
Sound Off: 10 Songs You Need to Hear Now
By Shaad D'Souza
May 03, 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.
Julia Fox - "Down the Drain"
The track, which first debuted at Charli XCX’s NYC Boiler Room back in February, is an intriguing new puzzle piece in Julia Fox’s ongoing life-slash-performance-art project, like Meredith Brooks’ “Bitch” as produced by SALEM.
Coined, Astrid Sonne - "Your House"
Coined is a new duo featuring two Danes: rising experimental violist Astrid Sonne and lo-fi folk musician Fine Glindvad, whose voice was sampled on Two Shell’s “Home.” The meditative, alluring “Your House” provides a hazy spotlight for Sonne, whose voice glides over a bed of live drums and saxophone.
Kacy Hill, Nourished by Time - "My Day Off"
Kacy Hill links with Baltimore musician Nourished By Time on this gorgeous, sun-dappled duet, a softly yearning song with plush Jim-E Stack production.
Jessica Pratt - "The Last Year"
The closing track from Jessica Pratt’s Here In The Pitch is an all-timer – melancholy and hopeful in equal measure, its chorus feels like an affirmation to write on the inside of your eyelids: “I think it’s gonna be fine/ I think we’re gonna be together/ And the storyline goes forever.”
Priori, James K - "Wake"
065 (Scorpio), James K’s 2023 collaboration with Berlin duo Hoodie, was one of last year’s best, most indelible electronic projects. Now, the New York-based singer and producer has linked up with Canadian producer Priori on this windswept dance track that has the appealing weightlessness of a new-age track.
Pretty Sick, xmal - "Streetwise"
New York-based musician Pretty Sick shifts from raw, grunge-influenced rock into sneery pop-punk on “Streetwise,” an anthemic, tongue-in-cheek earworm.
Caroline Polachek - "Starburned and Unkissed"
This track from Jane Schonbruen’s I Saw The TV Glow grows from detuned, Anna Domino-style synth-pop into a surging rock epic, playing like a beefed-up version of Polachek’s recent Thy Slaughter collab.
Madlib, Black Though, Your Old Droog - "REEKYOD"
Madib links up with Black Thought and Your Old Droog on this booming, heavy-hitting track that’s elevated by go-for-broke performances by both rappers.
Kevin Abstract, Lil Nas X - "Tennessee"
This new cut from Kevin Abstract is moody and epic in scale, playing like a more experimental take on synth-heavy 2010s pop rap.
Dua Lipa - "French Exit"
Dua Lipa, “French Exit” The most successful song on Dua Lipa’s new album Radical Optimism is a satisfying hybrid of Euro-flavoured 2000s pop and Kevin Parker’s psych production, with a satisfying dash of flamenco claps thrown in.
Photography: Courtesy Lil Nas X and Kevin Abstract
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