A Week in Songs: Charli XCX, Jawdropped, Converge and the Eclecticism of BrooklynVegan’s Curation

BrooklynVegan’s weekly song roundup landed with its usual disregard for genre borders. The list runs from the sleek hyperpop of Charli XCX straight through to Converge’s metallic hardcore, and that kind of sequencing is exactly why the feature holds weight after all these years. There is no forced cohesion, just sharp picks from a wide map.

Jawdropped appears with what the site notes is their first-ever release, a track called “RIP Magic.” The arrival carries no fanfare. You find it nestled between Mike D’s recent solo work and a Dazy power-pop cut, and the placement alone gives it a quiet endorsement. No big statement, just a slot in a playlist that people actually listen to. That matters more than a press cycle.

The rest of the list is stacked with names that rarely share the same paragraph, let alone a browser window. Boards of Canada’s weathered electronics sit near Yard Act’s angular post-punk. Father John Misty’s latest balladry shares space with the sharp pop of Aldous Harding. Converge close things out with the kind of weight most openers avoid. The selection never feels algorithmic. It reads like a staff still arguing late into Wednesday night about what makes the cut.

The whole thing is a small signal that curation hasn’t collapsed entirely into streaming-bot logic. When a playlist can hold Charli XCX and a band that just uploaded their first song to Bandcamp, the format still works.