New music from Destroyer, Tyler, The Creator links up with Pharrell, plus a posthumous release from Phife Dawg: Here are 9 songs to listen to this weekend

Star Tracks compiles the most interesting new music from a broad range of established and emerging artists.

This week’s playlist features new music from Destroyer, Tyler, the Creator, Phife Dawg, Drug Church, Tate McRae, Soccer Mommy, Unknown T, Chance the Rapper, Belle and Sebastian and more.

Click here to listen along to the Spotify playlist, which includes additional tracks we loved this week.

Destroyer: It’s in Your Heart Now

Dan Bejar, the mastermind behind the Vancouver band Destroyer, is known for his incredibly complex and enigmatic lyricism. But on the hypnotic opening track from the band’s outstanding new album, “LABYRINTHITIS” — which arrived Friday — Bejar keeps things remarkably simple.

“It’s in your heart now,” he softly repeats over a simple drum beat, as a rubbery new wave bassline gives way to a Frippy, fuzzed out guitar riff. And while it’s easy to drift away on the current of shoegaze, listeners will want to strap in for the rest of the album — a 10-song rollercoaster of genre-bending, vocal acrobatics and other eccentric dispatches from Bejar’s unique musical mind. — Richie Assaly

Tyler the Creator: Come On, Let’s Go

It’s a privileged position to make a mainstream-sounding track and have it considered a rarity, but that’s where Tyler, the Creator finds himself. An anthem for punctuality, “Come On, Let’s Go” features Tyler spitting about his paramour’s tardiness. It’s as silly as it sounds, and yet Tyler is able to pack his verses with memorable time motifs by asking “What the f— is you doin’? We gotta dip-dip-dip-dip-dip, Cartier-er-er-er, watch go tick-tick-tick-tick,” without it ever sounding cheesy.

“Come On, Let’s Go” also fits Tyler’s musical canon incredibly well, still playing on the lavish, international lifestyle he flaunted on his critically acclaimed “Call Me If You Get Lost.” Produced by Pharrell, the latest cut tilts closer to a mainstream sound. Instead of raucous extravagance of his latest album, the track has Tyler rapping bars around pulsing, wandering, dark synths and ticking high hats. It’s simpler than anything he’s done in a long time, but with Tyler in full stride as a rapper and producer it’s a total pleasure. — Demar Grant

Phife Dawg: Forever

It’s been six years since Malik Izaak Taylor, AKA Phife Dawg, died from complications related to diabetes at the age of 45. The self-proclaimed “Five-Foot Assassin’’ was a beloved MC and key member of A Tribe Called Quest. Phife’s gruff and full-bodied voice was a perfect foil to Q-Tip’s nasally and nimble raps — working in tandem, they managed to create conscious rap that was also fun. But despite ATCQ’s incredible success, Phife and Tip often butted heads, causing the group to split in the late 90s (only to reunite again in 2006).

This week, hip hop fans were finally treated to Phife Dawg’s second solo album, titled “Forever.” The project was carefully curated and pieced together by Phife’s longtime friend and business partner Dion Liverpool, and includes features from Q-Tip, Busta Rhymes, Redman and many others. The result is a stellar, if imperfect, as all posthumous albums are, snapshot of a legendary rapper determined to make the most of his final stretch of life.

On the closing title track — a dreamy production of strings, sparkling piano and chopped up vocal samples of André 3000 and Ol’ Dirty Bastard — Phife takes stock of his life, sharing details about growing up in Queens and finding success with ATCQ. A third of the way through, Phife cuts the music, and addresses his bandmates directly, offering conciliation and declaring his love.

You can hear the strain in his voice — the vocals were recorded just three days before Phife died. Liverpool told the New Yorker that Phife had one final request for the song’s ending: “affect my voice like it’s going into eternity.” — RA

Drug Church: Tiresome

This Drug Church track is a lot of things, but “Tiresome” is definitely not one of them.

Well, unless you don’t like being blasted with overdriven guitars, aggressive yelling and heavy progressions, then maybe it might be. But sometimes you just need that punch to the face, that wild head-banging, that anger just to get you through the day — and Drug Church offers just that.

