Tenue go long. It’s kind of their thing. I first encountered the Spanish screamo band through their 2021 album Territorios, which was one 29-minute song. So kicking off a new album with a nine-minute opening track and lead single is no sweat. “Inquietude” shifts shape several times over across its runtime, waxing and waning in tempo, intensity, and the ratio of noise to melody, but it never ceases to be a thrill ride. They even throw in some regal brass at the end, as if catering to the blog-rock crowd. For a song about unrest, a band pulling off a song like this one is wildly reassuring. —Chris

The club is calling and Kelly Lee Owens has the answer. The Welsh producer’s breakthrough album Inner Song arrived in 2020, giving lonely audiences a soundtrack for finding peace and healing within the self. Her new single “Love You Got” looks inward, too, but puts those personal revelations in the context of wider connection with others. “Gotta feel it all,” Owens sings over pounding bass, before she whispers “wanting pure euphoria” repeatedly. It’s a dance floor catalyst that seems to suggest that the darkest times result in the most rewarding bliss. —Abby

We’ve said it before and we’ll absolutely say it again: Kids these days love shoegaze. A majority of the people creating it and listening to it now weren’t around to witness Kevin Shields virtually invent a brand-new way of playing electric guitar, but of the slew of younger bands making their own iteration of blown-out, fuzzy indie rock, julie are among the best at replicating that magic. The Los Angeles trio’s “sweet, then destructive” new single “clairbourne practice” ticks all the boxes, pairing desolate melodies with chaotic drums and roaring guitars that make lyrics like “I’ll cut my hair another way” hit like a Mack truck. —Abby

“Now I am falling to a dark place,” Merce Lemon sings on “Backyard Lover,” a sense of aloofness in her voice making the sentiment all the more crushing. The song begins with a misleading sense of lightness as the Pittsburgh indie musician abstractly grapples with the loss of her best friend when she was 15. The guitars are twangy and wistful, buoying Lemon’s voice as she drifts through backyards, claustrophobic rooms, and rivers with butterflies. A climax erupts when she repeats “You fucking liar” — the refrain intensified by the vagueness of the recipient. The instrumentation builds into a charged, evocative whirlwind that eventually yields to Lemon’s command before picking up again. The final words she offers are “An eyelash/ For wishing,” a crystal-clear image that floats with hope despite all the anguish. —Danielle

Tired: Duster are your favorite band’s favorite band. Wired: Luster are your favorite band’s favorite band. On “Like I Do,” the LA shoegazers burrow deep into the haze. For most of the track’s nearly six-minute span, they let the beauty hang shapeless in the air, until finally hitting us with a stuttering programmed beat to carry through to the finish. I mean it in the most enthusiastic way when I say it sounds less like dream-pop than like Loveless waking up from a nap, caught in gorgeous liminal space. —Chris