Sound Off: 10 Songs You Need to Hear Now

Sound Off: 10 Songs You Need to Hear Now

By Shaad D'Souza
Jun 20, 2025

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.

Song of the Week: Central Cee, Sexyy Red - "Guilt Tripping"


Central Cee’s new Sexyy Red collab is a surprisingly (slightly?) romantic track that takes one of Cench’s main lyrical hallmarks – an irrepressible clumsiness when it comes to talking about women – and builds an entire song around it. By the end of the song, “You ain’t a bitch, but baby, you my bitch” might sound like the most romantic thing you’ve ever heard.

Lorde - "Hammer"


An industrial tinged new cut from Virgin, “Hammer” is grand and warm-hearted, featuring references to Lorde’s new life in New York.

Ninajirachi - "iPod Touch"


Ninajirachi’s new single is pure nostalgia, harking back to a time when everything seemed simple and exciting.

HAIM - "All over me"

This one’s a “Gasoline”-style midtempo ballad from Haim’s new album I Quit; the Haim sisters are still the best in the game at this kind of smooth, rhythmic indie-pop.

Cardi B - "Outside"


It’s been a long time since Cardi B released an album, but singles like “Outside” remind you why we’re all still breathlessly anticipating her new record.

Kesha, Slayyyter, Rose Gray - "ATTENTION!"


While I have a lot of skepticism about this kind of cunty strut-pop, which seems to be the default mode for anyone with a laptop, an Instagram account, and a couple of tubes of Too Faced Lip Injection gloss in their handbag, when it’s this frenetic and fun, it’s hard to deny.

PinkPantheress - "Close to you"

Hearing this 2021-era Pinkpantheress loosie makes it clear how far she’s come as a producer in recent years, but it’s still fun to hear her old-school DIY approach.

Kito, Cakes da killa, Born Dirty - "ECHO"

Sublime LA house producer Kito links with the queer avant-garde underground’s best rapper on this hot-and-heavy heater.

Ghais Guevara, Cameron Winter - "Nina Narcissist"


A rap song that samples one of the most intense songs on Cameron Winter’s Heavy Metal… Now I’ve heard everything!

Erykah Badu, The Alchemist - "Next To You"


Sublime work from Erykah and the Alchemist – hopefully there’s an album on the way.

Photography: Talia Chetrit

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