Mavis Staples

27 New Songs Out Today

So many artists, so little time. Each week we review five 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…

MAVIS STAPLES – “CHANGE” (PROD. BEN HARPER)

The forever-relevant soul legend Mavis Staples has announced a new album, We Get By, and this one was written and produced by Ben Harper. The first single is “Change,” a protest song that would’ve resonated at any point in Mavis’ lengthy career and especially does in 2019. It’s a little more rock than some of Mavis’ other recent stuff, with a nicely fuzzed-out guitar solo in the mix. Check it out, and catch Mavis at her special 80th birthday shows at Harlem’s Apollo Theater, Nashville’s Ryman Auditorium, and LA’s Theatre at Ace Hotel (or any of her many other tour dates).

LIZZO – “TEMPO” (FT. MISSY ELLIOTT)

Lizzo’s new album Cuz I Love You is due out April 19, and ahead of its release she’s dropped another new single, this one a dream-team collaboration with Missy Elliott. “She sent me a memoji of herself singing her verse,” Lizzo told Travis Mills on Apple Music’s Beats 1, “thats how I got the verse…I got a memoji of Missy like smiling and then she just started rapping, and I was like, ‘OMG what the hell’ so I had to hook it up to my speaker system.”

ANOHNI – “KARMA” (FT. JADE BELL & J. RALPH)

ANOHNI released a new song with composer, songwriter, and activist J. Ralph and musician Jade Bell for charity. Proceeds from the sales of “Karma” (you can buy it on Bandcamp) will go to support Jade’s KIDS, a nonprofit that works to prevent substance abuse and drug addiction in youth. “Jade is so great, and his work reaching out to kids is having a real impact,” ANOHNI says. “Living in the world today can be tough. So many more kids as well as adults across the world are addicted to painkillers and pharmaceuticals that can kill us so easily. It wasn’t hard to to get behind someone with as much guts as Jade, who is helping young people to reach for creativity instead of heroin or fentanyl. Please buy the single, and donate whatever you can afford to support Jade in his service to the community. I did it as a way of connecting to and caring for others as part of a larger family. You can too.”

BROKEN SOCIAL SCENE – “CAN’T FIND MY HEART”

Here’s another track from Broken Social Scene’s forthcoming Let’s Try the After Vol. 2 EP, a typically uplifting song featuring an arms-wide chorus, wailing, shoegazy guitars and some punchy horns to boot.

FAT WHITE FAMILY – “TASTES GOOD WITH MONEY” (FT. BAXTER DURY)

The unmistakable, if sometimes unintelligible, baritone of Baxter Dury drops into the second half of this sleazo-glam track from Fat White Family’s forthcoming album, Serf’s Up. Roisin Murphy directs the video, which also features Dury, and is a full-on Monty Python homage. Anyone for tennis?

JUAN WAUTERS – “LETTER”

Juan Wauters released La Onda de Juan Pablo, which he recorded on the road traveling in Latin America, back in January and in May he’ll release Introducing Juan Pablo, which is both a companion and a prequel. He made this album first, and then shelved it. The first single is “Letter,” which Juan says “is a song about a love story coming to crossroads where the future is uncertain. I recorded this song in many different ways during 2015 and 2016 when my goal was to learn to record while being on tour or in transit. In this specific version I tried to emulate the Beatles production from the album, Beatles For Sale, especially the song ‘I’ll Be Back.'”

SACRED PAWS – “THE CONVERSATION”

Centered around Rachel Aggs (Shopping) and Eilidh Rodgers (ex Golden Girls), Glasgow indie pop band Sacred Paws — not not be confused with PAWS who are also from Glasgow — will release their second album, Run Around the Sun, on May 31 via Rock Action / Merge. First single is the joyous and buoyant “The Conversation” which is driven by Aggs’ bouncy guitar style and their lovely harmonies.

MATT KIVEL – “LA COLISEUM”

Former Princeton singer/songwriter Matt Kivel will return with his new solo album, last night in america, on May 10 via Cascine/Pedro Y El Lobo. He recorded the album in his own Austin studio, playing every instrument himself. “In Austin, I started to enjoy a much slower pace of life” Matt says. “Walking from my house every morning through my neighborhood, past the creek, under the live oak trees, I could sort of still my mind in a way that I had never been able to before. I started putting together a record that was a reflection of that state of mind— something very calm and still.” You can feel that stillness in the lovely, placid first single “LA Coliseum.”

THE BETHS – “SOUL MEETS BODY” (DEATH CAB FOR CUTIE COVER)

With a busy SXSW behind them, New Zealand’s The Beths stopped by the SiriusXM studios to record a session, which subscribers can listen to tonight. It includes a faithful, slightly melancholy take on Death Cab for Cutie’s “Soul Meets Body,” off their 2005 album Plans.

IOANNA GIKA – “SWAN”

Former IO Echo frontwoman Ioanna Gika is releasing her debut solo album, Thalassa, on April 5 via Sargent House. About new single “Swan,” she writes, “I wrote ‘Swan’ when I could sense my relationship was coming to an end. I existed in this nebulous state, and could feel change, but was met with silence. I had this feeling right before my relationship ended, I had this feeling when my dad was sick but doctors weren’t getting back to me with answers. Hearing the truth is harsh, but silence, when you’re looking for answers, is a suffocating purgatory.”

