Welcome to another New Music Friday! I’m not sure at what point we started capitalizing New Music Friday, like it’s some kind of nationally-recognized weekly event, but I’m glad we did, because it might as well be a bank holiday (I’ll take any excuse to celebrate!). New Music Friday is the chance that comes around only every seven days to shout out our favorite new music of the week. Today (July 17—how is this month already more than halfway done? I can’t deal with quarantine time anymore) is certainly a day worth noticing, as we’ve received new albums from The Chicks, Dehd, illuminati hotties and so many more. We also rounded up all the other noteworthy new tunes from this week, and you can find them all below.
beabadoobee: “Care”
Indie-pop rising star Beabadoobee—the project of 20-year-old Bea Kristi—has announced her debut album Fake It Flowers, due later this year via Dirty Hit. The first single “Care” is out now. The swirling pop song sounds like it’s from a ’90s coming-of-age film, and the music video is even more fun, with Kristi headbanging and shredding on her guitar as if she’s playing a punk song. —Danielle Chelosky
The Chicks: “Sleep At Night”
It should come as no surprise that The Chicks are consistently resilient on their relentless fifth LP Gaslighter. The same Natalie, Martie and Emily who threatened their best friend’s cheating husband on “Goodbye Earl” are fired up on every Gaslighter song, particularly “Sleep At Night,” where Maines asks, “My husband’s girlfriends’ husband just called me / And how messed up is that? / It’s so insane that I have to laugh,” before adding, “But then I think about our two boys trying to become men / there’s nothing funny about that” and recounting the instance where her husband brought the aforementioned side piece to a Chicks show. How does he sleep at night, indeed. —Ellen Johnson
The Go! Team: “Cookie Scene”
The Go! Team’s Ian Parton says of the band’s track, “The stripped back swinging percussion of ‘Iko Iko’ by the Dixie Cups and the loud crunchy shaker in Salt-n-Pepa’s ‘Push It’ were both inspirations and I’ve always loved the way Bollywood or William Onyeabor songs would have random laser beams and electro toms popping up. I wanted to mix the street corner with the intergalactic, to take Detroit to outer space.” It’s clear that “Cookie Scene” grabs influence from a bunch of different old-school artists, and it makes for a fun anthem. The music video amplifies this vibe, displaying ’80s visuals on a VHS tape-inspired screen. —Danielle Chelosky
Helena Deland: “Lylz”
Montréal singer-songwriter Helena Deland has released a new single, “Lylz.” The track is the artist’s first release in two years, following her Altogether Unaccompanied EP series back in 2018. The track’s namesake refers to a friend who pointed Deland toward the music of Lili Boulanger, a French composer whose life was cut short but whose musical legacy lived on through the devotion of her sister Nadia in preserving and sharing her work. With the stories of these sisters in the backdrop, a statement accompanying the release of this song described “Lylz” as “an ode to a friendship born out of mutual esteem and fanned by the flames of worldly dissatisfaction.” —Jack Meyer
No Joy: “Four”
“Four,” which No Joy frontperson and principal songwriter Jasamine White-Gluz called in a statement “perhaps my favorite No Joy song ever written,” has a colorful sonic palette, starting with a buildup of shoegaze fuzz that melts into a spell of trip-hop instrumentals before jolting into a thrash metal closer. No Joy shared a music video for the new single, following visual artist Ashley Diabo at her home. The aim of the video, White-Gluz said, is “to appreciate Ashley at home, hoping to inspire all to embrace the love and inspiration of their home the way Ashley reminds us every day.” —Jack Meyer
Shamir: “I Wonder”
Indie pop artist Shamir this week released a new single called “I Wonder.” This is the second song so far from his forthcoming album Shamir out Oct. 2. The sprawling “I Wonder” follows the release of “On My Own.” Both tracks are captivating, fun pop anthems that make quarantine a lot more bearable. For this album, Shamir paired up with the songwriter Lindi Ortega, who’s worked with other great, unique acts like Diet Cig and Hop Along. —Danielle Chelosky
Whitney: “Hammond Song” (The Roches cover)
This week Whitney announced their “Take Me Home, Country Roads” cover is part of a whole album of covers called Candid, due to arrive Aug. 14 on Secretly Canadian. They marked the news with the release of their take on The Roches’ “Hammond Song,” from the folk band’s 1979 self-titled album. Candid will feature other covers of artists like Kelela, David Byrne and SWV. “This could’ve been as simple as saying we really love these songs and we love our bandmates and making a covers record just felt right but it truly became an exploration into how we can evolve as a band going forward,” Julien Ehrlich says. “We both discovered “Hammond Song” because Chris Coady sent it to us years ago as a reference for recording when we were making the last Smith Westerns record. It became a song that was always around for us and then we showed it to the rest of the band.” —Ellen Johnson
