20 New Songs Out Today

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, show recaps, track premieres, and more all day. That includes a lot of tour announcements, a list of tonight’s NYC shows, and NY shows that just went on sale. 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…

SQUAREPUSHER – “TERMINAL SLAM”

Electronic great Squarepusher releases his new album, Be Up a Hello, on Friday and here’s one last single before the whole thing drops. “Terminal Slam” is classic Squarepusher, both chaotic and grounded, danceable and melodic. The song’s dazzling video, directed by Daito Manabe of Rhizomatiks (who’ve made videos for Bjork and more), made its premiere at midnight in Tokyo’s Shibuya Crossing, aka the busiest intersection in the world, on one of the huge TV screens that line the area. Some of the video was shot there, too.

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JAMES RIGHTON (KLAXONS) – “EDIE”

Former Klaxons frontman James Righton will release solo album, The Performer, on March 20 via Deewee, the label run by Soulwax’s David and Stephen Dewaele. Judging by the singles released so far, the record is shaping up to be very ’70s-ish in a soft rock / disco sort of way. New single “Edie” is definitely in that mold. “Edie is a song I wrote for my daughter when she was a baby,” says James. “She seemed so fragile and small in a world that seemed so big and terrifying. I wanted to tell her that everything would be ok”.

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THESE NEW PURITANS – “THE MIRAGE”

These New Puritans are releasing The Cut [2016-2019], a compilations of
“orchestral interludes and reworkings,” remixes and more, featuring Ossian Brown (Clyclobe, Coil), Andrew Liles (Current 93, Nurse With Wound), and Taiwanese singer-producer Scintii. “A lot of these songs were started during the Inside The Rose sessions, but we didn’t have the right momentum to finish them,” says TNP’s Jack Barnett. “So we came back to them and turned them inside out.” The opening track on the album is “The Mirage” which features a children’s chorus. “George’s original idea was to get a group of kids to shout abuse, things like ‘Are you awake? Do you still exist? Hello yuppies, hello cunts’ but the idea evolved away from that, maybe for the best.”

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THE MEN – “BREEZE”

The Men’s new album, Mercy, is out on Valentine’s Day and after releasing the very ’80s “Children All Over the World” they second single, “Breeze,” is a little more in their original garage punk territory. “When we recorded Breeze I’m fairly sure the four of us had never played it together,” notes guitarist/vocalist Nick Chiericozzi. “I wrote the lyrics in my car on lunch break. I didn’t have much going and we were recording the next day, so I typed out the lyrics for Weighted Down by Skip Spence and Wots the Deal by Pink Floyd. I cut those sheets up, slapped the two together, to get a flow happening and then added a few lines of my own.”

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SAUDADE – “LIONS” (ft. RANDY BLYTHE & LEE “SCRATCH” PERRY)

The Saudade collective (whose revolving lineup includes members of Deftones, Bad Brains, Cro-Mags, and more) have shared another single, this one featuring Lamb of God frontman Randy Blythe and dub legend Lee “Scratch” Perry. It manages to be a song that plays to both guests’ very different talents, and it works.

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UNIFORM – “AWAKENING”

The latest Adult Swim Single comes from the genre-defying Uniform, and this one finds them exploring head-pounding, danceable industrial without sacrificing the intensity of their more abrasive material.

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DAWN – “DIE WITHOUT YOU” / “BUTTAH”

R&B great DAWN is back with a new double single, and these both find her in hard-hitting, electronic R&B mode.

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LIKE RATS – “WORLD DEVOURER”

Chicago’s Like Rats (ex-Weekend Nachos, mem Hate Force) are following 2016’s II with a new album, Death Monolith, on April 10 via Hibernation Release. The first song is “World Devourer,” which finds Like Rats sounding even heavier and more abrasive than usual… no easy feat. Listen at Decibel. Update, or here:

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A$AP FERG – “VALUE”

A$AP Ferg has dropped his first new single of 2020, and it’s a sinister banger.

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CJ FLY – “SHOW YOU”

Pro Era’s CJ Fly is dropping his new album RUDEBWOY on March 6 via Pro Era, LLC, and its latest single is the Statik Selektah-produced boom bap revival of “Show You.”

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INTRONAUT – “PANGLOSS”

Proggy sludgesters Intronaut have dropped another song off their upcoming Fluid Existential Inversions, and it’s as heavy and shapeshifting as you’d expect.

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HAZEL ENGLISH – “OFF MY MIND”

LA-via-Australia musician Hazel English announced her debut LP, Wake UP!, due out April 24 via Marathon/Polyvinyl. Its first single is the mellow, spritely “Off My Mind,” which English says “is about feeling stuck in a situation but too afraid to make a move. It’s about the limbo state between where you are and where you want to be.”

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JFDR – “SHIMMER”

Icelandic artist JFDR (aka Jófríður Ákadóttir) will release her new album New Dreams on March 13 via White Sun Recording. “Shimmer” is a good title for this new single, a hushed vocals, gentle acoustic guitar and subtle atmospherics.

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HOPE – “SHAME”

Berlin band Hope shared “Shame,” a starkly minimal track with an undergrowth of murky electronics which vocalist Christine Boersch-Supan says is about her anorexia. “It is about overcoming the shame, and speaking it out,” she writes.

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THE BLACK WATCH – “BRILLIANT FAILURES”

Long-running L.A. indiepop act The Black Watch are back with this terrific new single that owes more than a little to early New Order. Look for the band’s 18th album later this year.

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AUSTRA – “RISK IT”

No word on an album yet, but Austra just shared her first song in three years.

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HONEY HARPER – “SOMETHING RELATIVE”

Country dreampop artist Honey Harper releases his debut album, Starmaker, in March and has just shared this aching ballad drenched in synthy strings and otherworldly pedal steel guitar. “This song is about my friend Zeb, someone who I both greatly admired and barely tolerated,” says Harper. “He created a boxset of full-length records before the age of eighteen and once performed all of them locked in a cage. He was both inspiring and irritating. He would have hated this song but loved that it was about him.”

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THE SUICIDE MACHINES – “AWKWARD ALWAYS”

Ska-punk vets The Suicide Machines have announced their first new album in 15 years, and first single “Awkward Always” finds them in fine form. Read more about it here.

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BARISHI – “BLOOD AURORA”

Vermont sludge/prog/death metallers Barishi have announced a new album and shared the first single, which you can read more about here.

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Looking for even more new songs? Browse the ‘New Songs’ archive.