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 publish a monthly playlist of some of our favorite tracks. Here's a daily roundup with a bunch of interesting, newly released songs in one place.
STEFFLON DON - "CAN'T LET YOU GO"
UK rapper Stefflon Don embraces Afrobeats on her new single "Can't Let You Go." "I always love to fuse all of my cultural influences into my work, because I am very much inspired by different parts of the world," she says.
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PETE ROCK - "SAY IT AGAIN"
Legendary hip producer Pete Rock will release PeteStrumentals 3 on December 11 via his own Tru Soul label, and lead single "Say It Again" is seven minutes of horn-fueled jazz-funk that quotes Indeep's "Last Night a DJ Saved My Life." "This is something that I’ve always wanted to do," Pete told Rolling Stone. "Being an avid digger of albums and 45s, I now have a band to study and reinterpret these records. Presenting this to the world is so fulfilling."
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WILCO - "CANDYFLOSS" (DEMO)
Wilco's third album, 1999's Summerteeth, is being released an a deluxe box set, previously unreleased tracks included, and here's one of them, a demo version of pseudo-"bonus track" "Candyfloss" that's just Jeff Tweedy and a guitar.
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OLAFUR ARNALDS - "LOOM" (ft. BONOBO)
Icelandic composer Olafur Arnalds teams up with UK producer Bonobo for the glistening, textural "Loom" off the upcoming some kind of peace. "Last year Bonobo and I spent a couple of days in the studio, after traveling and camping together in the Icelandic highlands, with no intention other than to spend some quality time with music," Olafur says. "'Loom' is one of the songs that came from those sessions and as time passed, and I started writing the rest of the album, I kept coming back to it."
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TUNNG - "SCARED TO DEATH"
Here's another early taste of Tunng's upcoming DEAD CLUB album, a sweeping ballad drenched in swoony strings. "It's inspired by my relationship to life, death, fear and acceptance and how my relationship to those four things has shifted in recent years, and especially since we began this project," says Sam Genders. "On one hand I'm hugely drawn to rational thought and scientific knowledge as a way to solve problems and navigate life. On the other hand, I only seem to make real progress when I accept how little I know and really embrace that unknowing."
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MAXÏMO PARK - "BABY, SLEEP"
UK group Maxïmo Park will release new album Nature Always Wins on February 26, 2021 via Prolifica Inc. "I'm so happy we were able to make this album during lockdown, as it's been a challenging time for everyone," says frontman Paul Smith. "After almost 4 years since Risk To Exist, we wanted to explore new musical territory (for us) without sacrificing our trademark melodic twists and heartfelt lyrics. As always, the passing of time looms large, although the songs contain more affection for the past than before, and there are occasional hints of the fractious, divided time that we live in." First single "Baby, Sleep" definitely sounds like Maxïmo Park and Smith describes it as "a light-hearted look at the surreal nature of sleep-deprivation, and the way it distorts normality in a capitalist society."
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JULIE BYRNE & JEFRE CANTU-LEDESMA - "LOVE'S REFRAIN"
The latest entry in Mexican Summer's Looking Glass digital singles series is this dreamy, woozy collaboration from Julie Byrne and Jefre Cantu-Ledesma. "Jefre Cantu-Ledesma's original version of 'Love's Refrain' is a song that always felt limitless to me," Julie writes. "When I first started writing the lyrics for the collaborative version, I would walk and listen to the song at dusk, sometimes I would walk for hours, playing it over and over again on headphones like I did with music i loved when I was a teenager. Initially the song was written about desire, the requisite distance embedded in the experience of desire, the feeling of really believing in someone and risking oneself in order to be guided by that belief. But as I moved through that time, it became clear that the experience of writing these lyrics and making this video had so much more to do with the healing of aloneness. The walks in and of themselves had become a therapeutic process for me, a space where I would practice my aloneness. I would set out to walk a distance not for the sake of destination but to feel embodied. At this pace I sought to restore the breaks in my spirit, cast another illusion onto the pyre, feel the necessity and possibility in that, where I would turn my words over and over again in my mind until they became deliberate, where I would sometimes so clearly feel a sense of horizon breaking through me."
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PSYCHEDELIC PORN CRUMPETS - "TALLY-HO"
Australia's Psychedelic Porn Crumpets will release new album SHYGA! The Sunlight Mound on February 5. The band are still riding a similar path as fellow Aussies King Gizzard & The Lizard Wizard, as you can hear on this new single. “I wanted something that could encapsulate loads of fun and sound a bit strange,” says frontman Jack McEwan. “Like painting a colourful image of this distant world.”
