These are the 10 new tracks you have to hear this week
Here are the best new songs we’ve heard in the past week, tried, tested and ready for your ears.
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1.
Kelsey Lu
Foreign Car
Kelsey Lu‘s debut album saw release on Friday and while several songs from it could garner a spot on this list, ‘Foreign Car’ in particular packs a punch. Her vocal lines are unusual, vaguely dissonant at times and and each section sees significant developments in arrangement and melodies that makes it a real trip for the ears.
2.
Loyle Carner
Ice Water
We’ve been fans of Loyle Carner for a long time so we were happy to hear his debut album Not Waving, But Drowning on Friday. ‘Ice Water’ comes in at track three and it houses everything that Carner does best: smooth backbeats, great rhymes and grainy, nostalgia drenched brass and string lines.
3.
Lizzo
Soulmate
Lizzo’s debut album Cuz I Love You was one of the most talked about this week (not least for her dig at music journalists). ‘Soulmate’ is a high-octane ode to self love and preservation with a hook filled chorus that you will have stuck in your head all day, “I’m my own soulmate, I know how to love me, I know that I’m always gonna hold me down”.
4.
Snow Ghosts
Heavy Heart
‘Heavy Heart’ is the second track taken from Snow Ghost’s upcoming album A Quiet Ritual, out May 3rd and we like what we’re hearing. Ambient soundscapes blend with Chvrches-esque vocals and build into a climactic, distorted crescendo that “maps out stages of the grieving process and how every individual deals with it in their own unique way”.
5.
Lolo Zouaï
Here To Stay
We like this a lot. Lolo Zouaï is a French artist that might have heard already having worked on H.E.R.‘s self titled album last year and she’s featured on other tracks with artists like Blood Orange too. ‘Here To Stay’ is taken from her own debut LP that saw release last week and it’s hard not to be completely drawn in by it: there’s the dark pull of Lana Del Rey there with a general air of nonchalance but there’s a sure commercial ‘7 Rings’ feel too it too in the production.
6.
Four Tet
Teenage Birdsong
Who said flute solos and electronic music don’t go together? Four Tet released new track ‘Teenage Birdsong’ in between two sets at Coachella last week and it’s an immersive treat coming in just short of 4 minutes. There’s an eclectic mix of sonic elements there with a myriad of synths, harpsichord melodies and brass lines.
7.
Stealing Sheep
Big Wows
‘Big Wows’ packs an awful lot into its 4 minutes and 21 seconds. Swelling synths and melodies suggest dream pop but there’s sure disco rhythms there too in the drum patterns and percussion, it’s hard to pinpoint it. What is evident is the lighthearted and satirical nature of the music and of Stealing Sheep in general and that’s something we’ll be returning to.
8.
Just Mustard
Frank
Just Mustard have really been on a roll since the release of their debut album Wednesday last year and this is no more evident than in their new single ‘Frank’. It’s up there with the best of their tunes so far with vocalist Katie Ball’s vocal performance ebbing and flowing against the band’s undulating atmospherics. The stop motion video by Tim Shearwood is great too.
9.
Fat White Family
Rock Fishes
After a brief hiatus it was uncertain whether Fat White Family would regroup to write another album again but we’re glad they did – Serf’s Up! is one of their best offerings yet. ‘Rock Fishes’ is rich with twangy guitar tones and grainy vocals, contrasted by quirky lyrics, “it would be blue murder, if you pull me out of the shade, slowly beating myself to death, with a bottle of orange Lucozade”
10.
Barrie
Geology
This is a gorgeous song. ‘Geology’ is the latest single from Barrie and it revels in its simplicity both in arrangement and in lead singer Barrie Lindsay’s vocals, it’s delicate and understated and everything you want from an indie-pop track. Their new album Happy To Be Here comes out next week on May 3rd.
