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 Tuesday, August 19, 2025.
bar italia – ‘Fundraiser’
London trio bar italia have announced their new album, Some Like It Hot, with the strikingly immediate ‘Fundraiser’. It comes paired with a music video starring British actor and comedian Matt King (Peep Show, Bronson).
claire rousay – ‘just (feat. m sage)’
claire rousay has announced a new album, a little death, which is part of a trilogy that includes 2020’s a heavenly touch and 2021’s a softer focus (around which we ran an Artist Spotlight interview). It also follows last year’s sentiment, which “was a different way of working that helped refresh my music-making habits and usual flow,” according to the artist. “This record is a return to what I see as my core solo practice, a re-dedication to those methods of working which I’ve found most align with what I envision my music or sound to be.” The lead single, which features Colorado ambient musician M. Sage, gently invites us back into that intimately atmospheric world.
Westerman – ‘Adriatic’
Westerman has announced A Jackal’s Wedding, his first album since moving to Greece – or, as he put it in a statement about the swirling lead single ‘Adriatic’, “failing at moving to Greece.” The singer-songwriter elaborated: “I was trying to break outside of the confines of my immediate physical reality. Life is full of practical limitations in terms of having a body, or what you can afford in terms of money, etc. but you can always go to a place in your head where everything is possible, and the song is a celebration of reclaiming that. I hadn’t written anything for a long time. I got very depressed after my first record, the whole experience was just so bad that I wasn’t sure whether I wanted to make music anymore. Writing this song was taking back ownership of that creative space which is just my thing and it’s powerful. There are periods in everybody’s life where they feel like maybe they don’t have any control over anything. It’s the realization that there’s a part of you that they can’t get to unless you allow for it, and you can always keep that space, even if it’s buried, it doesn’t go away as long as you remember that it’s there.”
Wednesday – ‘Bitter Everyday’
“The sweetest parts of life keep getting bitter every day,” Karly Hartzman sings over acoustic guitar in the final moments of ‘Bitter Everyday’, though the rest of the song might be the stormiest Wednesday have released from their forthcoming LP Bleeds. “‘Bitter Everyday’ is a song formed around my desperate desire to tell the story about how, in 2019, this lady came up on our porch at like 3 in the morning when Jake and our friend Andrew were out there drinking and playing guitar,” Hartzman explained. “She asked them if she could sing them a song she had written, she had an incredible voice. They recorded a voice note of it and showed it to me the next morning when I woke up. I knew which lady it was, she was a houseless person who walked around the downtown area a lot. Weeks later, I was walking home from work and I saw a photo of her on a telephone pole. It was an old mug shot of her, and she was done up in juggalo makeup. The description on the paper said she was wanted for murder. The chorus is an homage to Iris DeMent’s song ‘Easy’s Gettin’ Harder Everyday.’”
Jeff Tweedy – ‘Feel Free’
Jeff Tweedy first previewed his upcoming triple album Twilight Override with four new songs, and today we get another one, the breezy ‘Feel Free’. “The freedom I’m talking about in this song comes in both small doses and large doses,” Tweedy explained. “It arrives at me, at the most free I feel in my life. Which is making a record with my friends and singing a song that I feel like is a part of the past, present and future.”
Mac DeMarco – ‘Phantom’
The freewheeling energy of that Jeff Tweedy song sounds a lot like Mac DeMarco’s new album Guitar, of which we get one last preview today with ‘Phantom’. It opens with the lines, “Sure, I’d give it up/ Just for one more chance to say goodnight/ Oh, my love, was it real or just fantasy?/ Your phantom sits with me.”
Nation of Language – ‘In Your Head’
Nation of Language’s new song ‘In Your Head’, from their forthcoming Dance Called Memory, starts out in a more shadowy fashion than most of their singles, subtly expanding over the course of five minutes. It follows previous cuts ‘Inept Apolla’, ‘I’m Not Ready For Change’, and ‘Under the Water’.
Spiritual Cramp – ‘Young Offenders’
Spirital Cramp have served up a new single from their forthcoming record Rude. ‘Young Offenders’ is absolutely anthemic, and it comes paired with a music video directed by Sean Stout.
They Are Gutting a Body of Water – ‘the chase’
They Are Gutting a Body of Water have shared a blistering new single, ‘the chase’, from their upcoming album LOTTO. Though dreamlike, the lyrics are an autobiographical account of relapse. “I woke up that morning rapidly nose-diving into fentanyl withdrawal, and recognized the light in Emily’s face,” frontman Douglas Dulgarian revealed. “I became aware of the same fact that has presented itself in my life countless times, what becomes the very mission statement of the record: living in truth is a practice, and it’s never too late to get real again.”
Ratboys – ‘Joseph’ (Bad Bad Hats Cover)
Minneapolis duo Bad Bad Hats are celebrating the 10th anniversary of their debut album, Psychic Reader, with a tribute LP featuring remixes and covers. One of them is a lovely cover of ‘Joseph’ by Chicago’s Ratboys. “What a treat to rediscover ‘Joseph’ through Ratboys, one of the great live bands of our indie era,” Bad Bad Hats’ Kerry Alexander commented. “‘Joseph’ was one of the first truly collaborative Bad Bad Hats songs: Chris wrote the instrumental and I wrote the melody and lyrics on top of it. In their cover, I love how you can also hear the sum of the Ratboys’ parts: Dave’s distinct guitar-shredding, Julia’s iconic voice, etc. And who is Joseph? I’ll never tell.”
