Ed Masley

The Republic | azcentral.com

There's a lot of eating going on in this playlist of best August singles, from Diners to Jimmy Eat World and Cymbals Eat Guitars. Even the song at the top of our list features Father John Misty singing "Wait until you taste me." But there's no real rhyme or reason to it. For all we know, next month our playlist could be packed with references to dieting. But in the meantime, we'd suggest you grab a snack and relax as we relive the best August singles.

1. Father John Misty, "Real Love Baby"

It's kind of weird but also nice to hear an unabashed love song from the man behind "She says, like, literally, music is the air she breathes and the malaprops make me want to f--king scream." "Our hearts are free / So tell me what's wrong with the feeling?" may not be as quotable, but it serves as the perfect introduction to this gospel-flavored yacht-rock ode to real love, baby. Of course, he's still Father John Misty, so it's no surprise that his unabashed love song also features lines you wouldn't necessarily file under romantic ("I want real love, baby / Ooh, don't leave me waiting / I've got real love maybe / Wait until you taste me").

2. Hotel Books, "Can You Do Me a Kindness?"

This is a devastating breakup song, delivered as a vulnerable, trembling, angry, at times screaming spoken-word performance over atmospheric keyboards. It's a brilliant, cathartic delivery of richly detailed lyrics that crawl inside that pain and make sure everyone who hears this knows exactly how that felt. "The numbing of time taught me how to finally fall asleep," he says. "I just wish you'd come home and teach me how to wake back up / This is torture, this is truth, this is unfamiliar pain / This is following an ache but this is love." I should probably point out that they're playing Pub Rock on Friday, by the way, in the event that you listen to what they've done here and come away assuming they'd be even better live.

Details: 7 p.m. Friday, Sept. 2. Pub Rock, 8005 E. Roosevelt St., Phoenix. $15; $12 in advance. 480-945-4985, pubrocklive.com.

3. Diners, "Plastic Cactus"

This is the latest track Diners have shared from “Three,” an album due to hit the streets and internet Nov. 16 on Asian Man Records. Like the previous single, “Fifteen on a Skateboard,” it’s steeped in nostalgia, sonically and lyrically. It starts with a catchy, elastic guitar riff that feels like it’s channeling pop hits of the early ’70s. Then Tyler Blue Broderick sets the scene with “Rediscovering your old favorite songs” and follows through with “And it’s hard to see what could have ever brought you down / But you know I mean it when I say I’ll come around.” Before the song is through he’s “singing classics on the way to the store… thankful for this life.” The production is flawless, from the tone of that guitar riff to the lushness of the harmonies, which are sweet enough to earn their own Wilson-esque turns in the spotlight. And Broderick’s delivery perfectly captures the tone of those lyrics.

4. G-Eazy featuring Jeremih, “Saw It Coming”

There’s a rubbery funk groove powering this EDM jam. And that “Never saw it coming” hook is undeniable, recalling Michael Jackson at his funkiest. Rolling Stone called it “scarily catchy," and it is. But it’s also a song for the “Ghostbusters” soundtrack, necessitating the inclusion of the line “Now tell me who you gonna call.” G-Eazy doesn’t seem all that concerned with ghosts on the verses, though, which may be for the best. After setting the tone with “Yeah, my whole life I’ve been written off / Like a sick kid who spit and cough,” he notes that things have changed since he blew up, then memorably follows: “The whole time I just been cut from a different cloth” with “This is cashmere, is that clear?”

5. Johanna Warren, “Hungry Ghost”

Warren's melodic sensibilities are both timeless and contagious on this melancholy acoustic-guitar-driven ballad, a breakup song that lets you feel her pain but does not play her for the victim. See the opening verse, in which she sings: “Go back inside there’s nothing here to see / Don’t try to describe me to me / ‘Cause if you can think it I’ve already said it in a meaner way / And anyway the thing is I try to forget it but it’s here to stay.” Then she hits you a haunted chorus of “They say that what you give is what you get / I gave you everything and all I got is a lot of regret.”

MORE MUSIC: Get the Things to Do app | Latest concert announcements | Top concerts this week

6. Cass McCombs, “Medusa’s Outhouse”

He puts his upper register to brilliant use on this atmospheric ballad, investing the lyrics with vulnerability and soul from the opening line, a trembling “Help me / Help me to remember to forget / To forget what lies I told you / Knock me down that mystic slide again.” It’s a country-tinged ballad with an almost space-rock flavor and one brief instrumental passage that reminds me of “Space Oddity” and “#9 Dream” at the same time, without necessarily referencing either. There’s a brilliant video you MUST NOT watch at work involving real porn actors on the saddest porn set ever. As director Aaron Brown explained the video to Dazed, “I was interested in the humanity that exists within the transgressive nature of the adult film industry, in the way that people are interested in the transgressiveness of Hollywood actors who portray ‘humanity’ in the movie. In a way the video is its own Hollywood Babylon.” And McCombs is playing Valley Bar this month, so don't miss out.

