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The Round-Up: Best Songs of The Week - ft. D'Angelo, Noname, Sun Ra, and More [Playlist]
The Round-Up: Best Songs of The Week - ft. D'Angelo, Noname, Sun Ra, and More [Playlist]

The Round-Up: Best Songs of The Week - ft. D'Angelo, Noname, Sun Ra, and More [Playlist]

Lenny Kravitz, Grace Jones, Lauryn Hill, Lion Babe, Thundercat, SZA & More Rock The Afropunk Festival 2015 in Brooklyn, NY.

New year, new heat.

Happy 2019, good people. The year's only a few days old and it's already churning out some much-needed warmth. Thankfully, we've still got a bit before the long-plays commence circulation. So let's get to these loosies, shall we?

READ: Okayplayer's 19 Breakout Artists To Watch For In 2019

Noname jumpstarted her 2019 with a smooth-as-can-be follow-up to Room 25, as promised. Chrome Sparks blasted a rare disco gem with analog synth artillery. D'Angelo's first song since Black Messiah has been liberated in its clacklessly full form, padding the intersections of country, soul, and video games scores, with a brooding and brilliant horizon-riding suite. Future resurfaced from a quiet close to 2018 with an icy, club-calibrated anthem. Lizzo signaled her imminent breakout with a swaggering, '80s pop specimen. Chaka Khan struck gold with a feel-good funk groove (her first solo single in well over a decade.) A newly remastered, previously unreleased, Sun Ra album bolsters the cosmic jazz god's celestial sovereignty. But that's hardly the full script.

READ: Memes Rule Everything Around Me: The Best of 2018 Edition

Hear it all in the year's first episode of The Round-Up below. Hit the link to subscribe to Okayplayer's Spotify channel and lay your aux cord anxieties to rest.

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