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.)
Brennan Wedl: “Scorpio”
Brennan Wedl’s music lands somewhere in-between power-pop and Y2K country—think Sheryl Crowe doing a session with Nick Lowe and you’ll get the very epitome of Wedl’s new single “Scorpio.” The track is astrological in premise and badass in execution, and I’ve been humming the “Sock it to me, say it nice and slow / If you want me, won’t you let me know, my scorpio?” chorus all morning. The melancholia never plods, instead finding new life through punchy, vibrant guitar cuts and bold, vibrant vocals from Wedl at the song’s unmistakable center. “I’m tired of being so tired,” Wedl sings into a blanket of six-strings from Hayden Ticehurst and Chris Cubeta and soaring percussion from Spencer Cohen. And just like that, “Scorpio” is one of the most replayable Americana tracks of the year so far. —Matt Mitchell
Cola: “Albatross”
“Albatross” is the fourth single from Cola’s upcoming sophomore album The Gloss, and it’s now the second song with that title to be released by a post-punk band in the past month (the first being by the band English Teacher)—and it’s absolutely a welcome addition. Frontman Tim Darcy’s distinct voice and the track’s jittery guitars were enthralling enough that it took me four listens to deduce the lyrics were nearly all innuendos. The patently Canadian charm that Cola wields makes them a band worth watching as The Gloss’s release creeps up. —Leah Weinstein
Draag: “Microgravity tank”
The back-half of this month is set to be pivotal for LA-based dream-pop band Draag. They’ll be hitting the road with 2023’s indie darlings Wednesday, in celebration of the release of their forthcoming EP Actually, the quiet is nice. New single “Microgravity tank” is eerie, ominous and rewards your attention. Warm and Slowdive-style guitar layers are paired with an impressive drum loop and uniquely processed vocals for the song’s front half. The soundscape then erupts in the second half, as the guitars double with a blanket of synths soaring over them. Co-vocalist Jessica Huang underscores all this with lyrics chronicling pure resentment: “But you promised things would change / No better place to keep me chained / My better years are left behind / A soulless act by design.” —LW
Ducks Ltd.: “When You’re Outside”
Ducks Ltd. wrote around 20 songs and finished about 15 of them for this year’s Harm’s Way before electing to use just nine on the final cut of the album. But today, they’ve released one of those cutting-room-floor leftovers: “When You’re Outside.” Speaking candidly, I think Tom McGreevy and Evan Lewis should’ve put it on the album. It’s an incredible track that brandishes one of McGreevy’s best fits of songwriting yet—including the knockdown “Victim of your own ambition, now you act like you invented being let down” couplet. The guitars on the track are a bit brighter than most of Harm’s Way, and McGreevy’s singing is higher and more anthemic. Imagine a world where this is track 10 on Harm’s Way—a career-best cut nestled in gently after the standstill immensity of “Heavy Bag” runs out. I’ll take that every single day, no questions asked. —MM
fantasy of a broken heart: “Ur Heart Stops”
Al Nardo and Bailley Wolowitz, who are often taking turns playing in bands like Water From Your Eyes and Sloppy Jane, also happen to have a project of their own together: fantasy of a broken heart. New single “Ur Heart Stops” sounds like something Elliott Smith might have cooked up if he’d haunted the Glove or Heck in New York City or got really big during the bedroom dream pop boom of the early 2010s. Combining freak-folk, synth-pop and psych-rock, fantasy of a broken heart revels in buttoning up a truly indescribable yet positively chaotically beautiful sound that I, personally, cannot get enough of. I am reminded of Dirt Buyer and Crooks & Nannies for the multi-dimensional signals of cross-genre fascination and finesse, as well as the subdued undercurrent of pop wonder that often populates the backbone of Nate Amos’s This Is Lorelei project (a band that Nardo and Wolowitz also play in sometimes). “Ur Heart Stops” is full of hooks, jamming keys that flutter with glitter and, most emphatically, a core duo of voices from Nardo and Wolowitz. They bounce off of each other as they seize every sound they can, and it’s positively enthralling at every turn and triumph. —MM
Finom: “Cyclops”
Chicago rock band Finom brings their Finom-inal vintage sound to “Cyclops,” the newest single off their upcoming Jeff Tweedy-produced album Not God. Driven by a killer bassline, multi-instrumentalist duo Sima Cunningham and Macie Stewart dive into their own insecurities surrounding keeping their band afloat no matter what is thrown at them. The wobbly bassline keeps the theme of Finom feeling like they are on unsteady ground while fueling the intricate musicality of the track. With a candid, confessional chorus of “Nobody cares about your band,” and a music video directed by Mannequin Pussy’s Marisa “Missy” Dabice, the pair step into the boxing ring to battle their one-eyed demon as a metaphor for the cutthroat industry that keeps them second-guessing themselves. —Olivia Abercrombie
