Sound Off: 10 Songs You Need to Hear Now
By Shaad D'Souza
Jan 05, 2024
It's impossible to be across all the new music out each Friday. Luckily, PAPER is here to help you out: each week, we round up 10 of our favorite new songs from artists — emerging and established — to soundtrack your life. From the surreal to the sublime, these songs cover every corner of the music world. The only criteria: they all have to absolutely rip.
Subscribe to our Sound Off Spotify playlist here and check out this week's tracks below.
TATYANA - "Down Bad"
“Down Bad” is a deviously self-critical crush song with London-based singer and producer TATYANA channeling Tove Lo and Deep Cuts-era The Knife in equal measure as she spins out over rich, oscillating synths.
A. G. Cook - "Silver Thread Golden Needle"
A. G. Cook’s first release outside PC Music is brash and beautiful, channelling the dayglo beauty of classic rave and 2010s EDM while tapping into some of the melancholy melodrama of his sometime-collaborator Hikaru Utada.
Bbyafricka - "Baton Rouge"
Inglewood rapper Bbyafricka has returned with another breathy, unfathomably cool record, on which threats and brags are delivered with a sublime casualness. “Baton Rouge”, a road trip song of a sort, is the ingratiating, slyly feminist highlight.
Snõõper - "for yr love"
Snooper continue to find the most mystical, mysterious edges of garage rock on their new song “for yr love”, which seems to draw as much from classic Brazilian music as it does aughts-era crust punk.
Joshua, yeule, LLLL - "we kissed in the park where my idols tried to commit suicide"
Wistful and heart-racing in equal measure, this highlight from Joshua’s 2.23 EP is a canny synthesis of dance music and ambient electronics, rarely breaking from its central loop but always building to something grand.
Astrit Ismaili & Mykki Blanco - "Miss Kosovo"
Balkan baddie Astrit Ismaili has linked up with Mykki Blanco on this witty, pummelling dance-pop track, a dembow-inflected club song that seamlessly weaves together sly commentaries on modernity and European geopolitics.
Youth Lagoon - "Football"
Even Youth Lagoon’s loosies can break your heart: “Maybe you’re not the person who caught the football” is a simple but totally indelible hook, the centerpiece of this “celebration of failure.”
Galcher Lustwerk - "Played Out - Version 1"
For those still at the New Years Eve after party, “Played Out” is a classic Galcher Lustwerk party extender, a sexy and glamorous deep house track that seems designed to play on repeat.
Fabiano do Nascimento, Sam Gendel - "Poeira"
Rio de Janeiro-born guitarist Nasciemento and Los Angeles saxophonist Gendel create a delicate, lucid fairytale on “Peoria”, an overtly virtuosic track that’s magnificent to behold.
ZENTHEGHOUL - "UNMEI"
ZENTHEGHOUL’s latest track is a throwback to classic 2000s-era alt-rock, replete with a yearning singalong chorus that’ll pay big dividends come summer festival season.
Photo credit: Villde Vidoe
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