20 New Songs Out Today to Listen To: Ethel Cain, Water From Your Eyes, 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, June 4, 2025.
Ethel Cain – ‘Nettles’
It’s been more than two months since Ethel Cain announced Willoughby Tucker, I Will Always Love You, the proper follow-up to her 2022 debut, Preacher’s Daughter. (She released a 90-minute experimental project called Perverts in January.) Now, we get its first single, ‘Nettles’. In addition to a beautifully layered vocal performance, Hayden Anhedonia plays banjo, synths, electric guitar, acoustic guitar, bass guitar, and piano on the track, which features Donny Carpenter on fiddle, Todd Beene on pedal steel, Dillon Hodges on banjo and acoustic guitar, Steven Colyer on organ, Matthew Tomasi on electric guitar, and Bryan De Leon on drums.
Sprawling over eight minutes, ‘Nettles’ feels like the album’s emotional centerpiece. “This song and the last track on the record were both written the same week, the very first week I moved into the house in Alabama where I finished Preacher’s Daughter,” Cain said in a press release. “In similar fashion to Preacher’s Daughter (specifically ‘A House in Nebraska’ and ‘Strangers’), I wrote what essentially became the beginning and end of the story without realizing it. What were originally just little vignettes of emotion I was feeling at the time ultimately became the tentpoles for a larger narrative. ‘Nettles’ became a dream of losing the one you love, asking them to reassure you that it won’t come true and to dream, instead, of all the time you’ll have together as you grow old side by side. Every once in a blue moon, it feels good to slough off the macabre and to simply let love be.”
Water From Your Eyes – ‘Life Signs’
On their just-announced album It’s a Beautiful Place, Water From Your Eyes “wanted to present a wide range of styles in a way that acknowledges everything’s just a tiny blip,” according to the duo’s Nate Amos. On lead single ‘Life Signs’, that style happens to be nu metal, though Amos and Rachel Brown contort it in typically off-kilter, deadpan fashion.
Hand Habits – ‘Wheel of Change’
Hand Habits is back with a piercing, evocative new single, ‘Wheel of Change’, which leads their forthcoming album Blue Reminder. “Both lyrically and in its production, this song is about the impossibility of return—you can’t go back to the way things were, no matter how much you might want to hold on to a time, or a feeling, or a person,” Meg Duffy explained. “Lyrically there’s a kind of desperation (‘I need it now more than ever’), but in it there’s also a request, ‘don’t take it away just yet,’ which is not a question but a demand, and I wanted the production to reflect that. That in longing, there can be this sharper, wild edge. Like, no I need this, give it to me, don’t take it away.”
King Princess – ‘RIP KP’
King Princess – the project of Brooklyn-based vocalist, multi-instrumentalist, songwriter, producer, and actor Mikaela Straus – is back with a new track. She’s announced her third album and first for section1, Girl Violence, will be released on September 12. It’s led by the sultry and infectious ‘RIP KP’, which is accompanied by a Warren Fu-directed video. “‘RIP KP’ is about the sexy side of girl violence – when love takes over your brain like a cordyceps and suddenly you’re getting fucked all over your house, acting a fool,” King Princess remarked. “It’s the perfect way to open the record: dramatic, unhinged, and a little tongue-in-cheek. I wrote it during a full ego death – leaving LA, my label, my old life – and somehow landed back in NYC making the music I would’ve obsessed over at 15. It’s a slutty anthem for the lesbians. We need debauchery this summer.”
Pool Kids – ‘Easier Said Than Done’
“I’ve been told I fixate/ I’m drinking on a Wednesday,” Pool Kids frontperson Christine Goodwyne sings on ‘Easier Said Than Done’, which happens to be out on a Wednesday. It’s the title track from their just-announced album that comes out August 15 via their new label home, Epitaph Records. “OCD can just rob your life of joy,” Goodwyne said of the new song. “Things can be going so well, and then it just sucks any enjoyment out of it.”
Indigo De Souza – ‘Crying Over Nothing’
“‘Crying Over Nothing’ is about heartbreak that feels beyond reason,” Indigo De Souza said of the vulnerable yet gleaming second single from her upcoming LP Precipice. “Pain that follows no matter where you go or how much you try to lose it. Pain that comes from memories you can’t erase and love you can’t unfeel. It’s about loss that is never-ending.”
Been Stellar – ‘Breakaway’
New York’s Been Stellar have dropped their first single of 2025, following their debut album Scream from New York, NY. “We needed to capture a few feelings with this song,” vocalist Sam Slocum said of the track, which is soaring yet emotionally tangled. “Some mixture of sadness, anger, regret— and ultimately optimism. “When Sky first showed me the initial idea it struck me how punchy yet melodic it was. There were already a few emotions in the guitar part alone, so the words followed naturally and the song came to life. We quickly brought it into the studio with Aron (Kobayashi-Ritch) and recorded it together live.”
Ivy – ‘Say You Will’
Ivy have announced their first LP in 14 years, Traces of You, releasing September 5 via Bar/None. It’s led by the mesmerizing ‘Say You Will’, which features Joey Waronker (Beck, R.E.M.) on drums.
Teyana Taylor – ‘Long Time’
Teyana Taylor has dropped a new single, ‘Long Time’. It’s an auspicious preview of her forthcoming album Escape Room, the follow-up to 2020’s The Album, which arrives in August.
McKinley Dixon – ‘Magic, Alive!’
