Every week, we update our Best New Songs playlist with several tracks that catch our attention, then round up the best songs of each month in this segment. Here, in alphabetical order, are the best songs of August 2026.
Alex G, ‘Pain is the Heart of Love’ [feat. Paul Buchanan]
I can’t imagine writing about yeule’s cover of Broken Social Scene’s ‘Anthems for a Seventeen Year-Old Girl’ outside the context of Jane Schoenbrun’s last film, I Saw The TV Glow, so I should probably reserve my thoughts on ‘Pain is the Heart of Love’ until I get to watch their new film, Camp Miasma, later this week. Still, the impact Alex G’s standout contribution to the soundtrack had on me was immediate, buzzing around in my mind like a haunting echo of his work on Phoebe Bridgers’ then-just-released Lost Weekend. Unfurling over four minutes, the song hammers down its aching romanticism with swirling layers of acoustic guitars and strings, over which The Blue Nile’s Paul Buchanan delivers an unbearably tender performance that seems to scrape every word in the title for new meaning with each repetition. Long after its essentialist message has pierced through, the words themselves seem to lose weight – some sort of answer hanging instead in the gaps between, the distance between love and pain.
Lex Walton, ‘Hipster Runoff’
If I’m being honest, I gave Lex Walton’s Sub Pop debut, ULTIMATE LOVE FOREVER, a single listen and thought every single song could land on this list; the title track is one of the catchiest songs I’ve heard all year. But ‘Hipster Runoff’ gets extra points for the music video, which adds another layer to the song’s metacommentary on the cultish, apolitical optimism of blog-era indie rock; Walton not only tried to make it sound like a Wolf Parade song in light of Dan Boeckner being involved, but got Arcade Fire’s Sarah Neufeld to contribute violins, too. But unlike its overly earnest or verbose reference points, some more contemporary than others, ‘Hipster Runoff’ is unafraid to tease, taunt, and diss at every turn, defining itself in opposition to the things it despises: “Hypnagogic Republicans, shitgaze landlords/ Short form video content, optimized for playlists.” If she’s just stating the obvious, why is there so little rock music that sounds as undeniable as this?
Phoebe Bridges, ‘Bobby’
On Phoebe Bridgers’ previous album, which now sounds born from a different universe all together, “This could the end” could be classified as apocalyptic, but the qualifying “of wanting” makes all the difference here. As the most joyful highlight on Lost Weekend, ‘Bobby’ could carry the breathless momentum of ‘Lost Boys’ as the album’s second, superior single. Oblivion is still the backdrop of the song’s bleeding optimism, but even when the song does dissolve into a puddle of sentimental synths – whether they come from Bridgers, Ethan Gruska, or Jack Antonoff hardly matters – you have no doubt it’s a only a long exhale before it picks up steam again. With scenes of domestic specificity augmented by the singer’s titular partner on backing vocals, ‘Bobby’ might sound a little too on the nose coming from someone else. For Bridgers, it’s a triumph that points to but sounds like nothing else in her discography.
Squirrel Flower, ‘Cleveland’
Like ‘Bobby’, ‘Cleveland’ is a song of idealized domesticity, but Squirrel Flower’s Ella Williams wrestles with the acceptance she might have to fashion a version of it all by herself. “He’s cute but he doesn’t like Cleveland/ No house no dog in the yard,” she sings on the song’s gigantic chorus, bolstered by mounting layers of guitar from co-producer Alex Farrar, Horse Jumper of Love’s Dimitri Giannopoulous, and Andy Krull. Williams credits her brother Nate for that chorus lyric, rendering the Say a Prayer to the Gods of Getting Going standout a rare co-write in Squirrel Flower’s discography – and a pointed one, making a love song to the titular city feel anything but lonely. Even in the final note of resignation, Williams sounds defiantly resolute.
Tinashe, ‘Melatonin’
Tinashe is a maximalist; this much ‘Melatonin’ makes clear. The sneering, club-ready hook of her latest single is instantly attention-grabbing, but the singer does way more than coast on vibes, effortlessly proving her critics wrong. Barely a minute in, Tinashe launches into an energetic verse that sounds like another song for a moment, then sends the original one to the stratosphere over swirling synths. She hints as much early on, but the shift is unexpected regardless: “Bet you thought we’d stop, you already know we kept it going.” The production is by turns effervescent and clanging, as if scoffing at you for not taking her seriously enough but more concerned with reeling you onto the dance floor.
untitled (halo), ‘aimee lou wood freestyle’
A few years ago, I saw Aimee Lou Wood star in an incredible production of Chekov’s Uncle Vanya, a role that likely inspired her famous turn in season three of The White Lotus. That context isn’t very useful in understanding untitled (halo)’s latest single, which the band’s Jack Dione titled ‘aimee lou wood freestyle’ simply because he had been watching the show in the spring of 2025. And while Dione’s rapping might be the most distinctive feature of an otherwise gauzy indie rock song, it’s far from a solo showcase, triangulating the members’ free-form sensibilities: drummer and producer Jay Are’s gripping jerk beat, Ariana Mamnoon’s ethereal vocals, Nicholas Noneman’s subtle textures. “I found myself in the depths of you,” the chorus goes: for a group like this, the abyss should sound like a breakthrough.
