GoldLink
GoldLink - "Got Muscle" single artwork

20 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…

BOOGIE – EVERYTHINGS FOR SALE (ALBUM STREAM)

Compton rapper Boogie just dropped his Shady Records debut, Everything’s For Sale, and it’s a very solid, chilled-out melodic rap album. It’s got a verse from his label boss Eminem (which, as far as current-day Eminem verses go, is not bad), and it also features JID, 6LACK, Snoh Aalegra, and jazz trumpeter Christian Scott aTunde Adjuah.

KING PRINCESS – I KNOW (FIONA APPLE COVER, ft. FIONA APPLE)

Mark Ronson-affiliated pop artist King Princess has been blowing up as she prepares to release her debut full length album. Most recently she’s shared a cover of Fiona Apple’s “I Know,” featuring Fiona herself on backing vocals and rhodes piano. “So I don’t remember how it started or why we were put together,” Fiona said in a video, “but I was sent a song of hers that I think is gonna be on her upcoming album, and I just love her voice, and I love her swagger, and I love her charisma. And we met up and became fast friends, and I came to really love her heart and her mind.” Fiona described her role in the collaboration as “standing with my arm around my friend, being like a really really low-key hypeman.”

MAXO KREAM – “MEET AGAIN”

Maxo Kream released one of the best rap albums of 2018 with PUNKEN, and now he’s back with a new single “Meet Again.” Like many of the best songs on PUNKEN, “Meet Again” has a deceptively lighthearted-sounding hook, but Maxo packs in deep, dark storytelling that keeps you gripped long past the immediacy of the hook.

GOLDLINK – “GOT MUSCLE” (ft. PEEWEE LONGWAY & WAVEIQ)

DC rapper GoldLink follows his recent “Justine’s Interlude” freestyle with the new single “Got Muscle,” featuring a verse from Peewee Longway and a beat and hook from WaveIQ (who also produced “Justine’s Interlude”). It’s a laid-back, instantly appealing song, and it’s getting us excited for what else GoldLink has in store this year (he’s promising more music is on the way).

THE UNDERACHIEVERS – “DEEBO”

Flatbush rap duo The Underachievers are back with a new single “Deebo,” and it’s a booming, aggressive song that proves these two are still at the top of their game.

JONATAN LEANDOER127 – “WOODEN GIRL” + “OFF WITH THEIR HEADS”

Jonatan Leandoer Håstad is better known for his sad-boy rap project Yung Lean, but with Jonatan Leandoer127, he makes music that’s more in indie rock territory — it’s a bit like King Krule. His new album Nectar was surprise-released today, along with a video for two of its highlights, “Wooden Girl” and “Off With Their Heads.”

ROBERT FORSTER (THE GO-BETWEENS) – “INFERNO (BRISBANE IN SUMMER)”

The Go-Betweens co-founder Robert Forster is set to release Inferno, his first solo album in four years, on March 1 and this week he released the first single which is also the album’s title track. Led by pounding piano that’s more than a little like Mott the Hoople’s “All the Way to Memphis,” this is a witty, crackerjack single that finds Forster suffering at the heart of the inferno, aka his hometown of Brisbane, Australia in the summer. “The jungle is coming…right up to the door,” he sings, noting his lawn is out of control and it’s too hot to lift a finger. “Dreaming of ice!” he cries. The video makes it even better. Read more about it here.

TOY – HAPPY IN THE HOLLOW (ALBUM STREAM)

Motorik psych band TOY downshift into more pastoral, electronic territory for their new album which they produced themselves and then mixed with Dan Carey (Hot Chip, Kate Tempest). “Each song was a blank canvas,” says bassist Maxim Barron. “Producers inevitably develop their own patterns over time, right down to certain drum sounds. We were starting from scratch and it felt very creative as a result. It’s an album we feel deeply connected to.”

