The 5 Best Songs Of The Week

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Every week the Stereogum staff chooses the five best new songs of the week (the eligibility period begins and ends Thursdays right before midnight). This week’s countdown is below, and you can listen to a playlist of all our 5 Best Songs on Spotify.

We might not be getting a blockbuster movie season this summer, but at least the blockbuster albums are starting to arrive. Lady Gaga, RTJ, HAIM… while we won’t be in big communal spaces experiencing this music together just yet, there’s at least something invigorating in the idea that, someday, we will be. The five best songs of the week are below.

5. Trash Talk – “Something Wicked”

Trash Talk’s first new song in four years literally starts with the sound of a car engine turning over. Can’t get more on-the-nose than that. They’re back, and they’re ready to fuck around. The Los Angeles band makes the kind of immediate, elemental hardcore that’s meant to get bodies moving, bouncing off each other in cathartic aggression. For their new Squalor EP, they teamed up with producer Kenny Beats, who has been injecting that same kind of aggression into rap tracks for a few years now, and it’s a match made in hell. Lee Spielman’s vocals are yelled-out mush — “Drop the old propaganda,” he screams at one point, at another he’s chanting “Warfare!” — and it’s clear that something vile is just around the corner. Maybe it’s already here. –James