At Paste Music, we’re listening to so many new tunes on any given day, we barely have any time to listen to each other. Nevertheless, every week we can swing it, we take stock of the previous seven days’ best new songs, delivering a weekly playlist of our favorites. Check out this week’s material, in alphabetical order. (You can check out an ongoing playlist of every best new songs pick of 2025 here.)
Cat Power’s Chan Marshall has always had the Midas touch when it comes to covers. 2000s The Covers Record yielded some of her greatest hits, such as her stripped back rendition of Phil Phillips’ “Sea of Love.” It’s no wonder Marshall’s return is another interpretation, a moody rendition of James Brown’s “Try Me” to celebrate the upcoming 20th anniversary of The Greatest, backed by the Dirty Delta Blues. Marshall suits the groove of soul well, because her songs always ride on instinct, never feeling mannered or overly contrived. Even while interpreting the R&B of Brown, Marshall evokes the minimalist style of nineties rock in her arrangement, cutting the bright, jazzy parts with lethargic rhythms. The cover succeeds because of Marshall’s notorious raw vocal, which imbues every note with an air of vulnerability. When she groans, “Oh, I need you” for the final time as “Try Me” closes, it’s a real plea. When it comes to covers, every musician knows about the line between paying homage and making a song your own—Cat Power always toes it beautifully. —Caroline Nieto
Leave it to Death Valley Girls to make a Christmas song, jingle bells and all, that still somehow sounds like the jazziest of séances. “Season of Dreaming,” recorded for wintertime collab record
, finds Death Valley Girls seamlessly slipping their eerie garage-psych into the mode of holiday cheer, in their own way. Written and produced by Bonnie Bloomgarden with longtime collaborator Mark Rains, the track swirls together organ, sax, and ghostly percussion into something equal parts lullaby and hallucination. Really, it’s less a Christmas song than a spell cast in sleet; three minutes of warm breath on cold glass. Bloomgarden’s voice hovers at the edge of reverence, while Sarah Safaie’s sax drifts like smoke through the mix. You can almost feel the static of December in the light bells ringing in the back, the promise that the year might still hold a little magic if you listen closely enough—just don’t be surprised if said magic is of the spectral, witchy variety. —
De La Soul: “The Package”
Did you hear the news? De La Soul is NOT dead! Two years after co-founder Trugoy the Dove’s passing and the group’s catalogue reaching streaming for the first time ever, Posdnuos and Maseo will release what is, presumably, their final album together as a trio: Cabin in the Sky, the sixth installment in Mass Appeal’s ongoing, 7-part Legend Has It… series, following new LPs from Slick Rick, Raekwon, Ghostface Killah, Mobb Deep, and Big L. With Pete Rock and DJ Premier credited as producers on Cabin in the Sky, I hope that we’ll hear material from the long-rumored Premium Soul On the Rocks tape come November 21. Rock’s production on “The Package,” drunk on old-school beats packaged with blasting horns, cushions the guys’ bars in warm, circular boom-bap. Trugoy, Posdnuos, and Maseo trade grown-up brags while the trumpets siren, sampled voices cut in and out, and a guitar chord decorates the melody with bright sustain. If Cabin in the Sky is to be my favorite rappers’ curtain call, then “The Package” is a sharp and dizzying prologue. —Matt Mitchell
Heems ft. Panda Bear: “Star-Crossed”
Since Heems inadvertently is the reason why New York City has Zohran Mamdani as mayor, as he inspired the young aspiring musician to get into politics, perhaps it was a good omen when the former Das Racist rapper put out a surprise EP, A Hundred Alibis, days before Mamdani’s win. This time, Heems goes indie rock, featuring collaborations with Unknown Mortal Orchestra, Lee Ranaldo, Anand Wilder, and Panda Bear. As a big Panda Bear fan, I’m really into “Star-Crossed,” a track that marries the Animal Collective member’s signature psychedelic dub sound with the rapper’s experimental, lo-fi hip-hop production. It continues Panda Bear’s streak of outstanding releases, from his solo record Sinister Grift to Animal Collective’s standalone singles “Love On the Big Screen” and “Buddies On the Blackboard.” —Tatiana Tenreyro
Magdalena Bay: “Black-Eyed Susan Climb”
Magdalena Bay is up to something. After the release of their critically acclaimed album Imaginal Disk in 2024, the duo has been sharing a slew of singles this fall, leaving fans guessing as to whether they’re pulling a Hayley Williams and dolling out a record track by track, or just putting out some leftovers while we wait for a new LP. The latest pair of singles are “Unoriginal” and “Black-Eyed Susan Climb,” with the latter being my favorite. It’s so different from anything off Imaginal Disk, with a funky folk-rock beat that calls back to of Montreal and early Modest Mouse. Mica Tenenbaum’s tender vocals transform into raspy whispery coos as she battles the negative thoughts that try to take over: “This devil’s in my head now / And he wants me so bad / Just get this off my shoulders / Get it all off, and fast / This time, I’m giving nothing,” she sings. It’s one of the best songs Magdalena Bay has released so far; if more are coming soon, bring them on. —Tatiana Tenreyro
Noname ft. Devin Morrison: “Hundred Acres”
