18 New Songs Out Today to Listen To: Wednesday, The Armed, and More
There’s so much music coming out all the time that it’s hard to keep track. On those days when the influx of new tracks is particularly overwhelming, we sift through the noise to bring you a curated list of the most interesting new releases (the best of which will be added to our Best New Songs playlist). Below, check out our track roundup for Wednesday, May 21, 2025.
Wednesday – ‘Elderberry Wine’
This is a special kind of Wednesday for those of us who have been anticipating new music from the North Carolina band since 2023’s Rat Saw God; ‘Elderberry Wine’ is their first original track since then/ It sounds way more easygoing than ‘Bull Believer’, the chaotic introduction to that LP, but of course, there’s more to the twangy, gorgeous arrangement than meets the eye. “Elderberry is known as a healing fruit, and is an ingredient in many tonics and syrups to aid the immune system. One time, however, my sister consumed them raw, and it immediately induced vomiting,” bandleader Karly Hartzman explained. “So ‘Elderberry Wine’ is ultimately a love song about creating just the right environment for fulfillment. There’s a delicate balance that needs to be created, especially in love, for two lives to intersect without poisoning each other.”
The Armed – ‘Well Made Play’
A new album rollout from the Armed, a new mystery to unpack. According to lead singer Tony Wolski, The Future Is Here and Everything Needs to Be Destroyed is “music for a statistically wealthy population that somehow can’t afford food or medicine — endlessly scrolling past vacation photos, gym selfies, and images of child amputees in the same feed. It reflects the dissociation required just to exist in that reality.” Lead single ‘Well Made Play’ is a free jazz-inspired freakout that ends before you have a chance to digest it.
They Are Gutting a Body of Water – ‘AMERICAN FOOD’
TAGABOW, the highly influential shoegaze band newly signed to ATO Records, have shared the hazy, hypnotic new single ‘AMERICAN FOOD’. “All them atrocities is far from our minds, when the vices help us thru,” Douglas Dulgarian remarked.
Fazerdaze – ‘Motorway’
New Zealand artist Fazerdaze is back with a new song called ‘Motorway’, which is pretty gritty and, of course, driving. It rose out of “a feeling of being trapped between a city and a relationship, searching for home in both, but finding it in neither,” Amelia Murray shared. “It explores an enmeshment with familiarity; and the motorway becoming a symbol of that for me; repetitive, a loop to break out of, a false sense of freedom.”
Kieran Hebden and William Tyler – ‘If I Had a Boat’ (Lyle Lovett Cover)
Four Tet’s Kieran Hebden and Nashville guitarist William Tyler have announced a new collaborative album, 41 Longfield Street Late ‘80s. Leading the LP is a patient, gorgeously pristine 11-minute cover of Lyle Lovett’s ‘If I Had a Boat’.
Alaska Reid – ‘Big Drops’
Avery Tucker, formerly half of Girlpool, has unveiled his debut solo single. ‘Big Drops’ was co-written and co-produced with Alaska Reid. It’s “a story about loving and losing someone who is finding themselves time and time again overtaken by the big drop,” according to Tucker, and the way he uses the word “big” reminds me of Reid’s own Big Bunny. It’s tender and affecting.
Yaya Bey – ‘raisins’
Yaya Bey has shared another preview of her forthcoming record do it afraid, and it’s quietly inspiring.“It’s hard to sum up ‘raisins’ in a small burb but it’s the pursuit of love, joy and freedom with the full knowing that there will also be pain,” Bey said. “It’s a surrender. It’s me giving myself permission to dream. It might not happen. But maybe the real joy is not in the materialization but in the dreaming itself. The name is inspired by a Langston Hughes poem called Harlem where he says ‘What happens to a dream deferred? Does it dry up like a raisin in the sun?’”
Madeline Kenney – ‘Scoop’
Madeline Kenney has shared ‘Scoop’, the latest single from her forthcoming LP Kiss from the Balcony. It’s a mesmerizing track, and I love the way the electric guitar and synth scrape against the melody. “The original title was ‘Guitar Scoop Heart Flip’ because of the guitar melodies and lyrical themes; I was thinking a lot about what is expected of a “cool girl”, how detachment is admired in modern relationships, and how the bathroom in a bar is a sacred space for girls (strangers!) to hold each other in their shared, odd, conditioned realities,” Kenney reflected.
Alison Goldfrapp – ‘Reverberotic’
Alison Goldfrapp has teased her new LP Flux with a playful new track, ‘Reverberotic’. It’s out via her own imprint, A.G. Records. “If you’re lucky enough to have the option, owning your own masters feels like a no-brainer these days,” she commented. “While being a solo independent artist comes with its own set of challenges, it truly suits me and has given myself and the people I work with a sense of empowerment and invigoration for this album…”
Jacques Greene and Nosaj Thing – ‘Unknown’
Jacques Greene and Nosaj Thing have teamed up for the latest in a string of collaborations, the alluring ‘Unknown’. It’s accompanied by a remix from Audion. “I think this is a song that sets us on a path, a clear destination,” Jacques Greene explained. “It’s so interesting how this is one of those tracks that just happened. It’s one of those weird things where we took a walk around your neighbourhood, and when we got back to the studio we just started playing. Then we just looked up an hour later and 85% of the track was there.” Nosaj Thing added: “I would say this is the first track that we were both locked in on what our intentions were. We were both in flow state.”
