Our editorial content is not influenced by any commissions we receive. It marks the end of your five day stretch as a corporate drone, opening up an entire weekend full of opportunities. A weekend getaway? Prepping for the next episode of Game of Thrones? More Likely. With music dropping at an immeasurable pace, we know the task of finding singles and albums worth listening to can be daunting. Best New Music is our love letter to the exciting new releases of the week. Every Friday, we put out a list detailing the best and most important songs that came out during the week. This includes tracks from your favorite artists and bands like Ariana Grande and J Balvin to debut albums and songs from emerging talent.
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Each week, Vulture highlights the best new music. Listen to them all. As the days grow dark and short and long drawn-out baths are the reward for a year of toil, the warmth of an acoustic paean to a dream of everlasting togetherness can fill a cold space with hope and the desire to recuperate for another trip around the sun. Melancholy, as a concept, is incredibly pervasive in the music we listen to. Dan Snaith, as Caribou, has perfected a sad-on-the-dance-floor strain that manages to celebrate love even as it laments the more painful aspects of it.
In need of a mid-quarantine pick-me-up playlist?. From Troye Sivan's stellar new EP to Wafia's major label debut project, check out some of our favorite new releases this week below. When Troye Sivan promised an EP that would depict an "emotional rollercoaster period" of his life, he wasn't kidding. Focused on the emotional fallout of a relationship gone wrong, the new project chooses not to focus on the singer's ex, and rather on what it means to move on in real time. When Carlie Hanson releases new music, it's almost a guarantee that you'll understand exactly where she's coming from. That's certainly true of "Good Enough" — the newest catchy pop tune from Hanson details the singer's struggle with depression and self-doubt, as she lets out her pain and worries about never being able to live up to her own expectations. My relationship was fizzling, I missed being with my family and friends, and at the time I was on a prescription medication that was really negatively affecting me," she said of the song in a statement. Pop crooner Greyson Chance is ready for some much needed self-love. If you need a song to lift you out of a funk this week, then "Bad to Myself" is a must-listen. Sometimes, moving on means accepting some of the blame.
Listening to new music is hard. Not hard compared to going to space or war, but hard compared to listening to music we already know. Eventually, we bow our heads and cross a threshold where most music becomes something to remember rather than something to experience. And now, on top of everything else, here we all are, crawling through this tar pit of panic and dread, trying to heft some new music through historic gravity into our lives. It feels like lifting a couch. Why do we even listen to new music anymore? Most people have all the songs they could ever need by the time they turn Spotify, Apple Music, and YouTube can whisk us back to the gates and gables of our youth when life was simpler. Not just in times of great stress, but for all times, I genuinely ask: Why spend time on something you might not like? On a muggy night at the end of May, inside a newly constructed theater along the Seine, those who chose to bear witness to something new experienced a piece of music that would presage a new world of art.
