Derek Hoke, courtesy Alex Berger.

Synth-pop takes over Tuesday Tracks, with songs from Alex Lilly, Emily Afton, Quinn Christopherson and St. Lucia, as well as experimental music from Jesca Hoop, Americana rock from Derek Hoke, blues rock revival by the Stone Foxes and folk-pop by Madison Cunningham.

Alex Lilly, “Frank” – It’s great to hear from Alex Lilly again! The pop singer-songwriter’s 2019 album, 2% Milk, was a gem, and while she did tide us over with an EP in 2020, a new single is most welcome. On “Frank,” Lilly wonders over space-age synths and stuttering drum loops if she’ll still get to hang with her friends in the afterlife. “I don’t wanna go to heaven/ ‘Cause none of my friends will be there/ No one will be/ Getting plastered with me/ In the air,” she sings. She goes on to mention some of her real-life friends by name and decides she’ll do whatever she can to get them in, “Beg or borrow, sleep my way to the top.” Lilly has toured with a lot of great musicians like The Bird and The Bee, Beck, Lorde and Ry Cooder – and she’s made them all sound better. Here’s hoping her second album, Repetition is a Sin, out Oct. 21, gets her a spotlight of her own.

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Emily Afton, “Summer Love” – Emily Afton, a singer-songwriter who divides her time between Oakland and Los Angeles, made a big statement at the San Francisco Women’s March in 2017, where she debuted protest pop anthem “The Veil” for more than 40,000 people. She’s also toured with Third Eye Blind and has been featured on shows like “Riverdale” and “Batwoman.” Her new song, “Summer Love,” is heavy on synths and on post-breakup sadness. “I guess we were just a summer love/ The kind that I remember/ And the kind that you’d forget,” Afton sings. “Summer never ended for me/ But for you it did.” Her new album is slated for an early 2023 release.

Jesca Hoop, “Sudden Light” – You might have heard Jesca Hoop opening for EELS or Mark Knopfler, or singing backup on an Elbow record. Or you might have heard the album she made in 2016 with Iron & Wine’s Sam Beam, Love Letter for Fire. Hoop’s work encompasses folk, rock and electronica, with a bold experimental flavor. Her new track, “Sudden Light,” hits all these notes and more. Check out these horns and crazy harmonies as Hoop explores the human tendency toward tribalism and the way beliefs can divide us. Her new album, Order of Romance, is out Sept. 16.

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Derek Hoke, “Let Go of My Heart” – From the minute “Let Go of My Heart” starts playing, you’ll be bobbing your head and tapping your feet. It’s upbeat even as Derek Hoke is singing about ending a bad relationship and moving on. “Listen up and try and understand/ You’re never gonna let me down again,” he resolutely sings. With some fiddle and a killer slide solo, this track hits the Americana sweet spot for me. I think that might even be a hat-tip to Tom Petty’s “Listen to Her Heart” with the line, “I might need a little lovin’ but I don’t need you.” Hoke has worked with artists like Robyn Hitchcock and Jason Isbell on his previous albums. He’s been kicking around Nashville for years, but maybe his new LP, Electric Mountain, (out Sept. 9), will be finally be his breakthrough.

Madison Cunningham, “In From Japan” – How is Madison Cunningham not a household name yet? She was part of the cast on APM’s “Live from Here with Chris Thile,” she had her own NPR Tiny Desk Concert, she’s been nominated for two Grammys, and she opened up for Harry Styles at his sold-out Madison Square Garden shows. Yet she’s still sort of flying under the radar. Described by our own EIC as playing Americana with touches of jazz and rock, Cunningham is on the verge of being big. “Some things are too hard to say/ Out loud/ No one’s holding you back now,” Cunningham sings on “In From Japan,” and the contrast is sharp. Now that she has room to say whatever she wants, will Cunningham find the voice to say the things that are hard? We’ll find out on her new album, Revealer, which she says is about “the illuminating nature of grief and all of its emotions,” out Sept. 9.

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Quinn Christopherson, “Celine” – “You just wanted to be seen,” Quinn Christopherson sings on “Celine,” over dreamy synths about his mother getting all dolled up to go out and sing karaoke. Check out the cute video, with Christopherson and his real mom singing at their local bar in Anchorage! When that big chorus kicks in—“You sounded just like Celine”—you can feel his mom’s joy at the recognition, even if it’s just from neighbors at the bar. Christopherson recently opened for Sharon Van Etten, Angel Olsen and Julien Baker on their Wild Hearts tour and will be supporting Courtney Barnett and Lucy Dacus in the near future. Quinn’s album Write Your Name in Pink will be out on Sept. 16.

St. Lucia, “Hey Now” – St. Lucia, the band of husband-and-wife Jean-Philip Grobler and Patti Beranek, is out with an uplifting new tune, “Hey Now,” all about getting up and keeping on even when life gets tough. Grobler plays keyboards as he sings, “Well it only takes a second to fall/ But it only takes a minute to start over again.” That “Hey now/ Hey now” hook is deliciously sticky; just listen and see if it doesn’t get stuck in your head! Grobler has also done remixes for other artists like Charli XCX, Passion Pit, and Foster the People. St. Lucia’s fourth studio album, Utopia, will be released on Oct. 7.

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The Stone Foxes, “Man’s Red Fire” – San Francisco rock stalwarts the Stone Foxes are back! They’ve got blues-rock revival vibes, like the Black Keys but richer and swampier. Frontman Shannon Koehler said he was inspired by a lyric from “The Jungle Book” song “I Want To Be Like You”—in particular, the line about “man’s red fire”—on their latest. Koehler said the phrase made him think of “the raging fire of racism” in America and wrote lyrics about the division in this nation. You might have seen the Stone Foxes at Outside Lands or heard their song in the movie Free Solo. If you go see them live, be sure to bring a can of food to donate to their Goodnight Moon Project, which collects food for the homeless.

Rachel’s Pick: There were so many great songs this week that I had trouble narrowing it down to these eight, let alone just one! (Also, I didn’t mean to make it indie synth pop week; it just happened!) I think I have to go with Derek Hoke. “Let Go of My Heart” is just so catchy, rollicking and well-crafted. With the attitude and that slide solo, it’s just begging for a Bonnie Raitt cover, right? His last single, “Wild and Free,” is also great. Apparently, he’s been regularly hosting $2 Tuesdays at iconic Nashville venue The 5 Spot, but I sure hope he takes this show on the road! Word on the street (Twitter) is that he “cooks with Crisco every time he plays!”

Follow Rachel Alm at Twitter.com/thouzenfold and Instagram.com/thousandfold.