New Music
Conway the Machine Unveils New Song “Seen Everything But Jesus” Featuring Freddie Gibbs: Stream
Conway the Machine and Freddie Gibbs have done some things they regret on the new collaborative track “Seen Everything But Jesus”. It’s off Con’s upcoming album From King to a GOD, which drops tomorrow, September 11th. The cut is a Beat Butcha production, with simple, descending piano chords playing off the urgent click of drums. That’s Conway’s voice on the hook, but while the Machine may be singing, it’s definitely not autotuned. The whole song benefits from this off-the-cuff delivery, especially given the rawness of the subject matter. “Look, Lil Lotto got shot,” Conway begins, “Mikey B got shot (Pssh)/ Lil Jojo got shot, ChineGun got shot (Rest in peace, n—-s)/ I start my verse sayin’ they names to show we haven’t forgot (Uh huh).” This is context for the pained chorus, as Co...
The National’s Matt Berninger Shares Latest Solo Song ‘One More Second’
Matt Berninger has released “One More Second,” the latest single from his upcoming debut solo album Serpentine Prison. The acoustic guitar-driven ballad is the conversation a couple has when they’re going through the good, bad and sometimes frustrating parts of a relationship — something that The National frontman wanted to accomplish on the tune. “I wrote ‘One More Second’ with Matt Sheehy (Lost Lander, EL VY) with the intention for it to be a kind of answer to Dolly Parton’s ‘I Will Always Love You,’ or sort of the other side of that conversation,” Berninger said in a statement. “I just wanted to write one of those classic, simple, desperate love songs that sound great in your car.” Berninger previously released the title track in April and “Distant Axis” in July. It was a coll...
Django Django Return with New Song “Spirals”: Stream
Although the pandemic continues to keep us apart, and political tactics seek to divide us, we’re all inherently connected as one human race. That’s the message British art-rock outfit Django Django want to remind us of on “Spirals”, their first single in almost two years. The track follows the group’s pair of 2018 releases, Winter’s Beach EP and full-length album Marble Skies, and picks up musically where those projects left off. With frontman Vincent Neff leading the way with a spell-like cadence, “Spirals” chugs along with propulsive energy until its guitars and drums lock into a looping groove. Its accompanying video, directed by Maxim Kelly, continues this spinning theme. Imagining Neff as something of a hybrid human and double helix, the clip “uses the image of DNA to muse on how...
Tom Petty’s Family Shares Previously Unreleased Song “Confusion Wheel”: Stream
Tom Petty fans will soon have a new prized piece to add to their collections: Wildflowers & All the Rest, a sprawling reissue of his 1994 album. In addition to cozy home recordings and fascinating alternate takes, the box set boasts a disc containing five previously unreleased songs. Today, one of those tracks has been unearthed, a contemplative yet optimistic tune titled “Confusion Wheel”. “One of these days my old friend, you and I won’t have to worry no more/ One of these nights it’ll all wash away,” sings the music legend, as though comforting us and our weary, pandemic-worn souls from the grave. “And we’ll wake up singing a brand new song/ We’ll wake up singing a whole new song.” The song’s corresponding visualizer looks like the inner workings of a mind curious about the truths o...
The National’s Matt Berninger Reveals New Solo Song “One More Second”: Stream
We’re less than a month out from hearing Matt Berninger’s debut solo album, Serpentine Prison. In anticipation, The National frontman is giving fans another preview of the record with a new song called “One More Second”. Unlike recent single “Distant Axis”, which featured a momentous swell, today’s offering has more in common with the album’s mellow title track from back in May. “One More Second” is a mostly acoustic cut with the pacing of a country shuffle. Berninger’s fibrous guitar strums are elevated by crisp percussive taps, and eventually the song does take off into a pretty anthemic swing that orbits around a tickling keyboard solo. Lyrically, the tune is an entry in the timeless canon of “give me one more chance” love songs. In fact, according to a statement in the track’s YouTube ...
Pearl Jam Side Project Painted Shield Announce Debut Album, Share “I Am Your Country”: Stream
With Pearl Jam’s Gigaton touring plans on hold due to the pandemic, guitarist Stone Gossard focused his attention on officially launching his new side project called Painted Shield. Along with Gossard, the group features Mason Jennings, veteran drummer and former Pearl Jam collaborator Matt Chamberlain, and keyboardist Brittany Davis. Today, they’ve formally announced their self-titled debut album, due out November 27th. While Painted Shield are only now stepping into the spotlight, the band’s origins actually date back to 2014. Gossard and Jennings previously teamed up for two joint singles — “Knife Fight” and “Caught in a Mess” — under the name Mason and Stone, and it was at that moment their chemistry was born. The pair ended up hitting the studio together a few years later, and th...
