So many artists, so little time. Each week we review a handful of 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, track premieres, and more all day. In these concertless times, that includes daily livestreams and live concert videos we love. We update a playlist weekly of some of our current favorite tracks. Here’s a daily roundup with a bunch of interesting, newly released songs in one place.
ARCTIC MONKEYS – “ARABELLA” (LIVE AT THE ROYAL ALBERT HALL)
Arctic Monkeys’ charity live album comes out this Friday (benefitting War Child UK), and they’ve now released its second single: a rendition of AM highlight “Arabella.” It sounds as great as you’d expect, and it comes with a video featuring a montage of live footage.
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A WINGED VICTORY FOR THE SULLEN – “DESIRES ARE ALREADY MEMORIES”
Ambient duo A Winged Victory for the Sullen (aka Stars of the Lid founder Adam Wiltzie and Dustin O’Halloran) will release their new album Invisible Cities on February 26 via Artificial Pinearch Manufacturing. It’s their score to the theatre production directed by London Olympics ceremony video designer Leo Warner and produced by Manchester International Festival, Rambert, 59 Productions and Karl Sydow, and the first taste is the hauntingly gorgeous “Desires Are Already Memories.”
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THE INNOCENCE MISSION – “RADIANT AND HOLY NIGHT”
Having released the wonderful See You Tomorrow earlier this year, The Innocence Mission are back with this holiday song that strikes a more melancholy chord than most yuletide fare. Like most of their music, “Radiant and Holy Night” is spookily beautiful.
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HOT CHIP – “STRAIGHT TO THE MORNING (DILLON FRANCIS VS HOT CHIP REMIX)” FT. JARVIS COCKER
Hot Chip’s new single “Straight to the Morning” which pairs them with Jarvis Cocker, is out in January and comes with this remix of the track by Dylan Francis. “I have been a massive Hot Chip fan since their album ‘The Warning’ so getting asked to remix this last single was an absolute honor,” says Francis. “This remix is in the direction of a lot of my upcoming new music so I hope people enjoy the hell out of it because more happy house music is on the way!”
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BRIAN JONESTOWN MASSACRE – “OPEN FACE”
The Brian Jonestown Massacre have been writing, recording and uploading new songs to their YouTube at a rapid clip all year, with 53 songs so far. The latest is “Open Face,” another groovy psych track in signature BJM style.
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WESTERMAN – “YOUR HERO IS NOT DEAD (UNACCOMPANIED)”
“I started teaching myself to play the piano at the start of the first lockdown in the UK,” Westman says of this new version of “Your Hero is Not Dead” that features on his debut album from this year. “It was helpful to have something new to try and occupy the mind in a period when too much free thinking time was proving damaging. This song closed my album and was meant as a personal call to arms for times of difficulty.”
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CLAUD – “SOFT SPOT”
Claud, aka Brooklyn songwriter Claud Mintz, recently signed to Phoebe Bridgers’ new record label, and now they’ve announced their debut album, Super Monster, due out February 12 via Saddest Factory. About new single “Soft Spot,” Claud says, “Sigh. I have a soft spot for lots of people, places, and things. This song is about knowing I can’t be with this one specific person, but my feelings won’t go away… I still hope I run into them, or they randomly text me about something. It’s just me romanticizing what I can’t have and being like ‘but what if…'”
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TOKYO POLICE CLUB – “HUNDRED DOLLAR DAY”
Tokyo Police Club are giving Champ an expanded 10th anniversary reissue on March 5 via Mom + Pop/Dine Alone/Memphis Industries, and it’ll include this previously unreleased song. Guitarist/keyboardist Graham Wright said “One nice thing about revisiting something ten years after the fact is that you at least have a shot at some perspective. I’m sure that at the time, 23 years old and stressing over our big swing second record, all the hours we spent agonizing over whether or not to put ‘Hundred Dollar Day’ on the record seemed very good and important. But of course now I forget about all of it, and I just hear a damn cool song that brings me happily back to a hell of a time in my life. But then again, if we’d put the song on the record in the first place, I wouldn’t be able to enjoy it right now. So maybe we were on to something after all.”
