Gucci Mane: "Heavy"
Gucci Mane's got some big problems—community service, jail time, an ever-changing album release date. On "Heavy," a song from his forthcoming record The State Vs. Radric Davis, the Atlanta rapper blows off a little steam. "Yeah I got amigos but they don’t bring me tacos/ Only bring me kilos but keep that on the d-low," raps Gucci. That's a bummer, but maybe moving weight keeps helps distract Gucci from the weight of his problems.

The Big Pink: "Sweet Dreams" (Beyoncé Cover)
Solange's cover of Dirty Projectors' "Stillness is the Move" was great, but UK duo Big Pink's take on "Sweet Dreams," not so much. The good stuff from the original—the rhythm, the bass, the C-3PO get-up Beyoncé wears in the song's video—is systematically removed, leaving a maudlin stinker that even Robert Smith would wag his wrist at.

Lindstrom: "Little Drummer Boy"
Synthesizers and Christmas carols make great bedfellows—just ask Mannheim Steamroller. But Lindstrom's take on "Little Drummer Boy," which clocks in at an epic 40 minutes, takes the whole candy canes-and-moogs idea about as far down the Autobahn as it will go. With its tubular bells and vocoders, this four-minute snippet only hints at a larger, more lysergic, composition that will surely bring enduring yuletide cheer to many a house junkie.

Lindstrom + Prins Thomas: "Rothaus (Groove Edit)"
Norwegian disco producers Lindstrom and Prins Thomas have always looked to the past for inspiration, but this time they're looking further back than usual. Where they were once content to tune the way-back machine into the '80s, to better feel the pulse of italo-disco, their second collaborative record, Lindstrom + Prins Thomas II, knocks off another ten years, going all the way back to the krautrock-era. "Rothaus" is more than a little jammy, with a handful of keyboards randomly gurgling over a steady rhythm, recalling the more transcendent moments of fusion-era Miles Davis or Ash Ra Tempel.

Animal Collective: "Summertime Clothes (Dam Funk Remix)"
Animal Collective's much loved Merriweather Post Pavilion proved once and for all that the Baltimore-bred trio could make decent use of bottom end. But getting all of those newfound bass frequencies into the pocket? Well, they aren't quite there yet. Perhaps that's why the band commissioned smooth-sounds maven Dam Funk for this remix of "Summertime Clothes." The Los Angeles-based producer scrapes off the atmospheric gook and rolls in the analog synths, re-shaping the song into something tight and slinky enough to fit comfortably on Prince's 1999.

The Dead Weather: "Treat Me Like Your Mother"
Speaking of Prince, since when did Jack White become alterna-rock's answer to The Purple One, jumping from instrument to instrument, and from band to band? "Treat Me Like Your Mother," by Dead Weather–White's new super-group with Kills singer Alison Mosshart–finds him serving two roles, drummer and hype man.
Doing both simultaneously must be a bit of a task, given the song's jagged and bombastic rhythms. But White nails it here with impressive dexterity or, possibly, just a few overdubs. Never the less, for a guy who's on his second side project, this isn't too bad.