GUM / Ambrose Kenny-Smith: “Ill Times”
Australian sextet King Gizzard and the Lizard Wizard have created a new label, (p)doom records, where their hefty catalog will reside in perpetuity. They also announced a new album from the legendary collaboration band GUM—the project of Tame Impala/POND member Jay Watson—and Gizzard’s Ambrose Kenny-Smith. The album’s funky psych-rock title-track, “Ill Times,” introduces themes of loss that will carry throughout the record—and the electrifying single captures the daze of trying to be present in the world following a period of immense grief. “What’s it gonna take to shake ya / And leave it behind,” Kenny-Smith poses as a question to himself, if only to find a way out of the darkness. It’s a stirring rumination on grief and, as Kenny-Smith notes, learning that “life is too short to live it in regret or a hole of depression.” —OA
Half Waif: “Big Dipper”
When I was still freelancing, I reviewed Half Waif’s last album, Mythopoetics, and wanted to give it a 10/10. The publication I was writing for said no and knocked the score down to a nine. But I stand by my stance then, that Mythopoetics was a perfect album and, surprise surprise, Nandi Rose’s latest single, “Big Dipper,” is yet another mark of brilliance. Rose has an EP—Ephemeral Being—on the way at the end of May, likely a sign of a full-length coming down the pipe before 2024 is over, and the lead track is a monumental exploration of grief and answerless moments. “So laugh with me again, let me hear you loud,” Rose sings. “I miss myself before I knew I couldn’t keep the sound.” Compounded with her no-fuss synthesizers and distorted guitar riffs, “Big Dipper” perfects what we already know Half Waif is good at: precision and patience, accentuated by colorful strums, an unmissable snare drum and Rose’s echo-chamber of vocals. To listen to Half Waif is, once again, a gift. —MM
Hinds ft. Beck: “Boom Boom Back”
Best of What’s Next alums (and perennial Paste favorites) Hinds have returned with the news of their long-awaited next record—VIVA HINDS, the follow-up to their massively beautiful 2020 album The Prettiest Curse. Hinds have gone through some upheavals since then, as bassist Ade Martín and drummer Amber Grimbergen both left the band. Without a label or a management team, Hinds, quite literally, reworked themselves from the ground up. And co-bandleaders Carlotta Cosials and Ana Perrote sound as infectious as ever on lead single “Boom Boom Back,” which features some vocals from Beck. It’s a collaboration that, as unlikely as it might sound on paper, works magically—as the track brandishes hypnotic double-layered chorus vocals from Cosials and Perrote and a mirage of guitar hues that radiate as brightly as Hinds’ always-gracious and upbeat stage presence. —MM
John Cale: “Shark-Shark”
Ever the chameleonic virtuoso, it’s nearly impossible to pin-down what John Cale might do next. After the dark, brooding synthesizers work of MERCY in 2023, the Velvet Underground co-founder’s upcoming album, POPtical Illusion, makes good on its own title on new single “Shark-Shark.” The work is facetiously poppy, better placed in the realm of the synth-pop progenies of Suicide-era industrial electronica. It’s colossal and distorted, sounding like White Light/White Heat-era VU at the very bottom of the song’s seemingly endless well. The lyrics aren’t too complex, and the repetition of “Shark shark, take me down” is hooky enough to stick with you for the long haul. Cale is a mastermind who’s unafraid of taking a swing at absurd lyricism—the droning rock backbone of his work 60 years in solidifies that he can make any kind of quirk sound like it’s being said, performed or embodied for the first time ever. Few folks in this business have ever been this original. —MM
Origami Angel: “Fruit Wine”
Less than a year after releasing their beachy, ukulele-heavy mixtape The Brightest Days, DC emo duo Origami Angel are steamrolling back to their roots. Produced by Philly punk legend Will Yip (Modern Baseball, Title Fight, Turnover), “Fruit Wine” provides the punchy drums and earwormy melodies that have made them a staple of 5th wave emo for so long. However, the duo’s trademark uplifting lyrical themes are nowhere to be found, as frontman Ryland Heagy opens the track by singing, “Prepare yourself to be disappointed / Alter your state of mind / To adapt to the fact you’ll never have happiness in any capacity.” If that thematic change means we keep Gami’s headbang-worthy instrumental breakdowns around, that’s fine by me. —Leah Weinstein
Parannoul: “황금빛 강 (Gold River)”