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SYLVAN ESSO – WITH LOVE EP
Sylvan Esso wrapped up their three-part “From the Satellite” virtual concert series last night, and they’ve recorded the third and final night as a new EP. It was recorded with the 10-piece WITH band they toured with in 2019, featuring Jenn Wasner of Wye Oak & Flock of Dimes, Meg Duffy of Hand Habits, Dev Gupta of Mr Twin Sister, Adam Schatz of Landlady, Matt McCaughan of Bon Iver and Lambchop, Joe Westerlund of Megafaun, and both of Amelia’s Mountain Man bandmates, Alexandra Sauser-Monnig (aka Daughter of Swords) and Molly Sarlé. “Getting the WITH band back together a year after our original tour (and in most cases, the last shows any of us played) was such an unexpected joy in a year where all other plans fell through,” Sylvan Esso write. “We are immensely grateful to everyone who worked so hard to help us make this safe and possible, and to everyone out there who listens. Thank you.”
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YOUR OLD DROOG – “KYRGYZSTAN”
Your Old Droog continues to do a ton of justice to the sounds of ’90s New York rap, and while you wait for his anticipated new album Dump YOD: Krutoy Edition to drop this Friday, here’s one more single from it.
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VENOMOUS CONCEPT – “VOTE CLOWN PARTY”
Napalm Death/Brutal Truth-related grind-punk band Venomous Concept already put out a rippin’ new album this year, and here’s a non-album ripper released for the Decibel flexi series.
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SARAH MARY CHADWICK – “AT YOUR LEISURE”
New Zealand-born, Melbourne-based singer songwriter Sarah Mary Chadwick is releasing her seventh album, Me And Ennui Are Friends Baby, due out February 5 via Ba Da Bing. Like the rest of the album, new single “At Your Leisure” was made with just piano and voice, and it packs an emotional punch.
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MINDZ EYE – TRUE BLUE EP
Mindz Eye are a Colorado hardcore band whose psychedelic and melodic yet still raw and aggressive approach to the genre has gained them comparisons to Turnstile, Higher Power, and Title Fight. If you dig those bands, you’re gonna wanna keep your (mindz) eye on these guys too.
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KHEMMIS’ BEN HUTCHERSON (THE DOCTOR OF DOOM) – “COME OUT AND PLAY” (THE OFFSPRING COVER)
Khemmis’ Ben Hutcherson has a solo covers project called The Doctor of Doom, and his latest release is a metal cover of The Offspring’s ’90s hit “Come Out And Play” (retitled “Like A Spreading Disease”). “I once dreamt of a world. A different, better world. One wherein the Offspring‘s album ‘Smash‘ was written and recorded by members of Misery Index and Napalm Death,” Ben said. “Wouldn’t you like to live in that world?”
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BERNICE – “GROOVE ELATION”
Canadian group Bernice, who have collaborated with Andy Shauf, Lido Pimienta, Martha Wainwright and others, are back with their third album, Eau De Bonjourno, on March 5 via Telephone Explosion. They made the record with producer Shahzad Ismaily, and the first single is the jazzy, loungy, downtempo “Groove Elation.”
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MISS GRIT – “DARK SIDE OF THE PARTY”
Margaret Sohn makes music as Miss Grit and will release new EP, Impostor, on February 5. The EP explores the idea of imposter syndrome: “I’ve gone my whole life feeling really uncomfortable defining myself,” Sohn says. “I realized that a lot of the time, I’m more comfortable with other people defining me and making up their mind about who I’m supposed to be.” First single, “Dark Side of the Party,” is a spiralling, orchestral rock song that sounds like its got a clear sense of identity.
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BUKE & GASE W/ SO PERCUSSION – “DIAZEPAM”
Duo Buke & Gase have teamed with ensemble So Percussion for a new collaborative album, titled A Record Of that will be out January 29 via Brassland. The first single is the warm, atmospheric “Diazepam.” “‘Diazepam’ is a deep dive into my psyche and you’ll find this cycling – a reminder not to look to others to keep my sanity or pose, and that sometimes being chemically altered is the only welcome thing that will break the spell of obsessive self-doubt,” says Buke & Gase’s Arone Dyer. “It can be read as a response to this very stressful year (or 4), or a reminder to hug yourself, which has always been a contrivation to me. “Hug myself?” …Yeah. The way you’d hug the person or animal or item you feel most protected by, and the most protection for. It can be a gentle, loving embrace to the ears and nothing more.”