Details: 7:30 p.m. Saturday, Sept. 17. Valley Bar, 130 N. Central Ave., Phoenix. $15: $13 in advance. valleybarphx.com.

7. Swet Shop Boys, “T5”

Heems of Das Racist and British Pakistani actor Riz Ahmed (as seen in HBO’s “The Night Of”) take aim at the systemic racism people of color are forced to endure as they travel the world with a taunting chorus hook of “Oh no, we’re in trouble / TSA always wanna burst my bubble / Always get a random check when I rock this stubble.” The opening riff is an ominous high-pitched melody played on a shehsai, an oboe-like instrument common in India, Pakistan and Bangladesh, underscored by the sound of police dogs. Along the way, they work in references to martial law, Mohammad, refugees, Aeneas and "The Iliad," Donald Trump and Brexit before signing off with a chant of “Terminal 5 / Terminal 1 / Think we’re termites / Wanna terminate us.”

8. Will Butler, "Friday Night"

This is a live recording, and the vocals thrive on that. It's an unhinged performance that makes the most of Butler's idiosyncratic vocal mannerisms on a piano-track that recycles the chords of "La Bamba" to brilliant effect while the Arcade Fire singer tells it like it is, setting the tone with "Baby I don't care if you heard this song before / And baby I don't care if you think the music's boring." He sings "I have never been drunk / And I have never been stoned" like a man who's a little of each. And it only gets better better when the swearing starts. "Keep your hands from my heart," Butler sings. "Keep your hands from my soul / Keep your eyes off my eyes / Keep your ears off my f--king rock and roll." It's a joyful performance. And that was the goal. As Butler himself has explained his intentions going into this recording, "It’s about taking complicated emotions and wringing communal joy from them, and then translating that joy onto record."

9. AJJ, "Junkie Church"

The second song released from AJJ’s “The Bible 2” is a good deal moodier than “Goodbye, Oh Goodbye.” An understated acoustic-guitar-driven ballad, it starts with a verse about finding a kindred spirit at the “junkie church” with whom to share a can of Steel Reserve. The lyrics are the sort of heartfelt these guys do so well. There’s a chorus of “Oh I love you ‘cause I love you ‘cause I can” and a line about the singer’s head expanding “in an air balloon of words” when he tries to sleep, which sets up the wonderfully Dylanesque “a thousand conversations with your disembodied voice in a cacophony of adjectives and verbs / Air balloon.” As Sean Bonette explains the inspiration for the lyrics, “'Junkie Church' is about love and connection at the bottom of society. It’s about love being the only thing one can afford. The name of the song refers to a type of church where people go to receive services like food boxes, bus vouchers and meals.”

10. Purling Hiss, “Fever”

These Philly rockers work the psychedelic side of the garage through a haze of distorted guitars and a vocal that sounds like it was phoned in from a dream state. It’s that rare breed of record that manages to sound dreamy and explosive at the same time. And I know there’s a genre called dream pop, but this is its own brand of dream pop.

11. Cymbals Eat Guitars, “Have a Heart”

These guys made my list of best June singles with “Fourth of July, Philadelphia (Sandy).” Now, they’re back with the even more contagious "Have a Heart," a love-struck track than jangles like the ‘80s never ended while lead singer Joseph D’Agostino yearns for John Hughes-movie-worthy true romance with conviction to spare. He rhymes “We’d never sleep for long” with “Stop me if I’m wrong,” and makes it sound both romantic and practically innocuous, then follows through with the words every nerdy outsider is secretly dying to hear: “I’m so out of sync, and you’re so out of sync with me.” Other swoon-worthy moments abound. As D’Agonstino explains his intentions: "I had never written an honest-to-goodness love song before this one, and I never thought that I would. Throughout my teen years and adult life, I was in a series of really toxic relationships plagued by jealousy and insecurity, but when I met my current girlfriend I knew that I had found someone who lifts me up, and who I lift up.”

12. Joey Bada$$, "Devastated"

If you're wondering how one of the more contagious hip-hop singles of the year could be the one called "Devastated," that's because he "used to feel so devastated," back before the fame kicked in. "At times, I thought we'd never make it," Bada$$ sings. "But now we on our way to greatness / And all that ever took was patience." It's an uplifting chorus hook, soulfully riding a rubbery bass groove right into your memory banks in a moment of triumph. Bada$$ took to Facebook to explain the inspiration for the song. "It was a really devastating moment in my life," he wrote. "You know, watching my mom battle a serious struggle, for me as a young child wasn’t anything I ever liked to see and I’m sure no child likes to see that. I used to come home from school and see eviction notices on our door."

