#Songs You Need in Your Life: December 2023

DJ Sliink puts a Jersey club spin on “Tru Tru,” a February track from New York classical

composer turned hip-hop producer MVW and two emcees: South Korean’s Lil Cherry and North Carolina’s TiaCorine. Originally a tactile slow jam, the track becomes a dance-floor destroyer in Sliink’s hitmaking hands, overflowing with shotgun percussion and nuclear sub bass. — Raphael Helfand

Militarie Gun’s “Never Fucked Up Once” is an instant emo-slash-post-hardcore classic (that isn’t shoegaze or Britpop), intended to be enjoyed during one of those nights in the mosh when the next-day bruises are just worth it. “Never Fucked Up Twice,” then, is a new version that gets transformed into a soft, stipped-down ballad, featuring vocals from Bully’s Alicia Bognanno which turns the number into something of a duet. It’s a great refresh; the headbanging, high-octane characteristics of the original get repackaged as something emotional and tender in the updated version, and Bognanno’s backing vocals give it an added ethereal quality. — Cady Siregar

The second single released ahead of Jaroz’s 2024 album, “Columbus and 89th” encapsulates all that makes her music an integral part of the modern bluegrass canon. The single leans on Jaroz’s soaring vocals, earnest lyricism, and delicate picking style, while also hinting at a new era of more extensive production. In addition to “Columbus and 89th,” the EP includes “Jealous Moon” and “When the Lights Go Out,” together forming a collection of equal parts pop, rock, folk, and bluegrass. Jarosz has announced tour dates for the spring in anticipation of the upcoming album, Polaroid Lovers, available January 26th. — Lila Dubois

London rapper jawnino dreams of blue skies from the glare of police lights in his fleeting but impactful new single. “2trains” is a moody moment of late-night introspection, with a conversational flow painting vivid images of danger and excess in equal measure. The percussion over the top of the murky beat chirps nicely while a growling vocal echoes the phrase “see you on the other side.” jawnino sounds like he’s crossing over. — David Renshaw

According to the ever-irreverent Iglooghost, “Collision Data” is supposedly “a very fast song about germs and larvae,” which the London-based producer chooses to express through a series of sharp kicks, glitches, and squeaks. A fun throwback to the future bass era of the mid-2010s, it’s an aggressively erratic production that brings to mind a malfunctioning printer or the dying breaths of an ancient desktop computer. Yet at the same time, this onslaught of error messages feels right when paired with Marina Herlop’s breathy vocals, so spectral and otherworldly that you’d believe there’s an actual ghost in the machine. — Sandra Song

If the main criticism of sample drill is that many of its biggest hits flip songs that are too well-known, it shouldn’t be shocking when artists respond with some more left-field choices. Catalan rapper Bb tricks crafts the luxurious heartbreak of “LLorando en la prada” with the help of a sample of “By This River,” a ballad from Brian Eno’s 1977 classic Before And After Science. It’s a bit of a gimmick, but it works: Trickz’s blasé plays effortless jumprope with the rattling bass, transforming the tearstained melody into something approaching flex territory. — Jordan Darville

On “Crazier Idea,” Kirin J Callinan is chasing renewal. “So kill the man that you once were,” he bellows, “Or else he should return / To this game of fools.” Such a sentiment won’t be a surprise to fans: his solo debut Embracism had a skronky industrial-pop sound that was ditched for sunburnt EDM on the brilliant follow-up Bravado (his third full-length Return To Center was a collection of lovingly crafted covers, sometimes faithful, other time completely revamped). “Crazier Idea” is the fourth single from the upcoming If I Could Sing and the strongest track from that project we’ve heard yet. Callinan wears the song’s glossy sophisti-pop as comfortably as his own birthday suit, plucking words in each line and using them as homonymic inspiration for the next. “Classy” might not be the first word that comes to mind with Kirin J Callinan, but “Crazier Idea” proves that he cleans up nice. — Jordan Darville