So many artists, so little time. Each week we review a handful of new albums (of all genres), round up even more new music that we'd call "indie," and talk about what metal is coming out. We post music news, track premieres, and more all day. In these concertless times, that includes daily livestreams and live concert videos we love. We update a playlist weekly of some of our current favorite tracks. Here's a daily roundup with a bunch of interesting, newly released songs in one place.
ST. VINCENT - "PAY YOUR WAY IN PAIN"
After much teasing, the first single off St. Vincent's new album Daddy's Home has arrived. Read more about it here.
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XIU XIU & ANGUS ANDREW (LIARS) - "RUMPUS ROOM"
Xiu Xiu's upcoming album OH NO teams Jamie Stewart with a variety of collaborators, including Sharon Van Etten, Owen Pallett, Circuit Des Yeux, Drab Majesty and more. He's just shared the album's collab with Liars' Angus Andrew, "Rumpus Room," that really does sound like a melding of their styles.
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JOHN ANDREWS & THE YAWNS - "NEW CALIFORNIA BLUE"
John Andrews, who's played in Woods and Quilt, will release Cookbook, his new album with The Yawns, on May 14 via Woodsist. The first single is "New California Blue" which has a little Todd Rundgren in it but is actually about another '70s artist. "'New California Blue' is an ode to Joni Mitchell. She was the soundtrack to a pretty crazy time in my life & i got a lot of mileage out of her music so I wanted to somehow say thank you to her through song. It's the first song I recorded for Cookbook. I tracked it in the old farmhouse The Yawns lived in back in 2017."
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DEEPER - "THIS HEAT" (WORKING MEN'S CLUB REMIX)
Chicago band Deeper released Auto-Pain a year ago and to celebrate the anniversary they've released this remix of album standout "This Heat" by Manchester band Working Men's Club who definitely up the dance vibes.
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MNDSGN - "HOPE YOU'RE DOIN' BETTER"
Mndsgn is making the transition from beatmaker to vocalist, songwriter and arranger on his upcoming album Rare Pleasure, due June 4 via Stones Throw. He made the album with Swarvy (bass, guitar, musical director), Kiefer Shackelford (keys), Will Logan (drums), Carlos Niño (percussion), Miguel Atwood-Ferguson (strings), and vocalists Fousheé and Anna Wise, and the first single is the syrupy soul of "Hope You're Doin' Better."
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AJ TRACEY - "ANXIOUS"
UK rapper AJ Tracey is back with his first proper solo single in over a year, and it's clear that he's been improving in the time since his last release. This is some of his most immediate work yet.
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LIL BABY - "REAL AS IT GETS" (ft. EST GEE)
Lil Baby follows last year's hugely popular and acclaimed My Turn with his first single of 2021, "Real As It Gets," which is cut from the same auto-tune-heavy trap-pop cloth as My Turn.
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TASHA - "WOULD YOU MIND PLEASE PULLING ME CLOSE?"
Chicago songwriter Tasha released her debut album, Alone at Last, in 2018 via Father/Daughter Records, and she plans to release its follow up later this year. As a teaser, she's shared "Would You Mind Please Pulling Me Close?" "I had just returned from my first touring run, and was reflecting on what home means when I'm far away from it, and how isolating and lonely it can feel to tour alone," she says.
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SOM - "AWAKE // SEDATE" (HOLY FAWN REMIX)
Post-metal band SOM (members of Caspian, Junius, and Constants) are releasing their Awake EP this Friday, and it includes a few cool remixes, including this one by heavy shoegazers Holy Fawn. The band's Ryan Osterman tells MetalSucks:
We met when we got to tour with Som on the O’Brother tour and just instantly hit it off. We were enamored with their kindness and with how utterly massive these guys were able to sound live. When I got the opportunity to remix one of the new songs I instantly wanted to jump on it. I heard ‘Awake // Sedate’ and immediately had gears turning with how I might approach the song in a way that (hopefully) honored it while giving it some sort of HF gloom or what have you. I felt this kind of emotional paralysis / Cotard’s syndrome when Will was singing and just wanted to create something to capture that isolation.
