Every week the Stereogum staff chooses the five best new songs of the week. The eligibility period begins and ends Thursdays right before midnight. You can hear this week’s picks below and on Stereogum’s Favorite New Music Spotify playlist, which is updated weekly. (An expanded playlist of our new music picks is available to members on Spotify and Apple Music, updated throughout the week.)
Cootie Catcher - "Dumb Lit"
It's a funny phrase, "falling in love." It underscores how precarious the situation at hand can be, which might make you feel -- as Toronto indie pop band Cootie Catcher explain on their new single "Dumb Lit" -- as fragile as bird bones or an abandoned house on the brink of caving in. The band has explained that the song is "about the desire for connection and understanding from someone," and with that desire comes a hunger for stability: "I just wanna teach you how to land ten toes flat," goes one of the song's most endearing lines, sung over a warm slacker-rock groove. "Dumb Lit," then, doesn't really refer to intoxication in the usual sense. But being down bad? Now that's a hell of a drug. --Abby
Scowl - "Tonight (I’m Afraid)"
If you still have doubts about the pop pivot Scowl are pulling off on Are We All Angels, "Tonight (I'm Afraid)" should put those to bed. The track is as sleek and catchy as anything the Santa Cruz hardcore band has released, yet by the end it has become a ferocious beast without abandoning that professional sheen. Kat Moss continues to show off the versatility so sling impeccable hooks and shred her vocal cords with aggro outbursts. It's about as perfect a pop-hardcore hybrid can be. —Chris
Yeule - "Skullcrusher"
"Yo I ain't gonna lie bros, Yeule is like the only artist keeping me from ending it all." That's one of the top YouTube comments on the music video for the Singaporean artist's new song "Skullcrusher," a slice of dystopian, grungy trip hop that absolutely bangs. Yeule's songs often seem to sit in-between life and death, whether they're likening themself to a cyborg or, as depicted in the "Skullcrusher" video, they're straitjacketed in some sort of chamber alone. "All I want to do is love you but all you want to be is a dream," Yeule coos in the closing lines as guitars roar around them. It's the kind of song that just might make you feel lucky to be alive. --Abby
Alien Boy - "Changes"
Portland’s Alien Boy have a knack for immersive sonic landscapes and emotive refrains. The band is keeping that up with their new album You Wanna Fade?, whose title serves as a vaguely intriguing invitation. “Changes” is a wonderful preview, starting off jangly before catapulting into loud, scrappy pop-rock sheathed in shoegaze haziness. Under a colorful, clamorous whirlwind of distorted guitars, Sonia Weber sings the simple but effective hook: “Changes got me feelin’ fucked up.” Armed with Third Eye Blind and Siamese Dream as influences, Alien Boy are destined for success. –Danielle
The Ophelias - "Salome"
In Biblical myth, Salome is the temptress princess who danced for King Herrod and then demanded that he present her with John The Baptist's head on a silver platter. Most depictions of Salome aren't especially sympathetic. But on "Salome," the Ophelias, whose band name already indicates a certain sympathy for the troubled ladies of the Western canon, find fuel in that story. Musically, the song is breezily propulsive grunge-pop that would've killed on late-night alt-rock radio around 1995. Over that locked-in fuzz-riffage, lead Ophelia Spencer Peppett owns the archetype, casually wishing for your head on a platter. It's a fresh take on an ancient fable, and isn't that how theater is supposed to work? —Tom
