Here are the 10 tracks we counted down on this week's installment of the Pitchfork Top 10, which can be heard each week in January on Beats 1. Check out last weekend's list here, and tune in this weekend to hear episode 4.
10. Chairlift: "Moth to the Flame"
Since synth pop duo Chairlift released their 2012 album Something, frontwoman Caroline Polachek has released a solo record, trained as an opera singer, and even wrote "No Angel" for Beyoncé. She translates some of Bey's confidence onto her band's new album, turning a song about the allure of an unworthy lover into a powerful disco jam.
9. Rostam: "EOS"
Rostam Batmanglij is the musical architect behind some of your favorite Vampire Weekend songs, and now he's venturing out with his first solo album. It's not the first time he's made music apart from his main band: In 2009, he collaborated with Wesley Miles of Ra Ra Riot on an experimental art-pop project called Discovery, and he dropped two solo cuts in 2011. This new single finds Rostam restrained, letting his otherworldly voice take center stage in an ambient landscape.
8. Flatbush Zombies: "Glorious Thugs"
Flatbush Zombies are releasing their debut album 3001: A Laced Odyssey in March. On non-album cut "Glorious Thugs," their tribute to Biggie and Bone Thugs-n-Harmony's "Notorious Thugs," the Brooklyn trio ditch their previous drug-friendly raps for rhymes that slice through an eerie piano line.
7. Woods: "Sun City Creeps"
Psych rock outfit Woods are taking a much more polished approach on their new album, City Sun Eater in the River of Light. But they're also getting a bit eccentric, sprinkling in mariachi horns and Flamenco guitar.
6. Kelela: "All the Way Down (Kahn Remix)"
For his remix of Kelela's "All the Way Down," Bristol producer Kahn empties the song of its original electronic beat, instead filling it with something more atmospheric but equally energetic. Mysterious London rapper Gaika adds vocals to the remix, providing the song with yet another new edge.
5. Ka: "30 Keys"
Brownsville rapper Ka has been slowly coming up in underground hip-hop circles, partly due to his steady, delicately detailed flow and mesmerizing lyrics. On his latest single, "30 Keys," he remains confident as ever riding tapped piano keys and vocal sample.
4. Allan Kingdom: "Fables" [ft. Chronixx]
Minnesota rapper Allan Kingdom provided the haunting hook to Kanye West's "All Day" in 2015. Now the young rapper has a new mixtape, Northern Lights, that showcases his ability to shapeshift and use his voice as an instrument of force.
3. Isaiah Rashad: "Smile"
Kendrick Lamar's TDE label is a West Coast institution, but one of the newer additions to the stable hails from Chattanooga, Tenn. Isaiah Rashad has so far released one mixtape: 2014's Cilvia Demo. This week, he dropped a new track that embraces both his Southern roots and TDE's California stylings, rapping on one verse in a Southern drawl, and spitting rapid fire Cali rhymes in another.
2. Anderson .Paak: "The Waters" [ft. BJ the Chicago Kid]
On "The Waters," from Anderson .Paak's new album Malibu, he lets BJ the Chicago Kid handle the hook while he shows off his own skills as a rapper. And he has plenty of skills, breaking out into triple-time raps. We'd call him a double-threat, but that's probably limiting what this young California artist can do.
1. Erykah Badu: "Trill Friends"
As she did to Drake's "Hotline Bling" last year, Erykah Badu strips down Kanye West's "Real Friends" to its bare essentials on "Trill Friends." Channeling Whodini's 1984 classic "Friends," Badu repeats "Homeboys, and some of them we wish we never knew at all," until the line becomes a meditative mantra.