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 week we can swing it, we take stock of the previous seven days’ best tracks, delivering a weekly playlist of our favorites. Check out this week’s best new songs below.

Beach Bunny: “Entropy”

Do you ever think about how fragile the barrier between our interior and exterior lives can be? Lili Trifilio does, as her band Beach Bunny’s latest Emotional Creature (July 22, Mom + Pop) single makes clear. The “Entropy” she sings about is in her narrator’s own heart and mind, a disordered energy—head-over-heels love, to be exact—that she feels helpless to direct. “And I can’t release, but I can’t hold in / All the smiles and grinning / Like life is just beginning,” Trifilio swoons over power-chord crunch and cymbal crash, swearing in the song’s ultra-hooky choruses, “Somebody’s gonna figure us out / And I hope they do, ‘cause I’m falling for you, whoa.” Equal parts sweet and sensitive, “Entropy” is another satisfying preview of Beach Bunny’s much-anticipated sophomore album. —Scott Russell

Boris: “Question 1”

Boris bring the heat on their new track, “Question 1.” The second single from their forthcoming album, Heavy Rocks, it’s a blistering track that bangs together sweltering guitars and pounding percussion. Verging on metal with the scorching screams at the end, they manage to incorporate an experimental flair that keeps things interesting throughout the sprawling song. A total headrush, “Question 1” pays homage to their 30-year career while still proving that the Japan-based band have a few more tricks up their sleeves. —Samantha Sullivan

CLAMM: “Monday”

Some of this young decade’s best punk has come from Down Under, and Melbourne outfit CLAMM, who’ve shared stages with Aussie standouts like Amyl & The Sniffers and The Chats, are elbowing their way into that conversation. The second single from Care (Aug. 19, Chapter Music)—their forthcoming second album, and first as a power trio, with the recent addition of bassist/vocalist Maisie Everett—“Monday” is a breakneck, riff-driven rocker that oozes disdain for the nine-to-fiver’s dilemma, not to mention the fat cats who profit from it all. Scathing, yet deceptively melodic, thanks to Jack Summers’ and Everett’s dual vocals, the song speeds recklessly by, only slowing long enough to send a sardonic wink in your direction. It’s no small feat to make eruptive, hooky punk out of pure exploitation and monotony, but CLAMM do exactly that on “Monday.” —Scott Russell

Danger Mouse & Black Thought feat. Joey Bada$$, Russ and Dylan Cartlidge: “Because“

Back in May, the hip-hop community was startled by the announcement of Cheat Codes (Aug. 12, BMG), a collaborative album between chameleonic producer Danger Mouse and The Roots founder Black Thought. If that pairing wasn’t enough, the duo recruited Joey Bada$$, Russ and Dylan Cartildge for their second single “Because.” Danger Mouse’s subtle production quirks shine in his collaborations with rappers, and this is no exception. A steady drum loop mixes with funky guitars and a show-stopping hook provided by Cartlidge (nope, it’s not a sample!). Black Thought uses his verses to reflect on violence and his upbringing, dropping references to legendary artist Yayoi Kusama and the Dalai Lama. In a breathtaking kicker, Black Thought signs off with “Don’t need a reason to die, we die just because.” Atlanta rapper Russ and New York darling Joey Bada$$ ease into the pressures of being on a track with two legends with dexterity, floating over the nostalgic groundwork set in place by Danger Mouse. —Jade Gomez

Moor Mother feat. Melanie Charles: “Woody Shaw”

The beauty of Moor Mother is that her artistry is not rooted in any one style. Whether it be the wonderfully weird hip-hop of 700 Bliss, collaborating with Armand Hammer, Sons of Kemet and The Bug, or contributing to the endlessly innovative free-jazz collective Irreversible Entanglements, the Philly musician takes on many forms. Her forthcoming album Jazz Codes synthesizes these influences, with all roads leading back to jazz. “Woody Shaw” is Moor Mother at her freest. Her vivid spoken word picks up the pieces of Woody Shaw’s life as a jazz icon and educator, innovating trumpet playing both technically and harmonically. As with all of Moor Mother’s work, Jazz Codes and “Woody Shaw” pay tribute to Black music and its undying, resilient spirit. —Jade Gomez

