The 10 Best New Songs

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 Thursday we can swing it, we take stock of the previous seven days’ best tracks, delivering a weekly playlist of our favorites while keeping Fridays free to focus on new albums. Check out this week’s best new songs below.

BODEGA: “Statuette on the Console”

New York post-punk band BODEGA maintain the quirkiness that the genre has always been known for, but more importantly, they keep the cool, too. Most of the former factor comes in the vocal delivery and visuals, which are on full DIY display in the song’s video (Love the props! So many props!). In terms of cool, “Statuette On the Console” is a barn-burner of a track, recalling original new wave artists like Girls At Our Best! or fellow New Yorkers Blondie. The way they pare the whole affair down to its essential elements allows the song to arrive like a punch to the gut. Also, if you have an extra 20 minutes today, the band recorded the song in nine different languages: English, Dutch, French, German, Greek, Italian, Portuguese, Spanish and Ukrainian. Even if you only speak one of those, it’s a great enough song that it holds up regardless of what tongue you’re hearing the lyrics in. —Elise Soutar

Doss: “Jumpin’”

Doss made her return to music in 2021 after a seven-year period of silence, releasing her 4 New Hit Songs EP. “Jumping’” is her latest endeavor, hopefully hinting at a full-length project in 2022. The single is an intense club banger with slices of diva house, techno and grimy EDM mixed into one. Soulful vocals make way for Doss’ whisper-singing and a nasty, floor-shaking bass breakdown. The ideas all come together for a whiplash-inducing collection of sounds that is the formula for another hit. —Jade Gomez

Fly Anakin: “Black Be The Source“

Richmond, Virginia’s Fly Anakin is gearing up to release his studio debut Frank (Mar. 11, Lex Records). Back in January, he shared his Madlib-produced single “No Dough.” Feb. 15, the rapper shared the final preview of his forthcoming album, “Black Be The Source.” Featuring frequent collaborator Pink Siifu and vocalist Billz Egypt, “Black Be The Source” is a lo-fi, soulful track that uplifts Black art as an originator. Anakin raps into a trancelike state with his signature rasp, trading bars with Siifu like two seasoned veterans. Aided by the buttery vocals of Billz Egypt, the three craft a triumphant song of Black innovation. —Jade Gomez

Fontaines D.C.: “I Love You”

Released just a few days after Valentine’s, “I Love You” is easily mistaken for, well, a love song—Fontaines D.C. are counting on it. In truth, the second single from the band’s forthcoming Skinty Fia (after “Jackie Down the Line; a January standout) is “the first overtly political song we’ve written,” said frontman Grian Chatten. In its choruses—two of which it leads with, in an unusual arrangement—“I Love You” finds Chatten professing an undying devotion to the band’s home country of Ireland over cloudy, Echo & The Bunnymen-esque instrumentation. But that love sounds less like a light in his life and more like a blight on it: In dense, spoke-sung verses, Chatten unpacks his narrator’s conflicted feelings about his home, including both his guilt and self-hatred for having succeeded after leaving it (“When the cherries lined up, I kept the spoilings for myself / Till I had thirty ways of dying looking at me from the shelf”), and his rage and disdain for the country’s sins (“This island’s run by sharks with children’s bones stuck in their jaws”). It’s another knockout preview of Skinty Fia, our anticipation for which just keeps climbing. —Scott Russell

Future Islands: “King of Sweden”

Future Islands have not hinted at a release for their seventh album yet, but their first single of the year is begging to be on a full project. “King of Sweden” is a groovy, playful song that slowly builds in atmosphere as frontman Samuel Herring warmly croons. The result is a vivid picture of innocent love, dreams and contentment. Synths and pulsing percussion open a door into a fast-paced, beautiful world that Future Islands create with ease. —Jade Gomez

Ho99o9: “NUGE SNIGHT“

Ho99o9 (pronounced “horror”) have finally announced their sophomore album Skin, their long-awaited follow-up to 2017’s United States of Horror. The album is due March 11 via DTA Records. Fully produced by the legendary Travis Barker, who is also featured on lead single “BATTERY NOT INCLUDED,” the star-studded album will have contributions from Slipknot’s Corey Taylor and alternative rapper and poet Saul Williams, as well as Southern rap godfather Bun B. Defined in press materials as “noisier and more aggressive than their earlier work,” Skin’s announcement arrives with the raucous album opener “NUGE SNIGHT.” It opens guns-ablaze, with multiple twists and turns. Staticky feedback makes way for visceral shrieks, guttural vocals and a slick transition into a trap-inspired breakdown. —Jade Gomez

