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 Wednesday, August 13, 2025.
David Byrne – ‘The Avant Garde’
David Byrne is pretty upfront about the subjects of his songs in his Who Is the Sky? singles. After ‘Everybody Laughs’ and ‘She Explains Things To Me’, we get to hear his thoughts on ‘The Avant Garde’. “Some people will hear this and say, ‘David is calling bullshit on his friends’, but it’s more nuanced than that,” Byrne explained. “Anyone who knows me knows that I go to plenty of shows that might be classified as avant-garde or experimental. Edgy and untraditional work is hugely inspiring to me, as it often changes the way I think and influences what I do (without me simply appropriating the ideas, I hope).”
“That said, trying something unproven and radically new is risky,” he continued. “Sometimes, as with anything risky, it doesn’t quite hit the bullseye. There’s no guarantee that it will achieve what it aims to do, but when it does, the emotional and intellectual rewards are worth it. That is the risk one takes while making something new and unconventional. So yes, there are times when it doesn’t mean shit, but often there are times when something wholly original comes into being and it’s all worth it. I love that the Ghost Train folks and Kid Harpoon took what could have been a fairly conventional song I’d written (musically at least), and steered it into something that to me sounds like Led Zeppelin meets Dirty Projectors.”
Alexa Rose – ‘Where the Magic Lives’
It’s been four years since Alexa Rose’s last full-length, Headwaters, which earned her an Artist Spotlight feature. Today, she’s announcing a new record, Atmosphere, out October 31 on First City Artists, with the gorgeous and searching ‘Where the Magic Lives’. “Have you ever been in some situation you should be enjoying but somehow just can’t? It’s happened to me at the best concerts and under the starriest skies. This song is about fighting to find enchantment again, and making peace with the time that feels lost. I was thinking a lot about growing up in the early aughts, before I always had a phone in my pocket, and how I felt a curiosity about the world that couldn’t be answered with a quick Google search. Sometimes I think leaving a little mystery is what we need to be able to run towards those dreams, to let ourselves bask in a question before we know the answer.”
Skullcrusher – ‘March’
You can take a breath between every piano chord on Skullcrusher’s new single, ‘March’. On first listen, I felt like doing that intuitively, until I was struck by Helen Ballentine’s emotive lyrics, the way she stretches the words beautiful and terrible. “‘March’ is like a confession,” Ballentine reflected. “It felt like surrendering myself to the things I’ve lost, the things I don’t understand, the confrontation of life & responsibility. While I reflect on things, familiar situations take different forms. I make a friend cry as I play them my song, I make them cry because I said something hurtful. There is beauty and terror in the unknown.”
Eliza McLamb – ‘Every Year’
Don’t let the shiny indie rock of ‘Every Year’, Eliza McLamb’s latest single, distract you from its fantastic lyrics. “My stories kept me safe but now I understand/ A story is a lifeboat and sometimes there is land/ You can get out, tie your story to the dock/ Now there’s so much more you can think about,” she sings. The song, McLamb explained, “is the thesis of the record. It provides the context that every other song lives in.”
Asher White – ‘Cobalt Room: Good Work / Silver Saab’
Asher White has unveiled ‘Cobalt Room: Good Work / Silver Saab’, an ambitious 7-minute single from her forthcoming LP 8 Tips For Full Catastrophe Living. Both jazzy and jagged, White has this to say about it: “It’s the sequential sum of what I was listening to and reading at the time. I was interested in pulling every idea to its extreme. Because it’s just me recording, I can pursue the most whimsical, outrageous aspects of the music. What would be the funniest or most cartoonish place to take this? And how can I make that rewarding still?”
King Princess – ‘Girls’
King Princess has shared ‘Girls’, the stormy third single from her upcoming album Girl Violence, and also at the heart of it. “Girl violence is very sneaky,” Mikaela Straus said in a statement. “It’s not physical, it’s deeply emotional, spiritual, and spooky. Women are both amazing and sinister — including myself — and it’s my curiosity to understand all the love, loss, and changes that come out of my love for women. Why are we so inclined to cause and receive chaos?”
Chrissie Hynde – ‘Always on My Mind’ [feat. Rufus Wainwright]
Chrissie Hynde’s new duets album features the Killers’ Brandon Flowers, Julian Lennon, Cat Power, Depeche Mode’s Dave Gahan, Blondie’s Debbie Harry, Low’s Alan Sparhawk, Garbage’s Shirley Manson, Lucinda Williams, the Black Keys’ Dan Auerbach, and the late Mark Lanegan. Today’s announcement comes with the release of her take on the classic ‘Always on My Mind’ featuring Rufus Wainwright.
