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, April 22, 2026.
Tricky – ‘Out of Place’ [feat. Marta]
Tricky is back with a new album, Different When It’s Silent, arriving July 17 via False Idols. The lead single is a propulsive collaboration with Marta, about which the artist said simply, “I just love making music. I’m grateful I’ve had the chance to live this life and keep creating.”
horsegiirL – ‘earth is turning’
horsegiirL is celebrating Earth Day by announcing her debut album, NATURE IS HEALING – out June 5 – and sharing its sumptuous yet abrasive lead single ‘earth is turning’. Normally based in Berlin, the underground dance artist travelled to Ecuador to participate in an ayahuasca ceremony last year, so this record should be quite the trip, especially considering Nomak (Charli xcx), Casey MQ (Oklou), Margo XS (Kim Petras, Zara Larsson), Elof Loelv (Icona Pop), FREE Jimi (Dorian Electra), Suena (Apache 207), and A.G. Cook all worked on it.
IAN SWEET – ‘Criminal Kissing’
IAN SWEET has announced a new album, Shiverstruck, and the meaning of its title is captured by the infatuated lead single ‘Criminal Kissing’. “‘Criminal Kissing’ is a love letter to making bad decisions,” Jilian Medford explained. “Like hooking up with your ex even though you’ll be left emotionally unraveling and picking up the pieces afterwards. Sometimes you just have to lean into the chaos spiral and see where it leads you.”
Smerzy – ‘Spring Summer’
It’s already starting to feel like summer where I live, and it might be where you are by the time Smerz’s new EP comes out. Easy lands May 15, and the Norwegian duo have offered a dreamy glimpse of it today with ‘Spring Summer’. “At the tail end of finishing Big City Life last year, we made the song ‘Easy’ and from there went off on a tangent,” they explained. “Many of Big City Life’s songs are rooted in specific stories, this Easy EP presented itself in a more open-ended process – almost like a daily journal. It began as a snapshot of a moment, one that was about to become our spring last year, and was finished moving into spring of 2026.”
Kim Petras – ‘Need for Summer’
The rollout for Kim Petras’ much-anticipated Detour has been messy, but today the singer has shared an official video for its latest single, ‘Need for Summer’. She co-produced it with Margo XS, Frost Children, and nightfeelings.
Lowertown – ‘Worst Friend’
Lowertown have unveiled ‘Worst Friend’, an endearing, country-leaning cut off their upcoming album Ugly Duckling Union. “This song was written with our folk inspirations at heart, June and Johnny Cash, Dylan and Baez, trading verses about reaching the point where a lack of self awareness of one’s shortcomings and accountability for one’s mistakes can lead to pushing everyone away and your inevitable downfall,” the duo commented. “Self sabotage, inner darkness and aimlessness are common themes on Ugly Duckling Union.”
Asher White – ‘Nightingale’s Version (Sailor’s Moon)’
Since releasing 8 Tips For Full Catastrophe Living last year, Asher White has delivered an impressive track-by-track cover of Jessica Pratt’s debut album. Today, the NYC-by-way-of-Rhode Island artist has released ‘Nightingale’s Version (Sailor’s Moon)’, refining a song that originally apepared on her 2019 LP In the Quarry. White explained: “Written in 2019 my sophomore year of college and originally appearing on that year’s In The Quarry. sort of embarrassing “young” lyrics but an honest and undeniable melody. very meaningful song to me that i feared losing to time and wanted to dust off; the drums, vocals, and guitar are updated performances but i could not capture or recreate the idiosyncracies of the original piano and organ takes, which were recorded in a cavernous old church room on the RISD campus that someone had dragged an old Hammond organ and rickety upright piano into.”
Public Opinion – ‘Balloon Man Running’
Denver punks Public Opinion have announced their sophomore album, The Curse of Public Opinion, due August 7 via SideOneDummy. The hooky, anthemic lead single ‘Balloon Man Running’ is out now. “There’s an art installation outside my train stop that I see on the way to work every day,” frontman Kevin Hart shared. “It’s a guy running all the time that never gets anywhere. Hard not to relate.”
Ed O’Brien – ‘Incantations’
Radiohead’s Ed O’Brien has released ‘Incantations’, the second preview of his upcoming solo album, Blue Morpho. The slow-burning track’s hypnotic guitars come courtesy of Dave Okumu.
Koyo – ‘You Hate Me’
Koyo have previewed their forthcoming album, Barely Here, with the enervating ‘You Hate Me’. It follows previous cuts ‘Irreversible’ and ‘What I’m Worth’.
BIG|BRAVE – ‘in grief or in hope’
‘in grief or in hope’ is the title track of BIG|BRAVE’s forthcoming album, and it curdles into a wall of noise in a way that’s strangely calming. It follows ‘the ineptitude for mutual discernment’, and the whole LP is out June 12.
