Welcome back to Take 5! We hope you had yourselves a suitably good and spooky weekend after last week’s Friday the 13th. Whether you got a tattoo, stayed in and watched scary movies, or were chased around a campground by an undead killer, the music industry kept on churning for you. Last week was one of the heaviest release schedules of this young fall, with new albums and singles to fit any taste in music. All the new music can be daunting to sort through, so let’s get to the five songs you should start with.

Cheat Codes, Fetty Wap, CVBZ – Feels Great

2017 has been rough for a lot of us. To that end, we can always use more songs of pure, gleeful joy. That’s what Cheat Codes have given us with their new single “Feels Great.” With an assist from the extremely fun rapper Fetty Wap and pop duo CVBZ, the trio reminisce and channel the absolute happiness that only youth can bring. There’s something so inspiring about shouting “It feels great, motherfucker” along with the chorus, and more than ever we could use more things in our lives that make us feel great.

Gucci Mane, Schoolboy Q – Lil Story

Few rappers are more prolific than Gucci Mane. Mr. Davis is his eleventh album, and that’s not counting mixtapes. Gucci has experienced all the highs and lows that life and music have to offer, and his recent efforts are some of his best ever. Out of his 17 track masterpiece released last week, we’re highlighting “Lil Story” here. Southside and DY craft one of the best beats on the album, with a hook that’s to die for. Gucci and Schoolboy Q trade verses in the story, and both show why they’re two of the best storytellers in music right now.

Beck – Fix Me

Speaking of artists who have had long and storied careers, Beck also put out a new album last week. Over his 20+ years in music he’s experimented with just about every sound and instrument you can think of. The constant through it all is the smart songwriting and execution, and Colors is no different. “Fix Me” is one of the album’s most tender tracks, a profession of true love and absolute trust. The star on the track is Beck’s lyricism, with such vivid imagery sung with such feeling by Beck that you feel like you’re sitting there with him as he watches the ocean.

Courtney Barnett, Kurt Vile – On Script

Courtney Barnett and Kurt Vile is the collaboration that we never knew we needed until it happened. The pairing works beautifully, though. Their joint album Lotta Sea Lice is full of the intimate musical expression that both do so well. “On Script” is a highlight of this. Barnett takes the vocal lead here, and the two share grimy guitar rifts through the ambling tune. It’s not the album track that’s the most intricate or most epic in scope, but it shows why Barnett and Vile working together in the first place was such a great idea.

P!nk – Barbies

Our critic Taylor Dougherty had high praise for P!nk’s new album Beautiful Trauma this weekend and we don’t disagree. On an album that’s brimming with great tracks, “Barbies” is one of the best. It doesn’t showcase that P!nk can still belt with the best of them (there are other tracks on the album for that), it does show that she can still create potent emotional resonance. While Cheat Codes up top reminisced about the joy of childhood, P!nk instead muses on the safety that childhood offered from the traumas, pain, and worry of adult life.

 

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