Miya Folick – ‘Elton John’
Miya Folick has released ‘Elton John’, a heart-wrenching single from the deluxe edition of her latest LP Erotica Veronica. “After my dad died, I spent the following weeks at my parents’ house, getting used to the idea of calling it ‘mom’s house’ and helping her plan the funeral,” she explained. “The first time I came back up to LA, I drove aimlessly through the city, listening to music and crying. I felt the presence of my dad as a young man, living in Los Angeles just like me, loving music just like me. We were different in many ways, but my dad and I could always connect through music. When I had a show at the Troubadour, my dad was excited because he’d been going there since he was a teenager. He liked talking about how he saw Elton John play there in 1970. What an iconic moment. What a part of music history. That’s where the title and the idea of this song comes from. “Elton John” is a song about grief and Los Angeles, and how the people we love are so richly present after we lose them.”
Shame – ‘Spartak’
Shame keep toying with different genres on their Cutthroat singles, and ‘Sparktak’ is pretty countrified. According to guitarist Sean Coyle-Smith, it came about as he “was basically trying to write a Wilco song.” Charlie Steen added: “I guess this disdain towards cliques comes from how shit I was made to feel by the cool kids growing u. I was a chubby teenager who liked the wrong type of music and wore the wrong type of clothes. It’s just another time I’d like to say fuck you to those people, and to anyone who makes someone feel shitty for not fitting in.”
Dance Gavin Dance – ‘Space Cow Initiation Ritual’ [feat. George Clinton]
Dance Gavin Dance have tapped Parliament-Funkadelic leader George Clinton for their new single, which is called ‘Space Cow Initiation Ritual’. It sounds like an odd team-up – until, that is, it actually gets funky. “Getting to work with an icon like George Clinton was surreal,” guitarist Will Swan commented. “It pushed us to dig deeper into the funk and find a balance between his iconic groove and our own post-hardcore edge. ‘Space Cow Initiation Ritual’ blends those worlds in a way that feels fresh but familiar – I think fans of both camps are gonna vibe with it.”
Agriculture – ‘The Weight’
“‘The Weight’ is part of a series of songs on the album that bears witness to queer life,” Leah Levinson said of the latest single from Agriculture’s The Spiritual Sound.” It was written reflecting on a particular month last year when so much seemed heightened. It seemed like many of my friends were being harassed in public—both verbally and physically—for being trans, for being queer, and/or for being women (it’s not always clear which). This was also a time when I was feeling a lot of love and a lot of community. I wanted this song and the songs around it to honestly reflect both these elements. I wanted to write about transness but didn’t want to rely on political aphorisms and indulgent images of suffering. I wanted to paint a holistic portrait of queer life.”
Constant Smiles – ‘Time Measured in Moonflowers’ [feat. Cassandra Jenkins]
Cassandra Jenkins lends her voic to ‘Time Measured in Moonflowers’, the gently swirling new single from Constant Smiles. Moonflowers, the New York project’s debut on Felte, arrives on November 7. “I became obsessed with The Wind Rises by Hayao Miyazaki and would watch it constantly,” Ben Jones explained. “Unlike his other films, this one felt much more direct, beautiful and meditative, but it took me a while to fully understand it. I was fascinated, so I kept coming back to it. The song grew out of that experience, built around the idea of riding inspiration when it comes, like the wind, letting it arrive naturally, take flight, and guide you.”
He added: “It’s also about how time slips through your fingers, how life moves like the wind, and the importance of appreciating it while you can. I was deeply inspired by the people around me, which is why I wanted to include so many of them on the track, people who have truly shaped me.”
“Cassandra’s music was a big influence on this record, so having her sing on it made perfect sense. I’ve looked up to P.G. Six since high school when I saw him perform for the first time it genuinely changed my path. Steven R. Smith has long been an inspiration, and I even had the chance to release one of his records on my own small label. Collaborators like Jen, Shahzad, Leon, and Adam Lipsky have all taught me so much.”
The Belair Lip Bombs – ‘Hey You’
The Belair Lip Bombs, who recently signed to Third Man Records, have announced their first album for the label, Again, out on Halloween. It’s led by the soaring and synthy new single ‘Hey You’. “Having a synth loop driving a whole song is something that we’ve never done before,” singer Maisie Everett said in a statement. Daniel “Dev” Devlin added, “We kind of leaned into that and pushed to make the scope of the song bigger than some of the other songs in the album.”
Fleshwater – ‘Last Escape’
Fleshwater have dropped a new single from their upcoming album, ‘Last Escape’, which rips. It follows 2000: In Search of the Endless Sky‘s equally good first single, ‘Jetpack’.
Beverly Glenn-Copeland – ‘What’s Going On’ and ‘Heal The Children’ (Marvin Gaye Covers)
Beverly Glenn-Copeland has covered two Marvin Gaye classics, making them sound as pertinent as ever. “Marvin Gaye was my teacher,” Glenn-Copeland shared. “Though I didn’t get the chance to meet him in this life, his untimely death broke my heart. I still listen and learn from his wisdom. Marvin’s music is prophetic, and his message of unity through love still rings true today. I’m honored to be covering these two deeply meaningful songs that captured the zeitgeist of a nation at a pivotal time in our shared history. Listen to his introspective lyrics. Dance to his soulful grooves. Get yourself alive in the hands of a master and heed his call.”
