Every week, AskMen highlights the rad, the bad and the straight-up sad in music. Thisweek: Drake's not-so-well-received take on Aaliyah, Passion's Pit latest and the newestfemale rapper on the block.-->Download This

"Constant Conversations" by Passion PitWhat Passion Pit communicatedbest on their last album, Manners, was joyous exuberance. Michael Angelakos'high-pitched vocals and cheery choruses suggested an excitable soul, yet a closer study ofhis lyrics (and his recent hospitalizations and tour cancellations) reveals his struggleswith bipolar disorder. Where his previous album's "The Reeling" revealed he felt the"madness inch by inch," this new single addresses the adulation and success his work hasbrought him: "They love you when they need you/But someday you're gonna need another kindof place to go." It turns out no number of fans can completely cure you, not even when, aswe see in the video, they include Hollywood legend Peter Bogdanovich and the adorableAnaleigh Tipton."Inside My Love" by DelilahAside from being the mother ofcomic genius Maya Rudolph, Minnie Riperton was once the queen of the slow jam. Even now,her 1975 singles "Lovin' You" and "Inside My Love" remain staples of softcore soul radio.Tackling one of these on your first album is daring, to say the least, as you could easilybe mistaken for that worst of the worst, a smooth-jazz peddler. And though UK peers likeLianne La Havas occasionally dip into that dark, bland well, Delilah's Riperton cover issexy without being smooth. As the sultry video attests, the desire she evokes is of adarker, bothered breed, closer in fact to Portishead, the xxand even Nine Inch Nails."New York" by Angel HazeIt's a glorious time for female rappers.After being wooed by the wacky neon politics of M.I.A., the filthy works of Azealia Banksand those of Nicki Minaj (whose career reached a tragic nadir in the dumbed-down dubstepof new single "Pound the Alarm"), we are now introduced to Angel Haze, a 20-year-old NewYorker with skills to rival the ladies listed above. Her beats are sweet, too, theclappiest this side of Lumidee (this song samples the recently deceased Gil Scott-Heron).The grim, horror-movie video shows Angel as some dark vigilante roaming the city'sunderworld, a far cry, let's say, from Alicia Keys' awkward stand-up piano work in "EmpireState of Mind."
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"There He Go" by ScHoolboy QPart of a school of rising rappers such asKendrick Lamar and Ab-Soul, ScHoolboy Q is an ex-college football player andself-described ex-gangbanger who's been making a name for himself in hip-hop since 2011'sSetbacks album. "There He Go" is his latest single, a classic piece offoulmouthed self-aggrandizement that is elevated into mastery by its fantasticallyleft-field Menomena sample. The video adds some extra doses of street realness, with cameoappearances by ScHoolboy's young daughter and some great orange animations.
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"Enough Said" by Aaliyah, featuring DrakeIt comes as a severe disappointment to learn thatDrake will beproducing Aaliyah'ssecond posthumous album (especially to a longtime fan whose dream Aaliyah release is herrumored Trent Reznor collaboration). Perhaps the original recording was already toounfocused, but Drake's added beats and rhymes, as on blubbery display in this track, aresimply too cloudy and tepid for a vocal artist of Aaliyah's stature and skill. Especiallyseen in retrospect, Aaliyah's work with Timbaland ("Try Again," "Are You That Somebody?")was so precise, so masterfully timed and phrased, that it's a shame to hear her deathlessvoice smothered in Drizzy's trademark murk.
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