Throughout the week, we update our Best New Songs playlist with the new releases that caught our attention the most, be it a single leading up to the release of an album or a newly unveiled deep cut. And each Monday, we round up the best new songs released over the past week (the eligibility period begins on Monday and ends Sunday night) in this segment.
This past week, UK post-punk outfit Squid previewed their upcoming debut album with a phenomenal, shape-shifting single featuring Martha Skye Murphy; Xiu Xiu announced a duets album with a surprisingly accessible collaboration with Grouper’s Liz Harris; Charlie Hickey tapped Phoebe Bridgers for the evocative ‘Ten Feet Tall’, from his forthcoming debut EP; Sophia Kennedy delivered the sparkling, infectious ‘Cat on My Tongue’, while Porter Robinson returned with the lush, uplifting progressive house cut ‘Look at the Sky’. And finally, just a day before the music world was shaked by the tragic news of SOPHIE’s death, we got to hear a previously unreleased B-side from the PRODUCT era, ‘UNISIL’, which serves as a testament to how ahead of its time SOPHIE’s boundary-pushing, futuristic production sounds even all these years later. RIP.
Best New Songs: February 1, 2021
Sophia Kennedy, ‘Cat on My Tongue’
Song of the Week: Squid feat. Martha Skye Murphy, ‘Narrator’
Charlie Hickey feat. Phoebe Bridgers, ‘Ten Feet Tall’
Xiu Xiu feat. Liz Harris, ‘A Bottle of Rum’
Porter Robinson, ‘Look at the Sky’
SOPHIE, ‘UNISIL’