Admittedly, I tend to drift across genres. That’s why its so fun to find an artist that loves to do the same. Bartees Strange, past member of New York’s hard-core band Stay Inside, is creating great music and its ever changing. The song that first hooked me was the 2021 tune “Weights.” It’s an upbeat pop-rock tune that gets stuck in your head. Another track from that album, Live Forever” is “Mustang” about the town in Oklahoma he grew up in. This is a rock tune that has elements towards the end that echo his hard-core experience. To get a sense of his styling range he plays a jazzy version of this song for NPR’s Tiny Desk series. Also, on that album is “Boomer” which throws in rap verse with a rock chorus and a very nice surf-punk bass underneath all of it. His new song “Heavy Heart” is a banger. Spend some time with Bartees Strange. There is so much going on with these tunes and they get better with every listen.