Throughout the week, we update our Best New Songs playlist with the new releases that caught our attention the most, be it a single leading up to the release of an album or a newly unveiled deep cut. And each Monday, we round up the best new songs released over the past week (the eligibility period begins on Monday and ends Sunday night) in this segment.
On this week’s list, we have one of two new Big Thief tracks produced by drummer James Krivchenia, the shimmeringly gorgeous and intimate ‘Little Things’; the poignant yet soothing new song by Chicago-based artist and poet Tasha, ‘Lake Superior’; Magdalena Bay’s gliding and infectious ‘Secrets (Your Fire)’, the second offering from their forthcoming debut album; Indigo De Souza’s cathartic new single and the dynamic centerpiece of her upcoming LP, ‘Real Pain’; and Lala Lala’s hypnotic and shadowy ‘Color of the Pool’, which is more low-key but no less potent than previous teaser ‘DIVER’.
Perfume Genius, aka Mike Hadreas, has offered his take on Gloria Gaynor’s disco classic ‘I Will Survive’. Check it out below.
Sharing the cover through his newsletter, Hadreas had this to say about it:
I recorded this at home for a commercial pitch, but they didn’t give me the money. I suppose the cover is a little deathbed-y, I was very serious that day, but i like how it turned out. In particular the last moment… i might stretch that in to something new.
I dug around online for a while, looking for video to pair it with, and ended up with an old bowflex commercial and forest fire footage that I spliced together. Happy to share it with you. Goodbye everyone
Perfume Genius released IMMEIDATELY Remixes, an album of reimagined versions of each track from last year’s Set My Heart on Fire Immediately, back in March. Earlier this summer, Hadreas collaborated with the Hypnotic Brass Ensemble for a cover of Richard Youngs’ ‘A Fullness of Light in Your Soul’.
Producer and longtime Kanye West collaborator Mike Dean has reportedly pulled out of the rapper’s long-delayed new album, Donda. Dean posted a series of tweets, including “fuck it” and “good to be at the house,” before replying to a comment about West’s album rollout, “Toxic. That’s it.” Various social media comments appear to confirm that Dean is no longer involved in the project and has returned to his Los Angeles home, as NME points out. “I left Monday. Secretly. Had to get away,” he wrote in a since-deleted tweet.
The follow-up to 2019’s Jesus Is King was originally slated for release after the first livestream event at the Mercedes-Benz Stadium in Atlanta on July 23, but no album materialized. West reportedly ended up staying in the venue to finish the album and launched a second livestream event at the stadium on August 5, which featured an appearance from Dean. Release dates for the album have since been announced and then scrapped; a pre-order page for Donda currently shows an August 20 release date.
Simon Gallup, longtime bassist for The Cure, has announced he has left the band, according to a public post on his personal Facebook page. “With a slightly heavy heart I am no longer a member of the Cure!” he wrote. “Good luck to them all …” In response to a friend asking if he was OK, Gallup said that he “just got fed up of betrayal.” Neither The Cure nor bandleader Robert Smith have confirmed Gallup’s departure.
Gallup joined The Cure in 1979 after playing on Robert Smith’s side project, Cult Hero, and is the second longest-serving member of the band behind Smith. After leaving the band in 1982 during their Pornography tour, he rejoined in 1984 and has played on every Cure album since 1985’s The Head on the Door.
In 2018, Smith told The Irish Times that if Gallup were to leave the band, “it wouldn’t be called The Cure.” In an interview with NME the following year, he said, “For me, the heart of the live band has always been Simon, and he’s always been my best friend. It’s weird that over the years and the decades he’s often been overlooked. He doesn’t do interviews, he isn’t really out there and he doesn’t play the role of a foil to me in public, and yet he’s absolutely vital to what we do.”
Smith added: “We’ve had some difficult periods over the years but we’ve managed to maintain a very strong friendship that grew out of that shared experience from when we were teens. When you have friends like that, particularly for that long, it would take something really extraordinary for that friendship to break. You’ve done so much together, you’ve so much shared experience, you just don’t want to lose friends like that.””
