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This is your next jam: Andy Stott, Sturgill Simpson, and more

This is your next jam: Andy Stott, Sturgill Simpson, and more

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Alexis Taylor is ready, Flume and Tove Lo are saying it, and Erika Jayne doesn't give a...

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Welcome back to The Verge’s weekly musical roundup. I’m Jamieson, I’m still your host, and like many other music fans around the world I’m still reeling from the news that Prince passed away yesterday at the age of 57. I spent last night laying in bed with a pair of headphones and an entire discography to plumb, and I woke up this morning with the lights on and the headphones wrapped around my neck. I fell asleep having a funky time, and if I’m looking forward to the weekend it’s because I know I have two full days to immerse myself in the interviews, stories, essays, and music that’s emerged or been created in the wake of the Purple One’s death.

The music industry might’ve shuddered to a stop yesterday, but it kept busy during the remainder of the week. You can hear Prince in a few of the picks below, like Alexis Taylor’s spare "I’m Ready." In others, like Deerhoof’s spiky "Plastic Thrills," it’s not something you’d leap to identify. Whether or not he influenced their work, I’m confident everyone chosen below has a favorite Prince song or memory somewhere in their minds. He was the rare musician and performed who inspired a universal consensus among his admirers and peers.

Remember to subscribe to our Spotify playlist if you haven’t already — it’s updated weekly! Let’s go:

Alexis Taylor, "I’m Ready"

Alexis Taylor’s sweet voice usually emerges out of a thicket of keyboard and jittery rhythms as part of his work fronting Hot Chip, so it’s a little strange to hear him singing over a lone piano melody on "I’m Ready." It’s the lead single from a forthcoming collection of solo piano records, one aptly titled Piano. (It’ll be released on June 10th.) The intimacy is startling: listen closely on a decent pair of headphones, and it sounds like Taylor’s singing and playing from just a few feet away.

Andy Stott, "Selfish"

Mancunian producer Andy Stott’s new album Too Many Voices came out today, and he released "Selfish" as a single earlier this week. If you’re not familiar with Stott’s tar-like electronic music, this’ll make for an abrasive but fitting introduction: the percussion is serrated, the melody sneers, a synth drips like acid from an overturned test tube. Something about the song’s relentlessness reminds me of Portishead’s "Machine Gun," but Stott doesn’t have a singer like Beth Gibbons lending his arrangement a human touch. It’s scary stuff!

Ariana Grande ft. Lil Wayne, "Let Me Love You"

Ariana Grande dragged Samsung pitchman Lil Wayne out of his latest Galaxy S7 Edge commercial for a few bars on this downtempo single from Dangerous Woman, which is still on track to come out roughly a month from now. Don’t let the feature fool you: Grande is the main attraction here, leaving an ex in the dust — apologies, Big Sean — with a new lover and that featherlight cloud of a voice.

Deerhoof, "Plastic Thrills"

Deerhoof’s been churning out avant-garde rock music for almost two decades now, and they still don’t really sound like anyone else: they’re arty, mathy, noisy, and occasionally sweet. Their first album since 2014 is called The Magic, and it’s coming out on July 24th. "Plastic Thrills" is pure smash-and-burn fun, with Greg Saunier and Satomi Matsuzaki trading vocal takes over riffs that sound like they belong in a minor-league hockey arena. (This is a compliment, obviously.)

Erika Jayne, "How Many Fucks?"

I don’t even know where to start with this, so I’m just going to give you the facts: Erika Jayne has been making dance-pop and EDM-pop for about a decade, and she usually pairs her singles with videos that teeter on the edge of NSFW status. She’s also one of the newest Real Housewives of Beverly Hills, one married to a legendary (and wealthy) Los Angeles attorney. (Her tagline: "I’m an enigma, wrapped in a riddle — and cash.") "How Many Fucks?" is her new single, and it’s batshit crazy. If I had to compare it to something, I’d say it sounds like late-period Madonna crossed with PC Music, and even that feels like it’s falling short. It’s been stuck in my head all week. Make sure your boss isn’t lurking over your shoulder and click play.

Floating Points, "Kuiper"

Sam Shepherd is following up last year’s sublime LP Elaenia with a new EP called Kuiper, a release that’s come together as a result of Shepherd’s time with the band that’s helping him render Elaenia live. He released a live video for the title track this week, and it sounds mammoth: there are at least three distinct phases being stretched out over 18 minutes here, moving from sputtering club music to Radiohead-like alt-rock to brooding soul. There’s a ton to take in, and I found myself going back to the beginning as soon as my first run through the song wrapped. Set aside a good chunk of time and let this one overwhelm you.

Flume ft. Tove Lo, "Say It"

Australian producer Flume is releasing Skin, his second full-length, on May 27th. "Say It" is a collaboration with Tove Lo, the multi-talented Swedish pop star who’s scored huge hits like "Habits (Stay High)" and "Talking Body" in recent years. She brings a percolating, fizzy arrangement to life, spitting the chorus like a woman scorned: "When you say it like that / let me ‘fuck you’ right back." I’m guessing this breakup wasn’t exactly amicable.

Kevin Morby, "Destroyer"

"Destroyer" is one of several back-half highlights on Kevin Morby’s new album Singing Saw, a dreamy ballad that takes a while to reach its full potential. Morby’s wandering the streets, looking for all the people that used to be in his life — a lover, his parents, the sister who looks just like him — and thinking about how he came to be this lonely. A lacquered saxophone and backing vocals come out of the woodwork like new friends. It’s a song that makes me think of the full moon, a solitary object hanging heavy in the night sky.

Róisín Murphy, "Mastermind"

Róisín Murphy is preparing a new collection of off-kilter pop for release on July 8th. It’s called Take Her Up to Monto, and the percolating "Mastermind" is the first single. It begins with a doozy of an opening couplet — "It all came down to that one night in question / Intentionally, I believe my demise was my own stupid invention" — and takes off from there, churning and fizzing like a plastic bottle full of soda somebody’s shaken and threatened to open.

Sturgill Simpson, "Sea Stories"

Alt-country maverick Sturgill Simpson’s new album A Sailor’s Guide to Earth came out last week, and much of the album is inspired by time spent in the Navy and new fatherhood. "Sea Stories" is exactly what the title suggests, an impressionistic ramble through international waters that also manages to find time for life advice and stoned games of GoldenEye 007 on a Nintendo 64. How else are you going to pass all that time on a boat, right? The sailor ends up getting kicked out of the service, but he’s not too mad about it: he’d rather be getting high than fighting for a government he doesn’t care about.

Here’s the running This Is Your Next Jam playlist — have a great weekend!