Yeah, this will work—“Save Your Tears (Remix),” The Weeknd featuring Ariana Grande: Yes, it is bad that the Weeknd’s creative choice for this video was to set it in a cartoon factory where the only product is Ariana Grande. It’s not even bad, just confusing. Still, if you ignore the video and pay attention to the song, you’ll be much better off. It’s a nice, smooth, glossy little number of the sort the Weeknd excels at: music for doing cocaine on a yacht, or simply browsing a vintage furniture store that stocks a lot of travertine pedestal tables and smoked glass. If this came on the old radio, I wouldn’t turn it off! I’d just let it rock. —Megan Reynolds
Well OK: girl in red, “You Stupid Bitch”: Mostly I listened to this out of curiosity about what a song with this title in 2021 was going to attempt to be about, but it kinda slaps. Girl in red, a young Norwegian named Marie Ulven, is mainly just grousing that her love of choice is settling for much less and getting hurt, and not settling for less would in fact be dating Marie Ulven. Put that queer angst on a backdrop of wall-of-sound distortion and a new wave sensibility and you’ve got yourself a little bit of a hit. –Julianne Escobedo Shepherd
AJ Tracey, “Little More Love”: This longtime British MC dropped this in homage to the late, great DMX, and more specifically the greatest film ever made, Hype Williams’s 1998 masterpiece Belly, which starred DMX. It’s got some swing to it and also “if you love me, love me lil’ more” seems like just the right sentiment after this hell month. RIP X. –JES
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