Earlier this summer, Smith offered an update on the Cure’s belated follow-up to 2008’s 4.13 Dream, saying it will be the band’s last. “It’s 10 years of life distilled into a couple of hours of intense stuff,” he told The Sunday Times. “And I can’t think we’ll ever do anything else. I definitely can’t do this again.”
Arctic Monkeys were reportedly recording a new album in Suffolk last month. The band visited Butley Priory, a venue on the Suffolk coast, between June and July, and recorded music there, according to a post on the venue’s website.
“We’ve had a band staying for the last month recording,” the post reads. Musicians love the acoustics in the Great Hall and Drawing room, with their huge vaulted ceilings. Being serenaded while watering and weeding the garden, listening to the double bass, drums and piano wafting out of the open double doors, was pretty nice. Thank you, Arctic Monkeys.” The “Thank you, Arctic Monkeys” line has since been edited out of the post.
Arctic Monkeys’ last album was 2018’s Tranquility Base Hotel & Casino.
Ulysses Saniel, a London-based photographer and designer, unveiled a serene series that uses concrete as a component in contrast with the dynamic and emotional subjects he shoots. The series is inspired by the “attitudes of the past” widely present during the current worldwide lockdown. Stylistically, we see a strong prominence of blue hues in the shadows and mids, which play a factor in creating a vintage-like aesthetic alongside the cameras strong grain — bringing out the theme of nostalgia.
Nanci Griffith, the Grammy Award-winning folk and country singer-songwriter known for songs such as ‘Love at the Five’ and ‘Dime and From a Distance’, has died at 68. Her management, Gold Mountain Entertainment, confirmed her death in a statement on Friday afternoon, but did not provide a cause of death. “It was Nanci’s wish that no further formal statement or press release happen for a week following her passing,” they stated.
Griffith was born July 6, 1953, in Seguin, Texas in Seguin, Texas and raised in Austin, where she began playing local gigs and wrote her first song, ‘A New Generation’, at age 12. After attending the University of Texas, she began working as a teacher before pursuing music full-time. In 1978, she released her debut album, There’s A Light Beyond These Woods, which won a songwriting prize at the Kerrville Folk Festival. She moved to Nashville in the early ’80s, where she became a close collaborator of other folk artists including Suzy Bogguss, Kathy Mattea, Emmylou Harris, Lyle Lovett, and Dolly Parton. Her 1994 album Other Voices, Other Rooms won the Grammy Award for Best Contemporary Folk Album.
Griffith scored her first hit as an artist with a cover of Julie Gold’s ‘From a Distance’, which became an even bigger hit for Bette Midler in 1990. Her music became increasingly political with age; her 2009 record The Loving Kind featured pointed criticisms of George W. Bush, and she described her 18th and final studio LP, 2012’s Intersection, as “a protest album.” “It was nice to focus on things outside of my body,” she said in an interview in 2010, “and music has always done that for me.”
Griffith was awarded the Lifetime Achievement Trailblazer Award by the Americana Music Association in 2008. This past July, it was announced that she was among the incoming class of the Texas Songwriters Hall of Fame.
As brutally unsettling as Kristin Hayter’s work as Lingua Ignota can be, her music is rooted in the cathartic power of empathy and a deep, complicated desire for peace. On her previous LP, 2019’s astonishing Caligula, she combined the sounds of classical music, metal, and noise in an attempt to exorcise trauma, reclaiming the “phallocentric format” into a means of feminist vengeance. Its follow-up, Sinner Get Ready, burns with a similar kind of righteous anger, though Hayter is less interested in exhausting the same ideas than crafting a distinctive body of work that exists in its own world – one that’s just as immersive and frightening as that of its predecessor, exploring the implications of the divine through a wholly different framework. The blood-chilling undercurrent between the two records speaks as much to Hayter’s conceptual focus and artistic devotion as to the wider resonance of her work.