“Tiresome” is the latest single from the Albany, New York Post-hardcore act’s newest album, “Hygiene.” Mixing nostalgic grunge of the ’90s with raw hardcore punk of the 2000s, Drug Church accurately captures the angsty discontent of what’s happening at the present. It’s not all dark and gloom, however, and it’s not often that a hardcore punk band like Drug Church — perhaps Turnstile being another example — makes you want to dance with but also punch everyone around you at the same time.

Oh, and if you don’t like people eating with their mouth open and full of food, then uh, maybe don’t watch the accompanying music video. — Justin Smirlies

Tate McRae: Chaotic

Low-key, growing up is brutal. The uncertainty, the fear and the growing understanding of impermanence that the people that have been around you for years will slowly start fading away — it’s miserable. Things seem so much easier when you’re young, and Canadian singer Tate McRae’s vocals capture that glum. Over super simple keys McRae offers a ballad that everyone has personally stewed in. When growing up one of the cruelest realizations is when ”I can’t stand my friends right now, we got nothing in common” and that pain is captured in McRae’s voice as she laments her childhood. McRae’s despondent vocals also deliver an extra layer of gloom to the hook when “I’m trying my best here to be brutally honest/ Nobody said changing would be this exhausting.” Aging is understanding life is “Chaotic” and McRae’s latest track is a wicked reminder. — DG

Soccer Mommy: Shotgun

A few years ago, Sophie Allison, who records as Soccer Mommy, released a slowed-down cover of Bruce Springsteen’s classic “I’m On Fire.” It’s a lovely rendition, but there’s something unsettling about it — a subtle plaintiveness in Allison’s voice that leaves a mark.

Allison’s new single, “Shotgun,” is similarly ambiguous. “Fogged up the windows in the back/ Coffee and menthol on your breath” she sings over a sinister, tuned down guitar riff. But the track suddenly shifts gears into a breezy chorus: “Whenever you want me I’ll be around/ I’m a bullet in a shotgun waiting to sound,” Allison sings tenderly.

As the track’s video makes clear, Allison is ready to move on from her reputation as a “bedroom” artist – her forthcoming album, titled “Sometimes, Forever,” will be produced by the suddenly very in-demand electronic/experimental artist Oneohtrix Point Never. RA

Unknown T: Often

Unknown T is the new flow maestro. In his first single since “Adolescence,” T is a braggart about many things — women, drip and most importantly, his music. Every tool is on display, the constant switching between flows, the kissed-teeth ad lib and the sticky yet elongated hook. There’s nothing T can’t do. And at age 22, Unknown T is one of the premier talents in U.K. drill where lyricism rules, yet he’s never allowed them to become overbearing. When he’s offering gritty raps like “My broski’s are blacked on black got my city like Gotham, Skip the batman, step with my jewels, I rock them” T is still elegantly dancing between pounding 808’s sampled vocals and stress inducing strings as if he was in a ballroom back with a string quartet. — DG

Chance the Rapper: Child of God

Poor Chance. After skyrocketing to fame with a series of beloved mix tapes, the Chicago rapper’s debut studio album — an ultra-earnest ode to marriage — received some positive reviews but got absolutely dragged by hip hop fans.

Fortunately, Chance recalibrates nicely on his new single, “Child of God.” Though hardly less earnest —Chance nearly slips into spoken-word poetry as he meditates on his faith — the track is beautifully produced, with steel drums, muted bongos, a dose of chipmunk soul and a brief appearance by (the incredible) Moses Sumney.

Don’t skip the video, which features Gabonese artist Naïla Opiangah painting a stunning mural. — RA

Belle and Sebastian: If They’re Shooting at You

“If they’re shooting at you kid you must be doing something right,” Stuart Murdoch softly declares on the latest single from the Scottish indie band Belle and Sebastian. Featuring jaunty horns, hand claps and a gospel choir, the Shawn Everett–produced track carries a sense of lightness that nearly conceals the gravity of the lyrics, which describe the feeling of “being lost, broken and under threat of violence.”

This is a familiar conceit for fans of Belle and Sebastian, a group that has spent more than a quarter century creating gentle but affecting pop music that tackles weighty themes using wry humour and a literary approach to songwriting. The visual for “If They’re Shooting At You,” which collects images from creatives and photographers covering the conflict in Ukraine, aims to raise funds for the Red Cross while “offering a message of solidarity and hope.”

Belle and Sebastian’s eleventh album, “A Bit Of Previous,” arrives May 6. —RA

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