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.
HALF WAIF - "HORSE RACING"
The electronic-heavy, synthy "Horse Racing" is the latest single off Half Waif's new album Mythopoetics, and about it, Nandi Rose writes, "I started writing 'Horse Racing' in an Airbnb in Brooklyn that week in March 2020 when everything got really real. Alone in an unfamiliar apartment, as an unseen force took over our lives, I was struck by how much of a wake-up call it all was. How we were being shaken by our shoulders and told to face something really ugly and monstrous about our ways of being. It felt like we were race horses who had only just realized we were on a track, going around again and again. There’s no end in a circle. And maybe now that we recognized this, we could break out of it, bust right out of the ring - which is what the end section feels like sonically to me. A shot at freedom."
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MICK JENKINS - "TRUFFLES"
Following tons of guest verses and a Soundcloud loosie, Chicago rapper Mick Jenkins releases his first proper single as a lead artist of 2021, "Truffles." The Monte Booker-produced track is jazzy and trippy and Mick sounds great over it.
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HOMEBOY SANDMAN - "GO HARD" (prod. AESOP ROCK)
Underground rap lifer Homeboy Sandman has announced a new six-song EP, Anjelitu, which was entirely produced by Aesop Rock (who also raps on closing track "Lice Team, Baby"). The first single is "Go Hard," which finds Sandman delivering rapid-fire tongue-twisters over Aesop's psychedelic beat.
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SNAPPED ANKLES - "SHIFTING BASSLINES OF THE CORNUCOPIANS"
“A cornucopian is someone who believes that the problems of the world can be solved by technology and free market trading,” Snapped Ankles say of their new single. “Gambling essentially. Here's a song about hedge funds, making hedges and town criers, and hopefully it will encourage some much-needed dancing.” It's the second single from Snapped Ankles' upcoming third album, Forest Of Your Problems, which is out July 2.
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NEKO CASE - "BE AND BRING ME HOME" (ROKY ERICKSON COVER)
Light in the Attic's tribute album for the late Roky Erickson, May The Circle Remain Unbroken, is due out July 17, and the latest single is Neko Case's haunting rendition of "Be And Bring Me Home," from 1999's Never Say Goodbye.
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POZI - "SEA SONG"
London trio Pozi are back with a new EP, Typing, that will be out October 29 via PRAH Recordings. The band have not toned down the unease on the EP's first single. “The track’s more meditative structure allowed us to look at themes that Covid 19 had brought to the surface, such as time, death, fear, distance from other humans, the loss of relationships and witnessing cycles within nature around viruses and pandemics” the band says. “Though on the surface it’s relating to the sea and the beach, these can be associated with release and escape too.”
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LONELADY - "FORMER THINGS"
Lonelady's new album, Former Things, is out this Friday via Warp and here's another appetizer. "Former Things" features "Super-8 reflections of a lost golden age of childhood" set to a bouncy pop beat.
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LUCY DACUS - "CHASING CARS" (SNOW PATROL COVER)
Lucy Dacus' new album, Home Video, is out Friday, and to help promote it she did a cover of Snow Patrol's 2006 hit "Chasing Cars" for SiriusXMU Sessions. "The pastor at the last VBS I went to made all the kids delete secular music off their iPods but I refused and tried to convince him Chasing Cars wouldn’t let the devil in, but I guess he was right lol," she wrote about the song on Twitter.
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NICOLAS GODIN - "LOVE THEME" FT KADHJA BONET
Air's Nicolas Godin is releasing a deluxe edition of last year's Concrete & Glass on Friday and one of the new tracks is this lush jam featuring Kadhja Bonet on vocals.
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DAVID CROSBY - "RODRIGUEZ FOR A NIGHT" (CO-WRITTEN BY DONALD FAGEN"
Steely Dan are one of David Crosby's favorite groups but he's never worked with Donald Fagen before now. "Rodriguez for a Night" features lyrics by Fagen and music by Crosby and his son/bandmate James Raymond. “‘I Won’t Stay for Long’ is my favorite song on the record,” Crosby says. “I’ve listened to it 100 times now and it still reaches out and grabs me, it’s so painfully beautiful. I did end up getting a pretty stunning vocal on it, because it meant so much to me that I sang the hell out of it. One thing James and I both believe is that songs are an art form and a treasure — so when a song comes along that’s as good as that one, we’ll just give it everything we got.” David Crosby's new album For Free is out July 23.
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DOUG TUTTLE - "WEAK ENDS"
Doug Tuttle has shared another new song from his upcoming EP, Pine Cones. "Weak Ends," which closes the EP, adds synth to Doug's jangly sound, taking it into Real Estate territory.
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MORLY - "DANCE TO YOU"
Following a series of EPs, Morley, aka singer-songwriter Katy Morley, will release her debut album, Till I Start Speaking, which will be out August 20 via Cascine (a label we haven't heard from much lately). The dreamy, jazzy first single is "Dance to You," which she says "is about the need for--and is the vehicle for--a benevolent exorcism. It sprang from an encounter with someone so radiant to me that they helped light my way, but that I had to outgrow in order to see my own brilliance: I can’t grow/inside your glow.”
