Out of it’s thirteen-cut tracklisting, the one that’s sure to earn them even more Web-hype in the coming months is set highlight “Black n’ Plastic”, a dishing of occasionally cutting “What’s happening to us?” cultural commentary (“Do you really love yourself?”, they ask to all the “GQ magazine, coke fiend cover girls/ And all them other girls that wanna look like other girls”) and potentially beef-starting digs at LMFAO, Asher Roth and Lil’ Wayne, served atop a surprisingly winning mix of sparse-ish Dirty South production tricks blended with an endlessly looped sample of Aqua’s ’90’s hit “Barbie Girl”.

Yeah…you read that right, they’ve sampled “BARBIE GIRL”…and the beat rocks (or, in their case, we guess jukes) somethin’ tough.

DL: “Black n’ Plastic” (alt)

Here, as the Trackslayers production team excellently surround him with the kind of epic-sized, Southern hip hop trunk-rattler he’s crushed with so many times before, T.I. spews breathless rounds of annoyance and ire aimed at those he felt did a sucky job holding down the fort in his absence. “Tight jeans, funny haircuts, dancing on the screen/ It’s a drought of real niggas in the game so it seems,” he spits with such heat you could almost feel the saliva spraying from his mouth against your ears.

For those that thought that Lil’ Wayne’s trip into the clink would hurt the Third Coast rap scene in 2010, you needn’t at all worry any longer. The King is back, and from the sounds of things, more than ready to make up for the time he’s lost.

For all you other jailed rappers wondering how to truly mark your re-emergence into the game upon your release, this is how you stage a return to make the crowd go nuts.

DL: “I’m Back” (alt)

Being such fans of the oddly mesmerizing jump-off that was “Stylo”, with featured guest Bobby Womack’s crazed soul-man beltings, the cut we most anticipated upon Beach’s release was Womack’s second contribution to the project, as we were swept away with intrigue on how else the Gorillaz could fancifully utilize the R&B veteran’s talents.

Tucked near the end of the album, that record, “Cloud of Unknowing”, ultimately ends up the rewarding experience we hoped it to be.

Bookended by the soothing sounds of cawing seagulls and crashing waves, the track beautifully captures a pensive moment of one man sitting beachside, his toes digging into the sand and his gaze fixed upward into the sky’s starry abyss, trying to figure out it all.

“On the cloud of unknowing/ My world seems open/ Every satellite up here is wanting/ But I was here from the very start,” Womack muses, his funereal moan tinged with an aching twang. What he’s going on about, you feel like you need a half-drunken bottle of wine and a bruised heart to completely understand, but there’s no mistaking the piercing his vocals do your emotional core, especially when accompanied by Damon Albarn and the East Midlands-based sinfonia ViVa’s spaced-out, classical composition.

Peep the standout below, than enjoy two of our favorite B. Wo tracks ever: his 1976 single “Daylight” (the ideal theme song for anyone who can’t let the night life go so easily) and his soul-tastic take on the Neil Diamond karaoke staple, “Sweet Caroline” (“bah, bah, bah…”).

“Cloud of Unknowing”:

DL: “Cloud of Unknowing” (alt)

Bonus DL: Bobby Womack “Daylight” (alt)

Bonus DL: Bobby Womack “Sweet Caroline (Neil Diamond Cover)” (alt)

We can’t help but think (or hope) that somewhere Missy Elliott has just finished watching this awesomely WTF!!-to-the-infinite-power  (and obviously Quentin Tarantino-influenced) smorgasbord of mass murder, girl-on-girl kissing (and prison fights!!!), bizarro fashion sense (where does one buy still-lit, half-smoked cigarette butt shades?), early Madonna eyebrows, purposefully flat acting, shared Honey Bun snacking, vogueing boy dancer chefs, future Twitter-hyped one-liners (“Once you kill a cow, you gotta make a burger“) and…erm, Tyrese, and has immediately got her record label on the phone, demanding that they get her a music video budget big enough to include James Cameron as director and the actual Moon as a set location, just so she can end up besting GaGa’s “Telephone” as the owner of 2010’s best clip.

BONUS DL: As An Aquarius (Myspace) featuring Bryan Zimmerman “Telephone (Lady Gaga/ Beyonce Cover)” (alt)

Yet, consistently impressive remixer/ producer Doctor Rosen Rosen ultimately makes this revision work, his heavy slabs of spooky synth gloom and typewriter drum machine ticks bringing a sinister heft to lines like “When you look in my eyes/ You make me delirious”, instantly transforming what was once this cutesy (and fairly harmless), teenybop crush ode into the beginnings of an exciting “Fatal Attraction”-for-the-high-school-set big screen thriller.

DL: “Delirious (Doctor Rosen Rosen Remix)” (alt)

Effectively pairing the rustic tenor of Serenades’ singer/ rhythmic guitarist Martin Nordvall with the sighing, featherweight coo of Club 8 vocalist Karolina Komstedt atop a melancholy recipe of wistful guitar, synth squiggles, cracking drums and rumbling bongos, midtempo ballad “Die Young” hones in on the all-too-familiar awkward scenario of a couple waking up from a one night stand with differing reactions.

“It’s a lie, we knew it all along”, emotes Nordvall on the hook, yet despite being fully aware of the “rules”, he’s still hesitant to budge from bed, wanting to milk every single second out of his post-lay state of bliss (“Oh I don’t wanna leave/ I just wanna lay here and watch you breathe”). Too bad Komstedt doesn’t share that same sense of euphoria, all she wants is for him to quickly depart before he falls for her any deeper: “I’m not looking for love/ I told you that I just wanna dance,” she pointedly reminds him, her words bathed in a weighted remorse.

