The stock ringtones on iPhone aren’t terrible by any means, but if you want to add some creativity of your own, here’s how to you can custom ringtones for your iPhones without paying a cent.
Apple sells ringtones and text tones in the iTunes Store, but they usually cost $1.29 for a ringtone and $0.99 for a text tone. That’s not a lot of money, but if you like to change up your ringtones frequently, that kind of money can add up quickly, which is why it’s better to get your ringtones for free.
Luckily there are several resources for obtaining free iPhone ringtones and text tones. Plus, you can even create your own ringtones by using the music that you already have in your iTunes library.
Whatever you choose to do, here are some resources to find free iPhone ringtones.
RINGTONES IPHONE APP
One of the most popular apps for browsing free iPhone ringtones is called Ringtones for iPhone. It lets you create your own iPhone ringtones, as well as browse the app’s catalog of already-made ringtones ready to download.
There’s even a feature that lets you record a ringtone, so if you wanted your friend’s voice as a ringtone, you can record him saying something and then have that play whenever someone calls you.
One of the big caveats is that iOS limits the app to what it can do, so you can’t just find a ringtone and then set it as your ringtone right on your iPhone. There are a few hoops you have to jump through still, but the app does a great job of providing tutorials on how to do all of that.
REDDIT’S /R/RINGTONES
Perhaps one of the best online communities for ringtones is Reddit’s /u/Ringtones subreddit, which has over 700 subscribers. That’s not a lot of members by any means and it could be more active than what it is, but it’s one of the few online communities that focuses on ringtones.
In the subreddit, you can request a ringtone if you can’t find it elsewhere, and hope that someone will create it for you. You can also use the search function in the subreddit to find a specific ringtone that you want. However, you might have better luck searching the entirety of Reddit.
CREATE YOUR OWN RINGTONES THROUGH ITUNES
When all else fails, you can take matters into your own hands and create a ringtone yourself using iTunes.
Unfortunately, Apple doesn’t make it easy to create your own ringtones and put them on your iPhone, but it’s still certainly possible. We’re guessing that Apple wants to make it a bit more difficult to add your own ringtones to your iPhone in order to get you to buy ringtones in the iTunes store, but if you’re like me, you’d rather save a couple bucks and do it yourself.
The process isn’t incredibly difficult, but there are a lot of steps involved. Mainly, you have to slightly edit a song in your iTunes library, convert to a ringtone format, and then sync it to your iPhone. Be sure to check out the complete tutorial for all the steps required.
When you’re working, you use a full keyboard, with a mouse or touchpad,
because you want to maximize productivity. Then you receive a text, and
you can be found hunched over your phone, pecking away at your tiny
distraction machine.
When you’re sitting in front of a full keyboard and large display, you
should be able to use it to answer texts! More than a few developers
have hear our cries, and have created some fantastic Android tools to
give you the power to text (and more) from your PC. Let’s dig into
what’s possible, starting from smallest to biggest commitment:
(Note: There are lots of texting replacements out there, from Apple’s Messages to Google’s Hangouts or Facebook’s WhatsApp.
Here, we’re talking about honest-to-goodness SMS. The kind your friends
and relatives send, regardless of who uses which phone or app.)
Pushbullet: See what’s buzzing on Chrome or Firefox
Pushbullet lets you mirror select notifications in Chrome or Firefox.
Not everybody needs to send text messages in on-demand fashion. Maybe you only need to know what is buzzing on your phone, so you can safely ignore it. If that’s the case, Pushbullet
is what you want. The core function of Pushbullet is sending links,
images, and map locations back and forth from your phone, which saves
time and frustration, but it also shows notifications in a browser
extension.
Install Pushbullet on your Android phone, then install the Chrome or Firefox
extension on your desktop. Pushbullet on Android will ask you to enable
its Accessibility/administrator access so it can send you
notifications. Agree to this, trust me.
