Our Favorite Songs and Videos Right Now: Lorde, FKA Twigs and More
What's currently rocking Rolling Stone HQ? Miguel and Kacey Musgraves' great new duet and genre-mashup, a killer remix of Kanye West and, above all, Lorde's stripped-down and powerful tribute to David Bowie at the Brit Awards. Check out these tracks and performances, plus new cuts from Mitski, Car Seat Headrest and FKA Twigs, below.
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Lorde, “Life on Mars?”
Lady Gaga's David Bowie medley at the Grammys was more Viva Las Vegas than Ziggy Stardust. But Lorde's incredible performance of "Life on Mars?" at the Brit Awards is the Bowie tribute we all needed. Backed by his touring band and bathed in red light, she dived deep into his towering 1971 ballad, honoring its power and making it her own. No wonder Bowie was a Lorde fan.
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Bleached, “Wednesday Night Melody”
If Best Coast's Bethany Cosentino went for a midweek-day drink with Joan Jett and ended up at the studio around sun-down, it might sound like this L.A. band's radiant bubble-punk crunch.
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Mitski, “Your Best American Girl”
"Your mother wouldn't approve/Of how my mother raised me," this Brooklyn songwriter sings against waves of distortion. Mom's just nuts if she doesn't love her as much as we do.
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Miguel and Kacey Musgraves,”Waves”
On this highlight from R&B visionary Miguel's new remix EP, he and Nashville firecracker Musgraves invent a new genre: stoner beach-party country soul, and it's sublime. More, please.
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Car Seat Headrest, “Vincent”
Troublingly productive indie-rock whiz kid Will Toledo's visions of bleary guitar ecstasy just keep getting bolder: "Vincent" turns go-nowhere boredom into a seething basement-boogie fever dream.
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Kanye West, “Old Kanye (J.U.S.T.I.C.E. League and 8 Bars remix)”
Remixers are having a field day with "I Love Kanye," the a cappella track from The Life of Pablo. This soulful version makes it sound like a brilliant lost outtake from Graduation.
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FKA Twigs, “Good to Love”
After her genre-defoliating 2014 debut album and excellent follow-up EP from last year, the possibilities for U.K. avant-R&B explorer FKA Twigs seem limitless. This slow-build ballad (which she just performed unforgettably on Fallon) is a quiet storm of wintry heartache.