hand-habits
Hand Habits

22 New Songs Out Today

Hand Habits
Hand Habits

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…

WEEZER – TEAL ALBUM (COVERS ALBUM)

Weezer somehow scored their first charting hit in nearly a decade with their cover of Toto’s “Africa,” so it only makes sense that they’d surprise-release an album with that cover and nine other covers of very popular songs. They do Tears for Fears’ “Everybody Wants to Rule the World,” Eurythmics’ “Sweet Dreams (Are Made Of This),” a-ha’s “Take On Me,” The Turtles’ “Happy Together,” Black Sababath’s “Paranoid” (with Brian Bell singing), Electric Light Orchestra’s “Mr. Blue Sky,” TLC’s “No Scrubs,” Michael Jackson’s “Billie Jean,” and Ben E. King’s “Stand By Me.” Like with “Africa,” they pretty much just recite these songs verbatim, not really offering up anything new but not ruining them either. Will it get them another big hit? Maybe “Take On Me”? Who knows! One thing’s for sure, Matt Damon is in heaven right now.

J. COLE – “MIDDLE CHILD”

J. Cole’s label Dreamville Records is gearing up to release the Revenge Of The Dreams III compilation, and Cole’s contribution “Middle Child” is out now. It’s got a beat from T-Minus (Drake’s “HYFR,” Kendrick Lamar’s “Swimming Pools,” etc), and it sees Cole trying out some auto-tune trap singing but making time for his more trademark delivery too.

BETTER OBLIVION COMMUNITY CENTER – “MY CITY”

After over a month of mysterious brochures, telephone messages, and ads on benches, Conor Oberst and Phoebe Bridgers revealed themselves as Better Oblivion Community Center and released the self-titled album of their new project. Conor and Phoebe have collaborated before both on record and live, and BOCC builds upon their previous work, joining Conor’s lyrical sensibilities with Phoebe’s melancholic melodies. One of the immediate stand-out tracks is “My City,” where a claustrophobic enumeration of place and time explodes into an impassioned ending, Phoebe and Conor’s raised voices singing, “chasing love like an ambulance.”

BOY HARSHER – CAREFUL (ALBUM STREAM)

Like Black Marble, duo Boy Harsher bring some pop sensibilities to the darkwave genre, adding neon light and lots of hooks to their decidedly gothy ’80s sound which you can trace back to the early days of Mute Records. Stream their new album over at NPR.

GERARD WAY – “HAZY SHADE OF WINTER” (SIMON & GARFUNKEL COVER)

Gerard Way, frontman of the now-defunct My Chemical Romance, has been slowly rolling out new solo music over the past few months, and today he released a cover of Simon & Garfunkel’s classic “Hazy Shade of Winter” for Netflix’s upcoming The Umbrella Academy. It takes more cues from The Bangles’ version than the original, and it’s also got a little hair metal influence on the guitars and Gerard channels the pop punk sneer of MCR’s hits more than he does on his solo originals. It’s a fun cover.

LAMBCHOP – “EVERYTHING FOR YOU”

Kurt Wagner teamed with Matt McCaughan (brother of Superchunk’s Mac McCaughan and drummer for Bon Iver and Hiss Golden Messenger) for a more electronic-tinged Lambchop album, This (is what I wanted to tell you). And that’s not counting Wagner’s continued interest in extreme autotune. New single “Everything for You” has more of a beat than “The December-ish You” and comes with a striking, playful video full of first-person POV and in-camera effects.

HAND HABITS – “CAN’T CALM DOWN”

Meg Duffy has shared a second single from her new Hand Habits album, placeholder. “This song took the longest lyrically for me to finish,” says Meg. “I started it about 3 years ago and kept it in progress throughout different cycles of feeling. ‘ancestral damage’ and learned behaviors and conditioning to react/hold and place certain emotions are patterns i’m interested in taking part and understanding better. what can one do with rage? with pain? with sadness? and is it is possible to learn how to wipe away completely the knee jerk reactions to situations that are buried deep in one’s dna? and the role models that taught us how to behave, whether directly or residually…are they the ones who should be held responsible or is memory partially to blame?” It’s a lovely song featuring a searing solo by Meg and backing vocals from Elizabeth Powell of Land of Talk. The video, directed by Vanessa Haddad, co-stars Sari Light of Tasseomancy.

