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 subscribers on Spotify and Apple Music, updated throughout the week.)
Hana Stretton - "From"
Hana Stretton recorded the closing track from her beautiful new album tiarn while a storm rolled into her Australian beach town. "I realise now that it's about how to weather our own storms without hardening," she says. Resolute is just one in a complex bouquet of feelings that arise from this ambient folk ballad. Like a Konradsen track produced by Liz Harris (see below), "From" is a wistful, tender recording, somehow at peace and devastated all at once. It's as if Stretton conjured something powerful and unknowable while seated at the piano, a flicker from beyond reminding her that every storm will pass eventually. —Chris
The Drin - "Haven't Lived It Yet"
It's so beautiful to see some sloppy lo-fi underground rock weirdos attempt something in the classic rock realm and actually nail it. The Drin, of Cincinnati, don't shed their raw style on "Haven't Lived It Yet," the lead single from their upcoming 23-track megalith. But they lock right into a gluey junkyard groove, one with room for drawling hooks and guitars that sound like bagpipes, or maybe bagpipes that sound like harmonicas. The result reminds me of some of the non-"Loser" tracks from Mellow Gold, the ones that suggested that the cherubic baby Beck had a little pop star hidden inside. Maybe the Drin do, too. —Tom
DIIV - "The Fountain"
There is doom here, dressed up in shreds of guitar tinsel and flashing neon bass. Bubbly synth embellishments flicker around Zachary Cole Smith’s whispery vocals, which channel the voice of an omniscient wizard. He speaks in proverbs: “In every past reflection is a future always coming true” and “In all the sadness and pain is the strength it became within you/ See it through.” I’m not a Star Wars person, but there’s definitely some kind of Force energy at work here. The music feels guided by some unseen power. The chopped and twisted atmosphere leaves me bewildered, scared, and intrigued. Something is lurking. A battle awaits us. Life, death, adventure, and magic. —Margaret
This Is Lorelei - "Oh No Now My"
"Billy Came Back" was a hell of a lead single for Nate Amos' next This Is Lorelei album The Singer In My Band, and "Oh No Now My" is just as packed with hooks and poignancy. Whereas we learned about the titular character in "Billy Came Back," "Oh No Now My" is addressed to Julie, who's shrouded in mystique. Amos' voice takes on a sense of yearning as he hits higher notes ("I think it's good but it's hard to sing," he said of the track) and the buildup to the emotionally charged finale is spellbinding. The Alex G-esque magic is evident on this one. —Danielle
Helen - "Dead shark II"
Liz Harris' music as Grouper feels detached from rock 'n' roll as a genre or even a concept. But Helen, her power trio with Scott Simmons and Jed Bindeman, applies her dreamy sensibility to guitar-bass-drums fare with splendid results. "Dead shark II," one of two songs the band shared to introduce new album Linda's Head, is strikingly straightforward by Harris' standards, a jangly power-pop tune shrouded in the fog of memory. When it pivots into its bass-forward finale, the beauty intensifies, blurring the line between ascending to heaven and descending a staircase toward a life-changing basement show. —Chris
