New Music To Know This Week: Arctic Monkeys, Towkio With SZA, & The Beths

The latest Arctic Monkeys album, out today, is worth a listen, but don't expect it to sound like the stuff they've done before. The guys continue their exploratory waltz through music history on Tranquility Base Hotel & Casino, this time dipping into the ELO and Supertramp playbook to make some gorgeous (and some meandering) pop hits. Hell, on their Tonight Show appearance, above, Alex Turner is even cosplaying in the aesthetic of ELO's Jeff Lynn. As always, who knows if they're paying tribute or taking the piss? Don't try to figure out their sincerity level, just try this tripping of the light fantastic on for size and keep it if it fits.

Siri, how do I set "Morning View" to play to wake me up everyday instead of an alarm sound? Imagine starting your day with Towkio crooning good morning as the sun peeks through your blinds. Wouldn't life be better? It was good enough for SZA to do a verse, and that's all you need to know until you push play. Watching this video may make you regret your choice to not become an astronaut.

Slackers of the world, unite and form a garage band. And here's what you should do: instead of going with a rando masculine name (the Ramones, the Libertines, the Strokes) or an inanimate, gender-neutral object (Pavement, the 13th Floor Elevators, the Black Keys), give yourself a feminine name. Elizabeth Stokes, singer for the Beths, apparently didn't think she had "the right voice" to front a band. I'm going to pause for a moment and reflect on the huge number of men with only okay or straight-up bad voices who never even let that idea float into their minds, then I'm going to listen to this excellent song again.

Maybe you speak Spanish, French, Italian, or any of the romance languages? If so, listening to "Humana," the Portuguese version of Sevdaliza's track "Human," will give you an appreciation for how difficult Portuguese is. It's also lovely and dark, impenetrable and charming. The chanting in the middle of the song is haunting, evoking a timeless feeling that is then sharply punctuated by the modern production techniques that drop a stutter into the music. Sevdaliza captures that feeling of new tech and old world stunningly.