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, in alphabetical order. (You can check out an ongoing playlist of our favorite songs of 2024 here.)
Amy Allen: “girl with a problem”
You’ve heard Amy Allen’s work before, as the pop songwriter has amassed credits on Halsey’s “Without Me,” Harry Styles’ “Adore You” and Sabrina Carpenter’s “Espresso.” But her solo work stands on its own, and new single “girl with a problem” confirms as much. Her first release of 2024, “girl with a problem” is a catchy acoustic guitar tune with a windswept, echoey hook. There’s a kaleidoscope of sounds that loop over and over at the song’s end, and you’re not quite sure if it’s Allen’s voice or a synthesizer—in fact, it very well could be a mixture of both. But “girl with a problem” is tight and kinetic, offering a folk soundscape that doesn’t necessarily link up with Allen’s pop sensibilities that have landed her on the Hot 100 chart multiple times—and that’s a good thing, as a song like this showcases her talents and knack for bite-sized perfection. —Matt Mitchell
Amy O: “Superbloom”
Indiana-based musician Amy O has a great new album—Mirror, Reflect—coming out next week, but it’s worth noting that her newest single, “Superbloom,” is fantastic. The track is multi-dimensional and dense, running out the gate like your standard indie-rock tune, only to slow down and sprawl out a minute-and-a-half in—stripping the guitars back to a quick stripe of electronics, only to pick the riffs back up again and settle into a lush convergence of both intervals. “Superbloom” is all about things worth doing, like going to an estate sale, taking pictures in front of Joni Mitchell’s Laurel Canyon mansion, eating pistachio ice cream on Sunset Boulevard and learning how to yo-yo. Amy O’s storytelling is worth digging into here, and lines like “Don’t wanna go home, though I really like LA / If I was younger, maybe someday” and “I just wanna be with you” snap the track’s romantic, cityscape pastorals back into place. —MM
Charly Bliss: “Nineteen”
Aside from a handful of singles, we haven’t had much new music from Brooklyn power-pop group Charly Bliss in the last five years—but they are breaking their silence with a longingly painful heartbreak ballad. “Nineteen” is the first offering from the quartet’s upcoming record Forever, and the single swells with a gorgeous piano melody accompanying Eva Hendricks’ vocals as she sings, “C’mon honey break my heart / I could run forever, but I won’t get far.” The dramatic track explores how first loves linger and haunt your emotions for a long time. Although “Nineteen” is a significant departure from the bubbly pop-punk the group has delivered to us in the past, the emotional depth of this new avenue promises an interesting and likely unmissable progression from Charly Bliss. —Olivia Abercrombie
Christine and the Queens: “rentrer chez moi”
Once again, I am busting out my high school French skills for the iconic Christine and the Queens and his new song “rentrer chez moi.” The new track displays how beautifully the French musician can create a vulnerable sonic narrative for his tracks to live in. His vocals drift effortlessly through the blend of piano, synthesizers and poetic expression; overwhelmed with his love, he sings “Les anges: Oh prends le temps de faire / renaître la vie d’avant / lettre après lettre (Angels: Oh take the time / to revive life before / letter after letter).” Chris wrote, composed and produced the track, making the heartfelt confession feel even more authentic as he pours his soul into every inch of “rentrer chez moi.” —OA
Font: “Hey Kekulé”
With only two recorded songs to their name, Austin quintet Font made a name for themselves through their frenetic onstage sound. Now, they are bringing us their third-ever recorded single along with the announcement of their awaited debut album, Strange Burden. Font are all about capturing the right energy in their music, and “Hey Kekulé” does just that with its elaborate arrangement centering vocalist Thom Wadill’s wail at the center of its melodic mayhem. Layered keyboard arrangements are masterfully mixed with thundering drums and a Font staple—some killer cowbell. Strange Burden has been one of my most anticipated releases this year, and “Hey Kekulé” proves my excitement is more than justified. —OA
GUPPY: “IDK”
