Sound Off: 10 Songs You Need to Hear Now
It’s impossible to be across all the new music out each Friday. Luckily, PAPER is here to help you out: each week, we round up 10 of our favorite new songs from artists — emerging and established — to soundtrack your life. From the surreal to the sublime, these songs cover every corner of the music world. The only criteria: they all have to absolutely rip.
Subscribe to our Sound Off Spotify playlist here and check out this week’s tracks below.
Julia Fox – “Down the Drain”
The track, which first debuted at Charli XCX’s NYC Boiler Room back in February, is an intriguing new puzzle piece in Julia Fox’s ongoing life-slash-performance-art project, like Meredith Brooks’ “Bitch” as produced by SALEM.
Coined, Astrid Sonne – “Your House”
Coined is a new duo featuring two Danes: rising experimental violist Astrid Sonne and lo-fi folk musician Fine Glindvad, whose voice was sampled on Two Shell’s “Home.” The meditative, alluring “Your House” provides a hazy spotlight for Sonne, whose voice glides over a bed of live drums and saxophone.
Kacy Hill, Nourished by Time – “My Day Off”
Kacy Hill links with Baltimore musician Nourished By Time on this gorgeous, sun-dappled duet, a softly yearning song with plush Jim-E Stack production.
Jessica Pratt – “The Last Year”
The closing track from Jessica Pratt’s Here In The Pitch is an all-timer – melancholy and hopeful in equal measure, its chorus feels like an affirmation to write on the inside of your eyelids: “I think it’s gonna be fine/ I think we’re gonna be together/ And the storyline goes forever.”
Priori, James K – “Wake”
065 (Scorpio), James K’s 2023 collaboration with Berlin duo Hoodie, was one of last year’s best, most indelible electronic projects. Now, the New York-based singer and producer has linked up with Canadian producer Priori on this windswept dance track that has the appealing weightlessness of a new-age track.
Pretty Sick, xmal – “Streetwise”
New York-based musician Pretty Sick shifts from raw, grunge-influenced rock into sneery pop-punk on “Streetwise,” an anthemic, tongue-in-cheek earworm.
Caroline Polachek – “Starburned and Unkissed”
This track from Jane Schonbruen’s I Saw The TV Glow grows from detuned, Anna Domino-style synth-pop into a surging rock epic, playing like a beefed-up version of Polachek’s recent Thy Slaughter collab.
Madlib, Black Though, Your Old Droog – “REEKYOD”
Madib links up with Black Thought and Your Old Droog on this booming, heavy-hitting track that’s elevated by go-for-broke performances by both rappers.
Kevin Abstract, Lil Nas X – “Tennessee”
This new cut from Kevin Abstract is moody and epic in scale, playing like a more experimental take on synth-heavy 2010s pop rap.
Dua Lipa – “French Exit”
Dua Lipa, “French Exit” The most successful song on Dua Lipa’s new album Radical Optimism is a satisfying hybrid of Euro-flavoured 2000s pop and Kevin Parker’s psych production, with a satisfying dash of flamenco claps thrown in.
Photography: Courtesy Lil Nas X and Kevin Abstract
It’s impossible to be across all the new music out each Friday. Luckily, PAPER is here to help you out: each week, we round up 10 of our favorite new songs from artists — emerging and established — to soundtrack your life. From the surreal to the sublime, these songs cover every corner of the…