New Song Releases
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...
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 ...
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...
beabadoobee Stays Present on New Single “Worth It”: Stream
Fake It Flowers is the forthcoming debut album from rising indie rocker beabadoobee, due out next month via Dirty Hit. One of the most anticipated of 2020, it’s been teased thus far with the brooding “Sorry” and Song of the Week “Care”. As a third preview, she’s now sharing a track titled “Worth It”. Additionally, beabadoobee has announced 2021 tour dates in the UK. On this new crunchy, grunge-inspired offering, the Filipino-British artist attempts to shake off the ghosts of a past relationship that have been distracting her from fully living in the present. The single reminds us of both the importance of letting our old traumas heal and the value in the here and now. In a statement, the musician also known as Bea Kristi says the track is “simply about teenage infidelity and the mistakes o...
Anna McClellan Announces New Album I saw first light, Shares Two Singles: Stream
Indie pop songwriter Anna McClellan has announced a new album titled I saw first light, set to arrive November 20th. To accompanying today’s news, the Omaha musician has shared two new singles, “Desperate” and “Pace of the Universe”. The record is McClellan’s third full-length to date and second for Father/Daughter Records following her 2018 album Yes and No. Early on in her career, the Nebraska-born singer-songwriter was cosigned by Frankie Cosmos, which gave her profile a boost and placed her in a league of comparable contemporaries. Like Cosmos and others such as Florist and Dear Nora, McClellan makes soft, relatively lo-fi twee pop with intimate subject matter and clever lyrics. Unlike those other acts, though, McClellan’s songs have a woozy and whimsical swing to them that’s distinctl...
Homeboy Sandman and Quelle Chris Announce New Album Don’t Feed the Monster, Share “Trauma”: Stream
Queens rapper Homeboy Sandman has announced a new album, Don’t Feed the Monster, produced entirely by Detroit’s own Quelle Chris. The collaborative effort is expected to arrive October 16th via Mello Music Group. The upcoming hip-hop project consists of 15 tracks, and features one lone vocal contribution from Quelle Chris himself. According to a statement, the full-length represents a “turning point” for the two artists, who used this new music to help process and better understand their own personal struggles and complex emotions. “I was having a hard time and this record saved me,” Homeboy Sandman remarked in a statement. “Thank Quelle and thank God and shout to Gabor Maté.” Praising his friend and colleague, Quelle Chris said that Homeboy Sandman “finds balance in using his words t...
New Order Unveil New Song “Be a Rebel”: Stream
Since dropping their excellent album Music Complete in 2015, New Order have been zoned in on special reissues like their upcoming Power, Corruption, & Lies box set instead of recording new music. But that changes today with the release of “Be a Rebel”, a brand new single and their first original music in five years. “Be a Rebel” was originally planned to be released during New Order’s autumn tour, but the band had to postpone those dates due to the ongoing coronavirus. They’ve decided to share the track digitally anyway to uplift listeners. It’ll receive a physical release on 12-inch vinyl and CD with remixes at a later date as well. “In tough times we wanted to reach out with a new song,” said Bernard Sumner in a statement. “We can’t play live for a while, but music is still something...
Micachu and the Shapes Change Name, Announce New Album: Stream
Micachu and the Shapes, the noisy indie-pop band led by Under the Skin composer Mica Levi, are back. They have renamed the group Good Sad Happy Bad — taken from their 2015 full-length of the same name — and have announced a new album called Shades. It’s due out October 16th via French label Textile Records. Shades is Good Sad Happy Bad’s fifth studio album to date and their first new music since releasing the Taz and May Vids EP in 2016. According to the record label, Good Sad Happy Bad have shuffled their musical duties on the 12-track full-length, with Raisa Khan taking on lead vocals, Levi playing playing guitar and electronics, Marc Pell on drums, and CJ Calderwood contributing vocals, saxophone, and recorder. To coincide with today’s announcement, Good Sad Happy Bad have also sha...
Colin Meloy and Laura Veirs Join Raye Zaragoza on New Song “They Say”: Stream
Colin Meloy (photo by David Brendan Hall), Raye Zaragoza (photo by Cultivate Consulting), and Laura Veirs Folk artist and protest music songwriter Raye Zaragoza has announced a new album, Woman in Color. Due out October 23rd through Rebel River Records, it’s being previewed today with a single called “They Say”, featuring harmonica from The Decemberists frontman Colin Meloy and banjo arrangements courtesy of veteran folk musician Laura Veirs. A timely number, it finds Zaragoza taking the US government to task for its piss-poor response to the coronavirus crisis. “This song is about the dysfunction of American power structures. It’s about how the systems built to support the people don’t support all people,” she explained in a statement. “Especially during a pandemic, it’s been ex...
Bilal Releases New Star-Studded Album VOYAGE-19: Stream
Veteran R&B and soul artist Bilal has returned with his first album in five years. Stream VOYAGE-19 below via Bandcamp. The long-awaited follow-up to 2015’s In Another Life was created over the course of just three days last month in partnership with Brooklyn-based studio HighBreedMusic. Joining the Grammy-winning musician remotely was a long list of special guests, who all recorded their parts in real time as part of a live event. Among those who participated: Erykah Badu, Robert Glasper, Nick Hakim, Cory Henry, Madison McFerrin, Marcus Strickland, and Jaime Woods. Ben Williams, Ray Angry, Brandee Younger, Marcus Gilmore, Louis Cato, and Melanie Charles also appear on the project. VOYAGE-19 is broken up into three separate parts, one for each day: “Day One – Warning-19”, “Day Two...
