The Guardian (USA)

Tracks of the week reviewed: Jaime Wyatt, Clean Bandit, BTS

- Leonie Cooper

When it comes to coming-out songs, Jaime Wyatt’s approach is singular. Pulling on her finest rodeo suit and stubbing out a cigarette with a perfectly polished cowboy boot, the sophistica­ted twang of Rattlesnak­e Girl sees Wyatt putting the straight life – as well as jail time and addiction issues – behind her to join the new wave of

LGBTQ+ artists demolishin­g country music’s lingering conservati­ve leanings.

Clean 24kGoldn Tick Tock Bandit and Mabel ft

Try as Clean Bandit might to convince us that this tropical-popper is about clockwatch­ing while mooning over your crush, we all know the truth: this is a shameless grab for social media superiorit­y. Tick Tock is a hollow anthem for the nation’s lockdown little ’uns, who have swapped school for sixsecond videos of them lip-syncing to

Megan Thee Stallion while you try to sneak courgettes into their pasta sauce.

Father John Misty To S / To R

Taking a break from social distancing on the deck of his mid-century modern California­n treehouse in Gucci loafers, Father John Misty has decided to grace the embers of the millennium’s first pandemic summer with a fresh pair of ballads. Coyly occupying the middle ground between Randy Newman and Nietzsche suggests it’s business as usual for chamber folk’s most elegant misanthrop­e.

Phoenix Identical

This kicking-out-time-at-theHaçiend­a thud of retro electro-pop is set to feature over the end credits of Sofia Coppola’s upcoming film On the Rocks, marking Phoenix’s fifth movie collaborat­ion with the director, to whom frontman Thomas Mars also happens to be married. Nepotism never sounded so catchy.

BTS Dynamite

Breaking the record for the highest number of views ever for an online video premiere, BTS’s first single totally in the English language is already bigger than the budget for a Grand Designs in which an overly confident man decides to build on a crumbling Cornish clifftop. Expect Dynamite to grow in size until Christmas, by which time you’ll be able to wrap it round the Earth six-and-a-half times.

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