Now, whenever your phone chirps or vibrates or quietly posts a
notification, you’ll see that notification pop up in your browser as a
little box. Not just text, but email, Facebook, Twitter, app updates…
anything you get a notification for.
Pushbullet’s notifications are one-way. You still need to grab your phone to respond to a text.
You cannot directly respond to a text through Pushbullet, but look in
the settings of Pushbullet for the option to “Copy links & notes to
clipboard when received.” If you want to think something over before
replying, you can “Push” a note to your phone with your reply, then
simply press and hold in your text message typing field to paste that
reply. It’s not something you’d want to do for a rapid back-and-forth,
but an adequate fallback option.
DeskSMS: Turn text messages into emails, chats, or browser pings
With DeskSMS, you can receive and respond to texts pretty much anywhere you can open a browser or check your email.
DeskSMS lets you send and recieve SMS as email, with notifications in your Chrome/Firefox browser.
You first install DeskSMS
on your phone, then give it permissions to read and send text messages.
You also authenticate your primary Google/Gmail account, then let it
test its connection to your Hangouts account, your email, and/or a
browser extension for Chrome or Firefox.
If it goes through, you’re now receiving text messages as
chats/emails/notifications, and can respond in whichever form best suits
your routine. If you want to get texts on your Android tablet instead
of your desktop, you’ll want TabletSMS.
DeskSMS is not free. After a 14-day trial period, you’ll need to buy an
annual subscription to the app for $5 per year (probably less than you
spend on gum). But during those first 14 days, you will really want to
make sure that you’re getting all your texts, your friends are getting
your messages, and everything feels right about the connection. If so,
however, you get the ability to type out texts with your most
comfortable keyboard, send texts when the Wi-Fi is strong but the phone
signal is weak, and archive your texts in somewhere other than your
messy messaging history.
Google Voice: Give your text messages over to the big server in the sky
This one requires more commitment than the other connect-and-push options, but it’s an established system: Google Voice.
Google Voice requires the most onerous setup, but is useful in many ways.
If you sign up for a new Google Voice number, or port your number into Google Voice, you get your text messages on your phone, but also at google.com/voice,
or in one of many extensions available for every browser the sun. If
you enable the option in your Voice settings, you can get texts as
emails, and you can respond via email, too. You can also archive and
extensively search your SMS history through Voice.
Drawbacks? Oh, there are a few. Google Voice is, for one thing, not
often touched or upgraded by Google. It creates weird “second numbers”
for contacts in unfamiliar area codes, which might creep into your
contacts. And if you trade a lot of picture messages, know that only
those who port numbers from T-Mobile or Sprint can send MMS using Google
Voice. Plus, there is the non-trivial process of getting a new number,
or porting in your existing number. But if you want to type out a text
message without actually using your phone, it’s a tested and reliable
option.
AirDroid: Total phone remote control
How would you like to send, receive, and start text message conversations from inside a browser window? AirDroid can do that. Install it on your phone or tablet, then head to web.airdroid.com
on any computer and you’ll see custom desktop within your browser
window. As long as you have that page open, you’ll see text
notifications, and you can click “Messages” to check your archive or
send your own texts.
Airdroid provides a full desktop-in-browser for your phone, including desktop texting.
You see those other apps and widgets though, right? See how you can
browse and launch files, apps, photos, and music on your phone from any
web-connected computer? See how you can remotely control your camera
from inside AirDroid? Take a screenshot, check the battery, trade links
and notes (as with PushBullet), and track your phone’s location? Turn on
a (currently beta-experimental) hotspot to share data with other
devices? Then it is starting to sink in, and I’m glad you’ve made it
this far.
There is very little you can’t do with AirDroid, and it works
whether you’re on the same Wi-Fi network or not—though it’s a bit
speedier on Wi-Fi, and there are smaller (100 MB) data caps built into
the free version. There are also advertisements and promotional
“recommendations,” unless you pay for a Premium account: $1.99 per
month, $19.99 per year, or $38.99 for two years.
