Music update, June 2016.

I ended up with over 30 songs on the rough draft of this playlist, but cut most of them after a few additional listens – many were from bands worth mentioning, like Sigur Ros or Two Door Cinema Club, but I couldn’t justify including the songs on their own merits. So here are 21 new tracks for June, 20 of them currently on the Spotify playlist with one I’m hoping will return to the streaming service shortly. You can access the Spotify playlist directly as well.

Van William – Fourth of July. Van Pierszalowski, lead singer of WATERS, hardcore Dodgers fan, and serious coffee snob (I say that as a compliment), has a new side project under the name Van William with a different sound than his main band boasts. This is the first single, and there’s a second one I’ve heard via their publicists, both of which are definitely more personal and sunnier than WATERS’ stuff. This song has disappeared from Spotify for the moment, but I’m leaving it on the playlist for what I assume will be a quick return. It was my favorite new track of June, and I’m not only saying that because I’ve met Van (for coffee, of course) and talked Dodgers prospects with him.

CHVRCHES featuring Hayley Williams – Bury It. This is a reworked version of a great track from CHVRCHES’ 2015 album Every Open Eye, with Paramore singer Hayley Williams singing the second verse and sharing duties on the chorus. I’m not a Paramore fan, but Williams’ staccato style works perfectly with the hesitating lyrics in her verse. I think this might be the song that launches CHVRCHES fully into the pop mainstream.

Broods – Heartlines. Broods’ second album, Conscious came out a week ago, and there’s a big shift in sound from their debut, with more songs like “Heartlines” and “Free” that feature electronic sounds and quicker tempos. These are the two best songs on the album, but there are still darker, more … uh, brooding songs here, including “Freak of Nature” (featuring Tove Lo) and “All of Your Glory” that are more reminiscent of their debut.

Dagny featuring BØRNS – Fool’s Gold. Norwegian singer Dagny appeared on my top 100 songs of 2015 with “Backbeat,” and this track has a similar feel, showcasing her lower vocal registers in particular, here in collaboration with Michigan-born singer/songwriter BØRNS, who seems like he should be the Norwegian part of the pairing.

Bat For Lashes – Sunday Love. Natasha Khan, who records solo material as Bat for Lashes, just released a new concept album last week called The Bride, about a woman whose fiancé is killed on the way to the church for their wedding – a classic summer listen, really. The album is uneven, although I think Khan is such a risk-taker musically that this is inevitable for her. This particular track is my favorite, trending toward the electropop style she showed on “All Your Gold” from her last BfL album.

Ladyhawke – A Love Song. Ladyhawke is a singer-songwriter from New Zealand and generally an interesting person, diagnosed with Asperger’s syndrom in her 20s and speaking openly about performing drunk to cover her anxiety. Anyway, this is a great summer pop song regardless of her biography. Her third album, Wild Things, came out on June 9th.

Drowners – Another Go. Drowners’ second album, On Desire, just came out last month, and it’s more of the same jangly post-Britpop as they brought on their self-titled debut. I preferred “Pick Up the Pace” from this album, but “Another Go” would be my choice for a second single over the one they actually released, “Human Remains.”

The Kents – The Stakes. This fairly new Canadian indie-pop quartet just released its debut five-song EP Waking on June 1st, and while I may be succumbing to a bit of availability bias, I thought I heard some real Tragically Hip influence here.

Alexandra Savior – Shades. Savior, a singer-songwriter from LA, has become Arctic Monkeys lead singer/songwriter Alex Turner’s writing partner of late, even co-writing “Miracle Aligner” on the latest album from Turner’s side project The Last Shadow Puppets. Her own debut album remains in the works, but this is the first true single Savior has released herself, with her only previous appearance on wax in a song called “Risk” that popped up in HBO’s series True Detective.

