POPCRUSH: Hatefuck feautred in best songs this week

Cruel Youth — aka Teddy Sinclair, aka Natalia Kills, aka Verbalicious — has made a habit of constructing a new persona with each album cycle, adopting several fresh names along the way. This has made for some truly confusing, endless re-branding but the music has stayed consistently good enough to warrant the forced re-familiarization with every era. So it is on Cruel Youth’s latest +30mg and particularly with album track “Hatefuck”— a moody, methodical slow-burner, all tepid percussion and introspective lyrics. The track’s slight retro lean melds well with Sinclair’s expertly emotive, smokey vocals, sounding equal parts familiar and new. — Ali Szubiak