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.

100 gecs: “Doritos & Fritos“

Polarizing hyperpop band 100 gecs are gearing up to add even more “gecs” into the world. While details of their forthcoming album 10000 gecs are fuzzy, the acclaimed duo has followed up the release of their last single “mememe” with “Doritos & Fritos.” Lead by a frenetic electric guitar and backed by infectious bass and drums, “Doritos & Fritos” leans into the duo’s affinity for early ‘00s pop punk and ska. The song is structured much more traditionally compared to 100 gecs’ more experimental works with a chorus that begs to be screamed. If this single is any further indication of 10000 gecs, we are in for another delightfully unpredictable album. —Jade Gomez

Built to Spill: “Gonna Lose“

Indie-rock institution Built to Spill have announced their first new album since 2015’s Untethered Moon, titled When the Wind Forgets Your Name, coming Sept. 9 on Sub Pop—the band’s debut release on the label. Lead single “Gonna Lose” is out now, with a music video directed by Jordan Minkoff, and animated by Minkoff and Lee McClure. “Gonna Lose” is a heady reintroduction to Built to Spill, not to mention the loosest and liveliest the band have sounded in a long while. Boisterous garage-rock guitar riffage accompanies Doug Martsch’s hooky depictions of an unbridgeable gulf between perception and reality—he sings about “being on acid in a dream,” remarking, “I thought I was done with that kind of fun,” and insisting that you’re “Gonna lose your mind” like he’s threatening you with a good time. There’s both wisdom and excitement in that act of letting go: “I’ve come to realize time’s all wrong / Answers materialize, then they’re gone,” Martsch sings serenely in the bridge, as if to say insanity is the only sane response to wild times. —Scott Russell

Faye Webster: “Car Therapy”

Never an artist to be tied to a single genre or sound, Faye Webster has set out to to reimagine four tracks from her 2021 album I Know I’m Funny, Haha and 2019’s Atlanta Millionaires Club with a full orchestra. However, our first preview of the orchestral EP is a brand new song, “Car Therapy,” a gorgeous, lilting tale of failed love whose drama is only elevated by its grandiose arrangement. It’s a testament to Webster’s stellar songwriting that her work stands up whether it’s played alone on a piano or by an entire brass section, a quiet half-song hummed in a corner or a suite that takes up all the air in the room. When the singer/songwriter claims that she was “so distracted in how beautiful the orchestra sounded I would forget to sing sometimes” during the sessions for the EP, as she did in a statement, it’s not difficult to understand how she let herself get wrapped up in the majesty of it all. —Elise Soutar

Jamie xx: “LET’S DO IT AGAIN“

Jamie xx, the propulsive force of seminal electronic group The xx, has enjoyed further success as a solo act. It has been seven years since the release of 2015’s In Colour, and two years since his one-off single “Idontknow”. Jamie has once again emerged with his latest single “LET’S DO IT AGAIN.” There is a clear house influence that runs throughout the song, which opens with a muffled vocal sample that fluctuates with the body-shaking percussion. Jamie expands upon the sounds he laid out on In Colour with bright production that takes cues from disco and funk. “LET’S DO IT AGAIN” bursts into small sections of enticing build-ups and exhilarating highs, making for a surefire dance floor filler. —Jade Gomez

keiyaA: “Camille’s Daughter”

Chicago singer/songwriter keiyaA has a voice that possesses the powers of time travel, taking listeners back to the neo-soul of the ‘90s. With a stunning falsetto and a buttery alto, keiyaA deconstructs R&B and rebuilds it with elements of funk, electronic and hip-hop. “Camille’s Daughter” is a hypnotic wormhole into her creative process. KeiyaA croons over an unrelenting drum beat soaked in watery synths, giving a glimpse into her first new material since her breathtaking 2020 debut Forever, Ya Girl. It’s an exciting indication of the beauty to come, and the necessity of keiyaA’s comforting energy. —Jade Gomez

Launder: “Chipper”

