The Songs We Can't Escape

NOUS NON PLUS
"Fantôme Dur (Tuff Ghost)"

Multinational concern best known for wanting to spend "One Night in Paris"—the Hilton heiress, not the French city, mind—cover a Unicorns favorite. In French. In a way that demonstrates that their pop sense is strong even as they add absolutely nothing to a happily daft tune about a brawny, no-nonsense, Casper-stomping ghost.

AQUARELLE
"Episódio 8"

This new track from local ambient-lete Ryan Potts is considerably busier and briefer than the fare he showcased on his 2006 Of Memory and Momentum CDR, trading sombulent drift for snatches of vocals buried beneath soft focus, pitch-shifting synth tones and fragmented scraps of guitar.

CARLOS GIFFONI
"Comfort and Pleasure"

More synth-drone navel-gazing from No Fun label head Giffoni, who's been amassing an increasingly spectacular body of work over the last couple of years (to say nothing of his collaborative efforts). Here, for almost 10 minutes, he posits a harsh, electric hair-clippers throb undercut by buzzing, intermittent synth blooms. It's itchy enough to make you wanna scratch all the skin off of your forearms—in a good way.

SUNROOF!
"Little Ornamental Lake of Death"

If Matthew Bower's good for nothing else, he's a whiz at exploring the more visceral possibilities of the electric guitar. "Lake" is an especially guttural bit of business, a spinning, broken pinwheel spewing haywire feedback like a slashed artery.

JUSTIN TIMBERLAKE
"Magic"

Justin breaks off a little Stargate-aping-Timbaland somethin'-somethin' for all the bi-curious gents, sissy boys, and drag queens still drooling over "SexyBack." Daring!