Happy Tuesday, everyone! As is my wont, I took yesterday off ’cause it was a federal holiday. Anyway, here’s this week’s playlist. Enjoy!

1. Kendrick Lamar, “Not Like Us”: Yeah, I’m several months behind the zeitgeist on this one, but in my defense I’m usually several years behind, so this is progress for me. It’s also a damn good song and a textbook case of how to destroy a rival’s image. I know everyone harps on the “and it’s prob’ly a minoooooooor” line, and rightly so, but the bit about Drake being a colonizer are just….*chef’s kiss*
2. Jesse Welles, “That Can’t Be Right”: You’ve possibly seen this dude, standing in a clearing on a stump, singing songs about the South in a raspy drawl reminiscent of John Fohgerty if he’d gargled sand and glass for a few hours before singin’. There’s humor and heart in it, and I dig that.
3. Gregory Alan Isakov, “Sweet Heat Lightning”: Blame Clyde for this one. He insisted I needed to listen to this guy over the weekend after he first sent me a text slagging the guy for always playing the same chords at the same pace. And, yeah, some of the songs do sound a bit samey, but there’s also some very clever songwriting in there and the guy’s clearly found his groove.
4. The La’s, “There She Goes”: After watching a video about the disastrous efforts to create their first (and only!) album, I had to go give it a listen. Sure, I was already well-aware of this song, which is all chorus repeated ad-infinitum, but the rest of the record (which the lead singer and songwriter has disavowed as not part of his vision) feels like ramshackle ’60s British Invasion pop, with all the jangle and three-part harmonies that implies.
5. Vaydra, “Learning to Love”: It’s always good news when Kelly and company put out new music. They’ve cut back on the psychedelic touches that tinged their first LP, but her voice remains the driving force it’s always been.
6. The Cranberries, “Ode to My Family”: Listened to their debut, No Need to Argue, last week, and it sounds…exactly like what you’d expect a Cranberries album to sound like. If you’ve heard “Zombie” or “Linger,” you’re already pretty familiar with their sonic palette. This is by no means a criticism, more an observation that they’d found their niche pretty quick.
7. Wilco, “Handshake Drugs (11/13/03 Sear Sound-NYC Version)”: A Ghost Is Born remains one of my all-time favorite albums by any band ever, and I’m also down as a guy who loves listening to the iterative process of how the musical sausage gets made. Getting to hear early versions of the songs from this album is a treat, and also the reason I’m seriously considering dropping $150 on the 9-disc version they just released.
8. Neko Case & Her Boyfriends, “The Virginian”: Early Neko Case is a strange beast. Her voice is as powerful and emotive as you’d expect, but the songwriting polish just isn’t there quite yet (in another song off this album, she rhymes “away” with…”away”). It’s also much more honky-tonk country than the strange alternative singer-songwriter stuff of more recent vintage.
9. Phil Collins, “I Don’t Care Anymore”: A stark, angry kiss-off song from one of the most unassuming guys in pop, the guy who usually sang stuff like “Sussudio.” Very strange way to start an album.
10. Tom Petty, “You Saw Me Comin'”: An outtake from the Wildflowers sessions, still one of the best periods of songwriting in Petty’s career.