Best New Songs (July 3, 2025)
Don't miss out on these great new tracks.
Photo of Alex G by Chris Maggio
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.)
81355: “Fire Over Me”
Spending a life wrapped up in future things makes for an uneasy reality. One day you’re feeling tenacious as you dive headfirst into your dreams, and the next you’re just as lost, head swimming with what could be. Experimental hip-hop group 81355, pronounced “bless,” dive into the simple joy of being present on their new single “Fire Over Me.” Bright synthesizers and singing birds introduce the track, while a fuzzy drum beat and bass set the foundation for the trio’s alternating flows. An ethereal fusion of acoustic guitar and synth later suspend the driving soundscape, providing respite from the chugging rhythms in the verse. Rife with layered harmonies and slick beats, the song oozes with confidence through its effortless blend of synthetic and natural sounds. It’s not just a satisfying listen, but a reminder to fight for the present moment, as you’ll never get today back again. —Camryn Teder
Alex G: “June Guitar”
Alex G is single-handedly bringing the accordion back to popular music. “June Guitar,” the second single from his upcoming LP (and major label debut) Headlights, pulls back, swapping the upfront kick drum and shimmery guitar riffs of “Afterlife” for more subdued instrumentation—namely: bongos, the lightest taps of the cymbal, and a shockingly effective accordion solo played by the man himself. It’s a summer song in a less outright way than “Afterlife,” the kind of music that could soundtrack a sunset porch sit, watching trucks pass on a two-lane highway, and thinking about everything in your life that got you to that exact moment. “June Guitar” is as calming as it is emotionally stirring, as Alex goes full vulnerability, using a rope swing metaphor for the risk that comes with letting someone see the deepest parts of yourself (“Love ain’t for the young anyhow / Something that you learn from falling down” is deceptively devastating). —Cassidy Sollazzo
Ethel Cain: “Fuck Me Eyes”
Though I am still feeling and digesting the presence of her harsh, crushing Perverts EP, Ethel Cain is slowly drifting back to her poppier center. Willoughby Tucker, I’ll Always Love You comes out in August, and the lead single “Nettles” was so good it landed on our mid-year best songs list. What’s come next, the intensely powerful “Fuck Me Eyes,” makes a good case for being the best song of Cain’s career thus far. It’s six minutes of colossal synths, crashing, doom-y percussion, and her anchoring voice. It’s impossible to get lost in a song like this, because you don’t want to miss a single syllable. Cain sings about the “girls who are perfect and have everything, yet carry the reputation of town slut,” and pays tribute to one of her favorite songs (and mine), “Bette Davis Eyes”—likely Kim Carnes’ version, not Jackie DeShannon’s. Here are some lines that stuck out to me: “Three years undefeated as Miss Holiday Inn”; “I’ll never be that kind of angel, I’ll never be kind enough to me”; “Her daddy keeps her in a box but it’s no good.” But I want to highlight the electronics on “Fuck Me Eyes,” especially. No amount of cresting guitars or muscular drums can override the lush, dense tides of synth that decorate the song’s vulnerable exterior. Perhaps this is no surprise to you, but Ethel Cain is very, very good at this. —Matt Mitchell
Frost Children: “Falling”
I wasn’t fully sold on Frost Children until hearing the sibling duo perform “Falling” at this year’s Governor’s Ball. With so many artists trying—and ultimately failing—at doing an “indie sleaze” revival, I’ve been skeptical of those inspired by the music of late-aughts yesteryear. But Frost Children found the secret to the formula with their new single. They transcended nostalgia; if I didn’t know who the duo was, I’d be convinced this was a forgotten hit from my early adolescent years in the 2010s. The track carries the anthemic energy of Calvin Harris’ EDM classic “Summer” and the hedonistic attitude of Cobra Starship, as Lulu sings: “Give it to me straight, don’t waste my time / Take over, take over, my body, my body.” Dropping it right before the Fourth of July was the perfect move, as it’s a track I can easily imagine soundtracking partying at the beach, dancing away your sorrows. —Tatiana Tenreyro
Ganser: “Discount Diamonds”
Chicago band Ganser’s latest single, off their upcoming album Animal Hospital, is a dizzying dance-punk track that feels like losing steam during a night out and pushing yourself to keep going. Written with a hint of sarcasm, frontperson Alicia Gaines calls out the criticism from those “up top” who think they’ve got the kids all figured out. With a hypnotizing drumbeat against Gaines’ drowsy vocals, it lulls you into a trance as she sings: “Kids don’t dance anymore / Kids don’t dance anymore / Killing time and keeping score / Kids don’t dance anymore.” Animal Hospital is Ganser’s first LP since 2020’s Just Look At the Sky and from what we’ve heard already, it feels worth the wait. —Tatiana Tenreyro
JID is back, baby, and he’s back with a vengeance. It’s been a minute since his last full-length in 2022, but 2025 is shaping up to be JID’s year: From his feature on Offset’s “Bodies” to the release of God Does Like Ugly next month to—surprise!—the GDLU Preluxe mixtape dropping tomorrow, to say the Atlanta rapper has been busy is an understatement. While his singles have yet to miss, “32 (Freestyle)” has got to be the biggest flex thus far—he’s absolutely kinetic here, spitting bar after bar over a Carti beat (“HBA”) atop his 
A day after turning 50 years old, 
Princess Nokia heard that we, the people, were in desperate need of a Song of the Summer. And she delivered, because she’s a badbadgirl. Her first solo single of the year, “Drop Dead Gorgeous” (the lead single from her upcoming album, GIRLS), is a nonchalant, synthwave bop—with Nokia flaunting her most confident bars and a better-than-you cadence. Where last year’s singles “Apple Pie” and “Wide Brim Hat” leaned soft and subdued, “Drop Dead Gorgeous” is teeming with attitude, flexing synth pulses similar to the poppy overwhelm of Addison Rae’s “High Fashion.” It’s a tale of girls gone wild, having a crazy summer just because they can. They buy guns, get divorced, hook up with guys with boats, and smoke cigs in strip mall parking lots. Nokia name-drops everything from A24 and Lana Del Rey to Walmart and Marshalls, buying into this idea of everyday suburbia and the capitalism revolving around it, that the badbadgirls in the song aren’t that different from the badbadgirls listening to it. She playfully subverts the countless variations of “girl” that exist in today’s internet hellscape (“girl’s girls,” “mean girls,” “clean girls,” “cool girls,” etc) with the run-on line “Girlhood, girls bleed / Mean girl, girl fun / Girl books, girl code / Girl hate, girl love” that has that overwhelming, Charli XCX-style “Hot Girl” momentum that builds intensity with each word. —Cassidy Sollazzo
It’s been five years since the release of Shelly’s debut songs. The band has been quiet ever since, but this silence was by design. Made up of friends 
There are songs you feel in your gut, but “Hate Goodbyes” is one you feel in your bone marrow, reverberating through your body like an electric shock in slow motion. This latest single from Magic of the Sale,