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.)
Spacemoth - "Do We Exist?"
It’s refreshing when existential-leaning songs don’t drag me into the darker corners of my psyche. Spacemoth’s “Do We Exist” sounds like someone took a happy pill and sat down with a Fisher-Price orchestra: playful, open, and sunlit. Tinny clangs, spaceship buzzes, and a bass line that bounces like a plush yo-yo give it a toybox charm. The bleeps and slowly unraveling melodies feel like Spacemoth reaching out, trying to make contact with something far beyond that isn’t so terrifying. —Margaret
Snarls - "No Lock, No Prayer"
Have Snarls always had this much edge? I don't think so. The Columbus band made poignant, infectious, and even perky indie rock on 2024's With Love, but "No Lock, No Prayer" showcases a different side of the group. The In Heaven There's Rainbows lead single is a cinematic, alt-rock whirlwind rife with adrenaline and melodrama; every second feels high stakes, and the sense of mischief is contagious. —Danielle
Rosali - "Other Side"
Funny lady, that Rosali. The North Carolina-based singer-songwriter's new single about the wrecked state of America is punctuated by snoring, drinks poured out for the American eagle, and an announcement that she plans to deal with our current crises by dying. The dark humor is slotted into a raucous roadhouse rocker with all the slide guitar and saloon piano you can stomach. And is that a cowbell I hear? "Other Side" peaks when the band drops out just as Rosali announces that she's "Crushing all my enemies — I mean those fuckers in power," a moment of hopeful resolve in a song otherwise resigned to finding peace in the next life. —Chris
thistle. - "pylon"
thistle. credit the intensity of their new single "pylon" to Monster Energy, and you can tell. "It's not a drink we particularly enjoy but it was the only high-caffeine beverage available at the time," the Cardiff shoegazers say of making the song. "pylon," then, might be the next best thing to a caffeine rush, a small thrill that combines all that sludgy-guitar goodness with urgent, upbeat drums. It's time for a pick-me-up. —Abby
Fire-Toolz - "And Where Is The Heart? I’ve Searched My Entire Home" (Feat. Jennifer Holm)
Fire-Toolz couldn't rest until she found that voice. The voice drifted along in the background of a YouTube video. It was there to set a mood, not to be noticed, but Fire-Toolz noticed it anyway. After sought out the voice, Fire-Toolz found its source: Jennifer Holm, a Christian country singer who does session work in Nashville. (She searched for this entire Holm.) On "And Where Is This Heart? I've Searched My Entire Home," Fire-Toolz uses Holm's voice for sweetness and texture, giving the track a comforting glow that contrasts sharply with the death-metal screeches and bubbling hyperactive synth pads — two sounds that already contrast sharply with one another. The end result is a heady experiment that seems to explode outward and inward at the same time. Nothing else sounds like this song, or even feels like this song, and it exerts a gravitational pull of its very own. —Tom
