Sound Off: 10 Songs You Need to Hear Now

Sound Off: 10 Songs You Need to Hear Now

By Shaad D'Souza
May 23, 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: Mark Williams Lewis - "Tomorrow Is Perfect"

"Tomorrow Is Perfect" is a song you wanna live in forever – on some Chris Isaak shit or something. With his voice stripped of its usual reverb, Mark William Lewis sounds like a long-lost crooner, Jamie Neville's understated production letting his lyrics and intense baritone speak for themselves. Although little changes over the song's near-seven minutes, it's a gorgeous world to luxuriate in.

Renee Rapp - "Leave Me Alone"

A spiky, nonchalant throwback to 2000s radio pop-rock done with the perfect amount of affected boredom.

Smerz - "Big City Life"

The opening track from Smerz’s fantastic new album is sexy and ominous and frenetic with all the promise of the city at night.

A.K. Paul - "Watchin' U"

Sublime, seductive R&B-funk from the other Paul brother, who shows off a canny sense of tension and relief.

YoungBoy Never Broke Again - "Top Tingz"

The prolific Baton Rouge rapper returns with a reggae-inflected heater.

Cola Boyy - "Blame the Beret"

Puckish, clever synth-pop from the fabulous final album by Oxnard, CA’s Cola Boyy, aka Matthew Urango.

Hotline TNT - "Break Right"

I love this song! It rocks in a kind of subliminal way — it feels like a barnstormer even though it moves at a fairly even keel.

Double Virgo - "bemused"

Does this kinda sound like The Wombats? Perhaps, but it’s also appealingly ramshackle and rambunctious.

Burn Boy, Travis Scott - "TaTaTa"

Crunchy baile funk from two titans of pop and rap music.

Kokoroko - "Closer To Me"


London funk band Kokoroko are deep in the pocket on this sublime, low-key new cut.

Photography: Zora Sicher

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