Spend a little time using any of these methods to get texts on your
computer, and you might start to feel that using your smartphone to text
is a step back. Your friends will marvel at your SMS speed and
eloquence, your boss won’t catch you hunched over your tiny screen, and
you might feel a bit more centered and focused. At least as far as
anyone can tell.
MightyText: Send texts and images
It wasn't easy for me to find in the Google Play or Chrome stores, but,
my goodness, am I glad Twitter followers of Greenbot tipped me off about
MightyText. It's strange that
Google itself doesn't offer something like this between Android and
Chrome, but that's just more acclaim and revenue for these talented
developers.
You install the MightyText app on your Android phone, and then either
install an extension to your Chrome or Firefox browser, or bookmark the
nimble MightyText website (installation links and instructions are on MightyText's site).
You sign into both sides of the app with the same Google account. And
then you simply click the MightyText button or load its site, and you
can control the core functions of your phone from there.
MightText offers a powerful suite of functions.
Texts? Oh yes. But much more can be done with your full keyboard and pointer through MightyText:
Send photos and images from the web as picture messages
Grab photos from your phone's camera and history to use on your desktop.
Edit those to-and-from photos with simple fix-up and augmenting tools.
Monitor your phone's battery level.
Dial your phone from your desktop, or ring it so you can find it.
Browse your phone contacts from the browser.
Get notifications of phone calls and texts in your browser
Text directly from Gmail (with a plug-in)
Those are just the features of the free version. If you pay for MightyTextPro
($2.50 per month, less per year, under "Early Bird Pricing"), you can
set up message templates, bulk-message groups, block numbers, change
themes, store messages forever and import them from deep inside your
phone, and quite a few other little power features.
If you need to send a text message, using your normal Android phone,
from your desktop or laptop browser, MightyText is the way to get that
done. Other apps can work in concert with it, but this is the workhorse.
I love Android, but still dabble from time to time with iOS. Doing so
usually makes me thankful at how Android works, with its deep Google
integration, smart sharing features, and Material Design flourishes in Lollipop.
But Android isn’t perfect,
and there are a few features in iOS that are better. So Google should
do what any good tech company does: steal them. There has already been
plenty of that on both sides of the mobile war; iOS clearly was inspired
by Android with its notification shade, and Android isn’t multitouch on
accident. So here’s my list of some Apple-y ideas that should make
their way to Android.
One touch to the top of the screen
Since the early days of iOS there has been this clever trick to get back
to the top of the page: just touch the top of the screen and you’ll zip
right there. It’s great for browsing, social apps, or any other
situation where you would rather not have to swipe endlessly, as you do
on Android.
One touch gets you back to the top in Chrome, or any other app, when using iOS.
I’ve seen this type of functionality poke up in apps like Falcon Pro 3,
where if you touch the top bar you’ll scroll to the most recent tweet.
However, it needs to be a standard expected action across the whole
operating system.
Display the battery percentage
Seriously, it’s ridiculous this still hasn’t happened. There’s a simple
setting in iOS that lets you display the battery percentage at all
times. Some manufacturers do this in their own skinned versions of
Android, but it still isn’t there in the standard OS. This comes even after Android revamped the lock screen for Lollipop, eliminating widgets and cleaning things up visually.
The Android Lollipop lock screen looks great, but it coud REALLY use the battery percentage.
Yes, there are third-party apps like Battery Widget Reborn that put a battery percent as a persistent notification. And there are even some Android watch faces
that display it on your watch. In Android Lollipop, if you double-swipe
down to show the quick settings, you’ll see the battery percentage, but
who wants to do that all the time? The OS should have a standard option to always display the battery percentage.
Clone AirDrop
AirDrop is the simplest method for sending files back and forth to
people near you—only among Apple devices, of course. Google could really
break some ground here if there was some kind of similar service it
could deploy.
