Yo La Tengo, BROCKHAMPTON, Drake and 21 Savage: Here are 6 songs you need to hear this week

Star Tracks compiles the most interesting new music from a broad range of established and emerging artists. This week’s playlist features tracks from Fever Ray, Cate, Brand of Sacrifice and Yo La Tengo. ______

Click here to listen along to the Spotify playlist.

Yo La Tengo: Fallout

Most of us have come to terms with the fact that you can’t turn back the clock — each month or year that passes, you get a little older. What’s more difficult to process is that we can never pause time, or truly live in the moment. We can never escape the irrevocable forward motion of life.

This seems to capture the gist of “Fallout,” the new single from the alt-rock/shoegaze legends Yo La Tengo, who sound as crunchy and hypnotic as ever some four decades into their storied career. “Everyday it hurts to look/ I’d turn away if only I could/ I want to fall out of time,” laments vocalist and guitarist Ira Kaplan, as drummer Georgia Hubley and bassist James McNew lock into a fuzzed-out groove that churns forward, then expands into a brief but captivating crescendo. You can’t stop time, but at least you can disappear into music.

Yo La Tengo’s 16th (!) album, “This Stupid World,” drops Feb. 10. — Richie Assaly

BROCKHAMPTON: THE ENDING

It’s really the ending, BROCKHAMPTON is nearly over and it seems like they’re returning to their spiritual roots. The group that formed on the KanyeToThe forum group is going out the way Kanye West started, soul-sampled introspection on “THE ENDING.” Over a simple sample loop of Willie Hutch’s “Me Be The One Baby” Kevin Abstract raps about the early days of BROCKHAMPTON and how close to the bottom they were when they started “Back when I had a ‘fro still / First moved to L.A. my daddy still paid my phone bill.” At the beginning the entire group, artists and producers, lived in one house in a bet to make it together and Abstract reminisces in a triumphant but also morose tone “Walking through the living room, I see Jabari yawning / I’m thinking “Man, one day we all gon’ be some superstars” / And this is way back before I had a credit card / And this is way back when I ain’t have a debit card.” The BROCKHAMPTON gamble was a success, they made it and that’s why “THE ENDING” is a track filled with sadness. Retracing the steps that Abstract outlines, reminiscing on the darkest days, is a reminder of how far the group has come. What started with a bunch of forum posts online lead to one of the best hip hop groups ever. — Demar Grant

Cate: Groupie

Cate obtained an unconventional sort of fame earlier this year when bestie-slash-roommate Maisie Peters wrote a song about having a crush on her brother.

But Cate, originally from Abbotsford, B.C., is an indie-pop ingenue in her own right, and she recently released a damn good EP, “Tell Me Things You Won’t Take Back.” Track three, “Groupie,” neatly sums up the album’s emotional thrust: somewhere in the ether of Cate’s life lies a cruel lover who has both evaded Cate’s yearning and taken advantage of it. In “Groupie,” this person is a lauded musician, the famous subject of Cate’s fawning — “I was the groupie, and he was the star,” croons the singer-songwriter to the gentle rock of an acoustic guitar which slowly metastasizes into frantic synth and percussion.

“Groupie” is an unapologetic, infectious pop ballad which revels in the angst of unreciprocated attraction. It bears mentioning that aforementioned pal Peters recently released a similar-in-theme track, “Not Another Rockstar,” which laments having a type — rockstars — and it almost feels as if, between the two tracks, we’ve gained insight into Cate’s and Peters’ late-night text exchanges.

Cate’s got a vibrant career ahead of her — and I look forward to a full-length album. — Aisling Murphy

Brand of Sacrifice: Exodus

Brand of Sacrifice has been on an astronomical rise the past few years, and what first started as a tribute metal band to a popular Japanese manga has now quickly become one of deathcore’s most compelling acts.

The Toronto band, whose album “Lifeblood” thrust the five-piece into the metal mainstream and numerous top ten lists last year, is back with their new single “Exodus,” which is packed to the brim with destructive riffs, a blistering yet symphonic chorus, and the trademark gruelling gutturals of vocalist Kyle “DEMON KING” Anderson. The song begins with an automated, Siri-like voice stating, “you will not survive,” and if you witnessed these brutal-as-hell breakdowns live in a pit, well, you might actually not.

Brand of Sacrifice turned heads in 2021, but if “Exodus” is any indication of what the future holds they are going to be straight up melting faces off in 2023. — Justin Smirlies

Fever Ray: Carbon Dioxide

Sweden: The land of pop perfection, where even the most strange and subversive music sounds pristine and radiant, like a sunset over a rolling sea.

Of course I’m talking about Karin Dreijer, the brilliantly bizarre singer-songwriter who makes up one half of the electropop duo The Knife, and records as a solo artist under the moniker Fever Ray.

“Carbon Dioxide,” the latest single from Fever Ray’s upcoming third album, arrived on Thursday like a tonne of glitter-coated bricks. “Sucking on what’s mine/ Love’s carbon dioxide,” Dreijer belts over a swirling mass of neon synthesizers and pulsing drums. Clocking in at nearly five minutes, the track is a roller-coaster — exhilarating, intense and leaves you a bit queasy. In Dreijer’s words, it aims to “describe the feeling of falling in love.”

“Radical Romantics” — which will feature production from Dreijer’s brother (and former partner in The Knife) Olof Dreijer, Trent Reznor, Atticus Ross and others — arrives March 10. — RA

Drake & 21 Savage: Rich Flex

This song can be summed up by the intro “Then 21 (21), can you do somethin’ for me? (Yeah) / Can you talk to the opps necks for me? (OK) / 21, do your thing 21, do your thing (21) / Do your thing, 21, yeah OK.” “Rich Flex” is the intro to Drake and 21 Savage’s collaborative album “Her Loss” and perhaps the peak. The operatic vocals and pounding 808s are countered by some of Drake’s sassiest lines to date while setting up 21 Savage’s braggadocious bars. It’s the contrast of styles that really make the track stand out as “Rich Flex” has been meme’d since it’s release. It’s a trap song but with Drake’s cheeky repetitive intro, the first minute of the entire project has already been stuck on repeat for everyone.

Trap is a genre that breeds the hardest and darkest lyrics. Awash in firearms, money and drugs, it’s hard to imagine most artists rapping in such audacious style. But the fact that Drake is doing it is enough to make you and the entire internet imagine what he, 21 and the producers were thinking when making the song. For a song to be so provocative only because of Drake’s tone shows he still has tricks left up his sleeves. — DG

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