personally. I think I was just stubbornly resisting the massive hype for fear I wouldn't get it. Well, now seemed like the perfect time to finally give her a real shot, since I've been so high on pop music in general. Final verdict: I've definitely been missing out. Emotion is a top-shelf pop album that's undoubtedly joining my permanent rotation. In my opinion, it reaches its peak with the back-half trifecta of "Making the Most of the Night," "Your Type," and "Let's Get Lost," and it's the midpoint of this trio I find myself returning to the most. Although the verses are delivered with Jepsen's patented sugary sweetness, her voice takes on a more mature tone in the impassioned chorus, which is one for the ages in how fully it leans into its white-hot '80s-styled melodrama. This is the sort of song that's probably blasting through stadium loudspeakers in another dimension because it's almost certainly too good for this one.

6. Kero Kero Bonito - Only Acting


Leave it to Kero Kero Bonito to pull the rug out from under me just as I was falling in love with the cutesy, hyperactive candy-floss sheen of Bonito Generation. When I first listened to "Only Acting," I had no idea what I was hearing; it was abrasive, jarring, and weird as fuck. But further listens revealed the core KKB qualities that originally drew me in: Sarah Midori Perry's exaggeratedly adorable vocals and a simple but effective chorus melody that'll be bouncing off the walls of your brain for days. The only difference this time is that they're buried beneath grungy, lo-fi instrumentation. But just as you settle into this stylistic shift, unsettling cracks begin to form. "You should be able to feel a performance with your whole body and soul," Perry instructs, "and now I'm going to teach you everything I -" Her words are then cut off by what sound like snippets of her own exorcism. Afterward, the song briefly proceeds as usual until, midway through the final chorus, Perry's voice skips like a bad record and the entire production falls off a cliff into the glitchy depths of hell.

5. Ezra Furman - No Place


Ezra Furman's last full-length release, 2015's Perpetual Motion People, was pretty undeniably delightful, between its diverse mishmash of musical influences and its bright, toe-tapping melodies. But beneath many of these melodies lay lyrics that explored themes much darker and more serious than implied by their shiny, boisterous wrapping. On Transangelic Exodus, the divide between music and lyrics is bridged, as its sound is much heavier, grungier, and rawer overall. The result is intense emotional catharsis at best and damn fine rock and roll at worst. "No Place" is particularly bracing, its non-stop energy propelled relentlessly forward by booming drums, fuzzy horns, and distorted guitar. If I were to describe the song as a feeling, I'm guessing it might be kind of like being a passenger in a car about to crash that never actually does. Instead, the moment just before impact loops over and over again, equal parts terrifying and thrilling. Furman's voice is raspy and rough, sometimes even verging on tuneless, but it's hard to imagine the song hitting as hard if sung with technical perfection.

4. Wye Oak - It Was Not Natural


Jenn Wasner has one of those voices I could listen to sing the phone book. It may not be particularly technically versatile, but it has such an idiosyncratic tone to it, calming and serene but with enough grit and gravity to hold its own against even the most towering walls of guitar and synth. While her solo release as Flock of Dimes, If You See Me, Say Yes, was enjoyable, nothing quite matches what she and Andy Stack can do together as Wye Oak - which makes the upcoming release of The Louder I Call, The Faster It Runs, their first proper album since 2011, all the more exciting. "It Was Not Natural," as one of those pristine, sweeping ballads that usually shows up to give the listener goosebumps at least once per Wye Oak album, allows the full impact of Wasner's voice to come through loud and clear. It floats atop a spacey spiral of piano, synths, and percussion, doling out simple declarations - "Only human hate could give us something so unforgiving" - with such measured weariness that they feel heavy with deeper meaning.

3. ionnalee - Joy


I am continually disappointed by how thoroughly Jonna Lee's experimental synth-pop, first as iamamiwhoami and now as ionnalee, gets slept on by major music publications. (Pitchfork, for example, gave iamamiwhoami's albums lukewarm reviews and hasn't even touched ionnalee's.) Maybe it's the fact that iamamiwhoami began life as a viral Youtube campaign and has never quite shaken off that novelty, or maybe it's the fact that everything has been self-released by Lee's own label and therefore flown under the radar. Whatever it is, to my ears, Lee (alongside, as iamamiwhoami, her collaborator Claes Björklund) is making the most consistent and interesting music in this style right now. "Joy" is another showstopper, opening with a haze of ominous synths that sounds like a shadowy artificial intelligence breathing itself to life. It builds to a dizzy pitch before shrinking away at the arrival of Lee's spooky, enigmatic vocals and returns for the massive chorus, where Lee's voice rings out like a chime, "This is the sound of joy, coming from my innermost."

2. SOPHIE - Faceshopping


I'll only warn you once: as long as SOPHIE keeps being the most interesting person in electronic music (a claim I'm willing to call only slightly hyperbolic), I'm not going to stop posting about her. "Faceshopping" sounds like the soundtrack to a dystopian but stylish future, one in which the noises of a malfunctioning android assembly line become strangely musical. I've said it before, but I'm continually amazed by how SOPHIE makes chaos sound so clean. There are so many moving parts here, all equally clamoring for the listener's attention, which could quickly devolve into a mess if they weren't designed and layered so precisely. The lyrics are cryptic but meaningful upon closer inspection. Serving as SOPHIE's vocal conduit, singer Cecile Believe murmurs in the unconventional hook, "I'm real when I shop my face." SOPHIE has spoken previously of her fascination with plastic surgery, and she's recently employed prosthetics and makeup to present a sort of hyper-exaggerated version of herself. But, "Faceshopping" seems to insist, no matter how altered, it's still herself, perhaps even most authentically so, because it represents her interior ideal: "So you must be the one I've seen in my dreams," begins the song's surprisingly soulful bridge.

1. Ought - Desire


"Desire," the third single released from Ought's (excellent) new album, Room Inside the World, is pretty easily my favorite song of the year so far. Like the album's prior two singles, it represents a marked departure for the band, from frenetic post-punk to brooding and expansive indie rock, Tim Darcy's voice transformed from an off-kilter shout to a richly expressive drawl. At the same time, despite the shift in sound, there's no denying this is still the same band who released the charmingly sloppy debut, More Than Any Other Day, four years ago. They've matured, certainly, but they've also retained their particular brand of magic in the process. A large part of the charm lies in Darcy's lyrics, which at times resemble poetry in their vivid, unique imagery: "The feel of your honey in the corner of my mouth/Like a loop around the block/Like a shadow in your notebook." This descriptive flair is offset by the direct gut punch of the late-arriving refrain, in which Darcy wails simply, "Desire, desire/It was never going to stay," accompanied by stirring choral backing as his own voice devolves into a wordless howl. It's like the world-weary older sibling of their debut's "Habit," which (until now possibly) has always been my favorite Ought song.