Bartees Strange, Pom Pom Squad, They Hate Change [control room]

Ascendent 4AD indie star Bartees Strange is a formidably rangy talent, leveraging arena-ready bellows and whisper-nimble intimacies towards songs that map their emotional ups-and-downs onto a bevy of millennial-minded stylistic switch ups. But don’t call it nostalgia bait. If, for instance, the D.C.-based artist segues into trap rap triplets at the center of a midwest-emo-styled track mounted on post-punk revival drums, the sonic synthesis comes wedded to lyrical themes too soul-deep to be called eclectic. To call Strange a “genre-hopper” is to misrepresent his artistry. He’s standing in one place. Power poppers Pom Pom Squad and Florida hip-hop experimentalists They Hate Change open. – Julian Towers