There’s so much music coming out all the time that it’s hard to keep track. On those days when the influx of new tracks is particularly overwhelming, we sift through the noise to bring you a curated list of the most interesting new releases (the best of which will be added to our Best New Songs playlist). Below, check out our track roundup for Friday, August 5, 2025.
Algernon Cadwallader – ‘Hawk’
Algernon Cadwallader are back with news of their first album in 14 years, Trying Not To Have a Thought, which is led by the raucous and urgent ‘Hawk’. “There was already distance wide as the sky/ But I liked to know you were in it, why did you have to die?” it begins.
AFI – ‘Behind the Clock’
AFI have a new record coming out on Run for Cover. Silver Bleeds the Black Sun… is out October 3, and the lead single ‘Behind the Clock’ is beefy and expansive. It arrives with a music video directed by Gilbert Trejo.
Big Thief – ‘Los Angeles’ and ‘Grandmother’ [feat. Laraaji]
Big Thief have shared two more songs from their upcoming album Double Infinity. ‘Los Angeles’ is lovely and tender in a way you can grasp in your hands, while ‘Grandmother’, featuring Laraaji, is on the rockier, more mysterious end of Big Thief’s sound.
Joan Shelley – ‘Everybody’
Joan Shelley has announced a new record titled Real Warmth, and you can hear what she means by that in its lead single, ‘Everybody’, which is exquisite. But, in her own words:
The warmth of actual bodies: connection and belonging as opposed to the facades we show each other, in person and also in the lifeless online world.
A spiritual, humane warmth as opposed to performative or superficial kindness where love only applies to one’s own group, but will permit incredible suffering for another. How massive an effort it is to still love people at this time, in this place.
The real warmth of the planet and the urgency of our moment. Finding ways to guard the fragile world and gentle people; searching for balance between extremes.
Stella Donnelly – ‘Baths’ and ‘Standing Ovation’
Stella Donnelly has returned with two new songs, ‘Baths’ and ‘Standing Ovation’, both of which delicately highlight her incredible voice and melodic sensibility. “I came up with this melody while I was swimming laps at the Brunswick Baths, the pool filter was making a humming sound on one note which allowed me to sing a melody over the top,” Donnelly commented. “It then continued when I got home and had a shower with the bathroom fan on. Both activities made it difficult to write any lyrics down. I finally sat with a keyboard and held a note and it all just came together. A little timeline of my life so far.”
La Dispute – ‘Top Sellers Banquet’, ‘Saturation Diver’, and ‘I Dreamt of a Room With All My Friends I Could Not Get In’
La Dispute have been unveiling No One Was Driving the Car one act at the time, and today they’ve shared three new songs: ‘Top Sellers Banquet’, ‘Saturation Diver’, and ‘I Dreamt of a Room With All My Friends I Could Not Get In’. It’s a hefty bunch, and Jordan Dreyer had this to say about it:
the next act was heavily inspired by a particular scene in First Reformed, where the film’s two primary characters connect through a ritual of remembrance and comfort, traveling beyond their plane of reality into some otherworldly beyond. the record’s spiritual/metaphysical event happens here, in the middle of a banquet held by the multi-level marketing company mentioned in the fourth song from the prior act in celebration of their fiscal year’s highest performers. after a welcome speech, and while the provided entertainment (ballet dancers accompanied by a small orchestra) begins between tables on the floor, a sudden flash of light occurs, an indescribable sound accompanying it, and light begins to fall through the hall’s high ceilings down, focused only on the non-employees in attendance (the dancers, the servers, the players, valets), at which point they begin to rise impossibly skyward, leaving the others invited attendees and higher ups behind.
the narrator returns in the next song, discussing again the slow dissociation mentioned heavily in act one, through the image of a saturation diver tangled in his oxygen line. he realizes he remains on earth after the “rapture” of the previous track passes, and reflects again on the journey taken to arrive there, alone and un-beamed up.
we return home in the final entry of the penultimate block, in the midst of his unaddressed malaise and disintegration. the self-examination concludes in self-loathing and collapse — his partner preparing to leave, his desperate pleas unheeded, all of life and comfort broken in unfixable ways — by his own failure to address and correct. we’re left with, effectively, the narrator lamenting some combination of control he never had and control he failed to establish. he pleas for the chance to correct, to be given one more opportunity to not just push back against odds stacked against him (and all of us), but to most of all recognize and care for what, despite everything, has given him security and meaning.
