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.

Cola: “So Excited“

“Every end is a new beginning,” the old saying goes—the November 2021 end of Montreal’s Ought was the beginning of Cola, a new project featuring Ought’s Tim Darcy and Ben Stidworthy, and U.S. Girls/The Weather Station drummer Evan Cartwright. The trio signed to Fire Talk Records and released their debut single “Blank Curtain,” and now they’ve announced that there’s more where that came from: Fire Talk will release Cola’s debut album Deep in View on May 20. “So Excited” is a worthy addition to the Ought and Cola canon, a subtly nervy art-rock shuffle that draws its energy from Stidworthy and Cartwright’s shifty low end. Darcy’s muted guitar serves the groove without pulling focus from it, and his similarly subdued vocal underscores the disappointment at the song’s aching heart: “And if you are so excited / Then you are so invited / To take this stone and right it,” he croons, pointing out how our passions are often exploited—we dive headfirst into pursuits we expect will fulfill us, only to find ourselves “feeling bound up instead.” —Scott Russell

Florence + The Machine: “King“

Following a flurry of internet rumors and cryptic teasers, Florence Welch and her Machine have finally returned with their new first single in two years, “King.” The new song takes a similar sonic approach to the material on High As Hope, using a relatively sparse instrumental set-up until it builds to its soaring peak at the song’s center, but takes a step in a new direction thematically. Where the previous record operated from a place of (cautious) optimism, “King” sees Welch barely holding her fury back, pulling anyone who dares cross her up by the scruff of their neck as she floats above them all. On earlier projects, she might have gone straight to howling the repeated refrain of “I am no mother / I am no bride / I am king,” but here, she lets the line sit at the back of her throat, delivering it through gritted teeth. In a way, the restraint is more terrifying, warning the song’s subject who asks, “How much is art really worth?” to run before the bloodshed starts. Mirrored in the ring of girls who let out a silent, agonizing scream right before the song’s explosive climax erupts in the video, the song captures the rage that so many like Florence feel, keeping quiet for fear that opportunities will be snatched out from under you if you speak your displeasure aloud. —Elise Soutar

Gang of Youths: “spirit boy“

It’s no secret that we’re excited for Gang of Youths’ new album angel in realtime (which arrives this Friday via Warner Records), and the Australian group have treated us to one last preview of the record with final single “spirit boy.” The track features Shane McLean, a specialist in Taonga Puoro—the traditional music culture of the Maori people—contributing spoken word. Opening with the line “God died today,” “spirit boy” once again sees frontman Dave  Le’aupepe grappling with the world around him, searching for the moments of beauty he can salvage from the wreckage of his everyday life. “You raise me up now / and pull me out my mind / you fill me with significance / that I cannot describe,” he sings following McLean’s spoken world interlude, melting into the strings and sound effects that allow the track to morph into something larger than life and universal, even with the deeply personal touches scattered throughout. —Elise Soutar

Grace Ives: “Loose”

Marking her debut single on her new label True Panther/Harvest and first release since 2019, “Loose” sees Brooklyn artist Grace Ives feeling just as anxious as the rest of us about, well, everything. “Oh what a loser sound / I let out when I hit the ground / I never squeal like that / I need some respite, please,” she pleads over kinetic, wiry beats that arrive like pin pricks traveling over the skin in contrast to our stagnant narrator. By the time the chorus’ heavy synths bring weight to the dire situation described, Ives’ voice flies far overhead, dodging every obstacle she sings about. It condenses the reality of daily life into a compact, danceable pop song that you want to keep on an endless repeat, which is never an easy feat. —Elise Soutar

