The 5 Best Songs Of The Week

Every week the Stereogum staff chooses the five best new songs of the week. The eligibility period begins and ends Thursdays right before midnight. You can hear this week’s picks below and on Stereogum’s Favorite New Music Spotify playlist, which is updated weekly. (An expanded playlist of our new music picks is available to members on Spotify and Apple Music, updated throughout the week.)

05

Yung Lean - "Horses"

Yung Lean isn’t new to this. While the Swedish artist is still probably best known for the music he’s made as a mumbly cloud-rapper, rock has permeated his work before, whether he releases it as part of his jonatan leandoer96 side project or as a full collab album with his buddy Bladee. But the title of Lean’s new album Jonatan seems to suggest that he’s interested in exploring the core of who he is behind his on-the-nose rap name; “Horses,” a very pretty highlight from that record, begs you to see him for who he really is, too.

“Wild horses keep pulling me away from you,” Lean laments on the song’s refrain, as if conjuring a photonegative of that old Rolling Stones song about tireless devotion. “You’ll never catch up to what I do,” he continues over slowcore-inspired guitars, spinning a typical sentiment of iced-out, hip-hop braggadocio to imply that loneliness is inevitable for a guy like him. But it’s not just Lil Peep cosplay: As arpeggiated strings swell in the track’s latter half, it’s undeniable that Lean is reaching for something bigger. —Abby

04

Nourished By Time - "Max Potential"

There’s no reason that shoegaze can’t be funky. One of the great things about Nourished By Time’s music is that it never fits into any neat genre categories, so it’s probably a disservice to describe “Max Potential” in terms like “funky” or “shoegaze.” There’s too much else going on in there — the airy twinkles of mid-’80s synthpop, the bent and homespun pop qualities of chillwave, the churchy longing of ’70s soul. It’s less a collection of curated touchpoints, more a naked and vulnerable work of expression: “If I’m gonna go insane, at least I’m loved by you.” But it also suggests an alternate reality where someone like Prince or Terence Trent D’Arby spent some late-’80s time messing around with Kevin Shields’ echo pedals. That alternate reality feels like a nice place to be. —Tom

03

Westside Gunn & Doechii - "Egypt Remix"

“Egypt” was already a highlight from Westside Gunn’s new Heels Have Eyes EP, a soulful boom-bap track like a gust of hot wind on one of those days when haze rises off the pavement. Westside Gunn tends to make mincemeat out of beats like that, and he does so here, throwing his nasal rasp into big-shit drug-dealer braggadocio like “Just sold twenty-five bricks on the Cricket/ Dollar short, your nana at the door like, “Who is it?”/ I’m that fuckin’ n****, I’m on my own dick/ Ritz-Carlton, Egypt, I’m gettin’ homesick.” Then the world’s fastest-rising rap star swings in to remind us she can spit, and a solid slice of street rap is elevated into an event. Doechii weaves gun talk and tales of luxurious living into boasts about her Grammy win and undeniable chart ascent, carrying herself like a rugged microphone champion and not some pop star who snuck in through the rap door. “Literary swamp, bitch n****s can’t book me/ Came up out the mud, same color as a Tootsie,” she taunts. “You ain’t a boss, you’s a pussy/ I done snuck up to the top ’cause they mistook me as a rookie.” —Chris

02

Welcome Strawberry - "Memory Cube"

The cover art for Welcome Strawberry’s upcoming album Desperate Flower almost put me off at first. Its blurred imagery and combination of fonts is so clearly indebted to 4AD’s heyday that I feared the accompanying music would simply fall flat in comparison. The album’s lead single “Memory Cube” isn’t quite as good as the music that accompanies Vaughan Oliver’s most recognizable works — how could it be? — but the Oakland band’s take on dreamy indie rock is a refreshing addition to the crop of up-and-coming shoegazers. “Memory Cube” takes Cocteau Twins’ detachedness and brings a sense of immediacy, giving the tune a welcome noisier, trippier edge. Simply put: Welcome Strawberry sound like their cover art looks. —Abby

01

Teethe - "Magic Of The Sale"

A band name like Teethe implies maturation, and that’s exactly what’s happening on the lead single from the Texas band’s sophomore LP. Magic Of The Sale has appearances from big-name indie bands Wednesday and Hovvdy, and it’s coming out on the esteemed Winspear label after Teethe self-released their debut. The album’s title track reflects that glow-up with hi-fi production and a grandiosity heretofore unseen from this crew. There are flashes of ambient and indie-pop and emo and post-rock threaded into the song’s slowcore foundation, all of it cohering into a gorgeous slow-build swoon that levels off into a cloud of euphoric melancholia worthy of Sufjan Stevens. If I’m reading the lyrics right, this is a song about pain, abandonment, neglect, betrayal, maybe even abuse. But if Teethe are working through some dark shit here, they’ve managed to transmute it into beauty. —Chris