Public Opinion – ‘Laughing Academy’ [feat. Drug Church’s Pat Kindlon]
Public Opinion have announced a three-song EP called Perpetual Motion Machine, which arrives September 8. Drug Church’s Pat Kindlon appears on its first single, ‘Laughing Academy’, which is accompanied by a Jarrett Barnes-directed video.
Shallowater – ‘Sadie’
Houston-based band Shallowater have previewed their upcoming album, God’s Gonna Give You a Million Dollars, with a brooding track called ‘Sadie’. “Growing up in West Texas brings a lot of weather-related anxieties,” the trio told FLOOD. “Lubbock was completely leveled by a tornado in the ’70s, and the thought of that happening again kept me up many nights when I was a kid. I know tornadoes are pretty cliché, but telling us not to write about them would be like telling someone in California not to write about the ocean.”
Hand Habits – ‘Bluebird of Happiness’
Ahead of the release of their new album Blue Reminder, Hand Habits has today shared its final single. ”One day my partner asked what birdsong we were hearing through the window and I was like, ’well that’s the bluebird of happiness obviously,’ and it became a joke song I would sing around the house, but then it grew wings,” Meg Duffy explained. “I also got curious about the history of the bluebird of happiness, and found that it has mythological significance. It’s interesting how a symbol like that functions subconsciously, or in the collective unconscious. Even when we might not know everything about its origins, or when it’s almost become a pop cliche, maybe there’s some essence or a through-line that can remain true. Or the cliche itself can become material to play with. And I think because I can have an aversion to sentimentality in my songwriting, it felt exciting and fun to go there. And it does feel like such a hopeful song to me, though this bluebird has definitely seen some things, which is reflected in the production too.”
Makaya McCraven – ‘Technology’, ‘Choo Choo’, ‘Away’, and ‘Imafan’
Makaya McCraven has announced he will follow 2022’s In These Times with four new EPs: Techno Logic, The People’s Mixtape, Hidden Out!, and PopUp Shop, which will all be out October 31. The jazz drummer and producer has shared a track from each release; though they’re built from different live recordings, they are similarly exploratory and mesmeric.
Good Flying Birds – ‘Fall Away’ [feat. Wishy’s Nina Pitchkites & Kevin Krauter]
Good Flying Birds, an Indianapolis band that has toured with Ducks Ltd. (though they evidently prioritize quality over quantity – of birds, that is), have shared a new single featuring Wishy’s Nina Pitchkites and Kevin Krauter. You should expect a healthy mix of jangliness and noise hearing those names, and ‘Fall Away’ does not disappoint. “I recorded an iphone voice memo sitting in bed, singing and strumming an unplugged electric guitar, the usual,” the band’s Kellen Baker recalled. “Sent it to my friend (now roommate) Kevin Krauter to see if he’d be interested in working together on it, figured we’d start from scratch and maybe rearrange some things. He sends back my voice memo with fully tracked drums a day later, played immaculately. He’s a savant. Started going over to his parent’s house in Carmel and built it up from that drum track, he recorded while i played in the corner of the basement over a couple days, broken up by listening to records, sitting in a hot tub, and watching Trances (documentary about nass el ghiwane) and Next (a crazy 2000s dating show). Later I had Nina Pitchkites (my friend and neighbor) come over and track some vocals in my bedroom, she knocked it out right away, she has an amazing voice. My friend Demi Jo was working on the music video for ‘Down On Me’ at the same time in the same room.”
Jim White – ‘Inner Day’
Jim White has announced a new album, Inner Day, out October 24, sharing the meditative title track. While he’s a storied percussionist, this marks his debut as both a lyricist and vocalist, though you couldn’t necessarily tell. “’Inner Day’ is about veils and how the unconscious doesn’t follow the waking person’s clock,” White explained. “It doesn’t follow the external so-called laws of temporality and causality. Do you?”
Paz Lenchantin – ‘Hang Tough’
Paz Lenchantin, former bassist of Pixies and A Perfect Circle, has announced her debut solo album, which is called Triste. Before its October 17 release, she’s shared the cinematic lead single, ‘Hang Tough’, featuring drummer Josh Freese (Nine Inch Nails, ex-Foo Fighters), guitarist Troy Van Leeuwen (Queens of the Stone Age), and musician Jeffertiti (Father John Misty).
Greg Freeman – ‘Salesman’
Ahead of its release on Friday, Greg Freeman has shared a vibrant new single from his upcoming album Burnover. “‘Salesman’ is technically a serious song about something sad, but also one of the more upbeat songs on the album,” he explained. “It’s also the only one we recorded pretty much fully live, and with my touring band.”
Double Wish – ‘Riptide’
Orange County duo Double Wish will release their debut self-titled album on Friday, and today they’ve offered one last preview, the aqueous ‘Riptide’. “‘Riptide’ was inspired by our personal experiences with surfing and time spent in the ocean,” Adam Sabolick and Philippe Andre commented. “How something sublime can be so beautiful and refreshing, but also dangerous and unpredictable. The ocean is a bit of a metaphor here for the challenges of facing uncertainty, and the emotional forces that can pull you down. Surrender, survival and acceptance. Taking risks, getting knocked down, but trying again.”
