The 5 Best Songs Of The Week

Most of us were well aware that music doesn't necessarily make for the most secure livelihood long before the pandemic ceased the existence of live shows. Still, the year following Peaer's 2019 album A Healthy Earth marked some of the first moments in Peter Katz's adult life where touring and making music weren't at the forefront of his mind. In 2023, he took up a full-time office job, a change to which he's still adapting: "Time to pretend I'm a normal human being," he sings on Peaer's new single "Button," a dynamic spin on classic slowcore that weighs the pros and cons of being a cog in the machine, particularly in times where most machines feel at least somewhat precarious. "Go to work and make something more than a shrine to your ego," the song advises in its final moments, suggesting that maybe the best career advice is doing whatever makes you feel the most fulfilled in the moments you're off the clock. —Abby

We're used to violins threading through the latest art-rock song out of London, but not like this. "Only Girl," Man/Woman/Chainsaw's "total declaration of love," begins with an explosion of guitars topped off by a flurry of fiddle straight out of Chappell Roan's country-pop fling "The Giver," like a raging river released from a dam. Paired with hooks and harmonies more infectious than any we've yet heard from, it suggests this band has the potential to build a huge coalition without losing its quirks. —Chris

"But shit, it would’ve been the perfect talkback/ And the perfect moment/ Passed, passed, passed, passed." Robber Robber's new track "Talkback" is about the frustration of coming up with a great retort hours too late. The melodrama builds through zippy riffs and Nina Cates' admissions of embarrassment: "SOS down with the ship/ Face red I almost came to this." Humiliation and regret have never sounded so fun. —Danielle

The riff on "Get To Choose" is an agitated fly screaming for attention. It's persistent and frantic, hard to ignore and harder to forget. Maybe it's had a long day at work and is a few beers in ruminating about all the highs and lows of its week, its year, its life. The somewhat irreverent electric guitar hypnotically rises and falls with immediacy. Joe Sutkowski's vocals ache with self-reflection and soften with acceptance. "I gave it everything I'm got/ You needed everything I'm not," he sings. It's electrifying as it is earth-shattering. "Get To Choose" is gritty and undeniable — a pummeling rock song with a pop mindset, bringing to mind 2000s darlings like Yellowcard or Dashboard Confessional. It will be stuck in your head, relentlessly buzzing around. —Margaret

This year's Primavera Sound Festival ended with a Danny L Harle DJ set that started sometime around 5AM — just thousands of bloodshot-eyed stragglers wringing the last few bittersweet drops out of an epic weekend, dancing to some of the greatest cheeseball Euro-house of the '00s while the sun rose over the Mediterranean. "Crystallise My Tears" would've slotted right into that DJ set. Harle's production finds beauty in all the most obvious genre hallmarks — the melodramatic piano chords, the playful synth riffs, the relentless boom. Oklou seizes on the melody, singing about sobbing in the club, the clipping computer effects all over her voice making her deadpan flatness all hit even harder, while MNEK brings the gospel grandeur on the bridge. It sounds like the end of every great weekend, forever. —Tom