100 gecs, Taylor Swift, Villages and more new music you need to hear this weekend

Star Tracks compiles the most interesting new music from a broad range of established and emerging artists. This week’s playlist features tracks from Villages, Taylor Swift, 100 gecs, JPEGMAFIA and Danny Brown, Lonnie Holley and Invent Animate.

Click here to listen along to the Spotify playlist.

Villages: Play the Fiddle All Night

Located atop the Nova Scotian mainland at the eastern edge of the St. Lawrence Gulf, Cape Breton Island contains some of the country’s most arresting scenery: densely forested highlands, salt-water tidal lakes and a rugged coastline that slopes toward the infinite expanse of the Atlantic Ocean. And while the island breathtaking in its natural beauty, its vastness also invites a subtle sense of loneliness.

“Dark Island,” the new release from the Cape Breton indie-folk quartet Villages, captures this complex emotion — an exuberant melancholy that inevitably emerges at the edge of world.

Recorded at Joel Plaskett’s Fang Recording in Dartmouth, the album is an deftly crafted blend of indie rock and traditional Celtic folk music, one that sounds like it was crafted from the very soil of the region. “In the middle of the night / should you find me still looked over / String the fiddle up tight / And softly play me off,” vocalist Matt Ellis lilts amid glistening strings and mandolin “Play the Fiddle All Night.” Indeed, the album’s boot-stomping climax acts as reminder that life is short, and it can be cruel — so grab a pint, hit the pub, and celebrate while you can. Happy St. Patrick’s Day!

Catch Villages live at Mills Hardware in Hamilton on March 23 and Horseshoe Tavern in Toronto on March 24. — Richie Assaly

Taylor Swift: Safe and Sound (Taylor’s Version) feat. Joy Williams and John Paul White

“Drop everything now,” goes the oft-quoted tag line of Taylor Swift’s 2010 coming-of-age album, “Speak Now.” And drop everything, Swift has. Late Thursday night, Swift released a mixed bag of re-recorded singles: “Eyes Open,” “Safe and Sound,” “If This Was a Movie,” and “All Of The Girls You Loved Before.”

The first two were originally recorded for the “Hunger Games” franchise — a film series which seems to be having a well-timed renaissance across TikTok — while “If This Was a Movie” was a bonus track on “Speak Now.” “All Of The Girls You Loved Before,” a “Lover” cast-off, has never been released until now. Unless, of course, you count the recent leak of that song, which has been doing the rounds on TikTok since before Valentine’s Day.

Like I said, a mixed bag.

But perhaps the most thrilling of these singles is the re-recorded “Safe and Sound.” For the re-recording, Swift has somehow managed to bring much-beloved folk band The Civil Wars back together (though they’re now billed under their individual names), and she’s preserved the youthful whistle and earnest trepidation of the track’s first life over a decade ago. The lilting acoustic guitar licks are just as clean as they were in 2012, and Swift sounds in great form. A good omen as the mega-songstress embarks on the first night of her much-anticipated Eras Tour in Glendale, Ariz., Friday — or, actually, Swift City, Eras Zona.

Once again, Swift has proven her power knows no obstacles: not broken-up bands, nor geography, nor enemy producers buying her masters. — Aisling Murphy

100 gecs: Dumbest Girl Alive

It’s been four long years since 100 gecs unleashed their debut album, introducing much of the world to the divisive genre of “hyperpop,” and lighting a trash fire of internet discourse that, despite all odds, continues to burn. On Friday, the duo of Dylan Brady and Laura Les released their highly-anticipated sophomore project, “10,000 gecs,” a “berzerkus” 26-minutes of chaos that swings wildly between abrasive noise and undeniably hooks. I’ve only been awake for a few hours, so I won’t pretend I’ve had time to digest it all, but here’s how critic Julianne Escobedo Shepherd describes it: “‘10,000 gecs’ sounds like being hit in the face with pies for approximately 26 minutes, two best friends having the greatest time throwing all the dankest s–t from their musical file cabinet at you.”

Unlike the 100 gecs debut, which dabbled in dubstep, ska and trance, “10,000” leans heavier into pop-punk and rock — the duo enlisted legendary studio drummer Josh Freese (Nine Inch Nails, A Perfect Circle, Guns N’ Roses) to play on half the album’s track, lending these songs a heft that is sure to inspire some raucous mosh pits on the upcoming tour, which includes a stop at History in Toronto on April 22.