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SARAH DAVACHI - "RUSHES RECEDE"
Sarah Davachi has announced new album Antiphonals which will be out September 10 and began life as a meditation on repetition, using mellotron, electric organ, piano and synthesizers. “It is a minimalist music that is as much concerned with the vertical experience of texture as it is with the elongation of intervallic progressions across the horizontal realm,” says Sarah.
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WIKI - "HIGHS AND LOWS" (ft. REED & HUNNALOE)
Wiki has been very prolific lately, and that continues with "Highs and Lows," which finds Wiki, REED, and HunnaLoe trading bars over a jazzy DJ Lucas beat.
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NAO - "MESSY LOVE"
UK singer Nao has been dropping new singles lately, and here's another good one, "Messy Love," which finds her channelling smooth, '90s R&B.
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LIZ COOPER - "SLICE OF LIFE"
Singer/songwriter Liz Cooper will release her new album Hot Sass on September 3 via Thirty Tigers, and the first single is the breezy, slightly twangy indie rock of "Slice of Life."
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JADE BIRD - "NOW IS THE TIME"
Jade Bird's new single "Now is the Time" is an upbeat, sunny track, which she says is "the only song to have me smiling and laughing listening to it back in RCA. We had the Beegee's in mind and soul, triple tracking the vocals and putting a load of chorus on the guitar. I wrote it at the foot of our hotel bed in Mexico City, it's a big motivational anthem for someone I want to put my arms around or lift them in the darkest time. Given that I wrote it mid pandemic, the sentiment to getting to the backend of this hell is heavily felt now, when I play it live and do a two step with my bass player!" It's from her new album, Different Kinds of Light, due out August 13 via Glassnote Records.
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YN JAY - "TRIPLE S" (REMIX ft. COI LERAY)
Michigan rapper YN Jay has released a new project, Coochie Chronicles, which will feature fellow Michigan rappers Rio Da Yung OG and Louie Ray, as well as the fast-rising East Coast rapper Coi Leray, who's on the just-released remix of "Triple S." The project drops June 30 via Alamo Records.
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JAZZ CARTIER - "TWO OF EM" (ft. BUDDY)
Toronto rapper Jazz Partier will release his new album Fleur Print Vol. 2 on July 23 via Petal Garden/PIVTL Projects, and it'll include this new collab with Compton rapper Buddy. It's a very fun song with an equally fun video.
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INFINITY LAND / HEEL TURN / VIRGIN MOTHER - UNDER LIGHT
Infinity Land, Heel Turn, and Virgin Mother each contribute one track each to this new split on The Ghost Is Clear Records, with chaotic hardcore from the first two and sludgy post-metal from the latter.
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GRACE VONDERKUHN - "PUT IT ON ME"
Delaware trio Grace Vonderkuhn release their sophomore album Pleasure Pain on August 13 via Sheer Luck Records, and lead single "Put It On Me" is a dose of catchy, crunchy, '90s-style grunge-punk.
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A$AP TYY - "1990"
A$AP Mob member A$AP TyY is back with a new track that's somber and minimal but still packs a serious punch.
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TROPICAL FUCK STORM - "G.A.F.F."
"‘Give A Fuck Fatigue’ is an ode to the occasional dispassion brought about by the mandatory concern for every perceived injustice that happens, has happened and might yet happen that is being foisted upon the masses by super-yacht dwelling tech barons who monetise our indignation." The song is the first single from Tropical Fuck Storm's upcoming third album, Deep States.
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COLLEEN GREEN - "I WANNA BE A DOG"
Colleen Green will soon be back with her first album in six years, titled Cool, that will be out on September 10 via Hardly Art. She made the album at a few different L.A. studios with producer Gordon Raphael who worked on The Strokes' first two albums. Here's the very catchy first single.
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INTERSTITIA (BLEACH EVERYTHING, etc) - "RYE WOLVES"
Graham Scala has been extremely prolific lately, with new releases this year alone from Bleach Everything, Collapse Culture, and Arepo, and now he's gearing up to put out a new album by yet another one of his projects, his electronic solo project Interstitia. Read more about this new single here.
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SONS OF ALPHA CENTUARI (ft. FAR'S JONAH MATRANGA) - "BURIED UNDER"
UK post-metal vets Sons of Alpha Centauri have announced a new album, Push, and for the first time in the band's 20-year career, SOAC expanded their lineup to include two outside musicians, both from Sacramento: Far/New End Original/Gratitude/etc vocalist Jonah Matranga and Will Haven drummer Mitch Wheeler. Read more about lead single "Buried Under" here.
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QUICKSAND - "MISSILE COMMAND"
NYC post-hardcore legends Quicksand have announced their fourth album and second since reuniting, Distant Populations (which you can pre-order our hot pink/cyan blue vinyl variant of), and you can read more about new single "Missile Command" here.
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Looking for even more new songs? Browse the ‘New Songs archive.