Best New Songs (August 7, 2025)

At Paste Music, we’re listening to so many new tunes on any given day, we barely have any time to listen to each other. Nevertheless, every week we can swing it, we take stock of the previous seven days’ best new songs, delivering a weekly playlist of our favorites. Check out this week’s material, in alphabetical order. (You can check out an ongoing playlist of every best new songs pick of 2025 here.)

Big Thief: “Los Angeles”

“Los Angeles” begins with laughter—loose, unfiltered, communal. It’s a fitting intro to Big Thief’s most intimate Double Infinity single yet: a slow, warm two-chord folk song that feels like it wandered in from the Dragon New Warm Mountain I Believe In You sessions but stayed long enough to soak up the shimmer of the new era. Built on spacious acoustics and a rhythm section that rolls forward like a half-remembered dream, it’s less about movement than presence. Everything here is understated but deeply dialed-in: the soft echoing feedback, the bright solo gliding under the final chorus, the Frank O’Hara-esque specifics in the lyrics (“Los Angeles, 3:33,” “On an airplane, 27D”), the way the song threatens to resolve and then floats off instead. Adrianne Lenker’s voice is crisper than on earlier singles, at the front and center of the mix, carrying lines like “I’d follow you forever / Even without looking” with a mix of yearning and acceptance. When Buck’s voice slides in on “There is so much that I wish I could’ve been for you somehow” then dips into harmony right afterwards, with “But we don’t need to talk about that now,” it feels like the emotional center clicks into place. There’s a tenderness here, but it’s not uncomplicated: it’s a love song to a friend, to a lover, to an ex, to a bandmate, to a shared life of touring, fucking up, making music—to love in all its permutations. And it bleeds through every beat. —Casey Epstein-Gross

Casey Dienel: “Your Girl’s Upstairs

Huge news for all the indie-pop-heads and Caseys out there: after a long eight years in hibernation, Casey Dienel (fka White Hinterland) is back, baby—and their first offering is a stinger. “Your Girl’s Upstairs” doesn’t build so much as unspool, cool and self-assured, with a side-eye smirk that lingers long after the last note. Over a narcotic groove and sly guitar lines courtesy of Hand Habits’ meg duffy, Dienel sidesteps the confessional impulse in favor of something slipperier: queer joy delivered with dry wit, flirtation edged with fatigue, autonomy articulated not as manifesto but hard-won muscle memory. Their voice is unbothered but exacting, languid but sharp. “She played house / played dead / played anything to keep your head from crying” hits with the clarity of someone done narrativizing their pain. It’s a breakup song, maybe. Or a sex song. Or a field report from the emotional DMZ between the two. Either way, it’s not asking permission. As Dienel themselves put it: “The whole point of my queerness is to live within an alterity, to invent my own future on my own terms.” With My Heart is an Outlaw on the horizon, it seems they’re doing just that. —Casey Epstein-Gross

Chappell Roan: “The Subway”

In the fall of 2022, I was the editor of my college radio station’s music blog. I had just posted an interview a friend of mine did with one of her new favorite artists, Chappell Roan. (If I’d have known this video was gonna blow up, I would have tried to scrounge up some basic video editing skills.) Their conversation was super fun and bubbly, and it inspired me to listen to Chappell’s music myself. I found, of course, that her songs are just as vibrant as she is. Marked by witty, relatable lyrics and a transcendent pop disposition, Her new song “The Subway” is just as excellent as the rest of her discography. She explores the delicate period we find ourselves in at the end of a relationship. That feeling of love still lingers, but this time, it has no place to go. Effervescent thanks to Chappell’s passionate delivery and her sparkly, stacked pop harmonies, “The Subway” is everything you could ask for in a song. —Camryn Teder

Emily Yacina: “Talk Me Down”

Similarly to artists like Sidney Gish, Emily Yacina is one of those indie artists who, while she hadn’t put out music in a while, her name’s never been forgotten, amassing new fans in the six years since her debut LP, Remember the Silver. Luckily, the wait for a new album will soon be over, with Veilfall coming in September. As the first preview of Yacina’s return, lead single “Talk Me Down” is an apt introduction to this new era, one where Yacina gets meta and admits to her trepidations over showing her vulnerability: “I wish I was more of a natural / I wanna open up,” she sings, before delving into her fears of getting comfortable with a lover, with an MO of “running to the hills.” The track makes you feel like you’re floating, with glitchy beats created by Yacina’s friend Trish McGowan (aka Trissss), contrasting the singer’s stunning, tender voice. While Yacina’s speaking to a lover in the song, “Talk Me Down” has a meditative quality to it, heightened by the “oo-woos” that mimic the sound of being out in nature hearing birds’ coos. —Tatiana Tenreyro

Field Medic: “simply obsessed”

One of the biggest crimes an artist can commit is releasing album singles that offer very little sonic variation. Field Medic is far from guilty in that regard. From the doo-wop-inspired “MELANCHOLY” to the folky, acoustic “castle peaks,” there’s been plenty of range. And now his latest single, “simply obsessed,” is just as distinct. As the most upbeat of the trio, the track is a poppy, effervescent love song with saccharine lyrics about becoming absolutely enamored. “You’re a star I can speak to / I want you to see you / In the light that I do / I’m simply obsessed / With your mischievous smile / Your second-hand style / You’re my heart’s great revival / You deserve happiness,” he sings. It’s rare to find an unabashedly sweet love song in indie rock these days that isn’t focusing on the “Oh no, you weasled your way into my heart even though I didn’t want to be in love, what have you done to me?” aspect, so it’s refreshing to have one that’s just about knowing you have your perfect match and are genuinely happy. —Tatiana Tenreyro