Los Angeles-based band GUPPY ponders existentialism on their new track “IDK,” the latest offering from their upcoming album Something Is Happening…. While they come up short on an answer to whether anything really matters, “IDK” is a triumph in reflective soft-rock. The track opens with a leisurely harmony of percussion and lyrical musings and meanders through dreamy guitar until the conclusive “I guess I don’t know” rings out from vocalist J Lebow. With each single from their upcoming album, the quartet sheds their previous silly motifs for more earnest and thoughtful themes—and “IDK” is the perfect way to stroll into the weekend, where I will be like GUPPY and just “try and go with the flow.” —OA
Harmony: “Thot Daughter”
The latest single from Harmony Tividad is infectious from the jump. “Thot Daughter,” which pulls its title from the infamous online phrase “gay son or thot daughter,” is an energetic dance pop track pilled by contemporary internet references that, in a year or two, will be outdated—but that doesn’t mean that Harmony’s “Thot Daughter” isn’t brilliantly catchy in the moment. “I can feel the brain rot deep into my skull,” she sings. “They think that I’m coquette, I think they have no soul.” But just when you think “Thot Daughter” is going to be nothing more than a grab-bag of “you had to be there” moments on social media, the middle section of the track transforms into lush bed of synthesizers and Harmony’s falsetto hums a standstill couplet: “I’m not a girlboss, I’m just a girl / I wanna log right out of this world.” —MM
IAN SWEET: “Anthems For a Seventeen Year-Old Girl”
It’s rare that cover songs make the Best New Songs roundup, because they tend to go against the whole “new” thing sometimes. But having watched IAN SWEET do a mash-up of their achingly good “Emergency Contact” and Broken Social Scene’s “Anthems For a Seventeen Year-Old Girl” last month, I can confirm that Jilian Medford makes this track wonderfully her own. There must be something in the water with this song, because it’s the second time in 2024 that someone has covered it and it’s landed in this column (shoutout to yeule!). Medford doesn’t break away from Broken Social Scene’s original arrangement, but she does give it that IAN SWEET sound—mirroring its atmospheric electronics to that of “Emergency Contact.” Medford’s vocals don’t try to replicate that of Emily Haines; instead, her version of “Anthems For a Seventeen Year-Old Girl” would have sounded perfectly at home on SUCKER last autumn—and if you weren’t familiar with Broken Social Scene’s music, you’d be none the wiser that it wasn’t IAN SWEET’s song all along. —MM
illuminati hotties: “Can’t Be Still”
Sarah Tudzin has had one hell of a year—most notably her engineering credit on boygenius’ the record nabbing her a Grammy for Best Alternative Music Album. But in 2023, Tudzin brought her illuminati hotties project back into our hearts with the standalone single “Truck”—her first release since 2022’s “Sandwich Sharer” and her best piece of music since her 2021 album Let Me Do One More. Now, Tudzin has one-upped her own one-upping on “Can’t Be Still,” a song so delightfully infectious and catchy that it very well might be one of the best illuminati hotties releases yet. With a sharp, riffing guitar echoing a slice of whistling, a melody of ooos and Tudzin’s steadfast, sugar-sweet lead vocal in tow, “Can’t Be Still” is rock-solid and appraised, by me, with a high replay value—I’m going to be humming that “I can’t be alone now, show me how” line all week. —MM
Jessica Pratt: “The Last Year”
Jessica Pratt’s new album, Here in the Pitch, culminates in her greatest song yet: “The Last Year.” Nurtured by a bed of plucked nylon, she sings about “weird optimism” in the face of the “pitch darkness” that crops up throughout the record (and is so definitively evocative that Pratt named the record after it). As a closer, “The Last Year” is immediate and perfect, never stretching out but, knstead, reveling in its own playfulness. It’s solemn and never-ending—even though Al Carlson’s piano comes to a halt and Pratt strums her guitar with one last breath. Like the enduring tales and myths that drench her Los Angeles in such an attractive, curious, folklorish wardrobe, the days blow by and the characters all stick around in some form or another once “The Last Year” rings out. Life beats on, and Pratt sings it best: “I think we’re gonna be together, and the storyline goes forever.” —MM
Pardoner: “Future of Music”
