So many artists, so many songs, so little time. Each week we review a handful of new albums (of all genres), round up even more new music that we’d call “indie,” and talk about what metal is coming out. We post music news, track premieres, and more all day. We update a playlist weekly of some of our current favorite tracks. Here’s a daily roundup with a bunch of interesting, newly released songs in one place.
THE TELEPHONE NUMBERS – “BE RIGHT DOWN”
San Francisco’s The Telephone Numbers have announced their second album for Slumberland, Scarecrow II, which will be out October 10. Fans of shimmering jangle pop and ’60s bubblegum will dig “Be Right Down.”
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FKA TWIGS – “PERFECTLY”
FKA twigs released the fantasticEusexua in January, and she’s followed it with another clubby new single, “Perfectly.”
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THE ORB – “ARABEBONICS”
Alex Paterson is back with a new album by The Orb, Buddhist Hipsters, which will be out October 10 via Cooking Vinyl. “I was having a dream, and in this dream was an escalator descending out of the clouds, upon which were Buddhists and hipsters travelling downwards, and beckoning me down from the top, was Roger Eno,” Patterson says of the album title. “When I woke up, I had a text from him, asking if we fancied more collabs, so he’s on the record, amongst other friends.” Among those other friends are Miquette Giraudy and Steve Hillage (System 7 / Gong), Youth (Killing Joke), Paul Ferguson (Killing Joke), and on this first single, rapper Rrome Alone.
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SKULLCRUSHER – “EXHALE”
Skullcrusher announced a new album, And Your Song Is Like a Circle, due out October 17 via Dirty Hit. About the first single, “Exhale,” Helen Ballentine says, “‘Exhale’ is about noticing the moment when a song is first conceived. There is a part of me that wants to stop there and leave the song unfinished, before structure settles in and the song evolves. Instead, I allow it to form & accept whatever it may become. This process feels natural, like taking a pause at the top of your inhale before letting it all out. Maybe through acknowledging this process I can feel more at peace with change in general. When thoughts, words & sounds interact in a certain way they can reveal a path forward. Sometimes I want to linger before this path, in a space that feels hidden and safe, but in the end I take the path & surrender to change.”
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MÚM – “ONLY SONGBIRDS HAVE A SWEET TOOTH”
“It’s easily the most light hearted song on the album,” múm’s Örvar Smárason says about his band’s new single. “Lots of sunshine, 4 track cassette beat, mangled guitar, wonky bass and distorted vocals. It starts with the sound we recorded from a camera flash going off, so it literally begins with a burst of light.” múm’s new album History of Silence is out September 19 via Morr Music.
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ALICE GLASS – “CATCH AND RELEASE”
“Catch and Release” is Alice Glass’ first new music of the year, and she says it “feels like the sharp panic of falling under ice — that trapped, choking anxiety disguised as something nice. The only way out is to move, bounce, dance through it before it seeps in and eats you alive. It’s confrontation disguised as fun — chants that sound like release but are really just reflections of obsession and rot.”
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JORGE ELBRECHT / “GALÁN – SI TÚ NO EXISTIERAS”
Jorge Elbrecht (Violens, Lansing-Dreiden) spends most of his time these days as a mixing and mastering engineer but he’s still making music and just released this new single which is his first-ever Spanish-language song. He’s still working in familiar sonic territory, though, with ’80s goth overtones that are underlined in the music video.
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DAVID BYRNE – “SHE EXPLAINS THINGS TO ME”
The new single from David Byrne’s anticipated new album Who Is the Sky? was inspired by Rebecca Solnit’s book Men Explain Things to Me. “Many times I have marveled at how a friend (usually a female friend) seems to clock what is going on in a film between characters way before I do,” Byrne says. “Sometimes I understand poetry, but sometimes I need help. Though inspired by the Solnit book men explain things to me there is a huge difference- mansplaining is usually unasked for, in this case I am the one asking.”
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BABYTALK (DFA) – “KEEP ON MOVE”
We’ll let DFA head James Murphy explain what’s going on here: “Eric Broucek was the ur-engineer of the most fertile era of DFA Studios, from about 2003 to 2008 (no one knows anything precisely about that time, as it’s all lost in the fog of chaos). His hand was on all of the remixes, LPs, dance 12s. He was there in that over-designed gear dungeon almost every day, recording, mixing, struggling to not roll his eyes at Tim and me. And somewhere in that fog, he quietly dropped limited runs of three 12-inch delayed reaction bombs on his own label Stickydisc Recordings—two under the name Babytalk, and one as Watussi with another DFA regular, Morgan Wiley. Back in the day, Eric did not want his music released on DFA. He wanted to forge his own identity, which he did, sending out music that wandered from the DFA path with its uniquely wonky, upended and understated power. His music is so unlike everything else of that era, so profoundly singular, that it still sounds completely out of time. A few years back, I started DJing the tracks again, and saw how the world was still surprised by what Eric had made, and the idea of this compilation was born.” You may remember “Keep on Move” from James and Pat Mahoney’s FabricLive.36 mix. Shaking Moving Dancing People will be out October 3 via DFA.
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GEORGIA – “WANNA PLAY”
Georgia is back with her first new music in almost two years. “I wrote this song at a complete crossroads in my life, which is why I stuck with the 160bpm!,” she says. “It’s a fast tempo punk-electro song, inspired by early Knife songs & 80’s Depeche Mode bass-lines. It’s a bit of fun really, I wanted to explore my love for synths again!”
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SOULKEEPER – “JOIN US IN CREATING EXCELLENCE”
Minneapolis metalcore band Soulkeeper have announced a new EP, Join Us In Creating Excellence, due September 19 via Pure Noise. Here’s the chaotic title track.
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SAM PREKOP – “LIGHT SHADOW”
Sam Prekop (The Sea and Cake, Shrimp Boat) will release new album Open Close on September 26 via Thrill Jockey. It’s a modular synth workout, making ambient, Steve Reich-style patterns and dance music. Check out the airy, hypnotic first single.
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THE LIVING HOUR – “WHEEL”
Canadian indie vets The Living Hour will release new album Drone Infinity on October 17 via Keeled Scales. “Wheel” hits you in the millennium feels.
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SUDAN ARCHIVES – “MY TYPE” / “YEA YEA YEA”
Sudan Archives announced her third album and gave us two more early tastes of it, which you can read more about here.
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WHITNEY – “DANDELIONS”
Whitney have announced a new album, Small Talk, which will be out November 7 via AWAL. Max Kakacek and Julien Ehrlich produced it themselves and after flirting with synthesizers on 2022’s SPARK, they are firmly back in the classic Whitney, country-tinged soul sound, as you can hear on “Dandelions.”
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ROBERT PLANT & SAVING GRACE – “EVERYBODY’S SONG” (LOW COVER)
Robert Plant announced a new album with recent collaborators Saving Grace, and shared the first single, a cover of Low’s “Everybody’s Song.” Read more about it here.
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POLICA – “DREAMS GO”
This is the title track to Poliça’s sixth album.
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ELIZA MCLAMB – “LIKE THE BOYS”
Eliza McLamb shared the first single off her new album Good Story; read more about it here.
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Looking for even more new songs? Browse the New Songs archive