13. Jimmy Eat World, “Get Right”

This was the first taste of Jimmy Eat World’s eagerly anticipated followup to “Damage.” And for those who may have wondered if those solo tracks Jim Adkins dropped last year held any clues as to where he might be headed when his bandmates reconvened, the answer would appear to be, “Why would a person even wonder such a thing?” The tone is dark and brooding, even ominous, on the opening verse, where Adkins sings of wasted time disguised as patience with the urgency required. Then the chorus hits, chiming guitars topped by a soaring vocal hook about destination addiction and never feeling the space to get it right. There’s an atmospheric instrumental break coming out of the chorus, and the groove throughout is undeniable, while the guitars recall the heaviness of “Futures.” Longtime fans should be singing along after two or three listens, and it sounds like it could be their biggest rock-radio hit since “My Best Theory” launched “Invented.” The album, due Oct. 21, was produced by Justin Meldal-Johnsen, who’s worked with Beck, M83 and Nine Inch Nails.

14. Dinosaur Jr., "Goin' Down"

This is the opening track on "Give a Glimpse of What Yer Not," the first Dinosaur Jr. album since 2012's "I Bet on Sky," and the echoes of their early work are not just obvious but welcome, setting the tone with the sound of an overdriven amp before J. Mascis with a riff that sounds like Neil Young raise on punk. It's a headbanging rock with bittersweet chording and vocals, Mascis pleading "Are you with me? Are you with me when I'm gone?" on a chorus hook that kind of leaves me wondering if this could be the breakthrough single "Green Mind" needed 25 years later. And the lead guitar break may be short and to the point but it feels epic nonetheless, from the squeal of the opening note.

15. Action Bronson and Dan Auerbach featuring Mark Ronson, "Standing in the Rain"

This is an odd combination of talents assembled as a one-off to come up with something to add to the soundtrack to “Suicide Squad.” And it sounds like soundtrack music — in a good way — part spaghetti Western, part James Bond theme, filtered through the atmospheric qualities Auerbach has been exploring with the Black Keys since their hookup with Danger Mouse. But Bronson’s loopy cult of personality commands the spotlight through it all, from his “pillowfights with Dominican mothers” to the hilarious admission that he uses “milfhunter.com to ease the pain.”

16. SerpentWithFeet, "Blisters"

Randy Newman has a song called "Harps and Angels." In a perfect afterlife, I'd like to think this track is what they'd sound like -- a deeply soulful vocal backed by muted harps, lush strings and, on occasion, gospel-flavored handclaps. It's a breathtaking vocal and every other aspect of the song's arrangement is designed to underscore Josiah Wise's anguished vocal as he processes a breakup – the way the orchestration surges as he sings, "Pretend the floors cracking in the shape of our names is not a big deal / Pretend the dark flowers growing towards us is not a big deal / Pretend me loving you is not a big deal / Go."

17. Sex Stains, "Land of La La"

Allison Wolfe of Bratmobile is back with a second great example of what Sex Stains have to offer, following “Don’t Hate Me Cuz I’m Beautiful” with a post-punk song that grooves with the forward momentum of punk, its over-caffeinated drumming topped by jittery guitar funk and hard-hitting fuzz bass. The lyrics are a tribute to their base of operations. Wolfe told Paper the lyrics are “about the illusions, hopes, disappointments, loneliness, flakiness, triumphs and struggles of moving and living here.”

18. Isaiah Rashad, "Free Lunch"

Cam O'bi's production is flawless, a minimal groove with an old-school-soul-meets-jazz vibe leading the way as Rashad sets the tone with a nagging delivery of "meal ticket, ticket, meal ticket, ticket, comma, uh." This is the third song we've heard from what's certainly shaping up to be a promising debut from a hip-hop icon-in-the-making from the Top Dawg Entertainment roster that's already given us Kendrick Lamar and Schoolboy Q. He even joined Lamar onstage at FYF Fest to perform this song during Lamar's headlining set.

19. Angel Olsen, "Sister"

This is the third track we've heard from her forthcoming album, "My Woman," and it doesn't sound a thing like "Shut Up Kiss Me" or "Intern." It starts off as understated ballad, Olsen's gorgeous vocals setting the scene with an aching delivery of "Saw it in her eyes / No, it wasn't what she said / She came together like a dream that I didn't know I had." And although the music ebbs and flows along the way, it never really kicks in until she starts repeating "All my life I thought I'd change" more than four minutes in. And then after bringing the track to a Neil Young-worthy climax, she scales it back to almost nothing, setting up a second build that eventually peaks with an electrifying lead-guitar break before falling apart with a whisper.

20. Tove Lo, "Cool Lo"

This funky electropop jam is the first track released from the Swedish singer's "Lady Wood," and the chorus hook is undeniable, from the groove itself to Lo's assured delivery, purring "I'm a cool girl / I'm a, I'm a cool girl / Ice cold, I roll my eyes at you, boy." It's never quite clear if those lines or "let's not put a label on it" are meant to be read at face value. Given the vulnerability she flashes on the bridges, which she she ends with a trembling "We could burn together," she may just be striking a pose on the chorus. As she sings at one point, "Now you can't tell if I'm really ironic."

MORE AZCENTRAL ON SOCIAL: Facebook | Twitter | Instagram | Pinterest

Reach the reporter at ed.masley@arizonarepublic.com or 602-444-4495.Twitter.com/EdMasley.