I’m a simple man: You put Jessica Pratt on your rap song, I will listen to it. Fortunately, “Highjack” lives up to the hype. A$AP Rocky’s Don’t Be Dumb teaser calls back to his purple-tinted glory days, except back then he was tight with Drake and here his lyrics are littered with subliminals targeting his former “Fuckin’ Problems” collaborator. For indie-heads, the storyline here is not Rihanna-centric gossip but the presence of Pratt, retro singer-songwriter extraordinaire, lending her aura to one of Pretty Flocko’s prettiest tracks in years. —Chris

George Clanton and TV Girl just headed out on tour together, and to mark the occasion the gave us a pair of hallucinogenic bangers. The dirtbag-psych Fatboy Slim-worthy party jam “Summer 2000 Baby” is billed as the A-side, but B-side “Take A Trip” is even better. The downtempo track matches a slow, booming drum loop with understated vocals preaching a hippie-friendly message: “Put the finger on your tongue/ Take a trip inside your mind/ If it’s love that’s all around us/ Then it can’t be hard to find.” Samples, synths, and strings contribute to the allure of a song that, true to its name, really does send you on a journey through time, space, and consciousness. —Chris

Fontaines D.C. first previewed Romance with “Starburster” and “Favourite”; the former single served as an encapsulation of a panic attack, while the latter floated with a sense of comfort and sweetness. The tension between those tracks was already exhilarating, and now it’s even more gratifying with “Here’s The Thing” thrown in the mix. It’s possibly their most invigorated and catchy tune yet, anchored by the simple but perfect hook: “So here’s the thing/ I need commotion.” Based on just the range and allure of these three songs alone, Romance might be one of the best albums of the year. —Danielle

“I thought you wished me well,” sings vocalist Victoria Winter, presumably to an ex-partner, on the Brooklyn group’s new single “wish u well.” It’s the type of lyric that, if you’re not careful, punches you in the gut – when you’ve been cruising off the pure assumption that someone still cares about you, what happens when that sense of security disappears? As Winter tells it, “wish u well” is “about the feeling of having the rug swept from underneath you,” and that air of hopelessness comes through in the track’s grungy, hazy production and melancholic chord progression. Betrayal aside, Winter still coos on the chorus: “Wish you well.” After all, the high road is often the easiest route to take. –Abby

Sonagi’s new EP Everything Is Longing only has four songs, but there are entire albums’ worth of soul-purging heaviness contained within. Closing track “Grief Tourist” is an epic in four minutes and 15 seconds. The guitars twinkle and growl and reach bloody fingers toward the infinite sky, their beauty and ugliness one and the same. Ryann Slauson and the song’s guest, Nuvolascura’s Erica Shultz, take turns uncorking sincere fury. The screamo underground is an entire world unto itself, but a song like “Grief Tourist” is less genre exercise, more vast unburdening — a testament to how much meaning this majestic, dramatic music can convey. —Tom