Listen Tracks: Jack White ft. Q-Tip, Wet Leg, Haim and more

Thankfully not a reference to the wildly irritating ‘80s holiday camp sitcom (Google it, kids), the latest from Jack White’s forthcoming LP ‘Fear of The Dawn’ finds the legendary axe-wielder teaming up with equally legendary rapper Q-Tip for a track that’d give The Joker a run for its money in terms of eerie foreboding. Beginning with a clarion cry that brings to mind The White Stripes’ own ‘Conquest’ before dropping into a staccato stalk replete with Q-Tip’s intricate rhymes, there’s something about the chorus’ repeated lures (“Have some of this hi-de-hi-de-ho with me”) that sounds as though it should come with a motherly warning: if this man offers you some of his hi-de-ho, DO NOT engage with him and call us immediately. (Lisa Wright)

There’s little wonder why Dave Grohl is a fan of Wet Leg. Since the smash of ’Chaise Longue’, the duo have been building our summer festival setlist – one earworm single at a time. It’ll take 1.5 seconds for the tripped-out riff of their latest, ‘Angelica’, to find a permanent home in your brain. Over the fist-pumping, defiant verses that follow, Rhian Teasdale keeps one eye on the titular character at a house party-gone-awry. It’s the perfect backdrop for the singer to show off those now-signature, deadpan observations – of which there are plenty. Through the madness, however, Wet Leg’s goal is simple: “Good times, all the time.” And everyone’s invited. (Tom Skinner)

Haim and Paul Thomas Anderson go back – way back. For their new offering, ‘Lost Track’, the LA sisters dug up an unused lyric and fully embraced the fun to be had in collaborating. The result? A breezy, “off the cuff’ ditty that hits you like that first ray of spring sunshine. Built around a twinkling music box sample, the song finds Danielle trying her level best to escape a dull – or downright uncomfortable – social situation. Sit back, relax and watch the chaos unfold in its accompanying PTA-helmed video. An audio-visual match made in heaven, right? (Tom Skinner)

“I love that I could write an essay with all the things I could say about Robyn and I love that she leaves me speechless at the same time,” Neneh Cherry said of the Swedish pop queen when sharing a new version of her 1988 hit ‘Buffalo Stance’ with new vocals from Robyn. The pair’s reverence for each other seeps through into the track, with Robyn absolutely belting out her chorus. “This love bomb is incredible,” she said of the collaboration, which isn’t far off the mark. (Will Richards)

Back with the crunchy, yearning and strangely guitarphillic ‘Matilda’, PUP present themselves again as modern lovers, but this time of inanimate objects. Complete with a video detailing the pawning of the beloved ‘Matilda’, the guitar eventually falls into the hands of a more youthful, budding musician that experiences a moment of fleeting magic when handling the guitar. ‘Matilda’ is a track that comes to terms with moving on, maturity and material desire from the surreal perspective of the object in question. (Alisdair Grice)

On her first new music in two-and-a-half years since the release of 2019’s ‘Twelve Nudes’, Ezra Furman wants answers. ‘Point Me Toward The Real’, she says, asks: “We’ve all recently been going through something terrifying. We’ve all made friends with death in the last two years. When I look to the future, I want to know who has my back? Whose back do I have? And what is real, what and who can I rely on?” There might not be any immediate answers on the new single, but its grand and sweeping instrumentation allows you space to ponder these terrifying, relevant questions while getting swept up in her fascinating storytelling. (Will Richards)

Rolling Blackouts’ new punk-infused ’Tidal River’ inspects the geo-political impact of a well-known estuary in their home country Australia. The referenced river can be found in Wilsons Promontory National Park, where it holds great significance for the local Gunai/Kurnai and Boonwurrung peoples, who call it Yiruk and Wamoon respectively. The track pays respect to the elders of the land (where the music video was filmed) with builds a brisk, rambunctious immediacy to RBCF’s characteristic coffee-shop stride. (Alisdair Grice)

Rae Morris’ second album, 2018’s ‘Someone Out There’, saw her take a sharp turn towards sugary pop and dancefloor-ready beats. Four years later, she’s back with ‘No Woman Is An Island’, a hugely dramatic, sweeping song that stays closer to her original singer-songwriter form. There’s pop gold bubbling under the surface though, which could be easily explored on whatever comes next. (Will Richards)

Tags: Jack White, Listen, Features, Tracks