Today's Top Tune

LA band Sparks always delights us with their sophisticated-yet-playful songwriting. The duo of brothers Ron and Russell Mael have been at it since the early 1970s and they just dropped their 28th studio album, MAD!. “Running Up A Tab At The Hotel For The Fab” is one of the typically witty offerings from that album, and you can download it for free right now. Also be sure to mark your calendar for their LA show at the Greek on Tuesday, Sept. 30.

It’s August, it’s hot, it’s muggy, and we’re all melting. Thank goodness for Mayer Hawthorne’s carefree melody “The Pool,” a refreshing tonic to the heat written and entirely produced by the artist. 

This cover comes to us from A Song For Leon: A Tribute to Leon Russell, the superstar tribute to the man known as “The Master of Space and Time,” for his storied 50 years of prolific songwriting — not to mention having produced albums for everyone from The Rolling Stones to Bob Marley. The record drops on September 8. 

Boundary-pushing artist Róisín Murphy teams up with virtuosic electronic music producer DJ Koze for a highly anticipated 13-track album that promises to be as genre-bending as it is melding. Get ready to get your snarl on with “Fader,” reminiscent of vintage Jackson 5 with a little Aretha mixed in. 

Mr. Pauer, purveyor of his own brand of electropico, dazzles us with a new track featuring Barcelona’s clarinet master, Oriol Mares. “Viento y Marea” translates to English as “Wind and Tide,” and is a sweet instrumental piece on a bed of layered organic sounds. 

Pop purveyors of playfulness CHAI are sprinkling the last bits of magic dust on their self-titled forthcoming album that highlights their Japanese cultural heritage and the music that inspired them. Let’s spin “PARA PARA,” which memorializes a popular two-step dance trend popular in Japan in the 1990s. 

Ambassador of her family’s Mexican culture, Estevie is on the front lines when it comes to merging cumbia with Mexican regional music. A first-generation American raised in Beaumont, CA, Estevie brings the head on the sound of ‘miami,’ the latest output from Ricky Reed’s label Nice Life Recording Company. 

Born and raised in Los Angeles, Chris Pierce is a gentle giant who makes powerful music that lifts the unsung to rise together — much like his hero, Neil Young, who handpicked Pierce to open on his July tour. Showcasing Pierce’s thoughtful songwriting, “Meet Me at the Bottom” helps heal divisiveness to a place of common ground. 

It’s the middle of the week, and you may find yourself needing a soothing balm like “A day in the water’ by Christine and the Queens. When asked about the song, Chris shares: “The song is about that feeling of being deep in the water when you feel the world cannot touch you anymore.  It’s behind the glass of your own melancholia, but in that deep dive of vulnerability hopefully the light arrives. The light of honesty.” 

KCRW DJs are hyped on Silver,  the forthcoming sophomore studio album from Say She She dropping late September. Their stellar harmonies always have us swooning, and that’s certainly the case for Silver’s gorgeous “Astral Plane,” out today.