This is your next jam: Coldplay, Rustie, and more

Welcome back to The Verge’s weekly musical roundup. I’m Jamieson, I’m back as your host, and I will refrain from comment on any of Lizzie’s selections last week, because I truly believe in every jam selector’s right to autonomy and creative freedom — that aside, I still can’t believe you threw new Weezer in there. There’s no Rivers Cuomo & co. in this week’s column, but there is new stuff from Beach Slang and Car Seat Headrest! We’ve also been blessed with tracks from Ariana Grande, Coldplay, Escort, Ty Dolla $ign, Jlin, and Rustie. Your new jam is definitely somewhere in a list this diverse.

Remember to subscribe to our Spotify playlist if you haven’t already — it’s updated weekly! — and tune into our Periscope broadcast covering this week’s selection when it airs this afternoon. Let’s go:

Ariana Grande, “Focus”:

I’m torn over “Focus,” the first single from donut-licking mini-diva Ariana Grande’s upcoming third LP Moonlight. It’s brassy, assertive, and just as structurally sound as last year’s smash “Problem”; that’s the good news. The bad news? I can’t stop steering around Jamie Foxx’s bargain-bin Mystikal impersonation, which is a challenge because it’s embedded into the heart of the chorus. Grande has one of the biggest, brightest voices in pop right now — I want to focus on her, not Foxx’s regrettable cameo.

Beach Slang, “I Break Guitars”:

There are five or six other songs on Beach Slang’s new album The Things We Do to Find People Who Feel Like Us that sound almost exactly like “I Break Guitars.” I’m fine with that, because this song rules: it’s loud, proud, and totally invigorating. Listen closely when frontman James Alex delivers lines like, “If rock and roll is dangerous / how come I feel so safe in it?” He’s singing with the conviction of someone who’s gone through hell and come out with his belief in music’s redemptive power still intact, and it’s captivating.

Car Seat Headrest, “Maud Gone”:

This highlight from Will Toledo’s new record Teens of Style sounds like Guided by Voices soundtracking someone’s first slow dance: it’s dreamy and romantic, but it’s a little rusty too. Teens of Style isn’t a real debut LP — it compiles a bunch of songs Toledo’s written over the last half-decade in re-recorded forms — but it’ll probably serve as your introduction to an exciting young talent, and “Maud Gone” is a great example of the energy Toledo can bring to familiar indie rock sounds.

Coldplay, “Adventure of a Lifetime”:

I was underwhelmed by Coldplay’s last full-length album, 2014’s Ghost Stories, but “Adventure of a Lifetime” has me feeling optimistic about follow-up A Head Full of Dreams. (It’ll be released on December 4th.) The band went right back into the studio after finishing Ghost Stories, and the product finds Chris Martin & co. restoring the color and clutter that album lacked. Norwegian pop mercenaries Stargate helped write and produce “Adventure of a Lifetime,” and you can hear their influence in the song’s subcutaneous throb.

Escort, “My Life”:

Listening to Escort’s new album Animal Nature feels like hopping into a time machine and popping out into a club c. 1979, one where the playlist is dominated by sprightly funk and shimmering disco. “My Life” could’ve been one of that era’s emergent gay anthems, a celebration of liberation and gratefulness — I guess it’s never too late, right?

Jlin, “Nandi”:

Rising young footwork producer Jlin is preparing new EP Free Fall for release on November 27th, and “Nandi” is its menacing, mechanical first single. Imagine a factory coming to life after all of its workers have left to make music — there’d be pistons pushing out a beat, assembly lines rattling and churning forward, spare parts bouncing and dropping onto the floor.

Martin Courtney, “Foto”:

Whether he’s performing with his bandmates in Real Estate or venturing out on his own, Martin Courtney writes about time and its effect on us with an easy elegance. “Foto” is one of the highlights on his new album Many Moons, and it captures the surreal feeling of looking back at a picture of yourself and struggling to recognize the person within it. Backed up by a wistful, humble guitar melody, he sums it up in one line: “We’re not the same as who we were before.”

Rustie, “First Mythz”:

I haven’t been able to spend much time with Rustie’s surprise new record EVENIFUDONTBELIEVE — he dropped it onto the internet without much notice early Thursday morning — but “First Mythz” gives me the same dynamic jolt I feel listening to Glass Swords or “Raptor.” When he’s on his game, Rustie makes music that’d pair well with that wacky, disorienting scene from Willy Wonka & the Chocolate Factory, and it’s not hard for me to imagine “First Mythz” blasting from that terrifying barge. (That’s a good thing, I promise.)

Santigold, “Can’t Get Enough of Myself”:

“Can’t Get Enough of Myself” is the first single on Santi White’s upcoming new album 99¢, and it’s a sunny, chipper display of self-satisfaction. Judging from its cover art and promotional materials — stuff like this (fake) “3D selfie product printer” — the album’s going to push the vanity inherent in a “personal brand” to its limits. If this music within is this radiant and catchy, I’m okay with the vigorousness of the sale.

Ty Dolla $ign ft. Kendrick Lamar, Brandy & James Fauntleroy, “LA”:

Ty Dolla $ign’s been making relaxed, often-lecherous R&B on a regular basis for the last half-decade, but he’s never gotten around to releasing an official studio album. That’s going to change in a week with the release of Free TC, an album stuffed with starry guests and sumptuous arrangements. Trotting out Kendrick Lamar for an incendiary verse on a song called “LA” feels borderline excessive, but the product is a heartfelt civic tribute that depicts the city in all of its complicated glory.

Here’s the running This Is Your Next Jam playlist — have an awesome weekend!