good listener

Sharon Van Etten - "Taking Chances"

SVE's first single off her new full-length opens on a suggestive note with a sluggish-strutting bass line that sounds like it should be wearing a pair of dark sunglasses--inside. The equally sleepy drums sound like they were recorded from an actual bed. Once Van Etten's effortless/flawless vocals enter the picture wrapped in a slinky pajama-robe ensemble, it's over--full-on slo-mo sonic orgy. MELISSA GIANNINI

Gulp - "Vast Space"

There's something really satisfying about a barely there vocal getting tossed like tumbleweed through a driving psychedelic rock squall that's 100 percent intensity from start to finish. MG

Brody Dalle - "Parties for Prostitutes"

Heavy and haunting, Brody Dalle's latest gets from point A to B the hard way--grinding, clawing, screaming. Nearly every second of the first three minutes is freighted with so much angst, that the final unloading at 3:15 is pure transcendence. Metal! MG

Smoke DZA (feat Ab-Soul) - "Hearses"

A track that opens up with eerie chimes and progresses into soft-rock percussion is pretty apt for an artist whose surname stands for "Dream Zone Achieve." The Harlem rhymer's "Hearses" is a heavy momento mori cut with verses from Black Hippy member and fellow TDE-signee AB-Soul. We're the first to admit we "just can't say no" to this one. ALEXA PEARCE

Shit Robot - "Do That Dance"

LCD Soundsystem’s Nancy Whang dances in front of--and disappears into--pixelated green-screen projections in this appropriately throwback-y video for Shit Robot’s "Do That Dance." With heaps of disco whistles, cowbell, lasers, and handclaps, how could we not? MG