Header by Rory Midhani

Welcome to Crystal’s Track Stop, where every week I bring you a selection of the raddest tracks from my record collection and also from the internet. All killer no filler.

“Demons” – The National

“When I walk into a room, I do not light it up. Fuck.”

You might get the feeling that you’ve heard “Demons” before even though it’s brand-new and that’s because you kinda sorta have, it sounds like a summary of High Violet. It has everything that a National fan would expect from a National song; darkness, a slow burn, intensity, lyrics that rip your heart apart. If you’re a little underwhelmed on the first spin (I was) then go twice, ’cause it shares one additional characteristic with their past pieces: the more often you listen the harder you’ll fall.

We need to wait another month for their new album, Trouble Will Find Me, however but if you pre-order it then you’ll get to download “Demons” straight away.

“These Paths” – Yeah Yeah Yeahs

Last week the Yeah Yeah Yeah’s streamed their entire new album, Mosquito (hear the entire thing here!) however youtube is just so awkward that despite my excitement I’ve only listened to it once. Did you listen? What did you think? My initial feeling is that it is so weird and unpredictable and I LOVE IT. I mean I don’t love it as much as I love “Phenomena” but parts of it are definitely blowing my mind. I’m extremely fond of “These Paths”. Karen O describes it as a “Dave Sitek heavily influenced medical marijuana track” and I just can’t top that. I can’t embed so listen to it here at the 26 min mark.

“Bottled Affection” – Cold War Kids

Cold War Kids wrote a song about my life. Crazy, right? It’s from their new album, Dear Miss Lonelyhearts, which was released last week. I haven’t heard the whole thing yet, I’m holding off on buying it until the Autostraddle Meet Me At The Record Store Day meet-up because it’ll sound a lot better that way. What album/s are you gonna buy on Record Store Day?

I also wanna give a shout out to “Loner Phase,” which is a stand out track and not just because it references aging and hibernation and being a loner. Dear Miss Lonelyhearts is the stories of our lives, basically.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=egh0zLdUGmU

“If” – Janet Jackson (Ellie Herring Remix)

Remember queer musician/producer Ellie Herring? You should; she made you this amazing Valentine’s Day mix and so there’s a chance that you’ve done it (or wept quietly) (or both) to the sound of her music. Now she’s worked her magic on Janet Jackson‘s “If”, which you can stream and download below. I really didn’t like Jackson’s original and so this remix is surprisingly enjoyable.

[soundcloud url=”http://api.soundcloud.com/tracks/85684033″ params=”” width=” 100%” height=”166″ iframe=”true” /]

If you like what you hear and happen to live in Kentucky, Ellie’s playing two shows this weekend and you should probably go check ’em out.

“That Was The Whiskey” – Antigone Rising

Does any of you listen to country music? I am uneducated on the genre. I met Keith Urban once. That is a weird name drop but also the limit of my country experience. Antigone Rising have been a Thing in country rock for a long time, or so the internet tells me. They were bought to my attention is because one of the members, Kristen Ellis-Henderson, is kissing her wife Sarah on the cover of TIME Magazine right now, which is really neat. But also! They’ve just released this song and I can’t stop listening for many reasons, particularly the handclaps and rousing chorus of “that was the whiskey”. Dare you not to get into it. Dare you.

[soundcloud url=”http://api.soundcloud.com/tracks/81926752″ params=”” width=” 100%” height=”166″ iframe=”true” /]

Heard a great song? Shoot me the link via @trackstop or crystal at autostraddle dot com (please write “track stop” in the subject line).

Before you go! Autostraddle runs on the reader support of our AF+ Members. If this article meant something to you today — if it informed you or made you smile or feel seen, will you consider joining AF and supporting the people who make this queer media site possible?

Join AF+!