Every week the Stereogum staff chooses the five best new songs of the week. The eligibility period begins and ends Thursdays right before midnight. You can hear this week’s picks below and on Stereogum’s Favorite New Music Spotify playlist, which is updated weekly. (An expanded playlist of our new music picks is available to subscribers on Spotify and Apple Music, updated throughout the week.)
Confidence Man - "Young London"
Tim Simenon was producing tracks as Bomb The Bass as the ‘80s tipped over into the ‘90s, and I hear that moment and its aftermath in the new Confidence Man track that invokes his name. “Young London” has so much jock jam energy that I half expect to be asked, “Y’all ready for this?” The chintzy syncopated keyboard chords, the dunderheaded beat, the sense that Fatboy Slim is about to get on the decks — it’s the gaudiest ‘90s dance pastiche, in the best way. —Chris
GB - "The Next Day"
"The endless chase for what again?” Gustav Berntsen asks over the searching, bumpy rhythm of his latest single’s open-tuned guitar. On the blissful open-road R&B of “The Next Day,” GB searches for both hell and peace, only to arrive at a crossroads where he can’t remember what he was chasing in the first place. Such is life! Built on shaggy guitar pop and sophisticated strings, the song gently reminds us that time keeps moving and we all tumble forward. It sounds like it’s on the verge of collapse, but Berntsen keeps it buoyant with a jauntiness that recalls Steely Dan or James Taylor. “The truth lies somewhere,” he sings toward the song’s end. He doesn’t sound anxious or desperate to uncover it, unsure whether finding that truth would even grant him what he craves. Instead, the song offers a soothing reminder that there is no correct pace to move at and no final destination we’re meant to reach. —Margaret
Josaleigh Pollett - "Bed Of Quiet"
On this "over-thinker's anthem," Josaleigh Pollett and collaborators including Chris Walla aimed to evoke sleepless nights "when you're not quite yet dreaming, but suspended above your body like a projected film of the last few week's events you can't stop watching, playing too loud for sleeping." Pollett's hallucinatory tossing and turning is evidently a lot livelier than mine. The arrangement on "Bed Of Quiet" is full of clattering metallic beauty, like a fried '80s pastiche, and Pollett sings it with energy and clarity to spare. It'll jolt you awake in a good way. —Chris
Nia Archives - "Get Me Down" (Feat. Jorja Smith)
“Get Me Down” is simultaneously frenetic and gracefully horizontal — a perfect parade of sweltering breakbeats and the sublime interplay between Jorja Smith’s molten croons and Nia Archives’ svelte vocals. It’s a track that captures what Archives does best, allowing time to move in multiple directions while maintaining a sense of freeform momentum. The industrial pivots, glowing synths, bird calls, and Matrix-esque time warps reveal the beauty found in opposing forces; there’s chaos and control, movement and stillness, pressure and release. Pure bliss. —Margaret
Lily Seabird - "Portal To The Past"
This is just what Lily Seabird does now, isn't it? All of the advance singles from the Burlington singer-songwriter's upcoming album Lightspheres On Their Way have been ragged, expansive country-rock epics, and "Portal To The Past" might be the most majestic one yet. Seabird's voice crackles with electric yearning, and her guitars are beautifully fuzzed-out tangles that can't help but recall prime Neil Young. But the thing that really pushes this song over the top, at least for me, is the mournful cello hums quietly throughout. Even as everything else moves into the spaced-out rock zone, that cello keeps us grounded. —Tom