DOOMSQUAD – “DORIAN’S CLOSET”

Toronto trio DOOMSQUAD’s new album Let Yourself Be Seen is out in May and they’ve just shared a second dose of their funky futurism. “Dorain’s Closet” is about Dorian Corey, who was a prominent figure in NYC’s ballroom culture of the late-’80s “When she passed away, due to AIDS, they discovered a mummified body in her closet dating back to 15 years ago. The body was of an ex-con who was believed to be a controlling and abusive ex-lover, and she carried the body around with her from apartment to apartment over all those years,” say the band. “We wanted to tell a much softer and gentler story about a drag queen. One where drag culture has become fully normalized and accepted by society. Where people can feel safe and empowered leaving the house in the middle of the afternoon in drag and carrying out normal day-to-day tasks. Removing the idea around drag culture being exclusively for the night, and carried out in ballrooms, and clubs.”

MORRISSEY – “MORNING STARSHIP” FT ED DROSTE (JOBRIATH COVER)

Our Morning Starship is when our neighbor uses “Nothing’s Gonna Stop Us Now” as his 6 AM alarm, but in this case it’s a cover of Jobriath’s 1973 glam single. It’s on his all-covers album, California Sun, and features backing vocals from Grizzly Bear’s Ed Droste.

JOHN VANDERSLICE – “SPECTRAL DAWN”

Here’s another lovely early taste of John’s new album The Cedars which you can read more about here.

AA BONDY – “KILLERS 3”

The second single AA Bondy’s first album in eight years is the moody, meditative and soulful “Killers 3″ which he says is a response to Wim Wenders’ Wings of Desire and opens with the line “Murder will always be more entertaining than peace ever will be…to a killer.” The video has him taking a bubble bath — learn more here.

LAFAWNDAH – “STORM CHASER”

Lafawndah’s debut full-length Ancestor Boy comes out this week and she’s shared another single from it ahead of its release. Like the previous single, it’s a dose of complex yet accessible art pop that fans of Bjork and Kelela will probably dig.

BEN HAYES – “SEE SUN”

Following the release of his single “Ready Yet” (ft. Nubya Garcia), UK producer/composer has now dropped the new song “See Sun,” which is a good name for this bright, beautiful atmospheric song which sounds like the sun penetrating your eyelids on an early summer morning. Both “See Sun” and “Ready Yet” will be on Ben’s new See Sun EP, due March 29 via R&S.

BOBBY OROZA – “DEJA VU”

Finnish singer Bobby Oroza (whose song “This Love” was sampled by Earl Sweatshirt) is releasing his debut album This Love on May 3 via Big Crown. It’s the kind of classic soul you’d expect from something on Big Crown, with a bit of lo-fi psychedelia that fans of UMO or Tame Impala might dig. If you’re in Europe, you can catch Bobby on tour with Lee Fields this April/May.

ENTHRONED – “SILENT REDEMPTION”

Belgian black metal vets Enthroned are releasing their first album in five years, Cold Black Suns, on June 7 via Season of Mist Lead single “Silent Redemption” is streaming now, and it’s exactly the kind of blackened fury you want from this band. They haven’t lost their touch one bit.

FLORIDA MAN – “BRAIN CELL”

Charleston, SC’s Florida Man are releasing their new album Tropical Depression on May 3 via Spartan Records, and lead single “Brain Cell” is streaming now. They recorded the album with Zac Thomas, who’s worked on several Kylesa albums, and they’ve got a similarly spastic sound to Static Tensions-era Kylesa, but with some Touch & Go-style post-hardcore in the mix too. They’ve also got upcoming tour dates, including Brooklyn’s Gold Sounds on June 16.

CALL OF THE VOID – “LIVING RUINS”

Colorado’s Call of the Void are releasing their new album Buried In Light on May 10 via Translation Loss, and they’ve shared the killer lead single “Living Ruins.” It finds the middle ground between punk and sludge, with a little blackened blasts thrown in there too, and it’s a real ripper.

DRESSY BESSY – “STAY TRUE”

Dressy Bessy celebrate their 20th anniversary as a band with the release of a new album, Fast Faster Disaster, due out June 14 via Yep Rock. “I think this is our best album yet,” guitarist and vocalist Tammy Ealom says. “There’s an undeniable sense of honesty and freedom to it, lyrically and sonically, and it came with a humbling ease. We pay close attention to current events, including politics, and have been profoundly impacted by the recent climate. There’s nothing like the threat of losing your basic freedoms and realizing the fragility of democracy to open up your eyes and pull you out of your personal bubble.” They’ve shared its first single, “Stay True.”

REGIONAL JUSTICE CENTER – “ASPIRATIONS” & WOUND MAN – “MAN SLAUGHTER”

Powerviolence bands Regional Justice Center and Wound Man are releasing a split in April and you can hear one song from each band now. Read more here.

MAGIC CIRCLE – “GONE AGAIN”

Magic Circle’s “Gone Again” is trad-doom done right, and you can read more about it here.

PIG DESTROYER – “CAMERAMAN”

Pig Destroyer have returned with their second single of 2019, and it sees them getting a little noisier than usual. Read more here.

PRONOUN – “TEMPORARY TANTRUM”

Brooklyn’s Alyse Vellturo releases her debut LP as pronoun, i’ll show you stronger, on May 24. Its latest single, “Temporary Tantrum,” is about “that moment in the relationship when you realize you’ve been played,” she says. “Although in that moment it’s heart breaking and you feel like the biggest idiot, you know that eventually you will come out on the other end and use that experience to grow.”

ZVI – “KETTLE DREAMS”

Zvi (aka Kayo Dot member Ron Varod) cites Anna Calvi, Peter Gabriel, and Glassjaw as inspirations for this mind-bending new song, which we wrote more about here.

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