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PUSSY RIOT - "SEXIST" (FT. HOFMANNITA)
Pussy Riot have announced a new EP, Panic Attack, due out March 11, and have shared a new single from it, "SEXIST." Nadya Tolokonnikova writes, "'SEXIST,' the music video, flips upside down the main premise the patriarchal culture: instead of women and queer people being objectified and serving as furniture, we use sexist pigs as furniture. The project is lead by female and queer people, and we hope you'll enjoy our gift to you. Happy upcoming 8th of March, the international day of fighting gender-based oppression. "SEXIST," the song, comments on the rape culture, and tells a fictional story of a heroine being invited to a hotel room by a high-level male government official, being harassed and winding up murdering her abuser in self-defense. The lyrical idea was born after watching 'Welcome to Chechnya,' a documentary on kidnappings, tortures and murders of LGBTQ+ people in a Russian republic of Chechnya. We hope that 'SEXIST' will bring closer the world without harassment and discrimination based on gender and/or sexuality. The video does not encourage to oppress anyone, but rather satirically highlights arbitrary and absurd nature of any oppression. From Russia, with love.
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OH THE HUMANITY! - "WIT'S END"
Massachusetts band Oh The Humanity! make melodic hardcore/skatepunk with an admitted influence of bands like A Wilhelm Scream, Strike Anywhere, Propagandhi, and Strung Out, and if you like those bands, you'll probably like Oh The Humanity!"s new song "Wit's End" too. It's the first taste of their new self-titled album, due April 16 via Hellminded Records, and it's packed with anthemic hooks and blazingly fast lead guitar.
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THE EMBER, THE ASH - "FIXATION"
As mentioned, the anonymous person behind the one-man black metal project Unreqvited also makes metalcore as The Ember, The Ash, whose new album Fixation drops 5/14 via Prosthetic. The second single/title track has arrived, and it's a pretty insane dose of tech-y, sorta-industrial, sorta-symphonic metalcore.
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A CERTAIN RATIO - "WONDERLAND"
Manchester vets A Certain Ratio follow up last year's terrific ACR Loco with the ACR:EPA EP. "Wonderland" features the vocal talents of the late Denise Johnson.
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BILL CALLAHAN, BONNIE PRINCE BILLY & SIR RICHARD BISHOP - "SHE IS MY EVERYTHING" (JOHN PRINE COVER)
Bill Callahan and Bonnie 'Prince' Billy have been releasing collaborative covers since October and we had a feeling they've get to John Prine eventually, and here we are.
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JOHN LENNON - "MOTHER" (ULTIMATE MIX)
John Lennon‘s 1970 album John Lennon/Plastic Ono Band is getting a super deluxe 50th anniversary box set on April 16 via Capitol/UMe. The eight-disc The Ultimate Collection (6 CDs, 2 Blu-rays) includes a new mixes of the album from Paul Hicks (who worked on the Imagine reissue and Gimme Some Truth best-of), as well as studio outtakes, demos and more, featuring over 11 hours of music. You can listen to the Ultimate Mix of "Mother":
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HUMAN - "DAYS OF RAGE" & "M.Y.O.E."
The current wave of death metal-infused hardcore continues to grow, and here's yet another great example of it. Florida band Human (named after the classic album by fellow Florida band Death?) are putting out their debut EP Delicacies of Extinction on Friday (3/5) via Silence Is Death, and they're currently streaming two ragers from it. If you've been digging stuff like Frozen Soul, Gatecreeper, Fuming Mouth, etc, definitely do not miss this. Read more here.
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JOELL ORTIZ, NAMIR BLADE, STALLEY & SOLEMN BRIGHAM - "BLACK ROCK"
The great underground rap label Mello Music Group announced a new stacked compilation, Bushido, and this is the lead single. You can read much more about the comp here.
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ZAO - "CROATOAN"
Influential metalcore lifers Zao announced their 12th album -- and first since 2016 -- and released this song, which is as crushingly heavy as they've ever been, and a little atmospheric and psychedelic too. Read more about it here.
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STARS HOLLOW - "WITH WEIGHT"
Iowa emo band Stars Hollow have been on the rise for a few years, and now they've finally announced their first full-length, due in May via Acrobat Unstable. Read more about lead single "With Weight" here.
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DEATHPACT - "ID" (DEAFHEAVEN REMIX)
Mysterious, "anonymous" producer Deathpact (who's collaborated with Zeds Dead, Rezz, and Odesza) has an upcoming single called "ID," but before it gets released, a series of remixes have been coming out. Code Orange recently released one, and today we get one from another metal band, Deafheaven. Read more about it here.
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BIG RED MACHINE - "A CRIME" (SHARON VAN ETTEN COVER)
Justin Vernon and Aaron Dessner's take on Sharon Van Etten's "A Crime" is the first track in an upcoming cover album, epic Ten, celebrating epic's tenth anniversary.
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Looking for even more new songs? Browse the ‘New Songs archive.