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.
Song of the Week: Central Cee, Sexyy Red – “Guilt Tripping”
Central Cee’s new Sexyy Red collab is a surprisingly (slightly?) romantic track that takes one of Cench’s main lyrical hallmarks – an irrepressible clumsiness when it comes to talking about women – and builds an entire song around it. By the end of the song, “You ain’t a bitch, but baby, you my bitch” might sound like the most romantic thing you’ve ever heard.
Lorde – “Hammer”
An industrial tinged new cut from Virgin, “Hammer” is grand and warm-hearted, featuring references to Lorde’s new life in New York.
Ninajirachi – “iPod Touch”
Ninajirachi’s new single is pure nostalgia, harking back to a time when everything seemed simple and exciting.
HAIM – “All over me”
This one’s a “Gasoline”-style midtempo ballad from Haim’s new album I Quit; the Haim sisters are still the best in the game at this kind of smooth, rhythmic indie-pop.
Cardi B – “Outside”
It’s been a long time since Cardi B released an album, but singles like “Outside” remind you why we’re all still breathlessly anticipating her new record.
Kesha, Slayyyter, Rose Gray – “ATTENTION!”
While I have a lot of skepticism about this kind of cunty strut-pop, which seems to be the default mode for anyone with a laptop, an Instagram account, and a couple of tubes of Too Faced Lip Injection gloss in their handbag, when it’s this frenetic and fun, it’s hard to deny.
PinkPantheress – “Close to you”
Hearing this 2021-era Pinkpantheress loosie makes it clear how far she’s come as a producer in recent years, but it’s still fun to hear her old-school DIY approach.
Kito, Cakes da killa, Born Dirty – “ECHO”
Sublime LA house producer Kito links with the queer avant-garde underground’s best rapper on this hot-and-heavy heater.
Ghais Guevara, Cameron Winter – “Nina Narcissist”
A rap song that samples one of the most intense songs on Cameron Winter’s Heavy Metal… Now I’ve heard everything!
Erykah Badu, The Alchemist – “Next To You”
Sublime work from Erykah and the Alchemist – hopefully there’s an album on the way.
Photography: Talia Chetrit