After relocating to rural Pennsylvania, Hayter decided to forego the harsh sonics of Caligula to experiment with traditional Appalachian instrumentation that includes banjo, psaltery, and dulcimer. Here, too, she manages to use those instruments in a subtly subversive manner, but they also have the direct effect of evoking the religious and cultural history of the landscape. Because it relies less on sheer sonic dissonance, the album’s ambivalence is instead portrayed through a combination of musical ambiguity and lyrical prowess: Hayter’s uncompromising voice embodies the same concepts her lyrics examine – piety, righteousness, retribution – without establishing a clear position or passing judgment. But such is the force of her conviction that submission is unavoidable: “I am relentless I am incessant I am the ocean,” she proclaims on the opening track, “And all who dare look upon me swear eternal devotion.” The song stretches out to a fiery nine minutes, its operatic scale giving way to a haunting, vicious ambiance, an early sign that danger lurks in every corner.
Hayter has spoken of her academic approach to songwriting and composition, and Sinner Get Ready is a testament to her ability to translate her research into an engrossing experience. But though it has all the intensity of a theatrical performance, the emotional core of the album reveals more than a theoretical obsession: Hayter first started singing in church and named her project after the 12th century nun and mystic Hildegard von Bingen, but the personal connection has less to do with Catholicism than a combination of the physical pain she had to endure as a result of spinal surgery, the environment of her surroundings, and her relationship with a person who struggles with addiction. “It’s about not being able to be loved and never being enough, especially when the addiction is to other people,” Hayter told Stereogum, adding, “I try not to be super confessional in my language, and to obfuscate all of that with biblical and allegorical imagery, without ever actually talking about myself.”
Hayter has clearly succeeded on that front, and her striking invocation of such imagery is by far the biggest draw of the album, but the underlying personal is what helps it feel both human and visceral in its impact. “The surgeon’s precision is nothing/ No wound as sharp as the will of God,” she sings on ‘REPENT NOW CONFESS NOW’. The unforgettable ‘I WHO BEND THE TALL GRASSES’ frames her tone of violent indignation as a consequence not just of blind faith and pure desperation, but love: “I have never loved him more than I do now but I can’t do it again/ I have to be the only one/ I’m not asking you understand he belongs to me/ You understand it is my voice that bites the back of a cold wind.” The music is a perfect encapsulation of that final line: with the specific context obscured, all the weight falls on Hayter’s piercing vocals begging over a shivering dirge of organ, cymbals, and castanets.
But the atmosphere that most consumes the album is one of punishing isolation. “Loneliness my master/ I bow to him alone” are the devastating lines that close out the record, but they also feel like the inevitable conclusion of a ruthlessly unforgiving journey. Yet the power of that declaration is strangely restorative: “My wounds that stung before now sing,” Hayter sings earlier on the album, and on the hymn-like final track all her wounds are healed. Perhaps the most stirring and transcendent moment on Sinner Get Ready arrives on ‘PERPETUAL FLAME OF CENTRALIA’, a piano-based composition whose rich, stately beauty belies the horrors of its quiet worship. “Life is a song, a song,” she muses, and for a moment, it truly feels eternal.
“The last 18 months have been hard, but being off the road has meant that I’ve actually had time to get back to my roots as a session player and collaborate with some wonderful artists,” John said in a press statement. “And having the opportunity to spend time with Dua, albeit remotely has been incredible. She’s given me so much energy. She’s a truly wonderful artist, and person, absolutely bursting with creativity and ideas. The energy she brought to ‘Cold Heart’ just blew my mind.”
“Ever since we first ‘met’ online, we totally clicked,” Lipa commented. “Elton is such an inspirational artist and also has the naughtiest sense of humour – a perfect combination. It has been an absolute honour and privilege to collaborate on this track with him. It’s so very special, with some of my very favourite Elton John classic songs combined – I loved being part of such a creative and joyous experience. Can’t wait to hear it everywhere this summer.”
