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 June 2026.
@, ‘Autosmile’
@ may be willfully un-SEO-friendly, but imagine coming across ‘Autosmile’ by accident. If you came to love it knowing nothing about the duo Stone Filipczak and Victoria Rose, could you really call it a stroke of luck? “You are not an accident in any way,” Victoria Rose sings, “You’re perfect for this world.” She’s in a state of blissful doubtlessness, filled with gratitude and attuned to the possibility of infinitely more beauty, more grace. As much as the acoustic instrumentation mirrors the lovely sentiment, it unfolds in such a way over the course of six and a half minutes that the misalignment, however slight, between the two lovers becomes impossible to ignore. It might be subtly eerie harmonies or the tense fingerpicking, but there’s nothing certain about how this fantastical romance will bear out – except that, for a short while, it feels like divine intervention.
L’Rain, ‘soulless cycle’
Kicking off a new album cycle with a single called ‘soulless cycle’ is a bold move, but it does nothing if not fuel anticipation for L’Rain’s upcoming album fata morgana. The noisy torrent of exhaustion and numbness feels like it could go on forever, but it takes about the average song length for Taja Cheek to break out of the loop with a hardcore breakdown that scans halfway between catastrophe and catharsis. The forces clouding ‘soulless cycle’ are beyond L’Rain’s control, but still not enough to shroud her thrilling creativity.
Noy Joy, ‘Big Life, Big Leaf’
After breaking out with their fifth LP Bugland last year, No Joy has teamed up with Fire-Toolz once again for a short EP led by the densely luminous ‘Big Life, Big Leaf’. One look at those titles is enough to infer that the projects are at least somewhat aesthetically related, though the new song seems to travel at the speed of light, converting all the band’s shoegazy ambitions into absurdly bright dance music. “We blend into the light/ First day of spring hills in your eyes,” Jasamine White-Gluz sings, contorted but unafraid to stare into the sun.
Phoebe Bridgers, ‘Lost Boys’
Who is ‘Lost Boys’ about? Fans were quick to connect Phoebe Bridgers’ first solo track in four years to the band that has preoccupied her creative life since 2020’s Punisher, boygenius, not least because her bandmates Lucy Dacus and Julien Baker sing backup. There’s no doubt a sense of camaraderie with the rest of her collaborative circle, too, from notable additions like Alex G and Jack Antonoff to longtime contributors including Tony Berg, Ethan Gruska, Christian Lee Hutson, and Marshall Vore. Nate Walcott’s trumpet alone is enough to cast ‘Lost Boys’ in the “upbeat lead single” mode of ‘Kyoto’, though instead of getting bored at the temple, she remembers throwing a tantrum in East Berlin. Equipped with what might be her most memorable chorus, the song caters to expectations in almost every possible way, but its familiarity remains elusive; Bridgers sounds more interested in who’s singing along and what it does to them than the specificity of her own memories. She makes the world of the titular protagonists feel ever so slightly distant, yet unsurprisingly right at home.
Slow Pulp, ‘Better Man’
The heat of the moment can have a way of solidifying your inner world even as it makes you feel slightly out of body. Hear it in ‘Better Man’, the lead single from Slow Pulp‘s upcoming album Melodie where Emily Massey’s voice is coated in effects while audibly straining in a higher register, the way only someone keenly in touch with their pain can sing. Explosive and anthemic, it’s a clear sign that Slow Pulp are leveling up their sound, a wall that Massey is intent on climbing even as it seems to melt and contort all around her.
This Is Lorelei, ‘Billy Came Back’
Since 2024’s Box for Buddy, Box for Star, Nate Amos has built a reputation as a generational songwriter, though outside his work with Water From Your Eyes he’s mostly been reimagining old material under the This Is Lorelei moniker. That changes with ‘Billy Came Back’, a lead single whose indelible guitar melodies and perfect hook simply prove everyone right. The titular protagonist is gifted with a voice that makes every song sound universal, “like he’s singing in the bottom of a deep blue sea.” When Amos sings that hasn’t seen Billy since 2022, you get the sense that he might be a stand-in for the song itself, something seems to sing for you and for me before it’s even finished. That it’s now out into the world is a blessing for all of us.