John Cudlip started releasing music under the project name Launder in 2018, and is finally gearing up to release his debut (double!) album, Happening, this July. “Chipper,” one of the album’s two lead singles co-written by DIIV members Zachary Cole Smith and Colin Caulfield, marries the hazy shoegaze of past releases with swoon-worthy pop melodies to create a two-minute dreamscape that blows by all too quickly. Even if the lyrics tell of a romance fated to be cut short (“I’m in love with you, honey / but you’re not quite there”), every set of lines is bookended by a soaring guitar break that saws back and forth overheard, beautiful enough to make up for any curtness or hard feelings expressed in words. By aiming to completely direct his attention into studio craft for the album’s recording, Cudlip honed the ability to express tenderness within texture or to direct purpose into a soft hum, building upon lo-fi music of the past to create something uniquely his own. —Elise Soutar

Maggie Rogers: “That’s Where I Am“

Grammy-nominated singer/songwriter and producer Maggie Rogers recently announced her second album Surrender (July 29, Capitol Records), and has now shared her first proper single in three years, “That’s Where I Am.” The release follows Rogers’ acclaimed 2019 debut Heard It in a Past Life and her 2020 compilation Notes from the Archive: Recordings 2011-2016. “That’s Where I Am” is a gleaming synth-pop jam in which Rogers celebrates the love of a lifetime over a melodic vocal loop, hand claps (that become loose, upbeat live drums) and synth drone, swearing in its anthemic choruses, “It all works out in the end / Wherever you go, that’s where I am / Boulders turn into sand / Wherever you go, that’s where I am.” It sounds like an artist with one foot in late-’90s, sunny, Sheryl Crow-style radio fare and the other in our electronics-dominated pop present—moreover, it sounds like Maggie Rogers. —Scott Russell

Mallrat feat. Azealia Banks: “Surprise Me“

After releasing several EPs between 2016 and 2019, Australian musician Mallrat is finally ready to release her debut studio album Butterfly Blue on May 13 via Dew Process. Her previous singles “Your Love” and “Teeth” have graced our Best Songs lists, and she continues to break new ground for herself on “Surprise Me.” It’s a fitting song title, and Mallrat digs through her bag of tricks for the best one of all: Azealia Banks. Bright synths and hi-hats pay homage to the minimalist SoundCloud rap that influences Mallrat’s hyper-online, infectious pop. Banks is wickedly funny with her sex-filled rap that is as jarring as it is addictive (“He said the pussy tighter than Nicole Kidman’s face” is just one of many hilarious lines). —Jade Gomez

Tomberlin: “sunstruck“

Sarah Beth Tomberlin has shared the music video for the fourth—and likely final—single from her forthcoming album i don’t know who needs to hear this… ahead of its April 29 release. The LP is one of our most-anticipated of the month, with each of its three previous singles—“idkwntht,”“happy accident” and “tap”—ranking among Paste’s favorite songs of their respective release months. “sunstruck” is another sign of an outstanding album to come, as Tomberlin puts on a singing and songwriting clinic. Her serenely confident vocals layered over her acoustic guitar, Tomberlin reflects on the painful decision to disengage from a foundering relationship and prioritize her own growth. “Left you alone, or I did my best / Not to water a garden that didn’t want to live / There were signs of life, but it wasn’t my land / And I had my own to tend, and I’d forgotten it,” she sings, her metaphor serving the song, rather than the other way around. Her band adds another layer of complexity all the while, their sparse, ever-shifting sounds reinforcing Tomberlin’s reflection in all the right places. —Scott Russell

Wunderhorse: “Butterflies”

Former Dead Pretties frontman Jacob Slater went out on his own after the band’s breakup, releasing his debut solo single “Teal” last summer. He’s since shared a few more, including this week’s “Butterflies”—perhaps his best track as Wunderhorse yet. Slater’s guitar tones somehow span blues, shoegaze and grunge all at once, while his droning vocals will nonetheless knock you out, his lyrics littered with emotional gut punches. On “Butterflies,” these elements combine to indelible effect: Slater calls the likes of Nirvana and Radiohead to mind with his dark, nervy rock music, looking back on “a sexual experience I had with an older girl when I was still very young,” as he explains in a statement. The memory literally keeps him up at night: “The moon behind a veil / The blood underneath my nails / I just can’t shake the sin / There’s something beneath my skin / And all you left behind / Was a million blue butterflies,” he sings, the track’s titular image tattooed not only on the girl’s body, but also on Slater’s memory. Wunderhorse excavates these painful emotions with grace amid crashing, evocative rock that weaponizes its sonic nostalgia. —Scott Russell