William Tyler – ‘Passport to Magonia’ and ‘Covert Services’ [feat. claire rousay]
As if releasing his mesmeric album Time Indefinite earlier this year and prepping a full-length collaboration with Four Tet wasn’t enough, William Tyler has shared two new tracks, the misty, claire rousay-featuring ‘Covert Services’ and ‘Passport to Magonia’. “I’ve been a fan of claire’s since discovering her music and have been grateful to develop a friendship,” Tyler shared. “I would like to think this track is our version of pop music, a little bit Stereolab, a little bit Burial.” He added of ‘Passport to Magonia’: “This song was recorded as an improvisation at The TANK in Rangely, Colorado, a singular place of remarkable reverb in the middle of nowhere western Colorado. The space itself is an abandoned seven story steel water tower. The title of this piece comes from the classic book on ancient alien folklore by Jacques Vallee.”
Guitar – ‘Pizza for Everyone’
Next week, Mac DeMarco will release his new album Guitar, which has nothing to do with the newly announced album from Portland’s Guitar, We’re Going to the Lake. Lead single ‘Pizza for Everyone’, though, has some of that slacker rock energy, with bandleader Saia Kuli explaining, “This song is both an epic non-sequitur rally cry and also about being broke and bored sitting on a couch.”
Neko Case – ‘Winchester Mansion of Sound’
Neko Case has previewed her forthcoming album Neon Grey Midnight Green with a new song, ‘Winchester Mansion of Sound’, a beautiful ballad that struck with me with the line, “Your gravity un-designs you all the time.” It was inspired by the ‘Down Down Baby’ nursery rhyme, the Robbie Basho song ‘Orphans’ Lament’, and Case’s late friend and collaborator Dexter Romweber of the Flat Duo Jets.
Drain – ‘Who’s Having Fun’
Sometimes you feel like you don’t have a partner, and sometimes you feel like you’re the only one who’s having fun. Drain make a great case for the latter on their new single, which is lifted from their upcoming album …Is Your Friend. “‘Who’s Having Fun?’ is summertime music written to be played really loud in the car with your friends and the windows down on a beautiful sunny day,” vocalist Sammy Ciaramitaro explained. “It’s what happens when you just write music that makes you feel happy and don’t really care about fitting into a box or meeting someone else’s genre criteria. DRAIN is gonna do whatever the hell we want. This was the first song that we wrote for this album — it started out as a pretty barebones punk rock song, but we kept adding little moments and flare and all the sudden we turned it into a badass song that truly encapsulates everything that DRAIN is. This song can be about whatever you want it to be — but I think when looking for the truth in life, a good rule of thumb is to ask yourself: Who’s Having Fun? Hopefully it’s you.”
Wicca Phase Springs Eternal – ‘Magic Moment’ and ‘Settler’s Bend’
Wicca Phase Springs Eternal has shared two more songs from his new album Mossy Oak Shadow. (Not to be confused with Cass McCombs’ Interior Live Oak, which is out this Friday; we’ll have to wait another month for this one). Adam Andrzejewski recorded them with producer/engineer Ben Greenberg (Depeche Mode, Drab Majesty, Show Me The Body), accompanied by just a drummer and keyboardist. If you told me they’re taken from Springsteen’s seemingly endless vault, I’d believe you.
Google Earth – ‘endless corridor’
John Vanderslice and James Riotto have a new Google Earth song out, ‘endless corridor’, from for Mac OS X 10.11. It’s groovy and off-kilter. “This is one of those songs that flows effortlessly but took 100 hours to tetris in,” Vanderslice shared. “It almost didn’t make the record until Andrew Maguire added percussion and a blurring of the lines between drum machine and live room recording! Like all Google Earth songs, most of the song was recorded by Jamie and me in a 2 hour improv session. We then built it out from there.”
“Years ago I got stoned and went to see Interstellar in IMAX, and before the movie there was a sort of demonstration of the Dolby Sound system with lots of groovy, very hi-fi, but also quite silly, percussion music,” Rioto added. “I actually think John was with me, and we laughed so hard in the theater as it played. Endless Corridor sort of reminds me of that music.”
Spite House – ’10 Days’
Montreal melodic hardcore band Spite House have dropped ’10 Days’, the second preview of their upcoming sophomore album Desertion. “’10 Days’ about the time I spent by my mom’s side in the hospital after we learned she had cancer,” vocalist/guitarist Max Lajoie explained. “She was gone 10 days after her diagnosis. The song captures what I felt for leaving her behind years earlier, for all the things I couldn’t do, for not being able to stop time.”
