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 last week’s songs here.)
African Head Charge: “Passing Clouds”
Since the early ’80s, African Head Charge, the psychedelic dub ensemble orchestrated by master producer Adrian Sherwood, has popped to the surface every few years to disrupt our collective orbit around the sun with another batch of head trip tunes that could well be signals from a distant planet. The group is back in our airspace in 2023 with a new album A Trip to Bolatanga, which includes this dynamite single that sounds just about right as a soundtrack for lying back in some soft grass and watching as those puffy formations float by overhead. It’s up to you whether you want to include the intoxicants of your choice in the mix. The music is only there to enhance that experience. —Robert Ham
Anjimile: “The King”
The multi-tracked choir that opens the title track from Anjimile Chithambo’s upcoming album come to life like a dawn chorus — a near overwhelming panoply of voices and sounds popping out of a dense copse of trees or sneaking over the horizon at various locations within a flat field. The effect is as a sonic reminder of what Chithambo’s lyrics spell out in poetic detail: there are millions of Black people in America and all of them are crying out in hopes that they will be heard and respected. But our current oppressive society doesn’t want that. “The Black Death is here,” Chithambo sings, “Your silence a stain / the marking of Cain.” The damning sentiments of “The King” go down easily through the beauty of these intertwining voices, but the words are meant to stick in your system like barbs. —Robert Ham
Cinema Stare: “Remember”
Erupting into an upbeat, rhythmic proclamation of heavy-heartedness, the Connecticut band Cinema Stare is ecstatic and boisterous on “Remember.” It makes me want to scream with gut-wrenching heartache! Their debut album, The Things I Don’t Need, arrived in late May and, with a noise reminiscent of the early-aughts, Cinema Stare evoke a youthful alchemy while still possessing something shiny and awing, especially on “Remember.” —Brittany Deitch
Cut Worms: “Ballad of the Texas King”
“Ballad of the Texas King,” the lead single from Cut Worms’ forthcoming self-titled album, is the perfect representation of “What if the Byrds made a chamber-pop song in post-9/11 America?” Recorded with Florist’s Rick Spataro at Onlyness Analog in the Catskills of Southeastern New York, the murder ballad-esque guise pairs a heavenly lap steel with Bond’s snare-forward percussion and a teardrop piano. Max Clarke sings of a chance encounter with an ominous figure that feels akin to selling your soul at the crossroads: “I found a new song / Pulls me along / To that other plane / I’ll see you some time / Off down the line / Where it never rains.” With a lucky number’s worth of tracks to parse through, “Ballad of the Texas King” is a perfect, shadowless return for Clarke, who coalesces Pete Drake with “Flying On the Ground Is Wrong”-era Buffalo Springfield and Donovan. —Matt Mitchell
Diners: “The Power”
With their Mo Troper-produced album DOMINO out later this summer, Diners—the longtime project of Blue Broderick—unveiled “The Power,” one of our favorite songs of the year so far. Across a brisk, sub-three-minute runtime, Broderick tightens her own command of the 1970s glam, singer/songwriter songbook, which she’s been developing sharply since 2016’s Three. “The Power” is a glorious, sun-soaked slice of power pop that lives up to its title. Reminiscent of off-kilter, American Bandstand-style rock ‘n’ roll, “The Power” conjures iconography of Big Star and Raspberries. Yet breaking through the retro gloss is Broderick, who taps into her own That Thing You Do! ethos with a timeless tune buoyed by a charming and unforgettable earworm chorus. “It ain’t too late to understand, too late to try / Too late to recognize the power that’s inside,” she sings. —Matt Mitchell
Hayden Pedigo: “The Happiest Times I Ever Ignored”
The title track from Texas guitar wizard Hayden Pedigo’s upcoming LP The Happiest Times I Ever Ignored is a gentle, evocative and pensive four-minute acoustic instrumental. Don’t let the Douglas Kenney, National Lampoon-inspired title fool you: This composition from Pedigo is one of immense reflection, patience and gratitude. Translating his voice through chord progressions, he tells a beautiful story that reminds me of the softness within his Letting Go track “Tints of Morning.” Pedigo only continues to build upon himself with every track, and “The Happiest Times I Ever Ignored” is his best thing so far—and this chapter of his songwriting is a beautiful emblem of growth. —Matt Mitchell
Margaret Glaspy: “Act Natural”
To coincide with the announcement of her new album Echo The Diamond, Glaspy released “Act Natural,” a roaring, wondrous stroke of blues-injected rock ‘n’ roll. The song is one of her all-time best, as it immediately captures a thrilling sense of reflection: “Are you a paradise bird? / ‘Cause violet shines bright in both your eyes / That can’t be natural,” Glaspy sings in the warm, enchanted rasp that’s made her one of the most-exciting rock vocalists of the last decade. Echo The Diamond doesn’t arrive until August 18 via ATO, but we’re going to be (happily) chewing on “Act Natural” for a while. —Matt Mitchell
Palehound: “My Evil”
“My Evil’s” richness lies in its simplicity, weariness projected into dissociation and self-reckoning. Lead guitarist and vocalist El Kempner’s breezy vocals float above a light yet lush bevy of instrumentals. Though it’s a quieter lamentation than lead single “The Clutch,” “My Evil” shines just as bright on the other side of the spectrum. Paired with a video paying a tongue-in-cheek, DIY tribute to The Sopranos, Kempner’s portrait of struggle contains magnitudes and will stick with you. —Miranda Wollen
Radiator Hospital: “I Can Handle It”
A great opener to their latest album Can’t Make Any Promises, Radiator Hospital get right into the thick of the noise on “I Can Handle It.” A sub-two minute, sweet, fuzzy and jagged power-pop tune that finds vocalist Sam Cook-Parrott rushing back to the band’s low-fi appeal, proclaiming: “So, if you really wanna make it right / You better make it right now.” —Brittany Deitch
Yussef Dayes: “Rust”
Drummer Yussef Dayes is one of the many folks that are feeding the rich community of jazz players in and around London, having contributed his sleek, polyrhythmic style to albums by Binker & Moses and Yussef Kamaal as well as recordings by his own ensembles. Dayes takes the lead on his forthcoming album Black Classical Music, a rhythm forward collection of tunes that includes some vital assists by friends like Sons of Kemet member Shabaka Hutchings and bassist Rocco Palladino. For new single “Rust,” Dayes bounces his spirited beats off a rubbery bassline and glistening keyboard lines played by one of his regular foils, multi-instrumentalist Tom Misch. It’s a roller coaster ride of vast build ups and steep drops and, ultimately, a smooth, gentle return to solid ground. —Robert Ham