Ahead of the release of his new album Magic, Alive!, McKinley Dixon has served up the title track, which really lives up to its name. “‘Magic, Alive!’ is me telling the audience what the record means,” Dixon revealed. “To run, to dance, to survive. It’s the ending of the record while in some ways serving as the beginning for the character. Just because that tale is over, the sun is still there. At the end of the day, at the end of your story, do you feel the love? Do you feel the magic?”
Frankie Cosmos – ‘Pressed Flower’
Frankie Cosmos have unveiled ‘Pressed Flower’, the gently moving opening track of their upcoming full-length Different Talking. It arrives with a music video directed by Adam Kolodny.
S.G. Goodman – ‘Michael Told Me’
S.G. Goodman’s new album, Planting by the Signs, marks the singer-songwriter’s reunion with longtime collaborator Matt Rowan; the pair fell out due to the grueling nature of touring, then reconnected while grieving her father figure and mentor, whom she lovingly referred to as “Murray Dad Mike.” “The grief of losing a father figure amounted to needing all of my chosen brothers,” Goodman explained. “We told each other that we loved each other, and Matt told me he would take care of Mike’s partner and all of our friends while we finished up our run. The song ‘Michael Told Me’ was started shortly after our falling out in 2021, and the song fully revealed itself in the winter of 2024.”
“It is a song of reconciliation, and a testament to my relationship to two great men who believe that there is something worth getting to on the other side of feeling hurt,” she added. “Our friendship had been pruned back for a time, but Mike had always assured me that new growth would come, and I believed him. It truly is one of life’s greatest gifts to understand and to experience love that can overcome ruptures.”
Editrix – ‘The Big E’
Editrix have announced their third album and Joyful Noise debut, The Big E, arriving July 25. The trio of guitarist/vocalist Wendy Eisenberg, drummer Josh Daniel, and bassist Steve Cameron have today shared the record’s title track, which is nervy yet exhilarating. “This was the first time we were making an album with us spread apart,” Daniel explained. “Time was a more precious resource. Once we hit our stride with it, it became very exciting because we would get together for a rehearsal and write a song in one sitting.”
Ain’t – ‘Jude’
South London band Ain’t have dropped a knotty, emotive new song called ‘Jude’. “George [Ellerby] wrote the main riff and named the song Jude, which reminded me of a pub called Jude the Obscure, where I went with a friend from university,” vocalist Hanna Baker Darch explained. “He’s a brilliant writer and is doing a PhD in philosophy, but he channels his talents into relentless overthinking. Some of the lyrics reflect the bitter pints-deep tone of our conversations, which has been described as the dynamic of a witch-hag and her raccoon accomplice.”
Gordi – ‘PVC Divide’ [feat. Anaïs Mitchell]
Gordi has teamed up with Anaïs Mitchell for a new song, ‘PVC Divide’, which is inspired by Gordi’s experiences working in hospitals during the COVID pandemic. It’s set to appear on her forthcoming album Like Plasticine.
Sophia Stel – ‘Everyone Falls Asleep in Their Own Time’
Sophia Stel has shared a wispy, swirling new single called ‘Everyone Falls Asleep in Their Own Time’. It comes paired with a music video by Scarlet Ross and Aaron Lum.
james K – ‘Play’
New York artist has unveiled an enchanting new track, ‘Play’, which leads her forthcoming album Friend. The record, out September 5, features Special Guest DJ, Francis Latrielle, Ben Bondy, Patrick Holland, Hank Jackson, and Adam Feingold.
SCALER – ‘Salt’ [feat. Akiko Haruna]
SCALER – the Brilstol outfit composed of Alex Hill, Isaac Jones, James Rushforth, and Nick Berthoud, as well as visual artist Jason Baker – have announced their next record, Endlessly. Art School Girlfriend, Tlya X An, Shadow Stevie, Cold Light’s ELDON, Thomas Ridley feature on the LP, whose first single, the sinky, Akiko Haruna-assisted ‘Salt’, is out now. “Collaboration was central to the creation of this album, and Akiko was the first artist we reached out to,” the band noted. “We’ve been long-time fans of her vocals, sound design, and production, and working together has been something we’ve wanted to do for a long time, so we’re thrilled it finally came to life. We had this sparse and haunting track that felt like the perfect canvas for Akiko. From the moment we heard her initial ideas, we knew we had something special and couldn’t wait to share it.” Endlessly is due September 26.
Georgia Harmer – ‘Eye of the Storm’
Georgia Harmer has announced a new album, Eye of the Storm – out August 15 via Arts & Crafts. The leading title track is a tender and resonant piece of folk-pop. “‘Eye of the Storm’ is about the feeling of carrying the weight of someone else’s well-being on my shoulders,” Harmer shared. “It’s about the feeling of responsibility and helplessness towards the problem of someone else’s sadness. It’s about emotional labour and my default willingness to take on the feelings of people around me, whether it even helps them or not. And how the weight of that can hold me back from my own life.”
Snuggle – ‘Sun Tan’
Snuggle – the Copenhagen-based duo of Andrea Thuesen (Baby in Vain) and former Liss guitarist Vilhelm Strange – have unveiled a new track, which is quite nostalgic. It’s about “reminiscing summer romance and that euphoria,” according to the group. “Staying up all night when the sun never sets in the northern hemisphere, and the moment when it kind of does — the birds start chirping, the city slowly awakens, and it smells like everything green is exploding. And the spell breaks.”
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