Apologies for my absence, I've been traveling seeing friends and family, certainly a good excuse to abandon my musical duties. But I'm back, and my goodness, there's been some great music released in the past few weeks.

Phoenix dropped their first single off their new album, and like their other unforgettable songs, most specifically:

</div></div><div class="sqs-block html-block sqs-block-html" data-block-type="2" id="block-yui_3_17_2_1_1494812100899_30039"><div class="sqs-block-content">

<div class="sqs-html-content">
  <p>I was immediately taken by "J-boy" and already think that it's better than any song from their last album <em>Bankrupt!&nbsp;</em>Which makes me super excited for their new album.&nbsp;</p><p>Not only is Radioheads' masterpiece (and my favorable album ever),&nbsp;<em>OK Computer</em>, celebrating its 20th anniversary, but so is another one of my all-timers, Third Eye Blind's self-titled debut. IN appreciation of that, they released this track which was created around the time of the first album. Stephan Jenkins will always sing the best hooks in choruses, and I will always sing along.&nbsp;</p><p>Moving on to the man with THE BEST VOICE IN MUSIC TODAY, Chris Stapleton. I have seen this guy live and he blew my mind with the power of his vocals. Don't believe me?&nbsp;</p>
</div>

</div></div><div class="sqs-block video-block sqs-block-video" data-block-json="&#123;&quot;description&quot;:&#123;&quot;html&quot;:&quot;Grammy Award-winning singer-songwriter Chris Stapleton performs \&quot;Either Way\&quot; from his new album, \&quot;From A Room: Volume 1.\&quot; The full interview airs on PBS on Thursday May 11, 2017.&quot;&#125;,&quot;layout&quot;:&quot;caption-hidden&quot;,&quot;floatDir&quot;:null,&quot;resolvedBy&quot;:&quot;youtube&quot;,&quot;width&quot;:854,&quot;url&quot;:&quot;https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=F0hdQ7latVY&quot;,&quot;thumbnailUrl&quot;:&quot;https://i.ytimg.com/vi/F0hdQ7latVY/hqdefault.jpg&quot;,&quot;hSize&quot;:null,&quot;height&quot;:480,&quot;providerName&quot;:&quot;YouTube&quot;,&quot;overlay&quot;:false,&quot;html&quot;:&quot;&lt;iframe src=\&quot;//www.youtube.com/embed/F0hdQ7latVY?wmode=opaque&amp;amp;enablejsapi=1\&quot; height=\&quot;480\&quot; width=\&quot;854\&quot; scrolling=\&quot;no\&quot; frameborder=\&quot;0\&quot; allowfullscreen=\&quot;\&quot;&gt;\n&lt;/iframe&gt;&quot;&#125;" data-block-type="32" id="block-yui_3_17_2_1_1494812100899_32714"><div class="sqs-block-content"><div class="intrinsic" style="max-width:100%"><div class="embed-block-wrapper " style="padding-bottom:56.20609%;"><div class="sqs-video-wrapper" data-provider-name="YouTube" data-html="&lt;iframe src=&quot;//www.youtube.com/embed/F0hdQ7latVY?wmode=opaque&amp;enablejsapi=1&quot; height=&quot;480&quot; width=&quot;854&quot; scrolling=&quot;no&quot; frameborder=&quot;0&quot; allowfullscreen=&quot;&quot;&gt;<br/>&lt;/iframe&gt;"></div></div></div></div></div><div class="sqs-block html-block sqs-block-html" data-block-type="2" id="block-yui_3_17_2_1_1494812100899_34771"><div class="sqs-block-content">

<div class="sqs-html-content">
  <p>Truly hard to believe that voice comes out of him. What a treasure. And what a talent. He just released his second solo album, one that I think tops his first. The second part is slated to be released later this year. I also ended the mixtape with one of my favorite tracks I've heard from one of his previous bands, The Steeldrivers, a song that's been covered by Adele, and is just a damn good bluegrass song.&nbsp;</p><p>Calvin Harris has been making some great music with other great musicians for his new album, as evidenced by one of my favorite tracks of the year (an earlier Monday Mixtape entrant), "Slide", a song that has only been played 189 million times:</p>
</div>

</div></div><div class="sqs-block code-block sqs-block-code" data-block-type="23" id="block-yui_3_17_2_1_1494812100899_39639"><div class="sqs-block-content"><iframe src="https://embed.spotify.com/?uri=spotify%3Atrack%3A6gpcs5eMhJwax4mIfKDYQk" width="300" height="380" frameborder="0" allowtransparency="true">

This week's track from him, "Rollin," features Future, a man who continues to churn out great music at a prolific pace.

I really loved Childhood's first album, and their newest single shows some promise for what's ahead. "California Light" sounds retro with horns and Gibbs-brothers like falsettos. This song's played in the twilight of a roller disco.

Finally, Foster the People released three tracks from their upcoming third album. Their second album was super out there, something I really respected from a band that took over the world with "Pumped Up Kicks," and decided to go in an alternate direction instead of taking over the pop world further. Mad respect!

Have a good week all!