Phantogram – You Don’t Get Me High Anymore. Phantogram is so hit or miss, with “Blackout Days” one of the best songs of the decade so far, especially with Sarah Barthel’s voice so front and center. That’s the same reason I didn’t like their Big Grams collaboration with Big Boi; if she’s the best thing about Phantogram, then relegating her to the chorus behind some of Big Boi’s worst raps ever isn’t going to produce anything worthy. This new track is the lead single from their upcoming album, Three, due out September 16th, and it’s much closer to “Blackout Days” territory.

Phoria – Everything Beta. This Brighton trio’s ambitious spacey alt-rock sound is not terribly conducive to the short single format, but they’re worth listening to even with all of the Radiohead comparisons piled on top of them (and Radiohead comps don’t do anyone any favors).

Bear’s Den – Auld Wives. This British duo gets a lot of comps to folk-rock acts included the dreaded Mumford & Sons, but I hear more mid-1980s “sophisti-pop,” a terribly-named subgenre that encompassed groups like Roxy Music, ABC, and Level 42, in this track from their upcoming album, their first since the departure of one of the three founding members.

The Stone Roses – Beautiful Thing. The second single from the unlikely reformation of the likely lads has more great guitar work from John Squire, yet once again Ian Brown seems to have lost his teeth as a vocalist and lyricist. Brown’s best work on his own and with the Roses was always sneering, sometimes angry and sometimes just derisive, but the two new songs this year are both a little too shiny-happy-people to recapture the magic of old Stone Roses matieral.

SULK – Black Infinity (Upside Down). Now these guys sound a hell of a lot like the early Stone Roses, pre-Second Coming, all the way through SULK’s second album, the self-released No Illusions. I highly recommend this song and “The Only Faith is Love” if you’re an old-time Madchester fan like me.

Jeff Beck – Live In The Dark. Speaking of great guitar work, legendary guitarist Jeff Beck turned 72 last week and has a new solo album, Loud Hailer, due out this month. Vocal duties fall to singer Rosie Bones, but this is entirely about Beck’s fretwork, and he sounds as good as ever.

Wye Oak – If You Should See. This indie duo’s fifth album, Tween, is due out in August, and features a more guitar-driven sound than the minimalist electronica of 2014’s Shriek. The songs are all tracks that didn’t make the cut for that album or its predecessor, Civilian, so the eight songs might be a mixed bag musically.

Troup – Mercury and Gold. Big-time throwback sounds from Alex Troup, formerly frontman for British pop-punk act Crashland, and producer Evan Beigel, with thisi raw-edged guitar track that reminds me of lots of unapologetic rock acts of the ’70s, not least because Troup has a Mick Jagger sneer to his singing.

The Wans – Run Baby Run. Hard rock, borderline metal, with a strong melody, from a Nashville power trio off their upcoming EP of the same title, the follow-up to their 2014 debut album He Said She Said.

Descendents – Victim Of Me. I assumed these guys were defunct, but the pioneering punks, nearing their 40th anniversary as a band, will put out, Hypercaffium Spazzinate their first album in twelve years, at the end of July. The song is 96 seconds long, so I see age hasn’t changed Milo and the boys at all.

Gone Is Gone – Starlight. The debut, self-titled EP from this supergroup, featuring members of Mastodon, QotSA, and At the Drive-In, drops next Friday. It’s heavy, but not metal; funereal, but not stoner.

Monument – Hair of the Dog. I haven’t heard any act so happily anachronistic as Monument in ages; the music is very late-80s speed metal, and the singer is doing his best Bruce Dickinson impression. I don’t even know if I like the song or if I just enjoy the surfeit of nostalgia within it.

Banks & Steelz – Giant. This new project from RZA (of Wu-Tang Clan, although I feel like that’s superfluous) and Paul Banks (of Interpol) is the umpteenth attempt to merge alt-rock and hip-hop, most of which have, to my ears, been somewhere between unfortunate failures and painful trainwrecks. The duo’s first single, “Love & War,” wasn’t any better, but this second release is a lot more on the mark, primarily because RZA just takes over – this song is about him, delivering a vintage performance worthy of classic Wu-Tang material, dropping some comic rhymes early before turning political with a full spectrum of progressive talking points in the final verse.