PNAU added: “Setting a stage for the two greatest performers in the world today Sir Elton John and Dua Lipa, we knew we had to go in deep, take them into our world, the psychedelic laser black lit club. Where all of us can meet on the dance floor, forget the outside and lose ourselves in the healing waters of music and love eternal.”
The Killers have released their latest album, Pressure Machine, arriving less than a year after their previous LP Imploding the Mirage. The band co-produced the new record with Foxygen’s Jonathan Rado and the War On Drugs collaborator Shawn Everet, who also worked on Imploding the Mirage, while Phoebe Bridgers features on the song ‘Runaway Horses’. The record was inspired by Brandon Flowers’ experiences growing up in the small town of Nephi, Utah, with the frontman stating, “I discovered this grief that I hadn’t dealt with. Many memories of my time in Nephi are tender. But the ones tied to fear or great sadness were emotionally charged. I’ve got more understanding now than when we started the band, and hopefully I was able to do justice to these stories and these lives in this little town that I grew up in.”
Asheville indie rock band Wednesday have dropped their third LP, Twin Plagues. The follow-up to last year’s I Was Trying to Describe You to Someone is out now via Orindal. In an essay accompanying the release, Hanif Abdurraqib writes: “Twin Plagues is overflowing with hooks, but what most delighted me about the band from the start has taken a leap: they have managed, somehow, to get even better at structuring their noise from one movement of a song to the next […] Everything has a place, and so much of its place is to serve the true heart of this album, and the true heart of Wednesday’s music, which is allowing cracks through which tenderness can enter and exit as needed. Tenderness that, it seems to me, is always wrestling underneath whatever else might be happening on a song’s surface.”
Boldy James and the Alchemist have followed up their 2020 collaborative effort The Price of Tea in China with Bo Jackson. The record was produced entirely by the Alchemist and features collaborations with Freddie Gibbs, Benny The Butcher, Earl Sweatshirt. Curren$y, Roc Marciano, and Stove God Cooks. “I took that 2020 energy and used it to fuel the new momentum and make it more of a moment this go-round,” Boldy James stated. “The evolution of the Bo Jackson project came from seeing the results of The Price Of Tea In China, and knowing what the possible outcome is if I connect more with my fans. This new Bo Jackson project means a lot to me because it reflects my growth as an artist, and I have my own personal favorite moment on the album where my son is telling everyone how I’m not the real Bo Jackson, he is (lol). Overall, I just feel like Alchemist outdid himself once again, and I held my own against such incredible production.”
Oscar Lang has issued his debut album, Chew the Scenery, via Dirty Hit. The singer-songwriter previewed the LP with the singles ‘Stuck’, ‘Are You Happy?’ and ‘21st Century Hobby’, ‘Thank You’, ‘Write Me a Letter’, and ‘Yeah’. “Over the past two years the sound of my music has changed a lot, from bedroom pop to rock,” Lang said in a statement accompanying the album’s announcement. “We recorded the album over a month up in Liverpool. It was a nice break away from the tedious lockdown in the UK as I got to spend a month away with my mates doing what I love. I think you can hear that built-up boredom being released on the record.”
Jungle have returned with their third album, Loving In Stereo. Following up on their 2018 record For Ever, it marks the first time the electronic duo have worked with other vocalists, including Tamil-Swiss Priya Ragu and US rapper Bas, while friend and fellow producer Inflo contributed on three tracks. “With this record we’ve learned to trust our instincts and go with our gut,” Tom McFarland said in a statement, with bandmate Josh Lloyd adding: “We want it to be more raw, open, fun, enjoyable and entertaining, because that’s what music is.”
Other albums out today:
A Great Big Pile of Leaves, Pono; alexalone, ALEXALONEWORLD;Jade Bird, Different Kinds of Light; Still Woozy, If This Isn’t Nice, I Don’t Know What Is; Devendra Banhart & Noah Georgeson, Refuge; Quicksand, Distant Populations; Dan + Shay, Good Things; Joy Orbison, Still Slipping Vol. 1.
Asheville indie rock band 
Oscar Lang
Jungle