In 2023, anonymous South Korean shoegazer Parannoul put out After the Magic, and it was one of the very best rock records of the year. The work encapsulates a new era in eyes-to-the-floor guitar-playing, as Parannoul infuses his shoegaze triumphs with bonkers electronica that upends any preconceptions we have about the genre in the first place. New single “Gold River” picks up right where After the Magic left off, fusing a backdrop of synthesizers with a banging wave of percussion and guitar melodies so damn colossal that you might just get lost in the tones. There are moments of pop perfection that skyscrape into an onslaught of blown-out, distorted sonic matrimony. It’s massive and, quite possibly, the best rock track of the year. —MM
The Bug Club: “Quality Pints”
Sometimes, it really is about the simple things in life—and no one gets that much more than the Bug Club. The Welsh duo—bassist/vocalist Tilly Harris and guitarist/vocalist Sam Willmett—celebrated their signing to Sub Pop this week with “Quality Pints.” The amped-up punk track is a blast of shout-along energy, and vicious guitar solos following the pair’s journey to secure a solid pint of beer. Their raw Buzzcocks-style sound mingles with some classic rock ‘n’ roll elements—like a lively rattling tambourine—to create a rip-roaring love song to the Bug Club’s favorite drink—beer. It’s as ridiculous as it is fun, and Harris and Willmett are bringing their particular flavor of absurdity to Sub Pop’s legendary roster. Cheers, indeed. —OA
THICK: “Mother”
Brooklyn pop-punk outfit THICK are celebrating Mother’s Day early by putting men on notice—they didn’t sign up to be anyone’s mother. “Mother”—the follow-up to “Father” and “Doomer”—is the third single released from the band in the days since their 2022 album Happy Now. The trio returns here with their usual snarky give-no-fucks attitude, writing an anthem for all the caretakers in relationships who are sick and tired of falling into that role in the first place. “I’m not your mother / I didn’t carry you for nine months in my womb / I’m just your lover / And I’m tired of getting those two roles confused,” co-vocalist Nikki Sisti asserts over a cascade of power chords and belligerent drums from Kaleen Reading of Mannequin Pussy. Kate Black echoes Sisti by calling for empowerment in the chorus: “Can’t be the one for you to lean on.” —OA
Rapsody ft. Erykah Badu: “3:AM”
Rapsody remains one of the most under-appreciated names in rap, proving why she deserves to be in the conversation with “3:AM.” The third single off her upcoming album—her first full length in five years—Please Don’t Cry finds Rapsody again teaming up with the legendary Erykah Badu, and “3:AM” is a romantic slow jam where Rapsody confesses deep feelings to a long-term lover as she raps, “It’s different when you lovers and you best friends / I feel safe with you / The most vulnerable that I could be.” Her flow, combined with the angelic vocals of the neo-soul goddess Badu, merges a silky, ‘90s soul energy with a mix of horns, flute and keys. It’s a sonic powerhouse. —OA
Best New Song Not Yet on Streaming: Macklemore, “Hinds Hall”
Who would have thought that the first musician to stick their neck out and take a pro-Palestine stance would be… Macklemore?? It’s less surprising than you might think, actually. The Seattle rapper has never quite shied away from addressing social commentary in his songs—writing about everything from homophobia, LGTBQIA+ rights and white privilege—and this week he put out “Hinds Hall” in support of the Gen-Z protestors on campuses throughout the country, along with unleashing a swift denouncement of cops (he lets out a great N.W.A. reference here, too), Joe Biden and the genocide he is enabling through congress’ financial support of Israel. While most players in the music industry have fallen damningly and noticeably silent, Macklemore is taking a risk here—and he lands on his feet. “You can ban TikTok, take us out of the algorithm, but it’s too late,” he raps. “We’ve seen the truth, we bare witness. We’ve seen the rubble, the buildings, the mothers, the children and all the men that you murdered. And then we see how they spin it!” Pro-genocide Zionists will lambaste him now, but it’s not like he needed them as supporters in the first place. One can only hope that this inspires other musicians to follow suit and write their own versions of “Screaming ‘Free Palestine’ until they’re home at last,” but the future looks awfully bleak. —MM
Other Notable Songs: Agriculture: “Being Eaten By a Tiger”; Amen Dunes: “Rugby Child”; Annabel: “Dog”; Bodysync: “Rock It”; Bonny Light Horseman: “Old Dutch”; Dehd: “Dog Days”; Double Wish: “Periwinkle Pantone”; Eels: “If I’m Gonna Go Anywhere”; Good Looks: “Can You See Me Tonight?”; Mach-Hommy ft. Kaytranada & 03 Greedo: “#Richaxxhaitian”; O.: “Micro”; Pedro the Lion: “Don’t Cry Now”; Perennial: “Up-tight”; Sour Widows: “Staring Into Heaven/Shining”; Wand: “Smile”
Check out a playlist of these great songs below.