PACKS: “don’t go for the goat’s milk“

PACKS can turn anything into a love song. The Toronto-based band turn even morning coffee into something sweet on their latest single, “don’t go for the goat’s milk.” The song is the first release from their forthcoming EP, WOAH, out July 8 via Fire Talk / Royal Mountain. The EP was recorded in November after lead singer Madeline Link got back from touring with Wombo. Link had lost her voice and decided to record some songs in the slightly scratchy early phase of it coming back. The result is a delicate rasp that makes “don’t go for the goat’s milk” shine with a subtle glow. Over delicate guitars, she sounds fragile as she questions, “Do you have an issue? / ‘Cause when I get home I’ll miss you.” “Sometimes I like to start my day with a little cup of cold goat’s milk,” says Link. “This song began when my parents poured some of my goat’s milk into their morning coffee and wondered what that weird flavour was. Then of course it turned into a soggy, water-logged love song.” —Samantha Sullivan

Pet Fox: “It Won’t Last“

Boston rockers Pet Fox have shared the latest preview of A Face In Your Life, their third full-length, due out June 17 on Exploding in Sound Records. “It Won’t Last” arrives alongside an updated set of U.S. tour dates to coincide with the band’s new release. The third A Face In Your Life single after “Checked Out” and “Only Warning,” “It Won’t Last” is, in vocalist/guitarist Theo Hartlett’s (Ovlov) words, “another quick track with minimal vocals—this song is about letting your feelings get the best of you in both the best and worst ways. Sometimes I wake up in an incredibly good mood and ride that wave all day, but some days it’s quite the opposite and I must decide for myself if I’m going to dwell on the bad or do something to try to turn things around.” “It Won’t Last” gallops ahead at a quicker pace than its predecessors, yet Jesse Weiss’ (formerly of Palehound) drums and Morgan Luzzi’s (Ovlov) bass push the pedal down without ever revving the track up into the red. Hartlett’s riff navigates what feels like his entire fretboard, rising and falling like the mercurial moods his lyrics explore. His focused vocals complement incendiary guitars in the choruses, another reflection of the fact that “It Won’t Last” is both a warning and a comfort. —Scott Russell

Shygirl: “Come for Me”

Experimental-pop artist Shygirl has only gotten more ambitious over the years, so it makes sense to team up with fellow electronic-pop transgressor Arca for her latest single “Come For Me,” off her forthcoming debut Nymph. Arca’s atmospheric echoes and reverbed scratching noises make for a spacey club filler, with its negative space using Shygirl’s vocals to create a subtle, Caribbean-influenced groove. The two bring out the best in each other, as they continue to test the limits of not just each other, but also of their genres as a whole. —Jade Gomez

Soccer Mommy: “newdemo“

Soccer Mommy’s Sophie Allison has shared the fourth and final single from her forthcoming Sometimes, Forever, one of Paste’s most-anticipated releases of this month. The record pairs Allison with producer Daniel Lopatin of Oneohtrix Point Never, adding a newly atmospheric and epic sensibility to Soccer Mommy’s emotionally forthright, powerfully melodic indie rock. “newdemo” is a gorgeous gut punch of a song, in which Allison levelly assesses the nightmarish time in which we’re alive. Singing with few pauses over watery acoustic guitar and looming synth, she surveys the iniquities of a world driven by “money and greed,” where the best-case scenario is successfully distracting ourselves from present injustice and future doom. She longs to tell us something good, but can’t deny the hard truth: “But what is a dream but a light in the darkness / A lie that you wish would come true?” In this no-bullshit context, the title of “newdemo” makes perfect sense—the song, like modern life, is what it is, and Allison refuses to pretty it up so as to make it more palatable. “I didn’t want to make something super depressing without any sense of magic,” Allison explains in a statement. “We played around with the space to make the song feel vast, so ‘newdemo’ had a huge transformation in the studio. It’s one of my favorites off of the record.” —Scott Russell

TOLEDO: “L-Train”

Bedroom-pop duo TOLEDO—based in Brooklyn, not Ohio or Spain, despite their name—fit right in alongside the likes of their new labelmates Hovvdy with “L-Train,” their first release on Grand Jury Music. Dan Álvarez de Toledo and Jordan Dunn-Pilz say the song was “written at a low point for the both of us,” recalling, “We had just moved to Bushwick and started playing shows every week. We were drinking and partying and losing sight of ourselves.” They confront that self-destructive cycle (“There’s the feeling, unstable again / A pattern that I fall in”) over pristine, light-touch pop, with understated percussion regulating delicate vocal harmonies and gleaming acoustic guitars, and keening strings later escalating the track’s poignance further. The big city can be a place to lose, as well as find one’s self, a tough truth TOLEDO understand and relay in lovely fashion. —Scott Russell