Best new songs to stream: The Roots, The War on Drugs, and more

Every week, there are thousands of new songs hitting the airwaves — and it’s just too much for your two ears to handle. With all those options, you can’t be wasting your time on tracks that deserve a thumbs-down click — you want the best new songs to stream now.

But don’t worry, we’re going to save you the hassle. We listen to some of the most-hyped and interesting songs each week, and tell you which are worthy of your precious listening time.

Here are our five best new songs to stream this week. And don’t forget to subscribe to our Spotify page for a playlist of our weekly picks, which can also be found at the bottom of this post. Not sure which streaming service is best for you? Check out our post about the best music streaming services, or go in depth and learn the differences between Apple Music and Spotify to better weigh your options.

The Roots (Featuring Bilal) — It Ain’t Fair

A searing a cappella intro builds into a fully fleshed soul tune in The Roots‘ latest single It Ain’t Fair, a lengthy new jam that features the voice of neo-soul hero Bilal. The song focuses on the struggle of African Americans in urban centers, and was written for Detroit, a new film from Katheryn Bigelow about the city’s 1967 12th Street riot. Long and fluid, it ebbs and flows over a nearly 7-minute runtime, with multiple verses from The Roots’ Black Thought propelled by deep rhythms from the bass and drums.

The War on Drugs — Pain

Philadelphia-based rockers The War On Drugs have been heavily promoting their upcoming album, A Deeper Understanding, by making the rounds on various talk shows and radio stations across the globe. The album is expected to be released August 25. Though they have released numerous studio-recorded singles from the record so far, Pain — a slow-grooving pop tune with dark and shimmering guitar lines — was shared by the band during this live performance on Philly’s 104.5 radio. Full of cathartic and self-examining lyrics, consider this one for a late-summer walk in the woods.

Amber Mark — Way Back (Live on KCRW)

There’s a distinctly European tinge to the electronic groove beneath New York-based vocalist/producer Amber Mark‘s Way Back, the kind of boom-bap rhythm that makes it equally suited for the club as it is for your next workout. On this live performance broadcast on California’s KCRW radio, the young singer showcases immense chops, nailing the smoky lead vocals that have been grabbing the attention of some of the pop world’s most influential players since her debut single hit the internet last year.

Twin Peaks — Shake Your Lonely

When garage rockers Twin Peaks launched their Sweet ’17 Singles project, which will see the release of a two-song, 7-inch record each month for the remainder of the year, many were a bit concerned that they, like many bands searching for monthly promotion, may be pushing out poorly produced B-sides to their biggest fans. They couldn’t have been more wrong. This month’s Shake Your Lady is gorgeously written and produced, showcasing the exciting, country-tinged sounds of the Chicago band.

Antibalas — Gold Rush

If music is your favorite medicine, this nearly 11-minute afrobeat jam from New York’s Antibalas is about as healing as it gets. Outlined by a heavy drum beat and stabbing guitar lines, the song slowly colors itself in over its long runtime, eventually giving way to backing horns, lead vocals, and percussion.

That’s it for now, but tune in next week for more songs to stream, and check out the playlist loaded with our recent selections below:

Take your tunes into the shower with this $20 speaker

Showers can be boring (especially the lonely ones!), and shower thoughts can just end up making you feel way less relaxed than a show should. Some people also happen to sing their best when in the shower — or so we tell ourselves.

Whatever your reason for wanting music in the shower, you need a speaker in your bathroom. Cords probably aren’t the best idea (you know — death by electrocution), so you’ll want a convenient Bluetooth speaker that lets you wirelessly blast your tunes. Not all Bluetooth speakers are created equal, however, so you’ll need something that’s at least water-resistant so that you don’t fry it the first time out.

Enter the XXL shower speaker, which has a driver twice the size of usual shower speakers, blasting out your music at 3W.This powerful speaker retails for $99.99, but through Android Central Digital Offers, you pay just $19.99, a savings of 80%.

The XXL sticks to any non-porous surface via suction cup, making it perfect for shower tile, glass shower doors, mirrors, and more. It uses Bluetooth 4.0 technology and has a large battery that usually requires charging less than once a month, so you can go a while without missing out on shower tunes. You can even take and make calls, thanks to the convenient microphone.

If you’re looking for a great shower speaker that has a large driver but a compact body, then check out the XXL shower speaker at Android Central Digital Offers. It’s $20, down from $99.99, so you save 80%.

See at Android Central Digital Offers

We asked for thinner and lighter phones — and now we complain about them?

You can’t always get what you want.