Robbie Williams – ‘Rocket’ [feat. Black Sabbath’s Tony Iommi]
Robbie Williams isn’t exactly associated with the genre known as “Britpop,” but hey, neither is A.G. Cook. Nevertheless, Britpop is the title of his just-announced LP, which is led by the Tony Iommi-featuring ‘Rocket’. Interesting move! “I set out to create the album that I wanted to write and release after I left Take That in 1995,” Williams said. “It was the peak of Britpop and a golden age for British Music. I’ve worked with some of my heroes on this album; it’s raw, there are more guitars and it’s an album that’s even more upbeat and anthemic than usual. There’s some ‘Brit’ in there and there’s certainly some ‘pop’ too – I’m immensely proud of this as a body of work and I’m excited for fans to hear this album. I also can’t wait to perform a song or two from it on my upcoming ‘BRITPOP’ tour, which I’m opening in the UK, naturally.”
Night Tapes – ‘pacifico’
Night Tapes have signed to Nettwerk and announced their debut LP, portals // polarities, arriving September 26. It’s led by the transportive trip-hop cut ‘pacifico’,” which “was written after our friend returned from Mexico (San Jose del Pacifico) and told us stories about how beautiful it was,” according to Iiris Vesik. “It’s about our idea of Pacifico — like a state of mind you can reach, as we still haven’t been there.”
Mal Blum – ‘Killer’
Mal Blum has shared a new single from The Villain, their first LP in five years. “I want to be very clear about what this song is about,” they said. “The song ‘Killer’ is specifically about internalized transphobia and unconsciously absorbing the belief that you are bad. It is a response to the villainization of trans people, the propaganda and messaging we constantly receive that we are inherently devious and immoral. It also specifically refers to a particular flavor of transphobia that refuses to see transmasculine people as we are, instead considering us only as dangerous would-be assassins and butchers of our own supposed girlhoods. ‘Killer’ is a conscious attempt to reclaim and play with that narrative.”
mark william lewis – ‘Tomorrow Is Perfect’
bar italia’s former drummer mark william lewis has signed to A24’s record label A24 Music, marking the announcement with the entrancing new song ‘Tomorrow Is Perfect’. “I wrote Tomorrow is Perfect at home in London,” lewis shared. “I wanted to capture and describe all of the images and places that meant something to me at the time and collage them together in one song.”
Surusinghe – ‘Kinda Like That’ [feat. Kassie Krut]
London-via-Melbourne electronic producer Surusinghe has enlisted Kassie Krut for a new club track, ‘Kinda Like That’. Co-produced by Cameo Blush, it’s the second single off the forthcoming EP i can’t remember the name of this, but that’s ok.
Perennial – ‘Baby, Are You Abstract?’
Perennial have announced an expanded edition of last year’s Art History 11 additional tracks, including the just-released rager ‘Baby, Are You Abstract?’. You’ll find yourself shouting along the titular chorus before you know it.
White Lies – ‘Nothing on Me’
White Lies have returned with their first new music in three years, the propulsive and surprisingly frenetic ‘Nothing on Me’. “This track welcomes you into the collaborative present mind of White Lies. It’s somewhat reckless, unhinged, full of competing ideas,” the band explained. “There is a disregard for any external influences, pressures, or expectations. We’re driving with no brakes or seat-belts. Lyrically and conceptually it’s a rebirth, and an introduction.”
“The initial musical ideas came from having a synth sequence that is in a different time signature to the rest of the band,” they added. “This is something I borrowed a lot from the 70’s prog that I love and listened to a lot during the making of this record. I listened to records by Genesis, Chris Squier, Yes, Utopia and Gong who all extensively make use of this in their music. The rhythm is a classic motorik beat borrowed from the krautrock that we all love and is a motif we’ve used a lot across our careers in White Lies. The guitar melody is almost jolly and absurdist like the nursery rhyme or something you’d hear an ice cream van playing. It clashes, I think, to the feel of the music. This is inspired by Steve Hillage and his album Motivation Radio where he often utilizes similar melodies. All of this feeds a cacophony and an overload of information that disorients and confuses. The lyrics reflect the difficulties we can all have in relating to people even when they are close to us, especially in the heat of an argument or disagreement and how overwhelming that can be. This is probably the fastest most intense song we’ve ever written and was further developed in rehearsals, with Seth Evans (formerly of Black Midi) on keys, and then performed in the studio. The foundations of this track are one take played live.”
Guedra Guedra – ‘Drift of Drummer’
Moroccan producer Abdellah M. Hassak, who records as Guedra Guedra, has signed to the Domino imprint Smugglers Way, which will release his new album MUTANT on August 29. Lead single ‘Drift of Drummer’ comes paired with a video from director Romain Cherbonnier. “In African traditions, rhythm especially in its polyrhythmic form is not merely a pulse or a measure: it is a cartography of life,” Hassak shared. “It expresses social complexity, layers of oral history, community dynamics, and the spiritual dimensions of existence. Transmitting this richness from generation to generation through practice and listening is also an act of resistance, a way of preserving knowledge and sensibilities that dominant narratives have long tried to marginalize or simplify.”
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