For the uninitiated, the opener “Dumbest Girl Alive” is a good litmus test to determine if this stuff is for you or not. Following a (hilarious) sample of the THX theme, the track pivots to guitar riff that sounds like it could be written by Deryck Whibley in 2001, before transitioning into hip-hop inflected verse with a distorted bass line lifted directly from “SICKO MODE.” It’s bizarre, and, in the wrong context, very annoying. But for those willing to let down their guard and soak it in, it’s a blast. — RA

Invent Animate: Without A Whisper

And who says heavy music can’t be emotional?

Texas-based progressive metalcore act Invent Animate have released “Without a Whisper,” the latest single from their new full-length album, and it’s a touching tribute to those we have lost. Guitarist Keaton Goldwire specified on Instagram that he wrote the song about his late grandmother, and seriously confronting the concepts of death and an afterlife as someone who’s not particularly religious.

“Are you going away/ To the place we used to dream of? . . . You’re fading out of view,” singer Marcus Vik sings softly in the beginning of the track, ditching his typically harsh screaming to demonstrate some serious vocal chops.

The track is crushing and powerful, and it’s another a great move by the band to showcase some range in a genre that often places too much emphasis on guitar-driven breakdowns. Invent Animate’s “Heavner” is out now. — Justin Smirlies

JPEGMAFIA and Danny Brown: Lean Beef Patty

“First off, f— Elon Musk/ Eight dollars too much, this past expensive,” JPEGMAFIA declares at the outset of “Lean Beef Patty,” the delightfully topical and unhinged lead single from the rapper’s upcoming collaborative album with Danny Brown. And the disses continue — rapping over distorted drums, sinister synth stabs and a sample of P. Diddy’s 2002 hit “I Need A Girl” that has been sped up to oblivion, the Baltimore artist takes explicit aim at disgraced superstar Kanye West and pizza mogul Papa John, and sneaks in subtle shots at Drake and Lil Yachty. Following a brief but manic beat change, Detroit legend Danny Brown arrives on the scene, “Spittin’ fast like Busta,” and delivering a verse that teeters on the absolute edge of anarchy.

When Danny and Peggy announced that they were working on a full-length collaboration last year, fans knew it was going to be weird. But few could have predicted the glorious chaos of “Lean Beef Patty.” — RA

Lonnie Holley: None Of Us Have But A Little While (feat. Sharon Van Etten)

Seventy-three-year-old artist and musician Lonnie Holley has lived a remarkable life. Hailing from Birmingham, Ala., Holley grew up amid the hardship and brutality of the Jim Crow-era South — the “seventh of 27 children.” Holley says he was taken from his family by a burlesque dancer who traded him to another family for a pint of whiskey when he was 4 years old, according to a New York Times profile.

As a child and teen, he says he dug graves, picked cotton, worked at Disney World, was run over by a car and pronounced brain-dead, and had his first child at 15. He also suffered abuse at the infamous Alabama Industrial School for Negro Children, an experience he shared with a new podcast titled “Unreformed.”

At 29, Holley began working as an artist, his earliest works comprised of sandstone carvings and “sculptures constructed nearly entirely from salvaged junkyard detritus.” His artwork was eventually acquired by the Birmingham Museum of Art and the Smithsonian. Today, his collections are on display at The Metropolitan Museum of Art, the National Gallery of Art and beyond.

Released last week, Holley’s second album, “Oh Me Oh My,” is a poignant collection of songs and spoken-word reflections on suffering, resilience, memory and mortality, one that recalls other retrospective late-life releases from titans like Gil Scott-Heron, Leonard Cohen and David Bowie. Featuring collaborations with R.E.M. frontman Michael Stipe, Bon Iver and others, the album merges familiar voices with new ones, and incorporates elements of free jazz, Afrofuturism and ambient music.

Among the album’s standouts is “None Of Us Have But A Little While,” a simple, slow-burning collaboration with singer-songwriter Sharon Van Etten, who provides a stirring vocal accompaniment to Holley’s fragile but beautifully delivered mantra — a simple but shattering truth that often takes a lifetime to grasp. — RA

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