AirDrop makes it super simple to share a file to your computer or other iOS users.
One thought is connecting
this to Google Drive—this would make it instantly cross-platform given
that there’s desktop software for both OS X and Windows. Yes, you can
upload anything to Drive already, but it would be great if Google could
go a few extra steps and make it as quick and simple as Apple’s
solution.
Create a quick reply
Yes, some third-party texting apps create a popup window for you to
respond to a message without diving back into the app, but it would be
great if Android could have this type of quick reply natively.
Especially since it makes two messaging apps: Hangouts and Messenger.
Caitlin McGarry
The iOS 8 quick reply menu lets you respond to a text without opening the Messaging app.
On an iPhone it’s so much faster to reply to someone this way. Those
nanoseconds can really save some time when you’re interrupted with a
text and want to respond quickly and get back to what you were doing.
Add a drop of ‘Control Center’ to the Notification Shade
Apple may have straight up copied Android’s original notification shade,
so it’s time to return the favor with the Control Center. In iOS, swipe
up from the bottom to get access to volume controls, the flashlight,
calculator, or to use AirDrop or AirPlay.
Control Center puts some useful commands one swipe away.
Some of those features are already in the Lollipop drop down menu, such
as the ability to toggle Wi-Fi and Bluetooth. But there’s plenty of gray
space there to fill up with more features, eliminating the need to keep
a calculator icon on the home screen or set a timer.
Time to start hoping for new features in Android ‘M’
Google previewed what would eventually become Lollipop several months in advance of its release at the I/O developer conference.
Perhaps it will do the same this time around and we will hear about the
next treat to grace Android. (muffin, marmalade, marzipan, M&Ms?)
If you’re listening Google, any of these would make Android an even
slicker operating system. It’s still the best, but it takes continual
improvement to stay there.
Is there an iOS feature you would like to see in Android? If so let us know about it in the comments.
Android Lollipop 5.0 was supposed to change everything. It was supposed to inspire a revolution, a better—and better looking—Android. Instead it was a little disappointing, starting with a slow rollout, and followed by a motley parade of bugs.
At least now there's Android 5.1, and it’s so much better—at least,
according to the lucky few users who have it on their devices. Google
fixed a ton of bugs, and it also pushed through a few new helpful
features that should have been bundled with Lollipop from the start.
Here are five best new features of Lollipop 5.1.
Better WiFi and Bluetooth controls
When Lollipop first arrived on the scene, the Quick Settings in the
Notifications shade were limited. You had to tap to navigate away to the
Settings panel to get anything done, even if you simply wanted to
switch Wi-Fi networks.
Now you can choose your Wi-Fi connection directly from within the Notifications shade.
But with Android 5.1, you can now choose a wireless network or Bluetooth
profile right from within the drop-down panel. All you have to do is
tap an arrow to expand the listing.
Better Sound profiles
No more worrying about whether your alarm will go off in the morning!
I can’t tell you how many times I’ve overslept because of Lollipop’s
ridiculously limited sound profiles. Android 5.1 now lets you set your
phone to silent—or the "None" setting—until your next alarm, so you
don’t have to worry about missing a meeting the next morning. The only
caveat is that the alarm has to be set for no more than 12 hours ahead
of time, otherwise Lollipop won’t offer the option.
Better device protection
Phone theft is still a rampant issue, so Android 5.1 has a few new
device protection features. The most powerful of the bunch prevents a
thief from factory-resetting the phone without the password for the
Google profile used previously on the device.
Note that this feature is available only on the Nexus 6, Nexus 9, and new Android 5.1 devices.
Notifications can be flicked away
Lollipop’s little drop-down Notifications are nice at times, but the
options to dismiss them were limiting. You could either wait until it
disappeared, tap on it to launch the app, or swipe it away and dismiss
it entirely. Now you can flick it up to shoo the notification back to
the Notification drawer without dismissing it entirely. It’s a minor
touch, but it makes managing your notifications much easier.
