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.
BILLIE EILISH - "THEREFORE I AM"
Despite what Dawn of the Dead would have you to believe, being the only human alive in an empty mall looks pretty fun, at least in the video the video for Billie Eilish's very catchy new single "Therefore I Am." Especially when you have access to the pretzel and donut stands. "The video is just the way that the song feels to me of just kind of like careless and not really trying,"Billie told Apple Music's Zane Lowe. "The video, we, number one, shot on an iPhone, which we didn't even mean to do. t's basically me running through the empty Glendale Galleria eating a donut and a pretzel. That's literally it. But like random, chaotic, don't care sh-t. And it was so fun. We shot it overnight, shot it on an iPhone. We had barely any crew. It was crazy."
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SHEFF G - "LIGHTS ON"
Brooklyn drill rapper Sheff G follows this year's very good One and Only with another great, atmospheric new song helmed by Great John, who also produced much of One and Only.
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JOAN OF ARC - "KARMA REPAIR KIT"
Joan of Arc are sadly breaking up after 25 years, but it looks like they'll be going out with a bang. Their final album Tim Melina Theo Bobby comes out December 4 and this new single is genuinely lovely.
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LITURGY - "SIHEYMN'S LAMENT"
Liturgy combine black metal, post-rock, contemporary classical, trap beats, and nu metal on the latest taste of Origin of the Alimonies (due out next week).
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JESHI - "LOOK LIKE TROUBLE"
East London rapper Jeshi taps producer Kwes Darko for this new song, which is as menacing and dimly lit as its video.
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RMR - "THE WISHING HOUR"
RMR's breakthrough song "Rascal" was basically a rewrite of a Rascal Flatts song, and he's now used that same formula for his new single "The Wishing Hour," which takes Matchbox 20's "3AM" and turns it into something a little more hedonistic. It's part of RMR's upcoming 4th Quarter Medley music/film project, which drops November 24.
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PETE ROCK AND THE SOUL BROTHERS - "REJOICE"
Pete Rock has unleashed the latest taste of Petestrumetals 3 and it's a groovy, gooey, psych-funk throwback. "I created ‘Rejoice’ in my basement as just a simple idea of a beat I made in my head," Pete told OkayPlayer. "I listened to some jazz that day and heard something interesting and remembered it and just gave the band a direction reference; and they took it from there." Listen at OkayPlayer.
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HARAKIRI FOR THE SKY - "SING FOR THE DAMAGE WE'VE DONE" (ft. NEIGE of ALCEST)
Harakiri for the Sky have shared a new eight-minute song off their upcoming album Mӕre, and it's an intense offering of atmospheric black metal that features one of the leaders of the genre, Neige of Alcest.
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SYLVAN ESSO - "FERRIS WHEEL" (TERRACE MARTIN REMIX ft. ROBERT GLASPER)
Terrace Martin and Robert Glasper have turned Sylvan Esso's "Ferris Wheel" from an arty synthpop jam into something closer to their own jazz/soul/hip hop fusion.
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HAIKU HANDS - "SUCK MY CHERRY"
The newest single from party-starting Australia collective Haiku Hands was written for Christopher Landon's new horror comedy Freaky. "We were invited to watch an exclusive preview of the film," the band says. "It was freaky, and we were jumping and screaming all through it. It was our first experience writing a track from start to finish over Zoom. With tropical-island filters behind us and from different states and studios, we started with a cheerleader rhythm and got loose on the lyrics. It was also a new experience to write from a brief, one we could get behind as they were saying ‘make it weirder’. We wrote it to one of Hermitude’s beats with Joel Ma on board the writing team. We’re stoked that it’s being used for the film!"
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DJ KAYSLAY - "ROLLING 50 DEEP" (FT. LITERALLY 50 RAPPERS)
DJ Kayslay's new song is 18 minutes long and it features literally 50 rappers, including Sheek Louch, Styles P, Benny the Butcher, Bun B, Ghostface Killah, Raekwon, Joell Ortiz, E-40, Twista, Ice T, the late Fred the Godson, Melle Mel, Grandmaster Caz, Royce da 5'9" and so many others.
