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.
JAMES BLAKE – “LOADING”
James Blake seems to be getting back to a more experimental sound compared to the poppier direction that he’d been going in, and your latest taste of that is “Loading.” His new album Playing Robots Into Heaven arrives September 8.
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PURITY RING – “SHINES” FT. BLACK DRESSES
Canadian duos Purity Ring and Black Dresses teamed up for a new single on Purity Ring’s own the Fellowship label. The glitchy “Shines” switches from sparkling electro-pop to revved-up experimental noise and back.
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BAD COP/BAD COP – “SHATTERED”
West Coast punks Bad Cop/Bad Cop have shared the new catchy ripper “Shattered,” which is also their first song recorded with new guitarist Alex Windsor.
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BE YOUR OWN PET – “BIG TROUBLE”
Sound the alarm, here’s another new wavey ripper from Be Your Own Pet’s comeback album that’s out August 25 via Third Man.
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RHIANNON GIDDENS – “YET TO BE” FT. JASON ISBELL
“‘Yet To Be’ is the story of a black woman and an Irish man falling in love in America,” Rhiannon Giddens says. “It’s a story that has happened many times in our brutal, real, and undertold history. I think so much about all of the terrible things in our past and present—but if we don’t take a moment to appreciate the gains we have made, and fight to keep them, they will be taken back, one by one. It was a true honor to have Jason Isbell’s vocals on this- he’s a great singer, and he’s uncompromisingly himself. Someday, maybe we will get to do this together in person instead of separated between continents! Also- I work with Jasons who unite, not Jasons who divide.” It’s from her first solo album in six years, You’re The One.
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BECCA MANCARI – “LEFT HAND”
“In some ways, this song is about my own homesickness; trying to find a place to call my home,” Becca Mancari says. “The beginning of the song starts with a voicemail from my 93-year-old grandpa who was the first elder in my family to accept me unconditionally as a queer person. One time when he was visiting my parents, he quite literally asked me to “sneak” him out of their house in order to finally meet my partner of many years. In his words, ‘God is love and there is nothing that could separate him from me.’ I think for years I starved my heart from love, for fear of being hurt again and again. But with one perfect act of love from my grandfather I learned how to build a home of my own, and to trust and love myself enough to let my broken heart finally start to mend.” It’s from their new album Left Hand.
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NATION OF LANGUAGE – “TOO MUCH, ENOUGH”
Reggie Watts, Kevin Morby, Jimmi Simpson (WestWorld), Adam Green, Tomberlin and more appear in the TV news-skewering video for “Too Much, Enough.”
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SOFIA KOURTESIS – “SI TE PORTAS BONITO”
Peruvian, Berlin-based producer Sofia Kourtesis announced her debut album, Madres, due out October 27 via Ninja Tune, and shared a new single, pulsing electronic track “Si Te Portas Bonito.”
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BIBIO – “SORRY (WON’T CUT IT)” FEAT. OLIVIER ST. LOUIS
Bibio has a new EP, titled Sunbursting, due out September 22 via Warp and he’s just released the lead single featuring Oliver St. Louis. Says Bibio: “Each of my albums feels like a distinct chapter in my life, and the EPs are a way of expanding a chapter before I move onto something entirely different. An EP is therefore a sort of satellite release to an album, and allows me to explore more ideas and variations within each chapter. Sunbursting EP is therefore part of the same world as BIB10, yet explores some new ideas and includes some new instruments and sounds. Influences come in fragments, where I might take ideas in the form of small elements from different eras and genres and combine them into a patchwork of influences, such as themes from Blue Magic’s song intros, Prince, Brazilian legends such as Antonio Carlos Jobim, Marcos Valle and Arthur Verocai, and there’s a touch of yacht rock and funk influence in there too.”
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JENNY OWEN YOUNGS – “KNIFE WENT IN”
“There’s nothing quite like the feeling of meeting someone and discovering that their scars match your own, so to speak; this can create the opportunity for accelerated intimacy,” Jenny Owen Youngs says. “This song is concerned with reveling in that closeness.” It’s from her new album Avalanche, and the performance video features The Antlers’ Peter Silberman.
