Or rather, Chris and the Queens. In her accompanying notes on Genius, the returning French pop star explains how this song sees her take on a macho persona as a way of sparring with male sexual energy – even if there are those who will reject her for it. Also done in French as sister recording Damn, Dis-Moi, Girlfriend is set to HD 80s boogie production – redolent of the guest star Dam-Funk, who delivers some deep, sexy vocal interjections.

In a very strong month for rap albums, what with A$AP Rocky’s impressionistically blunted Testing and Pusha T’s Kanye-produced side of beef Daytona both proving excellent, Playboi Carti’s newest full-length, Die Lit, still stood out. His hopscotching flow broke through on Magnolia last year, and that track’s producer, Pi’erre Bourne, is the key to the album’s hazy appeal. For Fell In Luv, he cuts up a sample of a sample – Purity Ring’s lift of Young Magic – to end up with something Holly Herndon might make if she segued into mumble-rap production.

Facebook Twitter Pinterest From the sincere to the ludicrous … the 1975.

Recent months have seen the 1975’s frontman Matty Healy credited with inspiring a spuriously named genre called Healywave (though he prefers Mattycore). To be fair, he has worked with most of the acts connected with it – his Dirty Hit labelmates Pale Waves and No Rome – and to be even fairer, it should probably be called Hutchencewave for its clear debt to INXS. Still, technicalities: no sooner had the term started catching on (sort of) than the 1975 return with a completely new sound. The first track from their third album hooks around a single, strangulated riff that sounds a bit like Room on Fire-era Strokes rendered as a polyphonic ringtone. It’s miles better than that suggests, and completely unlike anything else on the radio. Like always, Healy’s lyrics veer between ludicrous and devoutly sincere, touching on STDs, finding grey hairs in your “zoot” (zoot!) and an impressively self-lacerating description of himself as “a millennial that baby boomers like”. As neurotic as the song is, Healy suggests being kinder to yourself as you grow up; the strangely affecting Give Yourself a Try is a sign of the 1975 letting themselves grow in weird and wonderful ways.

Speaking of Healywave, there’s definitely a touch of the 1975 in the muted guitar that chimes through the second chorus of Troye Sivan’s excellent single Bloom. But most of this glorious ode to bottoming shimmers by on synths that channel the sense of anticipation and nervousness that Sivan conveys as he plays the part of a receptive partner losing his virginity. It’s stylishly done stuff: his voice on the tantalising first verse is coated in whispery reverb, an invitation to come closer, while the choruses are peppered with subtle gasps that imbue the elegant Bloom with an indecently good sense of lust.

Facebook Twitter Pinterest Hazy state of mind … Tirzah. Photograph: Clare Shilland

It seems far too long since Tirzah’s brief run of brilliance in the mid-2010s – not least the brilliantly scruffy I’m Not Dancing. Similarly earwormy is Gladly, the first single from her long-awaited debut album Devotion (out this August on Domino). Produced by Mica Levi, the track lopes sleepily around a single loop, a heavy, warped piano refrain that seems to pace around in circles and mirrors Tirzah’s state of mind. “All I want is you,” she repeats, drowsy with longing and obsession: “I love you.” Proof that the simplest songs are sometimes the most profound.

It’s been a banner month for the Tottenham MC. Not only has he guested on standout tracks on the aforementioned Playboi Carti and A$AP Rocky albums – appearing on stage with the latter and a giant crash test dummy head in London – he has also released one of his strongest solo tracks ever. Over a minimalist beat that perfectly encapsulates the way he currently straddles grime and US rap, Pure Water sees him announce his own greatness with armour-plated self-confidence.

Thirty-four years ago, Prophet self-released 1,000 copies of Right on Time, an album of scuffed, wonky but compelling electro-funk that disappeared without trace. But it was coveted by Stones Throw label head Peanut Butter Wolf, who met with Prophet and got him in the studio to finally do the follow-up. Tonight is a rerecorded version of a track from his debut, which was covered by Nite Jewel in 2011, who turns up here to join in the homecoming: a magnificent, stumbling funk jam. Nite Jewel – one of the most underrated songwriters around today – has her own track on the playlist too, On Your Own, a Hi-NRG synth workout topped with a soaring vocal.

The Brooklyn garage rockers keep knocking out classic after classic, with new LP Wide Awake! another essential collection of varied, literate, totally satisfying jams. One highlight, Freebird II – the title typical of their droll hipster humour – features a big, satisfying organ melody matched by a blokey singalong for the chorus. Andrew Savage’s verses are like a positivist spin on those from Human Performance, the title lament from the band’s last album.

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Miss Red was born in Israel to Moroccan-Polish parents but, with her girlish patois, she sounds more like she was brought up in a Kingston ghetto. Pairing her once more with producer the Bug, who she accosted at a Tel Aviv rave and went on to tour and record with, Dagga is the first track from her debut album. One of the Bug’s hallmark industrial-dancehall riddims rides under Miss Red’s coquettish singsong vocals.

Facebook Twitter Pinterest Always on … Oneohtrix Point Never and friend.

Fresh from a brilliant score for the Robert Pattison thriller Good Time, and following a string of albums of densely splintered electronics, Daniel Lopatin has released an ambitious new record in Age Of. It finds space for drunken harpsichords, Anohni, terrifying shouting, tender Bon Iver-style digital songcraft, harsh trap and jazzy synth solos, and yet hangs together: he is the great sonic essayist of our voracious, always-on culture. The highlight is the symphonic Toys 2, his biggest, cheesiest moment yet, and his most moving.