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.
Empress Of
Call Me
An excellent change of pace and direction from Honduran-American pop artist Empress Of on her single ‘Call Me’. Laden with 80s nostalgia and atmospheric reverbs, this new single very nearly delves into the realms of synthwave.
The vocal arrangement and delivery provide the distinguishing feature between a good and a great song. We may never see The Turning, but we’re grateful for its existence for making ‘Call Me’ a thing, if not for anything else.
Lastly, a change of pace this is for Empress Of, but her 2018 LP Us remains a superb pop record that flew a little under the radar. Definitely listen to it if you haven’t already.
– Luke Sharkey
2.
Thundercat
Black Qualls
Sticky treacle funk from dessert master Stephen Bruner, aka Thundercat.
‘Black Qualls’ marks Thundercat’s first single of the decade, perhaps anticipating the follow-up project to 2018’s Drunk. The root sound remains, as do the calling-card busy basslines. However, it’s Thundercat’s opening vocals which really stand out on the new single, the clearest and most on pitch we’ve heard from the American artist yet.
– Luke Sharkey
3.
DigDat
8 Style II
South London MC DigDat’s Ei8ht Mile could be the most lyrical Drill release I’ve ever come across.
Not that DigDat appears to be all that much of a typical Drill artist. On his debut long-form, he’s moulded the foundations of his genre, spilling over into other sounds and ideas. The end result is a cohesive and fully realised full body of work from a genre that tends to excel in singles. We’ve highlighted ‘8 Style II’ but best to jump straight into the full album.
– Luke Sharkey
4.
The Chats
The Clap
The sort of angry punk you might write if you caught chlamydia despite being “double-wrapped”. Ladies & gentlemen, The Chats.
5.
Real Estate & Sylvan Esso
Paper Cup
Real Estate are back in action with exactly the sun-drenched prettiness we’ve come to expect over the years. With Sylvan Esso in tow, ‘Paper Cup’ is a hazy four minutes of winding guitar solos, ambiguous lyrics and gentle ease. It certainly doesn’t reinvent the Real Estate rulebook but sometimes the world just needs pleasant, breezy music.
The aural equivalent of cruising down a motorway with the windows open, ‘Paper Cup’ is the epitome of the relaxed surf-rock that Real Estate have become so essential for.
– Kelly Doherty
6.
Mac Miller
Everybody
Tasteful posthumous releases are rarer than hen’s teeth but Mac Miller‘s Circles is exactly that. Massive kudos to everybody involved.
It’s a very emotional listen, more need not be said about it. ‘Everybody’ is my favourite track from the release. To help get you where you’re going.
– Luke Sharkey
7.
Squirrel Flower
Streetlight Blues
2020 is set to be a big year for Polyvinyl’s Squirrel Flower. With her debut album I Was Born Swimming coming out at the end of the month and a rapidly growing hype train carrying her forward, the 21-year-old is making a serious name for her atmospheric indie-rock.
New single ‘Streetlight Blues’ is a country-tinged slice of intimate lyricism that showcases rich vocals and a propensity for thrashed out cathartic emotion. Get on board with this quickly rising star now.
– Kelly Doherty
8.
Orla Gartland
Heavy
‘Heavy’ is an impactful pop ballad written with authenticity and delivered with sincerity from Irish artist Orla Gartland. It’s a heavy-hitting song from an emotional standpoint, one that never loses Gartland’s signature charisma.
– Luke Sharkey
9.
AJJ
Loudmouth
Folk punk’s not dead and AJJ is back with Good Luck Everybody, another expansive, chaotic album just to prove it. Lead single ‘Loudmouth’ captures the shambolic joy of his career hitherto, opening with a shouted declaration that ‘you’re a loudmouth and a tool’ before unravelling into a 2-minute blast of high octane acoustic guitars and punk energy.
Big, bold and bouncy, AJJ has been leading the genre for over a decade now and ‘Loudmouth’ consolidates his reign.
– Kelly Doherty
10.
LA Priest
What Moves
Idiosyncratic funk-pop from Domino records man LA Priest on new single ‘What Moves’. New album GENE will end a near 5 year album drought from the artist when it releases later in 2020.
– Luke Sharkey