No more crappy Wi-Fi connections
This is our favorite new feature of Android 5.1: if your device connects
to a Wi-Fi network with poor or no Internet access, it'll remember that
and never connect to it again. This is great if you’re traveling or
you’re trying to leech off of free Wi-Fi connections.
Unlike a smartwatch, A high-quality traditional watch doesn't need to be recharged on a daily basis. Also, it will likely be perfectly useful decades after its purchase, while a smartwatch isn't likely to endure the tests of time very well. But can you change a classic watch's face? Nope, we don't think so.
The ability to personalize an Android Wear smartwatch is cool indeed, and the collection of third-party watch faces available at the Play Store is growing steadily. Some are functional and feature-packed, others aim to deliver the best visual experience. The 10 Android Wear watch face packs we have below belong to the latter category. Check them out!
Who would have thought that X-ray images could look so beautiful when colored? Choose between analog and digital displays, 12 or 24 hour, pick your favorite image or cycle them all throughout the day.
This has to be the largest pack of watch faces on the list. Most of them have been made by ordinary folks like us, and if you want to, you can actually edit a watch face to your liking.
This watch face harnesses the power of your watch's hardware to render a beautiful watch face. Furthermore, it animates and changes as the day progresses.
This list would not be complete without a gold-inspired watch face pack. It features square and circular watch faces with elegant design dedicated to the precious metal.
It
has been only a couple weeks since Google released the new 5.1 Lollipop
to select Nexus devices, now it has reportedly rolled-out the new
version via factory images on the official Android developer forum.
Google Android 5.1.0 Lollipop Factory Images Released to Nexus 5, 7, 10; OTA Roll-out to Begin SoonAndroid via Twitter
Last week, news broke out that the recently released 5.1 Lollipop
failed to fix the nagging memory leak bug (first noticed after the
releases of v5.0.1update), which made certain apps to hog phone's RAM
memory leading to sudden app crashes on Nexus 5 devices.
Consumers panned Google on social networking sites and also on the
official AOSP (Android Open Source Project) Issue Tracker for not taking
measure to fix the bug.
[Read More: Android 5.1 Lollipop Fails to Fix Memory Leak Glitch; Stability Update with Bug-Fix on way, Confirms Google]
Later, Google officially acknowledged the
memory leak glitch in the Android 5.1 Lollipop and claimed that it has
actually fixed the afore-mentioned bug during the internal testing and
promised to release another update soon.
Now, the new update with build number 5.1.0 (LMY47I) , has been
made available to Nexus 6 and Nexus 5. Consumers can download the
factory images (manual download file) from the Google Developers page
and flash it on their devices.
As of now, it is yet to be ascertained whether this new update is
a software patch for the memory leak bug or not. People who are planning
to flash the new Android 5.1 Lollipop (LM47I), please do let us know in
our comment section below, if you notice anys changes in the device.
[Disclaimer: This procedure is very technical and
should be performed by a person with sound knowledge of manual software
installation of Android devices. If the installation process is not
followed properly, there are chances of the device getting bricked or
may even lead to the device being permanently irreparable.
International Business Times, India Edition cannot be held responsible
for any damage or claims from readers if the procedure does not yield
the required results or if devices get bricked. Hence users are advised
to proceed with caution or just wait for a day or two to install new
software with very less effort via OTA]. Here are the details of the software update released to Nexus devices:
Note: Google is yet to provide the factory image files to Nexus 10,
9, 4, Wi-Fi only version of Nexus 7 (2013 & 2012 editions) and to
cellular versions of both Nexus 7 (2013 & 2012 editions)'. [More
Information, HERE]
So,
clicking through this list, you might notice a conspicuous absence. The
release of any new Kanye track will cause heads to turn, and the
flamethrowers and crowds surrounding “All Day” certainly did that.