Jeff Parker ETA IVtet – ‘Like Swimwear (Part Two)’
Jeff Parker has offered another preview of Happy Today, the third album from his ongoing ETA IVtet. The enchanting ‘Like Swimwear (part two)’ comes paired with a video that’s part of an album-length concert film captured by director Charlie Weinmann at the Lodge Room.
Francis of Delirium – ‘Requiem for a Dying Day’
Jana Bahrich doesn’t write a lot of ballads as Francis of Delirium, but ‘Requiem for a Dying Day’ may be one of her most gorgeous songs, period. It’s lifted from the upcoming LP Run, Run Pure Beauty. About the track, which is accompanied by a stop-motion video, Bahrich shared: “‘Requiem for a Dying Day’ began after reading about Katy Perry going to space and then developed into this pre-emptive mourning and grief for our future. I wanted the video to be done in claymation because the form itself is a celebration of process and slowness. All the work that has been put into it is blatantly on display, every thumbprint and every minor adjustment. We are hurtling towards our future without much pause or forethought. I wanted this video to be an attempt at the opposite, so I chose the most painstaking medium I could think of.”
Carla J Easton – ‘Let’s Make Plans for the Weekend’
Carla J Easton has dropped ‘Let’s Make Plans for the Weekend’, a cheeky, disco-inflected jam from her “first guitar album” I Think That I Might Love You. “I love this song so much,” Easton commented. “I knew the album was leaning more guitar indie-pop, but I couldn’t not include this. Me and my friend Pedro Cameron (Man of the Minch) wrote and demoed it in two hours, we’re both massive fans of Kylie Minogue and Girls Aloud. We wanted to write something that celebrates friendship, dancing, and that feeling you chase every weekend after a hard week.”
Sofie Royer – ‘Cowboy Mouth’
Sofie Royer has returned with a new single, ‘Cowboy Mouth’. It was written in Los Angeles after reading Patti Smith and Sam Shepard’s play of the same title and was made with longtime collaborators from the NYC group Rebounder. The self-directed video was inspired by a box of shoes left on the street, which Jim Jarmusch came across, photographed, and posted on Instagram. “There was something so decidedly moving yet egregious about all the different pairs,” Royer commented. “I was left wondering who they’d belonged to, who had walked in them; that it prompted my own little silly fantasy of what would play out if I’d tried on a pair, discarded my own and just kept walking.”
Ivy Knight – ‘Red Rock’
Brooklyn-based singer-songwriter Ivy Knight has shared ‘Red Rock’, another hypnotic track off her debut album Iron Mountain. “I got the idea for ‘Red Rock’ while driving through Sedona, Arizona, and seeing the red rock mountains for the first time,” Knight explained.
Hammock – ‘The Second Coming Was a Moonrise’ and ‘Sadness’
Hammock have shared a new double single, ‘The Second Coming Was A Moonrise’ – the title track of their forthcoming album – alongside ‘Sadness’. This is the post-rock duo of Marc Byrd and Andrew Thompson, not the Norwegian post-hardcore band Hammok, which was recently featured in this column, so expect a much more soothing listening experience. The release follows another pair of tracks, ‘Chemicals Make You Small’ and ‘The Unsetting Sun’, the former of which may have marked the final collaborative recording of Wayne Coyne and Steven Drozd post Drozd’s departure from The Flaming Lips.
Johanna Samuels – ‘Two People, The Moon’
Los Angeles singer-songwriter Johanna Samuels has shared a new single, ‘Two People and the Moon’, produced by Jonathan Rado. “You know how there’s a cinematic trope/ About two people and the moon?/ She’s looking up at it the same time as you,” it begins. “I felt at the time like I was in a deprivation tank for longer than anyone should be,” she explained. “The first line was the whole premise of the song. I was thinking about how in movies there’s that common writing device where two people are separated, but that they’re both under the same moon and are looking up at the same time. It connects them in a way, bound by the light… I often toggle between loving and believing in that image but then losing hope and feeling permanently separate from others.”
Sophia Stel – ‘Bitches Talk Shit’
You might start hearing a lot more about Sophia Stel, the fresh A24 signee who’s opening for Lorde at the Kia Forum in Los Angeles next month. The Vancouver artist and producer Sophia Stel has shared a bleary yet anthemic new single called ‘Bitches Talk Shit’. It’s accompanied by a video Stel shot at the apartment she shares with her two brothers.
MORN – ‘The Standard Model’
After releasing their debut single ‘Modern Man’ last year, Speedy Wunderground signees MORN have unleashed a ferocious new single, ‘The Standard Model’. Vocalist and guitarist Robert Riba shared: “‘The Standard Model’ has been with us since the birth of our band. It gives unrelenting guitar madness with abrasive vocals — a commentary on a widely hated character who, at the peak of the track, turns to dust. Perhaps running away, disappearing without a trace, never held accountable. Although it hits hard, it’s our least serious, most purely fun and ecstatic song. We built it by stitching two catchy riffs together, and our live performance really grew around it. Both tracks were captured live in Dan Carey’s studio in Streatham, the energy bouncing off the walls of this small room with all of us crammed inside.”