DAN MANGAN – “LOSING MY RELIGION” (R.E.M. COVER)

“When I was a kid, REM was a staple in my household. I remember air guitaring to this song with my brother and sister,” says Dan Mangan of “Losing My Religion,” which he’s just covered. “It was such a massive hit but also so unlikely a candidate to be so. The chorus isn’t really a chorus. It’s long. It’s repetitive. It’s like a hypnotic cyclical trance of words that stick with you even if you have no idea what they’re about. I really wanted to try and approach it from a new angle. There’s no point in attempting to sing like Michael Stipe — there is only one Michael Stipe. So I tried my best to let it live in a new light while paying homage to the original.”

A-WA – “MUDBIRA”

A-WA, the Yemenite-Israeli trio of sisters, will release their new album, Bayti Fi Rasi (“My Home is in My Head”), on May 31. The album, which was produced by Tamir Muskat of Balkan Beat Box, tells the story of their great-grandma, Rachel, who was one of the 49,000 Yemenite Jews airlifted to Israel by way of 1949’s “Operation Magic Carpet.” The first single is “Mudbira” which translates to “Unlucky” and the video was shot in Israel’s Arava Valley, near their childhood village, and follows the sisters “as they formulate a ninja-esque plot to steal their herd of cattle back from desert sultans.”

ZACARI – “DON’T TRIP”

After working on Kendrick Lamar’s DAMN. and Black Panther: The Album, Zacari has officially signed to TDE and dropped his first single for the label, “Don’t Trip.” Produced by J-Louis and Teddy Walton, it’s a dose of atmospheric, electronic R&B and it’ll appear on his upcoming debut EP.

RADIANT BABY – “FUNNY GAMES”

Montreal synthopop artist Radiant Baby (aka Felix Mongeon) will release his new album, Restless, on February 8, and has just released single “Funny Games.” In the bouncy, danceable track he deals with romantic issues and it’s clear he’s not laughing. The video unearths footage from his radiant childhood. “I remembered having a bunch of home videos on vhs of me as a child,” says Felix. “I went through them, and brought a selection to [filmmakers] Chris and Max. We ran the footage through analogue feedback to create weird image distortion and fluo effects. Chris thought of adding some 3D effects and lip sync. We wanted the video to look more disturbing and raw to capture the atmosphere of the song.”

THE OLD FIRM CASUALS (LARS FROM RANCID) – “MOTHERLAND”

Rancid’s Lars Frederiksen also leads Lars Frederiksen and the Bastards and The Old Firm Casuals, and he’s releasing a new Old Firm Casuals, Holger Danske, on February 15 via Pirates Press (digitally; the physical release comes out March 15). The lead single is “Motherland,” which is exactly the kind of street-punk ripper you’d expect from Lars. All these years later, he’s still got it.

MAKTHAVERSKAN – “ONKEL”

Swedish post-punks Makthaverskan new 7″ single has two songs from the sessions that produced their 2017 album III – “Demands,” which we heard earlier this month, and “Onkel.” “The songs were recorded during the sessions for our previous album ‘III,’ but were put on hold for a while since they didn’t quite fit in with the rest of the material,” the band wrote on Facebook. “However we liked the songs too much to just discard them completely and decided that they would fit perfectly with each other on a 7” single.”

EMILY WELLS – “STAY UP”

Multi-instrumentalist Emily Wells is releasing a new album, This World Is Too _____ For You, due out March 22 on Thesis & Instinct Records. It features chamber ensemble arrangements by Michi Wiancko, performed by Metropolis Ensemble, which really add a lot to first single “Stay Up,” the first of a three song triptych Emily says she wrote in her friend’s cabin upstate.

KURT VILE – “TIMING IS EVERYTHING (AND I’M FALLING BEHIND)”

Kurt Vile follows 2018’s Bottle It In with a new single for the Amazon Originals series, which we wrote more about here.

ANGEL DU$T – “BANG MY DRUM” & “ON MY WAY”

Angel Du$t officially announced their new album Pretty Buff and shared two more songs from it, which we wrote about here.

QUENTIN SAUVE – WHATEVER IT TAKES (ALBUM STREAM)

Quentin Sauvé is best known for playing bass in the great French post-hardcore band Birds In Row, but he’s also a solo artist and will release his debut album Whatever It Takes on February 1. We premiered a full stream and wrote more about the album here.

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