But for the purposes of this list, we’ll be waiting on the
studio version to dominate here (and likely elsewhere). In the meantime,
we’ve got a diverse list to tide you over, ranging from a hip-hop
collaboration from pals T.I. and Young Thug to a new track from iconic indie rockers Built to Spill. Whether you need something bruising and dark like electroacoustic experimenters Shampoo Boy or tender and thoughtful like throwback soul singer Leon Bridges, this list has something to satisfy.
10. Shampoo Boy – “Spalt”
Electroacoustic
music isn’t always the most subtle stuff, preferring to bust up your
speakers with raw power or burn at a low, constant rattle. But the
latest from improvisatory trio Shampoo Boy ripples
and wrinkles, building to its scorching peak in a confluence of layered
guitar buzz and electronic whirs in a way that post-rock fans will
certainly find familiar. The group toss handfuls of gravel into their
churning rapids of deep-tar bleakness. “Spalt” and the rest of their
upcoming album, Crack, will be available from Blackest Ever Black on April 6th. –Adam Kivel
9. Tyondai Braxton – “Scout1″
HIVE1, from which “SCOUT1” is sourced, arrives from a live multi-sensory exhibition that ex-Battles frontman Tyondai Braxton
originally premiered at New York’s Guggenheim Museum in 2013. At over
nine minutes in length, there is plenty of room for Braxton to wander.
It takes nearly half a minute for the first few notes to arrive, and as
the elements evolve, the track shifts from a casual electro-tribal
discussion into an all-out blitz of acid and analog-decay before
exploding into some parallel astral plane. Don’t try to steer, just
remember to breathe. And be sure to grab HIVE1 on May 12th via Nonesuch. –Derek Staples
8. Samo Sound Boy – “Baby Don’t Stop”
“The
idea that dance music could be considered one noted or lacking in depth
has never made sense to me. I think the very simple way it builds up
and down is so fundamentally reflective of living in the world,”
reflects Body High co-founder Samo Sound Boy on the motifs within his forthcoming Begging Please
LP. The LA producer’s debut solo album is a collection of tracks that
recounts a painful breakup, and those frail emotions certainly run deep
in the emotive club cut “Baby Don’t Stop”. Drawing from the candid
moments of post-turmoil pillow talk, the single avoids the over-the-top
frills and soaring vocals of festival house, keeping the textures
transfixed around an intimate connection with the producer. Begging Please is out April 28th on Body High. –Derek Staples
7. Colleen – “Captain of None”
Colleen’s fifth album, Captain of None,
arrives from Thrill Jockey this April, and its mesmerizing title track
floated into the world this week. Here’s a composer who deals in layers:
Colleen (real name Cécile Schott, from France) quilts patterns that
evolve like slowly mutating organisms. Like Julia Holter, she wields her
own voice as an instrument without necessarily giving it prominence
over the rest of her music. “Captain of None” gives all its elements
space to grow steadily; strings brush up against percussion and
percussion grounds the lyrics. The chords don’t even get a chance to
change, but the tune blooms anyway. Schott dares you to pay attention to
the slightest movements in her alien world. –Sasha Geffen
6. T.I. and Young Thug – “Off-Set”
With “Off-Set”, T.I., a rapper who’s been around since the start of the Fast & Furious franchise, bridges a generation gap by joining forces with Young Thug, the relentless “youngster”
who shares his hometown of Atlanta. Here, Tip raps fast without
relinquishing his technical crispness, and Thug tightens his
idiosyncrasies to help yield a song that’s more precise than most of the
tracks he keeps rap blogs busy with week in and week out. That’s not to
mention C Gutta and JP’s pounding synth storm of a beat, possibly the
highlight of a song worth checking out for its star power alone. It’s on
the Furious 7 soundtrack, which drops March 17th via Atlantic; the movie is out in theaters April 3rd. –Michael Madden
