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 members on Spotify and Apple Music, updated throughout the week.)
The NYC sample drill producer and Surf Gang leader evilgiane is on an absolute tear. Last week he released The Hurtless, a stellar collaboration with Virginia’s Harto Falión that matched evilgiane’s hyperkinetic beats to moody sing-song rap in gorgeous ways. Today he’s back with the 62 starz EP, a six-song team-up with the Spanish rapper and YouTuber Rojuu. This one traverses more charred and chaotic digital terrain — it would be a fine chaser for the new Playboi Carti album — while maintaining some of the moody melodicism of evilgiane’s work with Falión. It’s somehow kinetic and chill all at once, and you can delve into it all below.
Playboi Carti has been playing hard-to-get for years. He’s been teasing a new album without releasing it. He’s been putting new tracks up on YouTube or Instagram but not the streaming services. He’s gone four years without a full-length statement. So when Carti announced that his long-awaited LP would finally arrive today, people got excited. Many of those people stayed up late. It was a long night for them.
It’s been two years since Aminé’s last album, Kaytraminé, which was a collaboration with Kaytranada. Today, the Portland rapper is sharing a preview of its followup with the new song “Familiar.”
Has an artist ever rolled out a new song by surprise-releasing a bunch of new songs before it? Lil Nas X might be the first. This week he unveiled a new track every day — Monday’s “Dreamboy,” Tuesday’s “Big Dummy!,” Wednesday’s “Swish,” and Thursday’s “Right There” — to prepare fans for “Hotbox,” which is finally out now.
Last year, Wisp released her debut EP Pandora in April, then followed it with “I remember how your hands felt on mine” in October. Today, the shoegaze star is kicking off a new era with “Sword.”
JADE has been having fun teasing “FUFN (F**k You For Now).” At the Brits earlier this month, she performed “Angel Of My Dreams” and, at one point, a dancer flashed his bottom, on which “FUFN” was written in marker. The former Little Mix member also built up the hype for the song with a fake TMZ tabloid, and now it’s officially out.
Last year, Ben Frost released Scope Neglect. The Australian-born, Iceland-based experimental artist is back today with the announcement of its followup, Under Certain Light And Atmospheric Conditions, slated for release in May.
Last year, Beak> released the surprise album >>>>, and a few months later Geoff Barrow announced he was leaving the band. They kick off the final leg of their last tour with him next weekend, but today the UK group released their soundtrack to State Of Silence. They’ve also announced 7″ with two outtakes from the >>>> sessions with profits going to charity.
In 2012, as the cult-beloved Manchester rock band WU LYF broke up, their frontman Ellery Roberts teamed up with his girlfriend Ebony Hoorn under the name Lost Under Heaven. Recently, Lost Under Heaven announced their own musical breakup and released the farewell single “Creation Song.” When the news came out that LUH were hanging it up, some hopeful commenters here wondered if WU LYF — short for World Unite Lucifer Youth Foundation — might get back together. That seemed like wishful thinking to me, but it looks like they might be getting their wish.