Renata Zeiguer: “Evergreen”

Renata Zeiguer has experienced somewhat of a creative rebirth since we were first introduced through her 2018 debut Old Ghost, or at least it seems like she has if January’s “Sunset Boulevard” and “Evergreen” are anything to go by. The dreamlike drift of the Brooklyn-based singer/songwriter’s arrangements have remained intact, but the singles pulled from her forthcoming sophomore effort Picnic in the Dark seem to have no problem pushing the whimsy even further, leaving enough space to introduce new idiosyncrasies as late as the song’s final minute. Pulling melodies that feel like something out of the distant past and layering them in a way that feels endlessly inventive, Zeiguer crafts pop gems that don’t sound like anything else you’ve ever heard. There’s a specific moment where she sings, “And I’m receiving every moment / I am ageless as I call you, as I call you out,” and all of the voices and guitars cut out from under her for a second. In that instant, we’re floating above the rest of her slightly off-kilter world with her, and the view is worth it. —Elise Soutar

Tomberlin: “happy accident“

Singer/songwriter Sarah Beth Tomberlin has announced her forthcoming album i don’t know who needs to hear this… (April 29 via Saddle Creek), her second full-length following her 2017 debut At Weddings and 2020 EP Projections with Alex G. She’s already shared what we now know is the album’s closing track, the beautiful “idkwntht,” and now she’s released another new track, “happy accident,” along with a video for the song directed by Ryan Schnackenberg. Featuring Cass McCombs on guitar, Felix Walworth (Told Slant) on drums and album co-producer Philip Weinrobe on bass, “happy accident” pivots in a completely different direction from “idkwntht,” taking everything that made the latter track delicate, and shoving fuzzy guitars and layers of strained harmonies in its place. The result towers over the lingering not-quite-a-relationship Tomberlin sings about, honoring all the confusion and insecurity that comes with the situation. “I wanna burn it all down / Could I borrow a light? / And don’t you dare me to / I could leave in the night / And don’t you dare me to / ’Cause you know i could fly,” she demands, struggling in her restraints and knowing the enormity of the music around her also exists within her. It fits perfectly with what she describes in a press release as the “theme” of the record: “to examine, hold space, make an altar for the feelings.” By the time the track reaches its defiant conclusion (“I won’t quit / I’m no accident”), you want to kneel down at the altar and honor the experience with her. —Elise Soutar

Vince Staples: “MAGIC“

If there’s one thing Vince Staples knows how to do, it’s keep his promises. Following a thrilling Super Bowl halftime performance dedicated to West Coast hip-hop, it’s only appropriate that the California rapper shared the full version of “MAGIC,” his collaboration with famed producer Mustard. The song will be part of his highly-anticipated Ramona Park Broke My Heart (April, Blacksmith Recordings/Motown Records), which he announced in 2021. “MAGIC” is a chilled-out ode to Staples’ beloved Ramona Park neighborhood of Long Beach, California and the complicated relationship with the adversity he’s faced. Mustard’s distinct G-funk production with subdued bass synths and minimalist percussion allows Staples to take center stage as he questions if the euphoria he’s feeling is magic. The single, as described by Staples, “defines the project.” Following his 2021 self-titled album, Ramona Park Broke My Heart further explores the rapper’s more relaxed, introspective side. “It’s symbolic of home,” Staples says of the album’s title. “And everyone has a home. Even though it’s very personal to me, everyone can relate to it. That’s why I thought it would work for this chapter.” —Jade Gomez

Young Prisms: “Self Love”

San Francisco quartet Young Prisms haven’t released an album in a decade, but their 2022 Drifter singles, including January’s “Honeydew” and this week’s “Self Love,” show that they haven’t misplaced their gift for creating dream-pop bliss. Their latest track reels you in gradually and then all at once, ambient drone giving way to Stefanie Hodapp’s reverb-laden vocals and shiny, staccato guitars. Its lyrics are as brightly idyllic as its instrumentation, with Hodapp setting a carefree scene with one lyric (“We walk down to the coffee shop / The sun feels good and the mood is easy”), then acknowledging love’s costs with the next (“You live with your hand in mine / My self love is sacrificed”). Connection may come at the price of individuality, but Young Prisms’ seamless sound is proof that the most beautiful pursuits are shared. —Scott Russell