What are you listening to this week?

Waxahatchee, “Never Been Wrong”
It won’t surprise Waxahatchee fans that the upcoming Out In The Storm (out July 14) is great; the question is more about the form Katie Crutchfield’s new album will take. 2015’s Ivy Tripp—No. 8 on The A.V. Club’s best albums of 2015—nicely balanced what my colleague Alex McLevy described as “hushed, spare confessionals and joyous pop-rock,” so will the new one follow suit? “Never Been Wrong” opens Out In The Storm with awesomely catchy power-pop, but joyous it is not. Crutchfield rebukes an old partner while censuring herself for putting up with them for so long, which is a familiar take for a post-breakup song—but some themes are eternal. The combination of Crutchfield’s cutting lyrics (“You walk around like it’s your god-given right / You love being right / You’ve never been wrong”) and the anxious energy of the song around her makes “Never Been Wrong” an excellent statement of purpose for what follows on Out In The Storm.
Payroll Giovanni, “Spot In Every Ghetto”
Detroit rapper Payroll Giovanni’s Big Bossin, Vol. 1 was one of last year’s quieter pleasures, full of sun-kissed West Coast synths and shimmering drug rap paeans. This year’s Payface—the title is, yes, a Scarface reference—is another winner, 11 tracks of “it was all a dream” luxe life mood music. There isn’t a bad track on it, but “Spot In Every Ghetto” is the perfect blend of bouncing Michael Jackson keyboards and Payroll’s lithe emceeing. He has a way of wrapping his words around the beat such that the entire verse feels like a hook: “I’m tryin’ to vacate, and elevate and stay safe / All I wanted young was a white brick with gray tape,” he starts, a young man with plans to make cream. It’s bittersweet without being rueful, nostalgic without ever feeling like a throwback. If it’s warm where you are—it took forever in Chicago, but we’re finally here—put this on and enjoy.