Porridge Radio:”Back To The Radio“

U.K.-based quartet Porridge Radio have announced a new album, their third, arriving May 20 on Secretly Canadian. Waterslide, Diving Board, Ladder to the Sky follows 2020’s Mercury Prize-nominated Every Bad, one of Paste’s favorite albums of that year. Opening track “Back to the Radio” is the kind of song that will drive live audiences wild, opening on a single repeated guitar chord backgrounded by probing feedback, the intensity building as the lone guitar slowly grows more forceful. Frontperson Dana Margolin’s quavering, rhythmic vocals find her narrator confronting feelings of fear and inadequacy that have opened a gulf between her and the song’s subject (“Laughing and talking, but I want to cry to you”). Bassist Maddie Ryall, drummer Sam Yardley and keyboardist Georgie Stott all fall in around Margolin, with strings and horns by Maria Marzaioli and Freddy Wordsworth, respectively, uplifting the track through its heartbreaking, yet healing choruses: “Lock all the windows and shut all the doors and get into the house and lie down on the cold, hard floor / Talk back to the radio, think loud in the car, I miss everything now, we’re worth nothing at all.” Margolin’s vocal performance is the powerful song’s centerpiece—her voice overflows with raw emotion in its moving climax. —Scott Russell

Regina Spektor: “Becoming All Alone“

Beloved New York City singer/songwriter Regina Spektor has announced her first new album in six years, Home, before and after, coming June 24 on Warner Records. Sweeping lead single and album opener “Becoming All Alone” is out now. The city’s “bars and corner delis” are the backdrop of “Becoming All Alone,” which begins with Spektor narrating a run-in with God over delicately regal synths, strings and piano. Bass and drums kick the song up a notch after its first chorus; meanwhile, Spektor holds the big guy to account, singing, “And I just want to ride / But this whole world, it makes me carsick / Stop the meter, sir / You have a heart, why don’t you use it?” The track’s grand orchestral bridge matches the scope of its existential concept, only to return to Spektor and her piano: “I’m becoming all alone again.” —Scott Russell

Rosalía: “CHICKEN TERIYAKI”

Spanish pop star Rosalía is gearing up to release her highly anticipated MOTOMAMI next month, and “CHICKEN TERIYAKI” is a hard-hitting party bop that hints at a dance-focused record. The song is rooted in the floor-shaking drum grooves of dembow and reggaeton, a noticeable departure of her experimental flamenco fusion. Taking pages from her contemporaries’ playbooks such as rising rapper Tokischa and superstar Bad Bunny, Rosalía bursts open the unlimited possibilities of her accessible and infectious pop that transcends language. —Jade Gomez

SASAMI: “Make It Right“

With only one more day until SASAMI’s Squeeze, the final preview “Make It Right” is perhaps the album’s most accessible single yet, a concise, uptempo pop-rock track dominated by SASAMI’s layered vocals and a fuzzed-out, tumbling guitar riff. Lyrically, SASAMI poses the central question of “What’s there to say when there’s nothing left to say?”—the unbearable burden of feeling compelled to fix the unfixable. After a discordant guitar freakout, she frames the situation in achingly human terms: “Want to see the light when you’re looking through the rain / Trying hard to feel alright when you’re circling the drain.” Meanwhile, in the “Make It Right” video, SASAMI literally pursues, finds and, finally, makes peace with herself. —Scott Russell

SEB: “f**k it i’m the man”

Rising pop artist SEB has an ear for irresistible earworms, which is why his viral hit “seaside_demo” has racked up millions of plays. Bedroom pop does not have to mean lo-fi, and his latest single “f**k it i’m the man” is a slick and charming empowerment anthem. It’s deceptively simple, centered around steady bass and drums, but SEB’s colorful world begins to blossom as he describes cutting off toxic people unsupportive of his self-expression. Rooted in Motown as much as he is in trap rap, SEB’s eclectic pop blueprint is quickly unfolding into something exciting. —Jade Gomez

Sister Ray: “Visions”

Sister Ray, the project of Edmonton-born singer/songwriter Ella Coyes, has returned with their second single of the year so far following January’s “Crucified” and leading up to the release of their debut album Communion (out May 13 via Royal Mountain). In a press release, Coyes describes “Visions” as being about “feeling pissed and betrayed by something that was supposed to be beautiful and good,” and while the track certainly works as a sigh of resignation, it doesn’t come without a fight. “I’ve been having visions of you sleeping / in them, I can’t open the door to wake you up / I’m just waiting in the space between us,” they sing, summing up the emotional disconnect of the situation in a devastating turn of phrase. Blending beautiful melodies and layers of guitars that grow heavier as the song progresses, the track might be about walking away, but makes you feel like you’re leaving with something better, letting severed ties begin to heal. —Elise Soutar