Chicago rapper Noname has been all but radio silent (save for her book club!) since 2023’s excellent Sundial, and I couldn’t be happier to report that her sabbatical has seemingly come to an end. “Hundred Acres” finds her in a playful, self-referential, free-associative groove—rapping about sex, books, and fairytales with her usual blend of utmost precision and utter ease. “If this the last supper, then my lover gettin’ three plates,” she quips, grinning through a haze of piano loops and Devin Morrison’s buttery hook. “Liberate a free state, communism sweepstakes.” She effortlessly jumps from Marx to Poseidon to Johnny Bravo to Winnie the Pooh in just half a verse, making wordplay look like child’s play. The Daren Rabinovitch-directed video leans into the surreal: Noname pedals down the block, chased by a humanoid cat, before turning into a parrot mid-flight. Bird or no, Noname remains one of the best in the game, so we should all be awaiting news of her upcoming record Cartoon Radio‘s release date with bated breath. —Casey Epstein-Gross
Snocaps: “Brand New City”
Last week, Katie and Allison Crutchfield reunited for the first time since P.S. Eliot broke up, sharing Snocaps, an album recorded with superproducer Brad Cook and boot-gaze guitar prodigy MJ Lenderman. I had a lot of things to say about the music, and I’ve been returning to “Brand New City” every day since it dropped on streaming. Allison’s writing is so strong here, as she confronts relationships fading in familiar places: “The darker it gets the less we make any sense. We’re the last two in, the last two in. Toast to us and the game where no one wins.” Backed by her sister’s harmony, Cook’s room-tone production, and Lenderman’s fingers sweeping across the fretboard, Allison’s style takes shape in the loose, post-P.S. Eliot indie-rock language of “Brand New City.” She sings with the kind of catchy urgency you’d hear on one of her Swearin’ LPs, as her and Katie’s voices collide to declare, “We quote all our friends like they’re ‘round table poets” while a Supremes hit plays. “Brand New City” is a splashy, strummy pop-rock song threaded with soothing riffs and cozy twang. —Matt Mitchell
SPELLLING ft. Weyes Blood: “Destiny Arrives”
SPELLLING and Weyes Blood is a musical duo I never saw coming. But Tia Cabral, lauded for her experiments in avant-pop, coalesces with Natalie Mering’s gravitation towards softer folk tones. Their reimagining of Cabral’s song “Destiny Archives” is a wonderfully strong fusion of the two musicians’ strengths. It’s no wonder Cabral enlisted Mering for reinforcement here—the Weyes Blood vocalist is no stranger to sprawling ballads, and the dreamy style of her songcraft is heard everywhere in this reinterpretation especially. Starting with a tinny, stringy synth, the song descends into a sparkling arpeggio even as the drums crash in with a rapid pop beat. It sounds like an electronic orchestra with Cabral and Mering’s voices blended above it. The duo present the song’s lyrics in a hopeful light: where the original version of “Destiny Arrives” on Portrait of My Heart fluctuated between a belief in optimism and unrelenting struggle, Mering’s support gives the song a lingering taste of hope. —Caroline Nieto
underscores: “Do It”
April Harper Grey’s songcraft is inexhaustible. Under the banner of underscores, Grey has made pop-punk songs, country songs, and post-rock songs, even dabbling in brostep and SoundCloud EDM. Her last album, Wallsocket, gets better with every listen, and its pedigree has put her in rooms with Oklou and Danny Brown. The newest underscores single, “Do It,” checks a different box completely, conjuring mid-aughts Justin Timberlake and the Philly Club underground while merging Pink Tape hyper-pop with Skrillex worship. The track is decorated with four-on-the-floor beats, choppy, rhythmic acoustic guitars, muscular synths, and R&B hooks; Grey is “married to the music,” singing about how her chosen vocation has made her love-life impossible to navigate: “I’m tryna run a business here, come on, babe.” Full of maximalist textures and big pop drama, “Do It” is an immediate, catchy, and passionate celebration. I just might bust out the wired earbuds and run it back. —Matt Mitchell
waterbaby ft. ttoh: “Beck n Call”
I’m not from Stockholm, so I don’t know how big waterbaby actually is in her homeland. But I do know how big she should be here in America, and the noise around her right now just isn’t loud enough. After signing with Sub Pop two years ago, her EP Foam touted a controlled pocket of dizzying, finger-picked riffs and chic, cheeky melodies, and “Beck n Call,” her third single this year, carries that torch splendidly. Sauntering, boppy piano lines ornament the song’s circular topline, while a crest of strings washes over waterbaby’s cool-as-ever singing and gentle beatboxing. ttoh adds a “heart on lock” bar to contrast waterbaby’s bubbly, eat-your-heart-out lament, rapping about being “the me with you version of me.” “Beck n Call” is uptempo but never excessively bombastic. Confidence is an ear-worm and, in the song’s curious tangles of discreet R&B and sunny Y2K pop, waterbaby puts a spell on youuuuuu. —Matt Mitchell
Other Notable Songs This Week: 1010benja: “Chosen Omen”; Advance Base ft. Margaret McCarthy: “Movie Theater Manager”; Aesop Rock: “Full House Pinball”; cruush: “Rupert Giles”; Dari Bay: “Interstate”; Elanor Moss: “Again, My Love”; Gorillaz ft. IDLES: “The God of Lying”; ira glass: “that’s it/that? that’s all you can say?”; JOSEPH: “Closer to Me”; Lucinda Williams: “World’s Gone Wrong”; Mariachi El Bronx: “Forgive or Forget”; NOTHING: “Cannibal World”; Remember Sports: “Bug”; Runo Plum: “Alley Cat”; Slonk Donkerson: “Reinvent the Wheel”
Check out a playlist of this week’s best new songs below.