5. Marriages – “Less Than”
Last year, Marriages frontwoman Emma Ruth Rundle issued Some Heavy Ocean,
a solo singer-songwriter album that placed her modest but capable voice
at the fore. It’s not surprising, then, that she sounds so natural at
the center of “Less Than”, and particularly so on the neck-snapping
chorus. Then again, her vocals don’t even come in until the band is
through with an entrancing fuzz rock intro. The five-minute song as a
whole feels like an epic; it’s a team effort, from Rundle’s sturdy
melodies to the crushing, synth-specked wall of sound behind her. Find
it on Marriages’ debut album, Salome, out April 7th via Sargent House. –Michael Madden
4. Built to Spill – “Living Zoo”
It
doesn’t matter how deep we are into peak EDM, or how many times the
kids swap their laptops for turntables and back again. Doug Martsch will
always make you believe in guitars again. This week, he noodled his way
back to us with Built to Spill’s first new song since the release of There Is No Enemy
in 2009. On “Living Zoo”, Martsch’s leads quiver and break like a
second voice, and as always, they supply a perfect foil to the sound
that comes out of his actual throat. His lyrics plaintively dissect the
line between humans and animals, making this new single another solid
entry in the Built to Spill philosophy canon. These guys never claim to
have all the answers, but they’ll sure make you feel warm while you
wonder. “Living Zoo” is the first new music from Built to Spill’s
forthcoming eighth studio album, Untethered Moon, due out April 21st from Warner Bros. –Sasha Geffen
3. The Tallest Man on Earth – “Sagres”
“Sagres” is without question The Tallest Man on Earth’s
biggest, shiniest song to date. That means it runs the risk of
sacrificing the Swedish songwriter born Kristian Matsson’s best quality,
his vulnerability, as he trades in his usual voice-and-acoustic-guitar
formula for a more-is-more landscape populated by violin, mandolin, and
backing vocals. It’s comparable to The War on Drugs’ own leap forward in
ambition last year (also by way of lusher instrumentation and longer
song lengths), but Matsson doesn’t let the production do all the work.
His vocal melodies and guitar figures feel expertly effortless, marking
an exciting return from a born songwriter. Find “Sagres” on Tallest
Man’s fourth album, Dark Bird is Home, out May 12th via Dead Oceans. –Michael Madden
2. Leon Bridges – “Lisa Sawyer”
A
lot of people wonder what Otis Redding would’ve put out had he not
passed so young. Others spend their time chasing that sound desperately,
trying to ride in his wake. Fort Worth’s Leon Bridges,
though, cuts to the core of the iconic R&B/soul sound so
guilelessly that I’d believe him if he told me he’d never heard Redding
(or Sam Cooke or Percy Sledge or…) before in his life. The ultra-smooth
“Lisa Sawyer” tells the life story of Bridges’ mother, noting how “she
was born in New Orleans” and how she “had the complexion of a sweet
praline” in a way too tender to be twee. Add in some immaculately
produced girl group harmonies, horns, and easy loping rhythm, and you’ve
got a throwback gem. This track and the rest of Bridges’ debut will hit
shelves this summer via Columbia. –Adam Kivel
1. Warpaint – “No Way Out”
It’s been a little over a year since the release of Warpaint’s excellent self-titled LP,
but the LA four-piece isn’t staying quiet for long. They’ve just
returned triumphantly with “No Way Out”, an apparently standalone single
that condenses the best of the band’s neurotic energy into a lean three
minutes. Given that Warpaint was such an exercise in
endurance, full of long instrumental passages and slow, eerie murk, it’s
a treat to see the group throw out such a clean bite. And “No Way Out”
is a stomper, too, a labyrinth built from mirrors that feels much larger
than it is. Warpaint’s hinted that it’s only the first of a string of songs they’ll release this year, so keep an eye out for more in the coming months. –Sasha Geffen
Caitlin McGarry 
