5 songs you need to stream this week: Kendrick Lamar, Sampha, and more

By Parker Hall July 9, 2016

best songs to stream july 8 2016 sampha — Facebook

Every week, there are hundreds of thousands of new songs hitting the airwaves. It’s too much for just your two ears to handle. With all those options, you can’t be wasting your time on tracks worthy of a thumbs down click. But don’t worry, we’re going to save you the hassle. We listen to some of the most-hyped and interesting songs each week, and tell you which are worthy of your precious listening time.

Here are our top 5 songs to stream this week — and remember to subscribe to our Spotify playlist for all of our weekly picks.

Black Hippy — THat Part (Black Hippy Remix)

A fresh remix from Schoolboy Q, Kendrick Lamar, Ab-Soul, and Jay Rock — the famed Top Dawg Entertainment crew known as Black Hippy — appeared on the internet this week. The new track is a heavy jam which showcases King Kendrick’s perfectly-placed wordplay. Five minutes in length and packed with enticing verses, the new single is easily the best hip-hop tune to emerge in recent months, showcasing precisely why each member of the Los Angeles crew has become a big-name rapper over the past decade.

Sampha — Plastic 100°C

Sampha - "Plastic 100°C" (Live Performance)

A church-influenced piano-and-vocal number from British R&B singer Sampha, this live recording shows off the sort of overt artistic talent that has drawn luminaries like Kanye West and Drake to collaborate with the lesser-known musician. There’s a vibrant and complex reality behind this performance, creating a space-filled single that’s accented by passing subway cars and the gentle crackle of his voice into a rooftop microphone.

EZTV — High Flying Faith

Brooklyn rockers EZTV recruited none other than Jenny Lewis to sing background vocals on High Flying Faith, a guitar-powered rock song that will be the lead single on their upcoming sophomore release from Captured Tracks. A vintage-inspired outfit that records to tape, the band’s new song shows significant development from their 2015 debut Calling Out, and has us excited to hear the full shebang — called High in Place — when it hits stores late this September.

Ryley Walker — The Roundabout

Between heavy bouts of touring, songwriter Ryley Walker returned to the studio to make Golden Sings That Have Been Sung, developing his jazz-influenced folk music into something deeper and more spacious. On The Roundabout, the second-released single from the much-anticipated record, Walker shows off his road-tested ability on the acoustic guitar, crafting a song that feels like it would be equally well placed on the Firefly or Making A Murderer soundtracks.

Alexis Taylor — Old Friends 4 Sale

Alexis Taylor - Old Friends 4 Sale (Prince Cover)

Hot Chip frontman Alexis Taylor pays a belated tribute to Prince with a cover of one of the musician’s unreleased B-sides. Called Old Friends 4 Sale, the tune is a passionate and melancholy song which The Purple One inked in the mid-’80s. Taylor’s take is an interesting and deep homage — a ballad which feels like it came a bit more from the heart than the recent covers of Purple Rain which have poured from other musicians worldwide.

That’s it for now, but check back every week for more new tunes to stream!

Editors' Recommendations

Topics

Former Digital Trends Contributor

Parker Hall is a writer and musician from Portland, OR. He is a graduate of the Oberlin Conservatory of Music in Oberlin…

Audio / Video

What is hi-res audio, and how can you experience it right now?

Dlyan Wireless Headphones

High-resolution audio, hi-res audio, or even HD audio -- whatever you decide to call it (for the record, the industry prefers "hi-res audio"), it's a catch-all term that describes digital audio that goes above and beyond the level of sound quality you can expect from a garden-variety MP3 file and even CDs. It was once strictly the domain of audiophiles, but now that major streaming music services like Apple Music, Amazon Music, Tidal, Deezer, and Qobuz have embraced it, almost everyone can take advantage of what hi-res has to offer.

But what exactly is hi-res audio? What equipment do you need to listen to it? Where can you download or stream it? And does it actually sound better? We've got the answers.
What does the term 'hi-res audio' mean?

Music

How to download music from Spotify for offline listening

How to download music and podcasts from Spotify: The downloads folder.

If you're a Spotify Premium user paying that premium Spotify fee, chances are you've taken at least some time curating playlists, liking songs, and using the platform's easy-to-use (and recently revamped) user interface to discover new and old music.

But sometimes all that music or your favorite podcasts aren't available if you find yourself without an internet connection to stream them from — like on a long plane ride or weekend camping trip in the sticks. That's where Spotify's offline listening feature comes in handy, allowing you to download playlists, albums, and podcasts through its desktop and mobile apps so you can still rock out while you're off the grid.

Audio / Video

How to switch from Spotify to Apple Music

Spotify and Apple Music transfer on a smartphone.

Spotify is the world's most popular music streaming service for a reason. It has a massive catalog of music and podcasts, is full of cool music discovery and sharing features, and is really easy to use.
However, with its recent price increase and the fact that it still hasn't joined most of its peers in offering a hi-res audio quality option, you may be considering jumping ship for its closest competitor, Apple Music, which counts lossless hi-res tracks, mind-bending spatial audio, Dolby Atmos Music tracks, and a catalog that rivals Spotify's among the many attractive reasons to switch.

But there's one problem: you’ve spent a lot of time creating playlists and marking songs and albums as your favorites in Spotify. Is it worth the switch? Will all that hard work be lost in translation?