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DEVENDRA BANHART – “SIRENS”
“Sirens” is about the bewilderment that precedes longing, the space between ‘everything hurts’ and ‘oh there’s a nail stuck in my back,’ it’s like the relief mixed with fear that comes from finally finding the target,” Devendra Banhart says of the second song shared from his forthcoming Cate Le Bon-produced album, Flying Wig. “We haven’t hit it yet – but we know where to aim, that’s where the ‘And Yet’-ness of this song is. Another theme that seems prevalent throughout the album is obstacles into antidotes. I mean, what a bummer right? ‘Only the violence will ever hold me tight’ but if there’s no getting rid of then our only sane option is to learn to dance with it. This is all lyrical…musically we wanted it to feel like dancing alone, weeping in a crowd, and somehow even relaxing into that melancholy, the sensual side of sorrow, the mournful side of joy.”
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SOPHIE MEIERS – “SOMEONE TO BE THERE”
sophie meiers’ second EP of 2023, spark__space, is out next month, and they’ve shared the second single, fluttery bedroom pop track “someone to be there.” “I find myself in very complicated relationships; it’s really hard for me to be healthy and casual after the things I’ve experienced in my childhood,” sophie says. “I have a tendency of getting attached to people I care about, and with this comes the fear of losing them. I’m always very upfront about my traumas and trust issues, so it’s very scary when somebody says that I can rely and depend on them.”
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SMOKING POPES – “MADISON”
Chicago punk/alt-rock vets Smoking Popes have shared new single “Madison,” which finds their blend of crunchy guitars with sweetly-sung vocals in fine form.
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CLEMENTINE VALENTINE – “THE ROPE”
Clementine Valentine, formerly known as Purple Pilgrims, release their new album The Coin That Broke The Fountain Floor in August, and the latest single is woozy folk track “The Rope.” “The rope acts as a motif to connect us to our ancestors – we wanted it to feel as though it could be both ancient and of now,” they say. “A feeling we call ‘ancient futurism’ – something we’ve been chasing in our songs for years now. We were reaching for a feeling simultaneously sinister and comforting as, to us, so many ancient songs are… Having felt for a long time that pop, and (more importantly to us) lo-fi or bedroom produced music, to now be the true music of the people (accessible to all) – we finally decided we wanted to use more acoustic and ‘traditional’ instrumentation to express this feeling of modernising relics. Although our personal tradition of using an excess of synthesizers is still very much present all over this album, ‘The Rope’ is very stripped back for us and tells the story of our family music in a way we never have before.”
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BLODET – “DEATH MOTHER”
Sweden’s Blodet have shared “Death Mother,” a seven-minute offering of soaring, melodic sludge metal.
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MAYA HAWKE – “HONEY” (SAMIA COVER)
Samia is having various artists reinterpret songs off her 2023 album Honey, and the second of those tracks is Maya Hawke’s take on “Honey.” “When we were recording ‘Honey’ for the album we added this ironic depth by turning what was originally a painful song into a kind of campfire sing along — big bouncy guitars, a happy melody, that endless refrain,” Samia says. “So I was eager to hear what Maya would do with it. Surprisingly, she stripped all of the campfire away. In her version you can hear every bit of the desperation in how spare the production is. Exploring these new vantage points in my own work is exactly what draws me to the Reimagined concept.”
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CARPOOL TUNNEL – “TWO HEARTS”
Carpool Tunnel will release new album Don’t Let Them Pass You By on October 20 via Pure Noise, and the first single is the sunny power pop of “Two Hearts.”
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JOHN RAYMOND & S. CAREY – “STEADFAST” (ft. GORDI)
Singer/songwriter and Bon Iver member S. Carey has shared another song from his upcoming collaborative album with trumpeter John Raymond. This one’s a dose of delicate art pop featuring Gordi.
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PREWN – “PERFECT WORLD”
Prewn has shared the second taste of her debut album Through The Window (due 8/25 via Exploding In Sound), and it’s a suspenseful, off-kilter song that feels like a fresh update on a bygone era of indie rock.
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ROOSEVELT – “PARALYZED”
Roosevelt will release new album Embrace on September 22 via Counter Records, and here’s the gooey, nostalgia-inducing synthpop of new single “Paralyzed.”
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TECHNOLOGY + TEAMWORK – “YOU SAW SOMETHING IN ME”
“The song is about that rush you get when someone believes in you. We wrote it in a mouldy basement under a carpet shop opposite Oxfam, which was our studio for 2 years,” says Anthony Silvester who is one half of Technology + Teamwork alongside drummer Sarah Jones (Harry Styles, Hot Chip). “We would often have each other in hysterics while writing it. Simon approached us with the idea of making a video about two, discarded bin bags falling in love. We couldn’t have been happier.” The video for this single was made by Simon Owens (LCD Soundsystem, Hot Chip).
