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.

Header by Rory Midhani

“Home” – Austra

NEW TRACK! AUSTRA! Our favorite Toronto gloom pop outfit dropped a brand-new song called “Home” and it’s everything I’ve been dreaming about since falling for 2011’s Feel It Break. What did you think? If you weren’t already having a love affair with Katie Stelmanis‘ voice then hit play below and join those of us who are done for. Interestingly, Austra have doubled their number of band members between albums and are now officially the sexiest sextet in music. The new album, Olympia, will be out June 17. Don’t worry, we’ll remind you.

[soundcloud url=”http://api.soundcloud.com/tracks/82093378″ width=”100%” height=”166″ iframe=”true” /]

“Where Can I Go” – Laura Marling

Last week 23-year-old English singer-songwriter Laura Marling released a new track from her 4th studio album as a reminder to the rest of us how little we’ve achieved. Kidding. She is a very impressive young person, though. The combination of those rich vocals and the stripped back acoustic on “Where Can I Go” is perfect, I’m hooked. The new album, Once I Was An Eagle, is out May 27. The guitar and vocals were on all 16 tracks were apparently recorded in one take. Stop it, Marling. Just stop.

[soundcloud url=”http://api.soundcloud.com/tracks/82199133″ params=”” width=” 100%” height=”166″ iframe=”true” /]

“Mercy Killer” – Bertie Blackman

Bertie Blackman is an Australian artist whose name I like to drop on this website as often as possible because she is brilliant. Late last year Bertie released Pope Innocent X, a dark pop album that has drawn comparisons to Marina + the Diamonds, although in my opinion there’s not much contest. Check out the album’s sinister lead single, “Mercy Killer” below. The official music video is somewhat macabre and so I won’t force it on you – here’s the youtube link.

[soundcloud url=”http://api.soundcloud.com/tracks/60259891″ params=”” width=” 100%” height=”166″ iframe=”true” /]

The more recent single from Pope is “Hide and Seek”, it’s equally good.

[soundcloud url=”http://api.soundcloud.com/tracks/60259898″ params=”” width=” 100%” height=”166″ iframe=”true” /]

Bertie has a handful of albums out, ranging from dark indie rock to dark indie electro pop rock, and I recommend them all. You can listen to Pope Innocent X here.

“Hell Could Freeze” – Rudimental feat. Angel Haze

The radio station that I listen to plays this track at least once an hour which is something that I’d typically find annoying and burn out from [as with: “Feel The Love“, Rudimental’s 2012 mega hit] however it hasn’t happened yet and I’m not sure it will. I really dig Haze’s vocals, the hook is addictive. I don’t know much about Haze except for that Rachel once called her “the newest best thing for hip hop” and Rachel knows everything.

[soundcloud url=”http://api.soundcloud.com/tracks/69062264″ params=”” width=” 100%” height=”166″ iframe=”true” /]

“Miracle Mile” – Cold War Kids

I’ve been listening to Cold War Kids’ new track compulsively since January in anticipation of next month’s Dear Miss Lonelyhearts, hands down one of the album releases that I’m most looking forward to this year. Everything about “Miracle Mile” – the intense vocals, the pulsing piano, the way the track builds and explodes- reminds me of the first time I heard 2006’s Robbers & Cowards and found a new favorite band. Incredible.

[soundcloud url=”http://api.soundcloud.com/tracks/74945345″ 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).

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