Best New Songs (March 20, 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.)

Aminé: “Familiar”

There’s a certain je ne sais quoi to Aminé that has always screamed “summer” to me. Whether this is because his first big hit “Caroline” was my song of the season all the way back in 2017, the soft yellow of his brand or simply his overall bubbly, good vibes, I’m not entirely sure—but he finds his way onto my summer playlist every year without fail. And it may only be March, but I can see the tide returning—Aminé is primed for album mode. It’s been nearly two years since he and KAYTRANADA teamed up on KAYTRAMINÉ, one of our favorite hip-hop records that year and another prime example showing off Aminé’s knack for breezy, poolside rap. Now, Aminé is back for more, partying with the same love and sunny enthusiasm on “Familiar.” At just under two minutes, the Portland MC compliments his usual liveliness with a touch of toxicity and, dare I say, sass—speaking on the push-and-pull of relationships that feel too good to leave, yet too wrong to stick around for. The “Familiar” beat is club-ready—a spacious and hypnotic delivery of warm synth textures and house style sample breaks—and Aminé pops in for a quick verse between his two delightfully sung choruses. If I had one critique, it would just be that the song is too short. I keep finding myself leaving “Familiar” on repeat two or three times in a row until the vibe has been properly exhausted, but if replayability isn’t the sign of a great song, I don’t know what is. —Gavyn Green

beaming ft. Field Medic: “slow sinkin”

beaming—the SoCal duo of Derek Ted and Braden Lawrence—have arrived with their debut single, “slow sinkin.” The song features Field Medic on guest vocals, continuing his and Ted’s longtime collaborative relationship. “slow sinkin” collides into perfection, thanks to Field Medic’s second verse, strips of steel guitar supplied by Lawrence’s old Districts bandmate Pat Cassidy, and melded vocals shared between Lawrence and Ted. The song speaks the same language as something Hovvdy or Jodi would make, but it’s especially fluent in Ted’s extensive, sun-beaten catalog of acoustic-driven work. “Now I know how the story turns out,” they sing together, as the guitars crawl upwards into a wincing solo. All of it sounds great, be it the pattering strums or the bleached-out drum machine beat shadowed by Ted and Lawrence’s vocal chemistry. “slow sinkin” is delicate yet potent. —Matt Mitchell

Chappell Roan: “The Giver”

Last Friday I listened to Chappell Roan’s “The Giver” no less than half a dozen times with my friends as we drank wine and put on makeup before heading to our favorite queer bar; I have no doubt in my mind this is only the first of many such “Giver”-filled nights. Chappell Roan’s celebrated debut album The Rise and Fall of a Midwest Princess nods to her Missouri upbringing in its title but not so much in its ‘80s-inspired pop sound—but “The Giver” rectifies matters. High, sassy fiddle invites you to try your hand at line dancing, while Chappell assures us with a wink and a smile that “I get the job done.” While it’s disappointing she didn’t include the spoken section from her already iconic Saturday Night Live performance (“All you country boys saying you know how to treat a woman right—well only a woman knows how to treat a woman right”), likely to improve airplay chances on more conservative radio stations, this is still one hell of a country pop song. For those in the know, this is a top anthem. And for everyone else, well, it’s a barnburner. —Clare Martin

Durand Jones & The Indications: “Been So Long”

It’s been four years since Durand Jones & The Indications last made a record together, but the trio has certainly remained busy, as Jones and his bandmate Aaron Frazer have both released solo albums in the interim. But the Indications are back in full force now, set to release Flowers in June via Dead Oceans. Lead single “Been So Long” is textbook Durand Jones, a mature and sexy squeeze of soul goodness. Written at Blake Rhein’s home studio in Chicago, “Been So Long” is the result of, as Frazer puts it, the band taking “the spirit of play that started the project and add[ing] in the wisdom and lessons we’ve acquired through the years.” There’s a great essence to “Been So Long,” with its title pointing to the Indications’ longest period of no touring in 10 years. And what better way to welcome yourselves back into focus than with a deeply beautiful track evoking your hometown’s extensive, influential soul heritage? “Been So Long” is a hypnotic gesture of immeasurable craft. Paste has loved this trio for a long time. There’s a reason why their Paste Session is the only one available on streaming: No band deserves the glory more. Everything Durand Jones & The Indications do is dripping in talent. —Matt Mitchell

Esther Rose: “Had To”

“Drinking is a gift for every season, and drinking is a way to pass the time-ay-ay,” Esther Rose sings on her deceptively easygoing new strummer “Had To,” calligraphing the words with elegant loops and playful curlicues with her placid, twangy lilt. You can imagine her delivering the line with a wink and a grin—the unassuming, sweet-faced bad girl hanging out in the corner of the dive bar—as her backup singers shimmy in time with the candied, retro melody. But listen further, and you find that “Had To” is actually the opposite of a charming drinking ditty in the vein of old-timey, feel-good country music; rather, it’s the sound of Rose reckoning with her complicated past with alcohol. It’s of a far sunnier disposition than Rose’s last single, the noisy throwdown “New Bad,” but similar undercurrents of anxiety lap at the pristine surface, channeled through the restrained crunch of a last-ditch electric guitar solo, unraveling ribbons of weepy pedal steel and Rose’s vocal cracks on the bridge (“Ice on the road, gri-ind my teeth,” she cries, her loss of vocal control perfectly paralleling the line’s metaphorical meaning). The double-entendre of the title best exemplifies her struggle to keep up with the music, literally and figuratively: “You had too much,” she sings, the realization seeming to constrict her airways with each near-breathless repetition, before her tense whine deflates into a relieved, if weary, sigh: “You had to, had to.” She keeps on crooning, but a tear has already slipped from that tight-lidded wink; that grin’s starting to look a little more self-deprecating. —Anna Pichler