Every week Vulture highlights the best new music. If the song is worthy of your ears and attention, you will find it here. Read our picks below, share yours in the comments, and subscribe to the Vulture Playlist for a comprehensive guide to the year’s best music.
Carly Rae Jepsen, “Cut to the Feelingâ€
Carly Rae Jepsen has become the kind of pop queen with B-sides and lost tracks that are better than your other fave’s lead singles. Remember when we thought “Call Me Maybe†was all she had? (Yes, you thought that.) How young we were. How shortsighted. This song will apparently be on the soundtrack for the upcoming movie Leap!, but even if that movie is really good, “Cut to the Feeling†will likely be the best part of it. You will hear this song at every Pride party, on every Pride dance floor, and in the heartbeat of every person who knows good pop. You will feel it hit your skin in the summer sunbeams. Jepsen has found out how to distill pure, actual joy into song form, and we could all use some more joy these days. —Jordan Crucchiola (JorCru)
Benjamin Clementine, “Phantom of Aleppovilleâ€
The coughing could be coming from a geriatric-filled concert hall or a rubble-filled war zone when it enters midway through “Phantom of Aleppoville,†the new single from unapologetically ambitious British pianist, songwriter, and recent Gorillaz collaborator Benjamin Clementine. When the coughing sound peeps through the mix (around the 2:36 mark), we’re at the tail end of a genuinely frightening musical moment — a Jackson Pollock whirlwind where a vulnerable, bullied Clementine sings “Oh leave me, leave me / Oh love me†over the scatted-out words of his oppressors, “We won’t leave you alone / We want you to die.†Meanwhile, a third voice shrieks like a feverish hyena dancing to a military drum (anyone else taste berries here?). When the dust has settled by the second half of the song, a calmer and more articulate Clementine reenters, singing, “Oh Billy the bully / Come on out of your hideout / Billy the bully, it’s alright / You’ve been forgiven.†The forgiveness is admirable, but the damage can’t really be undone; it’s still the same song as before. —Gabe Cohn (@gabescohn)
Halsey ft. Lauren Jauregui, “Strangersâ€
Good luck not listening to this song once you’ve played it. “Strangers†is the latest single release from Halsey’s forthcoming album Hopeless Fountain Kingdom, and it is just so damn good. The beat is consuming, the lyrics lend themselves to near instant memorization, and the chorus is an anthemic lovers plea in a comfortable range that pretty much anyone can sing loudly with lots of longing hand choreography. Moreover, this is a sexy duet between two ladies, and we don’t get many of those. (Shout out to “All the Things She Saidâ€!) Halsey and Jauregui’s voices entwine like limbs, and the tension between desire and the need to guard their hearts from getting in too deep gives the song a narrative that could turn your dance floor romance into a tragic short play. It’s almost Pride month, so grab your rainbow flag and go dance in the streets to “Strangers.†—JC
Gucci Mane ft. Offset, “Met Galaâ€
You ever see that meme of a person mean muggin’ like their life depends on it? In the background of wherever each of these photos was taken, a song as filthy as Gucci Mane and Offset’s new one, “Met Gala,†was playing. Not filthy in a sexually explicit way — though this is not a song for the virginal — but filthy like you’ve just been cruising around Atlanta in a drop-top worth more than most people make in a year, listening to some of the city’s best trap music, which is what “Met Gala†arguably is, and feeling untouchable. The song showcases two generations of Atlanta rap — one a legend, the other just beginning to establish himself outside of his rap group. Gucci gives Migos’s Offset space to shine on this song, handing over nearly all the verses and the hook. This is essentially Offset’s song and he rises to the occasion. With Migos, Offset often gets relegated to ad-libs when he should be positioned as the lead (sorry, Quavo). Thanks to Guwop, he might just be. —Dee Lockett (@Dee_Lockett)
Bleachers, “I Miss Those Daysâ€
“I Miss Those Days†feels like a combination of Jack Antonoff’s 1980s waterfall-of-sound approach slammed at high speed into the bigness and bombast of fun. hits like “Some Nights†and “We Are Young.†Really, Antonoff is like a beautiful musical butterfly who you thought was fully out of his chrysalis on Strange Desire, but was actually just starting to emerge. The man is in party mode now. Desire was like a tribute to the heyday of Simple Minds and Tears for Fears, but whatever he’s doing now feels like he’s stepping out into the sun with bells and whistles and noisemakers in hand. I’ll take his pop nostalgia juiced up with present-day sensibilities forever. —JC
Lil Yachty, “Prioritiesâ€
Teens are a rowdy, careless bunch if you believe 19-year-old rising rap star Lil Yachty, and as such, they need an anthem that summarizes their motto. Older millennials had “YOLO,†the despondent youth of today has Lil Uzi Vert’s “XO Tour Llif3,†and, now, Lil Yachty has a singalong for the disaffected kids. “Priorities†is a bouncy ode to living without morals and all disregard for the feelings of other people (“I’ma cheat on my girlfriend who so loyal, for some sluts,†he casually raps). This song will make you feel good for being not even half as selfish as anyone who could possibly relate to the words this song preaches. —DL
NEIKED ft. Mimi, “Call Meâ€
This song is so catchy I will even forgive it for the lyrics “you give me feels.†Honestly, that should disqualify any song from being enjoyed, but the electro-pop, pseudo-island vibe of “Call Me†is too sweet to turn off. It’s sappy (“you can call me, oh if only you need somebodyâ€), but also a little saucy, (“you can call me, middle of the night when you need my bodyâ€). Sing it with friends. Sing it with lovers. Sing it with people who are a little bit of both. —JC