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LIAM BAILEY - "PAPER TIGER"
UK artist Liam Bailey has shared another song off his upcoming album Ekundayo (due 11/13 via Big Crown), and while previous singles have embraced reggae, hip hop, and more, this one finds him navigating atmospheric R&B in sort of a Frank Ocean/James Blake kind of way.
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BAD BUNNY - "YO PERREO SOLA" (REMIX ft. NESI & IVY QUEEN)
Latin trap giant Bad Bunny just performed a new version of his YHLQMDLG single "Yo Perreo Sola" on the Billboard Music Awards last night with help from Queen of Reggaetón Ivy Queen and frequent Bad Bunny collaborator Nesi, and today the three of them released a new remix of the track.
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DORIAN ELECTRA - "MY AGENDA" FT. VILLAGE PEOPLE & PUSSY RIOT
Hyperpop artist Dorian Electra releases their new album My Agenda tomorrow, and its glitchy title track features Pussy Riot and Village People.
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PINK SIIFU & FLY ANAKIN - "MIND RIGHT" (ft. LIV.E)
Underground, experimental rappers Pink Siifu and Fly Anakin have shared a new track off their upcoming collaborative album Fly Siifu's, and this one features the great neo-soul up and comer Liv.e. It's a captivating, psychedelic cut.
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MIDDLE KIDS - "R U 4 ME?"
Australian indie pop band Middle Kids are back with their first new music in over a year, the spirited, energetic "R U 4 Me?" "I was at university once and there were all these signs on the walls saying ‘BE NICE IT’S NOT THAT HARD,'" singer and songwriter Hannah Joy writes. "The tone of the message itself actually wasn’t very nice or kind... We are always looking around at other people thinking 'are you on my team?'. I think this just results in us all feeling lonely."
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I AM THE AVALANCHE - "YOU'RE NO GOOD TO ME DEAD"
Vinnie Caruana has been very prolific this year, and now he's released a new track off his indie-grunge-punk band I Am The Avalanche's first album in six years, DIVE. It's an anthemic, whoa-oh-filled punk rager.
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POP SMOKE - "ICED OUT AUDEMARS" (REMIX FT. LIL WAYNE)
"Iced Out Audemars" is one of the posthumous Pop Smoke songs we got earlier this year, and today we get a new remix of it with a verse from Lil Wayne, who adopts Pop's flow and says RIP to him before taking the song in his own direction.
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BENNY THE BUTCHER - "LEGEND" (ft. HIT-BOY)
Benny the Butcher's anticipated Hit-Boy-produced album Burden of Proof arrives at midnight, and ahead of its release comes a video for the album's show-stealing closing track.
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SEBA KAAPSTAD - "KONKE"
Johannesburg, South Africa's genre-blurring Seba Kaapstad put soul, jazz, funk, hip hop, and more in a blender for the riveting title track off their upcoming album Konke (due 11/13 via Mello Music Group).
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GUIDED BY VOICES - "MR CHILD"
Nothing slows down Robert Pollard. Guided by Voices have just announced their third album of 2020, Styles We Paid For, which will be out December 11 via Rockathon Records. It's the band's 31st album overall. Here's the first single.
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M. WARD - "FOR HEAVEN'S SAKE" (BILLIE HOLIDAY COVER)
"I first heard Lady In Satin in a mega-shopping mall somewhere in San Francisco,” M. Ward says, presenting his upcoming album of Billie Holiday covers. "I was about 20 years old and didn’t know much about Billie’s records or her life or how her voice changed over the years. Anyway, the sound was coming from the other side of the mall and I remember mistaking her voice for a beautiful perfectly distorted electric guitar -- some other-world thing floating there on this strange mournful ocean of strings and I was hooked for life." Think of Spring is out in December and proceeds will benefit Inner-City Arts & DonorsChoose via PLUS1 for Black Lives Fund.
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THE BATS - "GONE TO THE GROUND"
New Zealand band The Bats have been together with the same four-member lineup for nearly 40 years, making charming, strummy, melodic indie rock. The band are set to release their 10th album, Foothills, on November 13 via their longtime label Flying Nun. This is the record's third single and you can read our Q&A with bassist Paul Kean here.
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CHAMBER - "NUMB (TRANSFUSE)"
Nashville metalcore up and comers Chamber's debut full-length comes out next week, and you can read more about this new single here.
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CHRIS FARREN - "FALL IN LOVE2NIGHT"
Chris Farren is back with a new indie-punk rager and you can read more about it here.
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Looking for even more new songs? Browse the ‘New Songs’ archive.