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LYNKS – “USE IT OR LOSE IT”
“I turned 25 last year which is supposedly the ‘scientifically most attractive year of your life,'” says Lynks of his debut single for Heavenly Recordings. “I found this out and was like, ‘Damn, this is as good as I’m gonna get?’ I suddenly had this prang of, like, if I’m not fucking 24/7 I’m somehow wasting my youth. Letting it slip away. And then you end up making really bad choices…So yeah; dry patches, sex parties and twink death. Everything you could want from a big summer banger if you ask me!”
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DUFF MCKAGAN – “I SAW GOD ON 10TH ST”
Here’s another anthemic song from Duff McKagan’s upcoming album, Lighthouse. Says Duff of the song’s deity, ““I picture him as an old guy with white beard and hair, leaning up against a wall on a city street. The ultimate jurist of us all. Pissed off, squinting eyes to ward off what he sees, spitting frequently with no care for who may be around. The Creator. God. Allah, Shiva…or whomever. I think I see him sometimes over on 10th St., hands in tight fists, and toes curled up and tense.”
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FLAT WORMS – “SUBURBAN SWANS”
L.A. trio Flat Worms have shared another song off their upcoming album, Witness Marks, which is coming out September 22 via Ty Segall’s Drag City imprint GOD? “The last time we were in the UK, I learned that every mute swan in all of England legally belongs to the royal family,” says the band’s Will Ivy. ” In the swan’s mind, it is free, living its life as a wild animal. It is totally unaware of the system in which it has been claimed as property by a human establishment. This made me think about freewill, the perception of freewill, or the lack thereof. Growing up in suburban Arizona, I felt stuck, angsty, so eager to break out and pursue my own life and independence. This place, this time, this experience barely even feels like it happened to the same person now. Since I left, my family has all left this neighborhood. More and more stucco structures become less and less unique, making all the places we are from harder to distinguish from one another. The memories begin to decay with nobody there to maintain a presence. What are memories worth if they are as intangible as dreams? If we have no control over our own narratives, maybe we are not so different from the swans.”
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FIELD MEDIC – “IWANTTHIS2LAST!”
“‘iwantthis2last!’ is about feeling the weight of the monotony of the album cycle/tour cycle/promo cycle lifestyle while also appreciating how far you’ve come and not wanting to let that go,” says Kevin Patrick Sullivan, aka Field Medic. “It’s about being afraid to take a break because you worry you’ll be forgotten, but beginning to get desperately burnt out.” That album cycle is just ramping up — light is gone 2 will be out September 1 via Run for Cover.
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THE CRAYON SET – “SUNLOUNGER”
Irish band The Crayon Set’s new single was inspired by 1969 French film La Piscine, “which seemed to chiefly consist of scenes of beautiful people doing little more than lounging around a pool looking ridiculously beautiful.” Sounds perfect for a summer single.
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CRIME & THE CITY SOLUTION – “PEACE IN MY TIME”
Simon Bonney is back with his first new Crime & The City Solution album in a decade, titled the killer and out October 20 via Mute. This is the eleagic first single.
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CUPID & PSYCHE (EX ABE VIGODA) – “ANGELS ON THE PHONE”
Michael Vidal and Juan Velasquez spent the late-’00s and early-’10s in California band Abe Vigoda. A decade later they’ve re-teamed for new project Cupid & Psyche which has through-lines to what they did before but is also very different. Taking their name from Scritti Politti’s hit 1985 album (or the ancient story that was named for), Cupid & Psyche are decidedly more friendly, with echoes of ’80s sophistipop and ’90s shoegaze. Their debut album, Romantic Music, will be out October 13 via felte.
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BUCK MEEK – “CYCLADES”
Big Thief’s Buck Meek has shared the third single off his upcoming 4AD debut Haunted Mountain, and it’s a ragged alt-country song about Buck’s father “narrowly avoiding a motorcycle collision with a herd of elk.”
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MITSKI – “BUG LIKE AN ANGEL”
Mitski shared the first single off her seventh album, The Land Is Inhospitable and So Are We, which you can read more about here.
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OPEN CITY – “RETURN YOUR STOLEN PROPERTY IS THEFT”
Open City (members of Bridge and Tunnel, Paint It Black, Ceremony, and more) have announced a new album, Hands In The Honey Jar, and released this lead single. Read more about it here.
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DYING WISH – “WATCH MY PROMISE DIE”
Portland metalcore band Dying Wish have announced their sophomore album, Symptoms of Survival. It features “Watch My Promise Die,” which you can read about here.
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Looking for even more new songs? Browse the New Songs archive