Smash What’s Left Of Yourself With A Brick

San Serac “Tyrant” – I’m having a hard time trying to figure out if this song is an extended metaphor/hypothetical situation (probably) or if this guy really does have a friend/associate from his past who is now an “exiled former autocrat.” (Much less likely, but an interesting story.) The production shamelessly apes some questionable keyboard/drum machine sounds from the 80s, but with refreshingly non-awful results. Even with the synth-horn solos, it somehow dodges the kitsch bullet (okay, maybe the song gets grazed a bit, but it’s a very minor wound, like that shot to the shoulder that Twan receives in “Trapped In The Closet”) and it mostly just sounds like an earnest art-pop song from the era that happened to be made in this decade. (Click here to buy it from Bleep.)

Uffie “Pop The Glock” – It might be a bit of an understatement to say that Uffie isn’t a particularly good rapper. There’s a certain charm to her vocals, but it’s essentially the kind of amateurish rapping that you can’t get away with unless you happen to be a very pretty girl. But really, the rapping on this track is a total MacGuffin. It’s there to carry the song along and provide context, but the appeal of the track lies in the way the time-lagged vocoder ghosts her vocals, and how the woozy beat is entirely at odds with her party-centric lyrics. It all comes together to sound roughly like listening to a pop song on the radio while you are thoroughly zoned out. (Click here to buy it from Juno.)