So many artists, so many songs, 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. 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.
STORMZY - "FIREBABE"
Stormzy has shared the first taste of his upcoming album This Is What I Mean, which arrives on November 25. It finds the UK rapper exploring his lush, laid-back R&B/soul side, and it features contributions from Sampha, Jacob Collier, and Debbie.
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MARGO PRICE - "LYDIA"
"I wrote 'Lydia' in one sitting in a tiny hotel room after walking around the city of Vancouver one day," Margo Price says. "I was jet lagged and feeling really depressed, hopeless, but instead of taking a nap, I picked up the guitar and the words just flowed out all in one quick moment. I hit record on my phone to make a demo and sort of blacked out or went into this meditative state, and boom – eight minutes later, I had this song. It's one of the only songs I've ever written that doesn't have any real melody or even rhyme, but somehow it still works. Songs like that are rare and don't come often." Margo Price's new album Strays is out January 13. Listen to the studio version and a live acoustic version of "Lydia":
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KAE TEMPEST - "MOVE" REWORK (WITH KOJEY RADICAL)
Kae Tempest has shared a new version of The Line Is A Curve song "Move" that features Kojey Radical. “I’ve loved Kojey’s work for years," Kae says. "It was a beautiful experience to get together in the studio and record this version with him. I love his voice, his lyricism, his musicality, his poetics. It was a joy to have met and connected.”
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BEAUTY PILL - "FUGUE STATE COMPANION"
DC art rock vets Beauty Pill have announced Blue Period, a double LP anthology of their complete recordings from 2003-2005 due out January 20 via Ernest Jenning Record Co. From that, they've shared previously unreleased track "Fugue State Companion."
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BICEP - "WATER" (FEAT. CLARA LA SAN)
BICEP have released a video for their single "Water" which was directed by Belfast-based filmmaker Aoife McArdle who worked on AppleTV's Succession. “I love Bicep as artists and people so it was cool that a coffee together led to making this video,” says McArdle. “It’s been particularly rewarding because we’re all from the North of Ireland and I’m proud of what they’ve achieved. 'Water' made me think about existence. Life & death. Our endless anxieties and preoccupations, sometimes warranted, sometimes absurd. It’s more important than ever to have a sense of humor right now. Grateful to my brilliant lead actress, Angela Nwagbo and my whole team, particularly Black Kite for working so hard on this and of course Bicep for trusting me with their deadly music.”
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ALEX LAHEY - "SHIT TALKIN'"
Alex Lahey returned with a new single, "Congratulations," in August, and now she's followed it with another catchy new track, "Shit Talkin'," which she co-wrote with John Mark Nelson.
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COUNTRY WESTERNS - "MONEY ON THE TABLE"
Country Westerns are back with this new single produced by Matt Sweeney that's the first taste of a new album. "'No money left on the table' was Matt Sweeney’s mantra while making our new record," says the band's Joseph Plunket. "Instead of crass commercialism or economic concerns, I took it to mean every song needed to be perfectly minted and we tried to comply. We came in with a lot of material ready to record but I still spent a lot of sleepless nights writing and rewriting between sessions. 'Money on the Table' is an ancient riff I’ve been kicking around for a decade-plus but never quite nailed it down. After a long day in the studio, I felt something was missing from the record as a whole and I went home, tackled the riff and wrote the lyrics in one sitting. We recorded the next morning in two takes. Even Sweeney agreed there was nothing left on the table."
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JADE HAIRPINS - "J TERRAPIN"
Jade Hairpins, aka Jonah Falco and Mike Haliechuk from Fucked Up, will release new album Harmony Avenue on May 29 vai Merge. Falco describes it as “straddling the post-post-punk of something like New Order, Scritti Politti, and Orange Juice, with a primordial sense of humour and absurdity not unlike Ian Dury and the Blockheads, Television Personalities, or the Monks.” You can hear a bit of that on indie-rocking first single "J Terrapin."
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THE VEILS - "UNDERTOW"
The Veils, the group led by Finn Andrews, will release new album ...And Out Of The Void Came Love -- their first in seven years -- on February 1. They sound as widescreen as ever on this first single.