Peep the MP3/ video below, followed by a dark n’ dubby “Die Young” remix put together by the Artymove gang.

From Sweet Serenades’ latest, Balcony Cigarettes.

DL: “Die Young” (alt)

DL: “Die Young (Artymove Remix)” (alt)

Helmed by producer, and former Suede guitarist, Bernard Butler (Duffy, Black Kids), “Do Wah Doo” buzzes with a playful jumbling of familiar ’60’s pop conventions (radiant girl group harmonies, handclaps, zinging surf guitar, blaring horns) all congealed into a thickened Wall of Sound.

Beneath the happy-go-lucky framing, however, things aren’t as sunny, as Kate is heard spewing all type of “hateration” towards a girl hogging the secret object of her affection’s eye. “Everybody thinks that girl’s a lady/ But I don’t, I think that girl’s shady,” Nash pouts on the sidelines, even going so far as to tag the crush-stealing cow a “bitch”.

Interestingly enough, just when you think she’s about to fight for her man “Jerry Springer”-style and get this fizzy pop confection the happy ending conclusion the upbeat arrangement all but demands, Nash opts to give him up, resigning to “read a book instead” because “I can hang out with myself”.

Hmmm…it’s not the most sassiest way to go out, but whatever, jerk’s loss; we’re just happy to have the undeniably catchy nugget-crafting Kate Nash we love back.

From her April-set second LP, My Best Friend Is You.

Alas, she didn’t…but all is not lost, as the diva has only upgraded the track’s future hit potential greatly under this new Advocate revision.

It’s addictive hook sadly doesn’t make it’s first appearance until the track is half-way done, but it’s hard to fuss about that too much when the remix’ front-end is loaded with great turns at the mic from Ludacris (who, curiously, makes much more of an impact littering uzi-fire rhymes and animated vocal tricks atop “Ribbon”’s crawling midnight groove, than he does on his own oh-so-paint-by-numbers recent material) and Dream (who, as on “My Love” and the “Touch My Body (Remix)”, continues to prove to be one of Carey’s better duet partners [especially on the fade-out here], despite the huge gap in vocal ranges between the two).

Angels Advocate arrives, exclusively through Target & iTunes, March 30th.

DL: “Ribbon (Remix)” (alt)

The track, entitled “For The Money”, is one of the immediate highlights from Fab’s newly dropped mixtape There is No Competition – Part 2: The Funeral Service and could honestly be a hit single all on it’s own, thanks to the Brooklyn emcee changing it’s lyrical focus from singular hue obsessions to one of his own favorite radio banger topics (“shawtys” with dollar signs in their eyes) while humorously revising the hook with squeaky-voiced anony-chicks begging him to “write another song for the money” to keep their high-priced lifestyle on point.

“When the money gone/ She gon’ be the fuck gone with it,” Fab preaches, sounding not as much annoyed as mildly amused by his girl’s gold-digging obviousness: “I say ‘How many pair?’/ She say ‘Who’s countin?’”. Of course, though, it’s featured guest Nicki Minaj who ends up stealing the entire track with this LOL-worthy verse capper: “I told Fab ‘Get that Michael Knight KITT Coupe/ Before I put this pussy on your chipped tooth’”.

Grab the MP3 below, than (YOU MUST!!!) peep the song that started it all: “Lemonade”/ “For The Money”’s sample source, “Keep It Warm”, a hilarious gem by ’70’s duo Flo & Eddie (in the words of Drake, after hearing this one, you’ll definitely want to ‘thank us later’).

DL: “For The Money” (alt)

Flo & Eddie “Keep It Warm”:

DL: “Keep It Warm” (alt)

Well, after finally getting to hear the much-anticipated “Over”…let’s just say our loftier-than-lofty expectations have been grounded some.

To put it simply, “Over”, while a perfectly serviceable street single/ album opener, is far from the “Successful” or “Best I Ever Had”-bester we prematurely predestined it to be, it’s verses finding Drizzy and co-producer Boi-1da basically recycling the breathless, top-of-the-mountain boasts (“Making sure the Young Money ship is never sinking/ Bout to set it off in this bitch–Jada Pinkett”) and militaristic drum-laced, dark epic knock of “Forever” to a lesser, larger-than-life effect.

Yeah, a couple lyrical winners do emerge (Our favorite: “Can you see me, can you see me?/ Get your Visine on”), but as a whole, the braggadocio-focused verses leave us cold, wishing that Drake would’ve taken the time to better flesh out his current place in the game with the intimate, “Behind The Music”-like personal depth he’s previously drawn so much acclaim for. If not that, at least flavor the sections with those silken, melodic vocal turns he handles so mesmerizingly.

Drake crams both of these practices into “Over”’s hook, and because of that, it easily ends up the track’s “saving grace” moment. Here, with ’70’s soul-sampled strings building to a gloriously dramatic peak behind him, Drake dons his semi-crooner hat and hits the “Pause” button on his sudden superstar life mid-celebration to briefly ruminate on his position.

“I know way too many people here right now/ That I didn’t know last year/ Who the fuck are y’all?”, he sing-growls, “I swear it feels like the last few nights we been everywhere and back/ But, I just can’t remember it all/ What am I doing?”. Then, in only a half-a-breath’s time, he uncovers the answer (“Oh yeah, that’s right, I’m doing me”), hits the “Play” button and proceeds with living the dream.

Now that’s the magic we’re talking about, Drake; too bad you couldn’t have figured out a way to stretch it’s luster across the entire track.

We’ll be saving that award for when you truly deserve it, thank you.

DL: “Over” (alt)