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QUARTER-LIFE CRISIS (RYAN HEMSWORTH) - "COMFORTABLE" (FEAT HAND HABITS)
Ryan Hemsworth's new collaborative project, Quarter-Life Crisis, finds him working with various indie rock musicians on a new EP. We already heard a single featuring Hop Along's Frances Quinlan, and now he's shared the second, which features Meg Duffy of Hand Habits. "When I was asked to do a writing session with Ryan," Meg says, "I had no idea who he was or what his music sounded like or what his life may be like. I completely showed up to this weird little studio completely blind to predisposition, a little embarrassed because the first time Ryan and I tried to connect I accidentally no-showed him after writing in the date on my analog calendar wrong. I had never done any sort of co-writing session before and was a little nervous, but since I had no investment I went in with the intention of having fun and being open to whatever spirits wanted to move. We threw autotune on as a joke (half-joke because I can be pretty pitchy especially in the writing process) and it sounded kind of cool. I started thinking about AI and cyborgs and people/souls disassociating from bodies and identity and kind of just freestyled until a mildly understandable common theme started to swim up. It was really fun!!"
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NATION OF LANGUAGE - "A DIFFERENT KIND OF LIFE"
NYC synthpop band Nation of Language have followed up their debut album, released earlier this year, with this new, New Order-y single produced by Nick Millhiser of Holy Ghost!. “This song first started to come together in the early days of the Trump administration, but was never quite finished and got a bit lost as time went by," says frontman Ian Devaney. "When the demo resurfaced during the pandemic, the song struck a chord not just in its intended political context but in the context of so many people losing family members, jobs, or any semblance of normality - whatever might be left of it after the past few years. I had seriously hoped that by the time the song came out it would be slightly less relevant than when I first wrote it, but defeating Trump was always going to be just one step in the fight to make the country a more just and decent place. So, no matter what, the core message still resonates with me deeply."
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TOM VEK - NEW SYMBOLS (ALBUM STREAM)
Tom Vek takes his time between albums. There was seven years between his acclaimed 2004 debut We Have Sound and his second album Leisure Seizure, three years between that and 2014's Luck. Six years on, Tom Vek surprised released his fourth album, New Symbols, today. He's also launched an Indiegogo campaign for a new digital music player called Sleevenote, that puts an emphasis both on high definition audio but also the artwork. The player's got a 7.5" square screen designed with artwork in mind. Has he talked to Neil Young about investing?
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KEEP SHELLY IN ATHENS - DEFY ME EP
Greek group Keep Shelly in Athens just released the Defy Me EP. "So many things have happened since the beginning of this year which could provide material for several albums," notes the band's RPR "Nevertheless, in the 5 tracks from our upcoming EP we tried to transform our anxiety about the future as well as our anger and outrage at everything that is happening right now."
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RUN THE JEWELS - "NO SAVE POINT"
Run The Jewels released a new song for the Cyberpunk 2077 soundtrack, and you can read more about it here.
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NUBYA GARCIA - "SOURCE" (MAKAYA MCCRAVEN REMIX)
Nubya Garcia's Source remains one of the year's best jazz albums, and now Makaya McCraven has released a new remix of the title track, which you can read more about here.
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KALI - "BACK TO THE START"
16-year-old singer and multi-instrumentalist Kali Flanagan has released her debut single as KALI. "Back To The Start" is a lush, anthemic track, accompanied by a video Flanagan co-directed with Zealand Yancy and Sophia Ziskin.
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HALF PAST TWO - "SHINE"
Orange County ska-pop-punks Half Past Two recently revealed that they'll release a new album in spring 2021, and that the first single would be "Shine," which previously appeared on Ska Against Racism and which was released as an acoustic song last year. The song and its video are officially out now; read more here.
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SPRING SILVER - "PLEAD INSANITY" (ft. SAD13 & BARTEES STRANGE)
Spring Silver is the solo project of DC multi-instrumentalist K Nkanza (formerly of the now-defunct Aerial View), and this new catchy dose of off-kilter indie rock features two very cool guests. Read more here.
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DJANGO DJANGO - "GLOWING IN THE DARK"
Scottish band Django Django will release new album Glowing in the Dark early next year. The new single from the record is the title track, with thick moogs rolling over a bouncing breakbeat.
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PATRIARCHY - "HELL WAS FULL" (NITZER EBB REMIX)
L.A.'s gothy electro duo Patriarchy (Actually Huizenga and Andrew Means) released Asking for It this time last year and are now gearing up to release remix album that will be out in early 2021. Full tracklist has not been revealed but includes remixes by Nitzer Ebb, Drab Majesty, Front Line Assembly and Geneva Jacuzzi. Here's Nitzer Ebb's take on "Hell Was Full" and Bon Harris appears in the video as well.
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Looking for even more new songs? Browse the ‘New Songs’ archive.