Over the past few years, there’s been a clear trend across the smartphone industry to go thinner, lighter and more compact in attempt to give you the most screen size per cubic millimeter of phone size. We were surprised when phones snuck under the 10 mm thickness threshold, and now 8 mm is about the norm. Bezels have consistently shrunk to accommodate ever-higher screen-to-body ratios. Battery capacities have generally stagnated due to (admittedly small) advancements in battery tech being counteracted by physically smaller cells. We’ve lost, for the most part, things like front-facing speakers, stereo speakers, headphone jacks and more — all in the name of having even more compact phones wrapped around big screens.

But even still, we clearly aren’t satisfied — apparently we want these companies to keep going. A new phone cannot be announced without seeing complaints in our comments and on Twitter about it having screen bezels that are too big, a back that’s too thick or rounded, or a screen that’s too big (in an effort to keep bezels small and the body thin) to wrap your hand around.

But coinciding with these complaints about phones still being too big, whenever we see a phone go super thin and compact, which is apparently what everyone wants, there are somehow still complaints. Samsung released the Galaxy S8, which maximizes screen real estate and reduces just about everything else, and people complained there wasn’t enough phone to hold onto. The same complaints have already started relating to the LG V30, which is expected to have a curved display. Motorola launched the extremely thin and light Moto Z2 Force, and we complained it’s too thin and light, saying that we’d prefer more battery instead.

So my question is: what, exactly, do you want? When you ask for a thin, light, compact phone with a big screen … but that also still has a large battery and all of the other extra features, you’re asking for something that cannot exist with current technology. I feel like a broken record, but it bears repeating: everything you do in a smartphone has a consequence associated with it. You can’t shrink bezels without also affecting thickness. You can’t add battery without adding weight. You can’t make a phone thinner without compromising camera component size. Everything you add to a smartphone takes up room inside, which means something has to be removed or the phone has to be thicker (or both).

Smartphone companies are just responding to the consumer demand for thinner and lighter phones.

Big smartphone companies, for all of their seemingly large disconnect from the “real” consumers out there, have seen time after time that the thinner, lighter and sleeker the phone, the better it sells. Everyone in the comments on Android Central articles can make as many claims to the contrary as they wish, but the average consumer wants thin and light. Yes they want other features, too, but thin and light are high on the list and those features immediately sell phones in the store. And as I noted above, even the smartphone fans here at AC truly want thin and light — they just aren’t as amenable to giving up anything to get it.

So what’s a company to do? They go where the market wants them: thinner and lighter phones with smaller bezels … and therefore smaller batteries and fewer “fringe” features like front-facing speakers. Every phone has compromises.

Beyond those philosophical thoughts, here are some other quick takes on the week:

• Daniel’s Moto Z2 Force review encapsulates most of my feelings on the phone. While all phones have some level of compromise within them, Motorola seemed to make too many compromises, and also wrong compromises. I’ll work up more of my thoughts on the phone in the coming week or two.
• Motorola’s black-and-white camera sensor really is fantastic. Shame the camera experience is so slow and the color photos are just average. Not good enough for this level of phone.
• The LG V30 looks very exciting. And though there are plenty of V10 and V20 fans upset about the V30 losing its rugged appeal, as I noted above that’s just not what the industry wants.
• I have a few crazy weeks ahead, with everything coming together ahead of Samsung’s Note 8 launch in NYC on August 23, and then IFA over in Berlin just a few days later. Going to get crazy — and fun.

Enjoy the rest of your Sunday, and have a great week.

-Andrew

Code hints the next Apple TV will support 4K and HDR

There have been murmurs of a 4K Apple TV and even hints of 4K HDR videos on iTunes, but now we have evidence tying it all together. Remember that incredibly revealing HomePod firmware? Developer Guilherme Rambo has sifted through it to discover references to both 4K and HDR support in an upcoming Apple TV model. And the HDR support is particularly broad, too. The media player’s code mentions support for Dolby Vision, HDR10 and Hybrid Log-Gamma formats, so the odds are that HDR’s enhanced picture quality will be available even if your TV only has limited compatibility.

Apple certainly isn’t the first to make a media hub with HDR support. Roku supported the technology nearly a year ago, for example. However, competitors sometimes only support one format (Roku’s boxes insist on HDR10). The Apple TV may have a small edge simply because it should support HDR no matter which TV or media services you use.

There’s one more tidbit in the firmware, although it’s not necessarily a smoking gun. Jeffrey Grossman has noticed that there’s a reference to “Gizmo” (the codename for the Apple Watch) supporting an embedded SIM, backing rumors that the next Apple Watch will have a cellular data option. A “radio bundle” mention might support the claim, too. We’ll likely have to wait until the fall (or at least, another code discovery) to know for sure, but don’t be surprised if future Apple wristwear can hop online without any kind of local wireless connection.

Both pic.twitter.com/bsuxptLWd1

— Guilherme Rambo (@_inside) August 5, 2017

Via: AppleInsider, MacRumors

Source: Guilherme Rambo (Twitter 1), (2)