Jens Lekman – ‘Wedding in Liepzig’
Jens Lekman, who seems to be sampled on the new Burial single, has shared a playful 10-minute track called ‘Wedding in Liepzig’. About the Songs for Other People’s Weddings track, Lekman said: “‘Wedding in Leipzig’ is a song that never wanted to end, it just kept writing itself. I think it was 20 minutes long at one point before I started cutting it down. I think I was subconsciously inspired by Lou Reed’s ‘Street Hassle’ when I was writing it. In the song we find J, the wedding singer in our story, in a rather desperate and vulnerable state as he makes his way to a wedding gig in Leipzig. There he’s placed at the dreaded singles table, consisting of a bunch of loners and weirdos. And through stories told at the table, he begins to ponder what it means to be alone.”
Orcutt Shelley Miller – ‘Four-door Charger’
Bill Orcutt, Steve Shelley, and Ethan Miller have released a new single from their upcoming Orcutt Shelley Miller single, ‘Four-door Charger’.The sharp-edged, groovy instrumental is aptly described as “kraut-funk” in a press release.
Long Fling – ‘Flung’
Pip Blom, the leader of Amsterdam’s Pip Blom, and Willem Smit of Personal Trainer have teamed up for a new project called Long Fling. Their self-titled debut album is out October 3, and the lead single ‘Flung’ is delightfully off-kilter and catchy. Smit described it as “one of the easiest songs on the record to write.”
The Lemonheads – ‘The Key of Victory’
The Lemonheads have shared ‘The Key of Victory’, a contemplative single off their forthcoming LP Love Chant. “It’s quiet, it’s bitchin’,” Evan Dando commented. “It’s pretty and it’s modal. I was trying to do like a Street Hassle vibe, you know?”
Whitney Johnson, Lia Kohl, and Macie Stewart – ‘Stone Piece I’
Chicago-based violist/composer Whitney Johnson, cellist/composer Lia Kohl, and violinist/composer Macie Stewart have formed a new trio. They’re debuting with BODY SOUND [STONE PIECE] and the stirring drone piece ‘Stone Piece I’, arriving ahead of a full-length album set for release next year via International Anthem.
Retirement Party – ‘Sixth Sense’
Retirement Party have returned (no longer retired, you might say) with the announcement of a new EP called Nothing To Hear Without a Sound. “I first wrote this song in 2018 and funny enough, it is about someday moving on from pursuing music,” Avery Springer said of the hooky lead single ‘Sixth Sense’. She added, “This EP is the start of a new chapter of this band. I like to think of it as my ‘adult’ chapter, since I was 18 when I started Retirement Party.”
Weakened Friends – ‘NPC’ [feat. Buckethead]
Weakened Friends’ latest single features a guitar solo from Buckethead, who you most definitely wouldn’t describe as a pop-punk dude. It’s pretty wild. “Really happy to have been asked to play on the song,” he commented. “Weakened Friends are one of my favorite groups, and their new album is so great, I really encourage everyone to get it. Honored to be asked to be on their record. They’re a great live band as well. If you get a chance, definitely go see them.”
Saintseneca – ‘Sweet Nothing’
Saintseneca have shared ‘Sweet Nothing’, a driving new single from their forthcoming effort Highwalllow & Supermoon Songs. Zac Little explained:
On my honeymoon, years ago, I found this little riff. It seemed to lead somewhere, but the edges rolled off into nothingness — a faded out map. I’d find fragments and try to line them up to no avail. Disparate states that just almost match up — but not quite. Like how you can tell the continents used to touch. I laid it in the drawer to sleep.
The big heavy things — transcendent, effervescent, crushing, or crushing. It’s hard to find a tune buoyant enough to carry them.
Then Patti Smith’s dream cowboy paid me a visit — straight off the M Train, and blessed me with a chorus.
“I’m sure I could write endlessly about nothing. If only I had nothing to say.”
NewDad – ‘Pretty’
NewDad have unveiled a new song, ‘Pretty’, an evocative love letter to their hometown of Galway. ‘“Pretty’ is a lighter spin on a key theme of the album, homesickness,” frontwoman Julie Dawson said of the Altar single. “It was a way for me to express my adoration for Galway, it’s a love song really.” She added, “Coming to a place like London that’s so chaotic and overwhelming really made me appreciate the peace and quiet of home. Also the landscape, being able to see wide open fields and roads with no one on them it’s just so calming and I’m in love with it. That’s why I wrote this song.”
Westside Cowboy – ‘Drunk Surfer’
Ahead of the release of their debut EP, Be Something Great, Westside Cowboy have dropped a compelling new single called ‘Drunk Surfer’. The track, vocalist Reuben Haycocks admitted, “in all honesty, was about a time that I have since forgotten. This is not something that I regret however, as the song is now free to take on new meanings depending on the context of my life. I hope it can work like this for others also.”
lynyn – ‘Versilitude’
Lynyn has released an enticing new track, ‘Versilitude’, the second preview of the Chicago-based electronic producer and composer’s forthcoming album Ixona. It arrives alongside a music video from longtime collaborator Owen Blodgett.