The Avalanches Announce New Album We Will Always Love You
The Avalanches have announced their first new album in four years, We Will Always Love You. The group shared the cover art by Jonathan Zawada and promised more details “soon.” The plunderphonic pioneers have been teasing the follow-up to 2016’s Wildflowers since last September. In a since-deleted Instagram post, the group shared a picture of the Voyager Golden Record, along with the news that LP3 was already getting mixed. Since then they’ve launched a small galaxy of space-themed singles, and now we know why. Along with the reveal of We Will Always Love You, the band has shared their inspiration for their latest effort, and it has to do with that iconic golden disc. In a new Instagram post, the band said that the cover features Ann Druyan, the creative director of the ...
Sylvan Esso Shares Video for New Single “Frequency”, Directed by Moses Sumney: Watch
On September 25th, electropop duo Sylvan Esso will let loose their third studio album, Free Love. The follow-up to 2017’s What Now is being teased today with a new single dubbed “Frequency”, as well as its video directed by friend and fellow musician Moses Sumney. Here, Amelia Meath’s vocals roll gingerly over the track’s glitchy blips and beeps, rising and falling like a frequency wave. She sings about being irresistibly drawn to someone’s energy field, to the point that she’d like to be a part of it, too. This abstract idea is visualized pretty literally in Sumney’s corresponding clip. In it, a soaked Meath is seen dancing alone outside on a suburban lawn. Slowly but surely, though, more and more people — a delivery person, golfer, neighbor, etc. — are pulled into her orbit and join her ...
Hans Zimmer Brings New Arrangement of Pink Floyd’s “Eclipse” to Dune Trailer
The stunning first trailer for Denis Villenueve’s Dune is out, and amid all the excitement — Sandworms! Stillsuits! Oscar Isaac’s beard! — you may have caught a familiar tune. Playing in the background is Pink Floyd‘s “Eclipse”, presented in an apocalyptic new arrangement by composer Hans Zimmer. “Eclipse” is the final track from the classic album Dark Side of the Moon. In some ways, its appearance here is the closing of a circle. In the 1970s, experimental filmmaker Alejandro Jodorowsky sought to use Pink Floyd’s music for his own adaptation of Dune. The attempt failed, but was later documented in the 2013 film Jodorowsky’s Dune. At last, one of the spaciest rock bands in history has been joined with Frank Herbert’s sci-fi epic. Zimmer’s arrangement differs from the origina...
M.I.A. Drops New Stay-At-Home Club Anthem ‘CTRL’
Welcome back, M.I.A. The decorated British rapper and singer released a new track, “CTRL,” on Wednesday (Sept. 9) via her website OHMNI.com. But she has a message for fans who might think it’s a single from her next album. “CTRL! A SONG FOR 2020,” M.I.A. wrote. “This is not a song from M.I.A.’s upcoming highly anticipated IIIIIIth LP. It was made for the HERE + NOW, TODAY.” The booming track and colorful electronic visuals would be perfect for a club setting or rave, but with the way 2020 is looking, it might just be the stay-at-home club banger of the year. M.I.A.’s latest release was “OHMNI 202091,” which dropped just as much of the world was shutting down in March. Before that, her last full body of work was her 2016 project AIM. Back in July, we saluted the 10th anniversary o...
Aesop Rock Announces New Album Spirit World Field Guide, Shares “The Gates”: Stream
Beloved Portland MC Aesop Rock has announced a new album called Spirit World Field Guide, due out November 13th. The forthcoming project marks Aesop Rock’s first solo LP since 2016’s The Impossible Kid, and follows his 2019 collaborative record with Tobacco as Malibu Ken. Notably, Spirit World Field Guide has no listed featured rappers among its 21 tracks, meaning this is an entirely independent affair. Fans of the famously wordy hip-hop artist, rejoice! According to a statement, Spirit World Field Guide is meant to be something of a concept album, “a guide to an upside-down world illustrated across 21 insightful chapters.” It promises to offer “firsthand know-how of the terrain, wildlife, and social customs of our parallel universe, rife with hallucinatory images of ki...
Djo (aka Joe Keery) Unveils New Song “Keep Your Head Up”: Stream
Joe Keery introduced us to his Djo musical moniker last year with his debut album, Twenty Twenty. Today, the Stranger Things actor returns with a new single encouraging you to “Keep Your Head Up”. A funky psych-pop tune that nods to George Clinton, the track aligns Djo with fellow experimental contemporaries like Jacob Collier. A heavy beat with a fat synth drone loop under a cacophony of dancing piano notes, swinging horns, and dazzling electronics in an intoxicating if heady mix. “Got to love yourself/ Go ahead touch yourself,” Keery sings on the opening verse. “Take that time alone before your heart belongs to someone else.” Take a listen via the “Keep Your Head Up” visualizer below. Editors’ Picks Keery will join The Flaming Lips frontman Wayne Coyne today (Wednesday, September 9...
