This Week's Best New Songs (July 3, 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.)

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: “32 (Freestyle)”

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 own high school football Hudl footage, no less. It’s all there: the wordplay is tight (“They be killin’ me sayin’ they killin’ me” is such a clever way to phrase the age-old rap mantra of “it’s hilarious they think they’re better than me”), he effortlessly jumps between flows (the transition between “When I’m sleepin’, awaken, Inception / I’ve accepted, it is fuckin’ awesome” and “I be trippin’, you know I’m a bomb tickin’ / Gotta get it, you know why my palms itchin’” is just blink-and-you-miss-it effortless), and the content even ventures well into overt political commentary by the end (“It’s just Destin versus a bunch of pedestrians / Runnin’ for cheese, government breakin’ elections / N*****s riggin’ the game, showin’ the wrong directions / So I’m alone like I’m Opium reppin’”). There’s no chorus, no production flourishes; just straight technical mastery and lyrical slam-dunks. I mean, “Interscope hit your boy with a twenty-piece / In a scope, you resemble a Kennedy / In a scope like the logo from Public Enemy”?! Come on. —Casey Epstein-Gross

Mina Tindle ft. Sufjan Stevens: “Heaven Thunder”

A day after turning 50 years old, Sufjan Stevens popped up on Mina Tindle’s new single, “Heaven Thunder.” It’s good to hear his voice again, just as we did on Hannah Cohen’s new album in May. Tomorrow, we’ll celebrate the 20th anniversary of Illinois but, for now, let’s spend some time with him here. Aside from singing on The National’s First Two Pages of Frankenstein two years ago, the Parisian-born Tindle—whose real name is Pauline de Lassus Saint-Geniès—has stayed relatively below the radar since releasing her very good 2020 album SISTER (which also featured Stevens, on “Give a Little Love”), but “Heaven Thunder” is a perfect glimpse into why her solo music is always a treat to unpack. With Tindle’s husband Bryce Dessner navigating production, “Heaven Thunder” sounds like it could have wedged itself onto The Age of Adz—the melody rests on choppy bloops of drum programming, crashing synths, and a central duet between Tindle and Stevens. There are brief guitar phrases that push through the keyboard gusts, but all remains spectacular and explosive until the duo share one final promise: “I could bend and not break, I will grow out of pain.” —Matt Mitchell

Princess Nokia: “Drop Dead Gorgeous”

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

Shelly: “Cross Your Mind”

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 Clairo, Claud, Josh Mehling, and Noa Getzug, the group’s formation was a one-off—another unexpected byproduct of quarantine. After their song “Steeeam” went viral online last year, the band decided to dig up a pair of tracks they recorded in 2020. Here we are: Hazy guitars lie at the tender heart of “Cross Your Mind,” where Clairo wonders how she can reclaim the freedom she felt at the age of 17. As she visits her hometown, she jumps into old habits. While stealing bottles from the basement used to come with a mischievous allure, time has dulled the feeling. Now her mind swirls with the existential thoughts that come as adulthood sinks in. Accented by punchy drums and bright piano lines, the reflective coming-of-age track is vibrant and familiar. This might be the last official release we hear from Shelly, but at least they’re going out on a high note. —Camryn Teder

Teethe: “Hate Goodbyes”

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, Teethe’s forthcoming sophomore record (out August 8), is devastatingly lush, overflowing with strings that settle somewhere beneath the skin and lyrics that aim straight at the heart: “If I disappoint you / you have every right.” If the soundscape feels too full to be the result of a mere four musicians, that’s because it is—in addition to Teethe’s Boone Patello, Graham Robinson, Madison Dowd, and Jordan Garrett, the track features cellist Emily Elkin, flutist and clarinet player Adelyn Strei, and Hovvdy‘s Charlie Martin on additional keys, as well as pedal steel from Wednesday’s Xandy Chelmis. All eight play in perfect unison, their instruments bleeding into each other as the song sweeps towards its conclusion. But even as slowcore demands a certain enmeshing of sound, the verses see peals of Texas twang ring out beneath the murmured vocals, ensuring the parts do not get lost in favor of the whole. As subtle as those moments are, there’s something refreshing about the clear tonality there—some quiet departure from the heyday of shoegaze revival that forces listeners to reckon with Teethe not only as an offshoot of slowcore’s recent proliferation, but as a band all its own. —Casey Epstein-Gross

Other Notable Songs This Week: Disiniblud: “Disiniblud”; DJ Sabrina The Teenage DJ: “Throwdown”; For Those I Love: “No Scheme”; John Glacier: “Fly With Me”; Laura Groves: “Deep Blue”; Natural Human Instinct: “Create a Situation”; Nuovo Testamento: “Dream On”; Pickle Darling: “Human Bean Instruction Manual”; Zach Bryan: “Streets of London”

Check out a playlist of this week’s best new songs below.

Best New Songs (July 3, 2025)

Don't miss out on these great new tracks.