JULIA JACKLIN – “PRESSURE TO PARTY”

Australian singer/songwriter Julia Jacklin has shared another song off her upcoming Crushing (due 2/22 via Polyvinyl), and like the previous singles, “Pressure To Party” is a progression from her folky debut. This one’s her most driving indie rocker yet.

VAMPIRE WEEKEND – “HARMONY HALL” & “2021”

Vampire Weekend are finally ready to release their first new album since 2013, and they shared two songs from it today. Read more here.

GIRLPOOL – WHAT CHAOS IS IMAGINARY (ALBUM STREAM)

Girlpool’s third album finds Harmony Tividad and Cleo Tucker expanding the sound well beyond the winsome folk pop of their early years, not limiting themselves to any template. Listen to it now via NPR.

FLORENCE + THE MACHINE – “MODERATION” & “HAUNTED HOUSE”

Florence + the Machine followed her 2018 album with a new two-song single today, which we wrote more about here.

A CERTAIN RATIO – “WON’T STOP LOVING YOU”

Manchester music vets and Factory Records alumn are celebrating their 40th anniversary this year with a new box set titled ACR:BOX which will be out May 4 via Mute Records (who are also celebrating their 40th anniversary). It collects all their singles and b-sides, as well as over 50 unreleased tracks. The latter includes this newly recorded version of “Won’t Stop Loving You.

INSANITY ALERT – 666-PACK (ALBUM STREAM)

Austrian crossover thrasher’s new album 666-Pack comes out Friday via Season of Mist, and a full stream premiered at Invisible Oranges, who write: “Although the longest song is the whiplash-inducing ode to Transformers “Dark Energon,” the average song runs about 90 seconds. There is nothing subtle about what motivates them: Insanity Alert likes beer (“Why So Berrious?”), pot (“Two Joints”), GI Joe (“Cobra Commander”), and the thrash metal and crossover pioneered three decades ago.”

DIPLO – “BOOM BYE BYE” (ft. NISKA)

Diplo is releasing a new EP called Europa “soon” via Mad Decent/Because Music, and it’ll include new single “Boom Bye Bye.” The song features French rapper/singer Niska, and it’s pretty chill for Diplo’s standards, but gets a little more EDM-ish with the hook.

AMERICAN PLEASURE CLUB – “WHAT KIND OF LOVE?”

American Pleasure Club (fka Teen Suicide), who are touring with Thursday soon, are releasing a new album called fucking bliss on March 29 via Run For Cover. Lead single “what kind of love?” sees the band dipping their toes into ambience and harsh noise more than usual.

NANAMI OZONE – “THE ART OF SLEEPING IN”

Phoenix band Nanami Ozone are releasing their sophomore album NO on March 15 via Tiny Engines, and new single “The Art of Sleeping In” is a very ’90s dose of pillowy shoegaze, somewhere between Loveless and Siamese Dream.

SIMPLE CREATURES (MARK HOPPUS + ALEX GASKARTH) – “DRUG”

blink-182’s Mark Hoppus launched a new project, Simple Creatures, which is a collaboration with All Time Low’s Alex Gaskarth. Read more about the project and lead single “Drug” here.

THE DANDY WARHOLS – WHY YOU SO CRAZY? (ALBUM STREAM)

Psych and alt-rock vets The Dandy Warhols release their new album on Friday which finds them a little more in the zone and back to their hooky roots. You can stream the whole thing now over at Billboard.

DISQ – “PARALLEL”

Disq are the Wisconsin-based duo of Isaac deBroux-Slone and Raina Bock, who are both still in their teens and who draw influence from a wide array of music, be it ’70s pop (Todd Rundgren, Big Star), ’90s indie like Weezer and Sloan, and more. They’re releasing a new 7″ single on Friday (1/25) as part of Saddle Creek’s Document Series, where the record comes with a specially curated zine by the artist. This is the b-side to the single which you can read more about here.

BRING ME THE HORIZON – “NIHILIST BLUES” (ft. GRIMES)

It was announced back in October, and now the Bring Me the Horizon/Grimes collaboration is here.

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