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GUSTAF – “DESIGN”
NYC band Gustaf release their debut 7″ this week and here’s the b-side, “Design,” an angular post-punk track cut through with a little skronky sax. “It’s about criticizing someone else, maybe someone who positions themselves above you or critiques you – you look at them and are like “look, we’re both in the bottom of the well together, don’t act like you are not a well-dweller, and also don’t forget there are people trapped under the well that we aren’t even trying to help right now! Instead you’re bitching at me in the bottom of the well so what’s your deal?””
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YUNG – “SUCH A MAN”
Danish indie rock band Yung will release their second album, Ongoing Dispute, on January 22 via PNKSLM. It’s been four years since their debut which came out on Fat Possum. “We were pretty worn down from a lot of touring,” says bassist Tobias Guldborg Tarp, “and there was a lot of banging our heads against the wall when it came to trying to write new songs. We had to step back and think about what we wanted to do as a band, and whether it even made sense to continue.” Check out anthemic new single “Such a Man.”
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LIA ICES – “EARTHY”
Lia Ices’ new LP Family Album is due out January 29 via Natural Music, and the latest single she’s shared off of it is “Earthy,” which builds from a spare piano backing to a more fleshed out, fuller sound. “‘Earthy’ was one of those songs that came out fully formed,” Lia says, “as if it was a gift from another dimension that I’m still trying to decode. It reflects on the idea that my music, and the process of revealing myself through art, is rooted in The Natural World — the earthy — my catalyst for discovery. We wanted to bring to life the feeling I had up on the mountain, playing solo at the piano, where I would get lost in thought, surrounded by nature, where a whole cacophony of music builds around me, like a fairy tale. It’s basically what happens when I sit down at the piano and the spirit moves me to compose.”
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THOM YORKE, FOUR TET & BURIAL – “HER REVOLUTION” & “HIS ROPE”
While your chances of getting your hands this black label 12″ (only 100 copies pressed) may be slim, someone’s already uploaded both tracks to YouTube and they unsurprisingly sound pretty great. “Her Revolution” features a gorgeous falsetto vocal from Thom over a backing that’s like a jazzy, aural equivalent of a sepia-tone photograph, while “His Rope” is more brooding and foreboding.
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SLEAFORD MODS – “SHORTCUMMINGS”
Sleaford Mods release new album Short Ribs in January and here’s the second single from the record, a politically charged track that makes reference to Dominic Cummings, the former Chief Advisor to UK Prime Minister Boris Johnson who is generally seen as one of the main architects behind the Brexit movement. Says lead howler Jason Williamson, “The arrogance of the privileged generally leads to short, short short, short, short cummings in a momentary centre stage at the cost of untold human misery and exploitation of public money.”
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THE WONDER YEARS – “OUT ON MY FEET”
The Wonder Years decided to revisit the pop punk style of their early releases for a new two-song single in honor of the 10th anniversaries of The Upsides and Suburbia, I’ve Given You All And Now I’m Nothing. This is the second song, and you can read more about it here.
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JENNY LEWIS & SERENGETI – “UNBLU”
Jenny Lewis’ new collaborative single with Chicago rapper Serengeti is one of five songs they worked on together during coronavirus lockdown.
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HARIJAN – “DOWNER”
UK ska-punks Harijan were originally around between 2003 and 2010 but they never released a full-length album. Now they’re back, and their first LP will come out later this month via TNSrecords. Read more about lead single “Downer” here.
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TELE NOVELLA – “NEVER”
Austin-area duo Tele Novella — singer Natalie Ribbons and former Voxtrot bassist Jason Chronis — make dusty, winsome, twangy pop that they refer to as “medieval outsider country.” The new single off their upcoming album Merlynn Belle is “Never,” a dreamy number that really showcases Ribbons’ voice that slips in and out of falsetto in vintage country style.
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Looking for even more new songs? Browse the ‘New Songs’ archive.