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COLIN STETSON - "NATURE IS TIMELESS"
Saxophonist, multi-instrumentalist, songwriter and composer Colin Stetson has announced the soundtrack to The Menu, Mark Mylod's satirical thriller that's out in theaters November 18 via Searchlight Pictures. From that he's shared "Nature is Timeless," about which he says, "Two things I always try and make room for in a score are Saxophones and Tibetan Bowls, and this one's pretty much nothing but. With a little ASMR piano for good measure. Some sincere reverence and wonder, before things start to get weird."
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NADINE KHOURI - "KEEP ON PUSHING THESE WALLS"
Nadine Khouri has shared this tranquil-but-groovy song from her upcoming John Parish-produced album Another Life. “I wrote Keep On Pushing These Walls in tribute to the late, great Lhasa de Sela,” says Nadine. “I'd seen Leslie Feist, Melissa Laveaux and others pay tribute to her life and work at the Barbican in London and came home and wrote this song. More generally, it's about songs written by another that open us up to ourselves, to each other and to the world."
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SLOWTHAI - "I KNOW NOTHING"
slowthai released an intense new song in conjunction with Beats By Dre’s new ‘Defy The Noise’ campaign, and he says, "‘I Know Nothing’ is a fight back against those people who are so quick to put the blame on the younger generation. In a world full of misinformation and judgement it only reveals the true intentions of how miserable people’s lives must be as they are so quick to jump on the bandwagon and applaud or point out people’s failures or vulnerabilities. Instead we should be lifting people up when we see them fall. social media can and should be used as a tool for connection and good but instead it serves to gloat and punch down. It fails to show the harsh reality we live in, which can lead to isolation and depression. Let’s lift each other up."
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NEW FOUND GLORY - "DREAM BORN AGAIN"
New Found Glory have announced a new acoustic album, Make The Most Of It, featuring seven entirely new songs and seven live acoustic versions of old fan faves, due in January via Revelation Records. Read more about lead single "Dream Born Again" here.
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YOUR SPIRIT DIES - "2000 NEEDLES"
South Carolina metalcore newcomers Your Spirit Dies will release their sophomore EP in December, and you can read more about lead single "2000 Needles" here.
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MANCHESTER ORCHESTRA - "NO RULE"
Manchester Orchestra have released "No Rule," a song that began during the sessions for 2021's great The Million Masks of God (and has a lyrical callback to "Angel of Death"), but "took a little longer to cook than the rest." Read more about it here.
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THE ARCS - "HEAVEN IS A PLACE"
Dan Auerbach's other band, The Arcs, have shared a new song from their upcoming album Electrophonic Chronic. While the album was made with Richard Swift before his death in 2018, "Heaven is a Place" feels like a tribute, with lines like "Heaven is a place I know, where all the lovers go / and when they die / everything they had on Earth is multiplied," set against a dreamy, groovy arrangement.
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FEVER RAY - "CARBON DIOXIDE"
Fever Ray (aka The Knife cofounder Karin Dreijer) will release Radical Romantics, their first album in five years, on March 10 via Mute. The album has been in the works since 2019 and the record features contributions from her brother and Knife parter Olof Dreijer, Trent Reznor & Atticus Ross, Portuguese DJ and producer Nídia, Johannes Berglund, Aasthma (Peder Mannerfelt and Pär Grindvik), Vessel, and longtime collaborator Martin Falck. This new single's a banger.
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PERFUME GENIUS - LIVE AT ELECTRIC LADY
Perfume Genius' new live EP features re-imagined versions of songs from Ugly Season and Set My Heart on Fire Immediately, along with a cover of a Radiohead b-side, and you can read more about it here.
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DON LETTS - "OUTTA SYNC"
Filmmkaer, DJ and Big Audio Dynamite co-founder Don Letts has announced his first solo album, Outta Sync, which will be out in 2023 and features Terry Hall, Wayne Coyne, Hollie Cook and more. This is the title track.
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OBITUARY - "THE WRONG TIME"
Obituary call new single "The Wrong Time" "a true depiction of the sound, style and feel we went for in the studio and is a great taste of what you can expect from Dying of Everything," their new album. Read more about that here and pre-order our exclusive variant, on cyan blue vinyl and limited to 250 copies.