The 10 Best New Songs

Seven more days have already flown by, and the number of worthwhile songs that were released in that time is much larger. We narrowed the past week’s new music down to 10 tracks we’re unsure how we’d previously lived without, like the title track from Leeds post-punks Yard Act’s forthcoming debut album The Overload, Maxo Kream and Tyler, The Creator’s super-sized collab “Big Persona,” and Francis of Delirium’s first new material since the April release of their acclaimed Wading EP. Theatrical art-pop, heavy shoegaze, euphoric psych-pop—find all of it and more below.

Angel Du$t: “Big Bite“

When the members of Turnstile aren’t releasing a banger of an album, they’re working on other bangers with other bands. On Sept. 8, Angel Du$t announced details of their forthcoming album YAK: A Collection of Truck Songs, out Oct. 22 via Roadrunner Records. The album will be produced by Rob Schnapf, known for his work with Kurt Vile and Elliott Smith. Comprised of members of Baltimore heavyweights Turnstile and Trapped Under Ice, Angel Du$t’s reinvention of punk with acoustic guitars and catchy pop melodies has helped usher in a new facet of the genre. The band also shared a video for their new single “Big Bite,” a jangly acoustic jam with punchy drums. It’s reminiscent of a campfire singalong or a weekend beach romp. Justice Tripp sings, “Take a big bite when it feels right,” driving home the central free-spirited ethos of the record. The album will also feature songs from the band’s 2021 EP Bigger House, the expansion upon their Lil House EP. —Jade Gomez

Circuit des Yeux: “Sculpting the Exodus“

Last month, avant-garde composer, vocalist and multi-instrumentalist Haley Fohr (aka Circuit des Yeux) announced her forthcoming album -io (out Oct 22. on Matador) with the thrilling and thunderous “Dogma.” On Sept. 8, she shared the album’s second single, the ambitious “Sculpting the Exodus.” Taking full advantage of the 24-piece ensemble Fohr employed to help maximize its sound, the new track is lush, cinematic and supremely epic. Fohr’s unique baritone guides the track’s mighty strings and orchestral instrumentation to a conclusion that feels connected to something divine, as though every sonic element is at once reaching towards the heavens. —Jason Friedman

Dummy: “Final Weapon“

The charming fuzz of Los Angeles noise-pop group Dummy continues to sizzle as they tease their forthcoming album Mandatory Enjoyment (out Oct. 22 on Trouble In Mind) with the release of their hypnotic new single “Final Weapon.” Following the warm haze of previous single “Daffodils,” “Final Weapon” is built from a driving, synthy beat that quietly mesmerizes the listener as it blossoms into a lush explosion of bright organs and guitars. Lyrics depicting apocalyptic imagery only heighten the song’s psychedelic inclinations and lend a sort of spirituality to its euphoric heights. —Jason Friedman

Francis of Delirium: “Come out and Play“

Jana Bahrich’s Luxembourg-based indie-rock project Francis of Delirium are back with their first new track since the April release of their 2021 standout EP Wading. The shoegaze/grunge-inspired “Come out and Play” is out now alongside a music video, animated by Bahrich herself. Mixed by Jolyon Thomas (Royal Blood, Slaves) and mastered by Joe Lambert (Sharon Van Etten, Deerhunter), “Come out and Play” is menacing from the start with its flickering synths and thrumming bassline. Bahrich’s moody vocals evoke Nirvana in the verses, and ride tidal waves of power-chord crunch in the choruses—”Wash me, wash me away / Come out and play,” she commands, her wordless vocalizations both powerfully melodic and unsettling in the song’s crashing outro. —Scott Russell

Julia Shapiro: “Death XIII“

Julia Shapiro (Chastity Belt, Childbirth, Who Is She?) has shared another new single ahead of her second solo album Zorked (Oct. 15, Suicide Squeeze Records), its opening track “Death (XIII),” along with a music video. As befitting its ominous title, the song is dark and otherworldly, a swirling fog of guitar distortion, bass rumble and Shapiro’s droning vocals that blends beauty and foreboding a la Midwife’s “heaven metal.” “Holding onto something concrete / but there’s freedom in falling,” she sings in its choruses, depicting nothingness not as something to fear, but rather as something to embrace. “This song was inspired by the Death tarot card,” Shapiro explains in a statement. “The Death card is often feared by people who don’t fully understand its meaning, but it can actually be seen as the transformation needed in order to start fresh and cleanse yourself.” —Scott Russell