San Francisco rockers Pardoner cheekily proclaim that they don’t care about the “Future of Music” in the first track from their upcoming EP, Paranoid In Hell. The slacker track is an ironic jest from the quartet, who usually inject their sense of humor about a jaded industry into the work, and “Future of Music” pokes fun at the idea that the future of music will, in fact, sound like the music of the past—channeling the energy of The Dils and The Mice in the two-minute runtime and donning a charming outfit of sarcasm and biting remarks in the asinine line “I don’t care about the future of art.” “Future of Music” is absurd, witty and expertly self-aware. —OA
Rui Gabriel ft. Stef Chura: “Summertime Tiger”
Folks, one of our first Song of the Summer contenders has arrived. On “Summertime Tiger,” the second single from his upcoming album Compassion, Rui Gabriel teams up with Stef Chura to make a breezy rock track from the perspective of someone who can’t help but give bad advice to someone down on their luck. “I know these feelings stick around too long, and hope becomes another thing you’ll never know,” Gabriel and Chura harmonize. “At least you’ve got your health and the money is pretty good!” The keyboard chimes out like Ray Manzarek tried performing “Baba O’Reilly” while on MDMA; Gabriel’s lilt, which flirts between pitches of slacker musings and a post-punk drawl, breaks through the stratosphere on “Summertime Tiger,” only to fall right into the kinetic guitar strums like pollen dusting a flower bed. —MM
Saba & No ID ft. Madison McFerrin, Ogi & Jordan Ward: “head.rap”
Continuing his evolving relationship with producer No ID, Chicago rapper Saba have been taking their time rolling out their collaborative project, The Private Collection of Saba and No ID—and new single “head.rap” follows “Back in Office” and “hue man nature.” “head.rap” is one of the brightest tracks of the year across the board, thanks to a resounding choir of backing vocals from singers Madison McFerrin, Ogi and Jordan Ward. In the verses, Saba contemplates Black hairstyles, growing out dreadlocks and self-expression. “Searchin’ for an avenue, ways to reflect my current attitude,” he muses. Views of the world / I’m Malik to my grandma, who used to braid my hair / But I had to cut ‘em at the school / And it was Black ran, I’m just a Black man lookin’ for a good day.” No ID’s production flourishes here, too, with flutters of guitar and hand-clap percussion. “head.rap” is a textbook summer gem dropped into the world at just the perfect time. —MM
The Bird Calls: “Going Insane”
The Bird Calls, the singer-songwriter project of Sam Sodomsky, has followed up “Old Faithful”—the title-track lead single from his forthcoming LP—with “Going Insane.” Co-produced by Nico Hedley and Ian Wayne, “Going Insane” beats along through Sodomsky’s pensive, monotone vocal colored by brief, folklorish runs. A forefronted acoustic guitar is accentuated by Shaughnessy Jones’ harmonies, Winston Cook-Wilson’s synthesizer patterns and Jason Burger’s spacious percussion. “You may feel as though the span of a lifetime’s very long / Some nights, it stretches out before you / Some nights, it just stretches on” and “You paint the day in sunset colors and describe it every night to me” are some of my favorite lines of the year so far, and I’ll be humming them in my head for the rest of the week. —MM
Why Bonnie: “Dotted Line”
Why Bonnie fans, we have never been so back. The project of New York musician Blair Howerton is now signed to Fire Talk Records, and new single “Dotted Line” isn’t just an apt release to pair with such a celebratory career moment—it’s also a fantastic song. Pairing her Americana singing with an arrangement that flirts with the indie-pop present on Why Bonnie’s early EPs, there’s a little bit of Sheryl Crow in here and a dash of Sharon Van Etten, too—but, really, “Dotted Line” sounds like Why Bonnie at their best. Is it country? Somewhat. Is it y’allternative? At some turns, certainly. It’s got some electronica elements, too—tossing a synthesizer line in there beneath the coastal, catchy warmth of Howerton’s lead guitar. “Give me something I can feel, give me something to make it real,” she reckons. “Won’t take too much of your time, ‘three easy steps to rewire your mind.’” From the first note, it sounds like Why Bonnie is breaking through a brand new ceiling. —MM
Other Notable Songs: Another Michael: “Seafood”; Corridor: “Jump Cut”; Candy ft. MIRSY & mmph: “Love Like Snow”; Crumb: “The Bug”; DJ Sabrina The Teenage DJ: “Come Find Out”; ellis: “home”; GEL: “Mirage”; Girl and Girl: “Oh Boy!”; mui zyu: “the rules of what an earthling can be”; softcult: “One of the Pack”; Thurston Moore: “Rewilding”
Check out a playlist of these great songs below.