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 Thursday, July 16, 2026.
Carly Rae Jepsen – ‘After All’
Carly Rae Jepsen has shared ‘After All’, a shimmery, sensual tune from her forthcoming album, Day and Night. Jepsen wrote the track with frequent collaborators Kyle Shearer, who also produced, and Nate Cyphert. It arrives alongside a video directed by Aerin Moreno.
Hovvdy – ‘You Will Go Far’
Hovvdy have previewed their sixth album, Big World, with another tender, heartwarming single called ‘You Will Go Far’. It comes paired with a music video directed by Michael Rees.
Hana Stretton – ‘Seagull Singles II’ and ‘As It Was Before This’
Australian ambient-folk producer, composer, and multi-instrumentalist Hana Stretton has shared another pair of gorgeous tracks from her forthcoming album, tiarn. ‘Seagull Theory II’ and ‘As It Was Before This’ from her forthcoming album, tiarn, out August 7th. “It’s not an accident that both of these songs are choral exercises and need many voices and bodies to work,” Stretton commented. “I had been isolated for a longer time than was good for me and was being gently nudged by my songs to move out into the world.”
She added: “In order to finish the songs, I knew I had to find people… I started tentatively with my dad playing harmonica on a drive, then my best friends and their band Woom giggling and singing along on a hot day in London, Paddy Keenan playing the pipes in Cork, Evie Hilyer-Ziegler improvising on her fiddle, my friend Nick Huggins beautiful low voice, Hannah McKittrick and Isobel Caldwell gathered around the tape machine in Melbourne and finally the Forest Creek Folk Choir in Castlemaine. Once I started, it cascaded… and now, the songs hold over 50 voices. Without knowing it, I was trying to remind myself of the beauty and abundance that was available if I just took a few steps in the right direction.”
Spaer – ‘Vaguely Pleasant’
Spaer, the project of Psymon Spine co-founder Peter Spears, has announced a new EP, Lessons and Nonsense – out August 20 – with the playful new single ‘Vaguely Pleasant’. If you’re a fan of the Hovvdy track featured above, you should check it out below. “This song is an older one as well, so a bit out of character thematically,” Spears explained. “That said, I don’t even fully remember exactly what the lyrics are referencing. I do know that it’s generally about, and was partially written during, the “after glow” associated with the day after MDMA, in a time in my life when I felt a bit cold and angry. It can help reset your perspective and connection to others and leave you feeling vaguely pleasant, hence the refrain and the title.”
Envie – ‘Violently Friendly’
How would you describe yourself on a scale of “vaguely pleasant” to “violently friendly”? I’d say the former, but ‘Violently Friendly’, the first single by East London trio Envie (pronounced on-vee), is just as enjoyable as the previous song on this list, if considerably more aggressive. Under their former band name, Dystopia, the band featured on FKA twigs’ Caprisongs track, ‘Which Way’. “‘Violently Friendly” is about how frustrating it is trying to hold onto a friendship when the other person keeps trying to push it into something romantic,” they explained. “It’s about setting boundaries and creating some distance and honestly just wishing someone would accept that friendship is enough and nothing else.”
“This song is coming from a place of annoyance and frustration when someone you love as a friend keeps projecting a romanticised version of yourself due to their own personal feelings,” they added. “It’s a punchy and almost sarcastic song about creating some distance and letting them know you only like them in a ‘Violently Friendly’ way…”
hey, nothing – ‘Long Time Leaver’ [feat. Bea Porges]
“‘Long Time Leaver’ pokes fun at the strange nature of touring or traveling,” hey, nothing, the duo Tyler Mabry of Harlow Phillips, said of their latest single. “It is about the internal guilt we feel every time we leave home for extended periods of time. Through this song, we look through the eyes of our parents and how it must seem for them when we miss holidays or certain major life moments – there’s a loneliness for both those who leave and those who have been left. But it’s also about letting go of that shame in order to grasp the privilege in reach and use it for good rather than wasting it.” It’s taken from their upcoming major label debut, Hound.