Kate Bollinger: “Shadows”

From the moment the fuzzy, guitar-driven rhythm comes in, “Shadows,” the latest track from Virginia songwriter/multi-instrumentalist Kate Bollinger, hits that sweet spot just in between whimsical and psychedelic. Bollinger’s soft voice carries a catchy melody backed by warm guitars and synths before the track reinvents itself, removing the driving drum beat and replacing it with sweet acoustic guitars and a Mellotron flute. “Shadows” is warm, dynamic and inviting—hopefully indicative of the direction the songwriter’s forthcoming project is moving. —Jason Friedman

Maxo Kream: “Big Persona” feat. Tyler the Creator

Tyler, The Creator is having a very good year. Following this summer’s release of his excellent album Call Me If You Get Lost, he’s channeled his ecstatic energy towards a stadium-sized beat and a laser-sharp verse on the latest Maxo Kream track, “Big Persona.” The pair provide a good balance between each other’s styles, with Tyler lending his reliably aggressive and slightly frantic flow alongside Maxo Kream’s more methodical technique, all conspiring to make “Big Persona” feel as massive as its title and its chorus suggest. —Jason Friedman

Remi Wolf: “Guerrilla”

Remi Wolf has been a regular on our Best New Songs lists in the run-up to her debut album Juno (Oct. 15), and “Guerrilla” is as good an example as any of why that is. Like “Liquor Store” and “Quiet on Set” before it, Remi’s latest single is an effervescent dance-funk track that puts a neon-lit party on wax: “Spillin’ like a villain / Better whip out the Swiffer,” she raps over a racing trap beat and a neo-G-funk bassline. Psych-rock guitars and a chopped-up vocal loop soon send the jubilant track into the stratosphere, but Remi manages to keep her feet on the ground (“Hiding my mind smoke away depression / Damn, that guy he keeping me guessin’”), unapologetically herself throughout all “Guerrilla”’s thrilling swerves. —Scott Russell

Tasha: “Perfect Wife”

The second single from Chicago-based artist and poet Tasha’s forthcoming Father/Daughter Records debut Tell Me What You Miss The Most (Nov. 5), “Perfect Wife” is a charming, guitar-driven ode to happy times with a loving partner. “Let’s find some place we can go out and dance / You wear your hair down / I’ll wear my favorite pants / On the floor I’ll be stunned every time / Truth is darling, you’re such a perfect wife,” Tasha sings sweetly over a simple, breezy chord progression, with a celebratory rhythm, airy woodwinds and a twangy guitar solo lifting the escapism and infatuation she evokes ever higher. There’s a spirit of generosity to “Perfect Wife,” like Tasha intended not to tout her love, but rather to share its bliss with others. —Scott Russell

Yard Act: “The Overload“

After building substantial buzz via their 2021 standout debut EP Dark Days, Leeds, U.K. quartet Yard Act have announced their full-length debut The Overload, coming Jan. 7, 2022, via Island Records and the band’s own Zen F.C. imprint. Standing shoulder to shoulder with such esteemed peers as Dry Cleaning, TV Priest, Sinead O’Brien and Courting, Yard Act—James Smith (vocals), Ryan Needham (bass), Sam Shjipstone (guitar) and Jay Russell (drums)—make throwback post-punk that’s spiked with a distinctly modern, dark sense of humor and verbose, frequently Sprechesang vocals. “The Overload” finds the band ping-ponging between accessibility and idiosyncrasy: Over a frenetic, danceable groove and twitchy guitars, Smith deadpans non-sequiturs like “Kids these days, they think they’ve been outnumbered / but they’ve never even looked at an iron lung like I did once,” later posing as a Yard Act adviser to recommend “kicking that dickhead singer you got in out the band.” But the singer ditches his speak-singing approach on the track’s choruses, lamenting “the overload of discontent” on Yard Act’s biggest hook to date. —Scott Russell