Every week, Vulture and friends highlight 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.
Nick Jonas, “Champagne Problems”
Dear Nick,
Boy problems. Who’s got ’em? I’ve got them, too. Since 2014, you’ve been gay-baiting my heart of hearts. You twist the broken champagne glass deeper into my soul with every bare-chested appearance at such-and-such gay club or effortless portrayal of some rough-and-tumble character on TV or Bieber-shaming glamour shot in your Calvin Klein magazine spread. It’s hard to keep up. Or is it easy? Still thyself, the pitter-patter of my beating heart. What I’m saying is, we love you. I love you. I’m raising my glass to these champagne problems and hoping I’m the one you’ve been saving up, ’cause I’m looking for something that’s the opposite of breaking up. You like how I stole your lines? Don’t tell your manager. It can be between us.
Until your album drops,
The Internet
—Justin McCraw (@JustinMcCraw)
Tegan and Sara, “Boyfriend”
Humans are annoying things. We never know what we want, even when it’s staring us in the vagina. That is the conundrum Sara Quin found herself in prior to writing “Boyfriend,” the first single from twin-sister duo Tegan and Sara’s forthcoming AOTY candidate. She was dealing with a woman not quite ready to enter a relationship with another woman, for whatever reason, who still played with Sara’s emotions anyway. But hey, at the very least, Sara was able to turn that girl’s reluctance into a big, bombastic ‘80s earworm that fits nicely between Carly Rae Jepsen’s “Boy Problems” and Robyn’s “Call Your Girlfriend” on your pre-prom playlist. —Dee Lockett (@Dee_Lockett)
Gallant, “Counting”
Fresh off Gallant’s debut album comes “Counting,” a dreamlike ode to faith and the other. It begins with ashy visages of saints in “fallen shrines,” grayness creating a Vesuvius of memory. It’s the building up of a life around another person, treating their body as a temple, only to have it crumble, your beliefs the only thing left, with hope for something greater to come. It’s not the peppiest song on the album, or maybe even the “best,” but it creates a fluid story with a million interpretations, just like faith. —JM
Classixx ft. How to Dress Well, “Just Let Go”
The Cali production duo known as Classixx are coming on strong with their sophomore album, having already dropped a gem with T-Pain. Now they’re here to snatch dance-floor wigs in the most nonabrasive way. If you hate feeling overwhelmed by ear-splitting drops or overly rhythm-dependent club jams, this is for you, my friend. You just let this one slide out the speakers and let your body sway to the soothing sounds of Tom Krell’s silky croon. —DL
Le Youth ft. Tay Beckham, “Boomerang”
Sometimes you need a little marimba to get yourself in the mood for Hump Day. This had me flailing on my Swiss ball, each new line pouring fuel onto the fire of my dancing spirit. Spurn me once, the song says, spurn me twice. Do I look like a boomerang? It’s a summery introduction to warmer weather and the easy-breezy flings that come along with it. —JM
Maxwell, “Lake By the Ocean”
What’s that? Oh, nothing, just the sound of a thousand orgasms exploding in tandem to the return of Maxwell. Few make sex in a long-term relationship sound as desirable as he does, so it’s really rather unfair of Maxwell to drop his first song in seven years right on the cusp of fling season. “Lake By the Ocean” (not to be confused with that corny DNCE song) sounds like what I imagine sunbathing on a secluded island with your significant other on your anniversary must feel like — a blissful, carnal, but above all, loving re-creation of your honeymoon, soundtracked by the man who was probably there every time you guys made a baby (or tried to). —DL
Erik Hassle, “If Your Man Only Knew”
Swedish pop firecracker Erik Hassle channels Rahzel and Aaliyah to bring us this latest single from his upcoming album. “If Your Man Only Knew” mansplains the void left by mothers and girls. It’s a jab at an ex who’s still obviously in love with Hassle. “There’s no endless summer, we knew all along,” he sings. “Wonder when it came, you had to go away / But I was your first, and that never goes away.” It’s the kind of song you’ll listen to at 4 a.m. wondering why your former beau takes until 6 a.m. to respond to your snaps when you can tell she’s been snapping all night. Shoot. —JM
Diarrhea Planet, “Let It Out”
Next month I turn 26, an age still relatively young compared to a lot of the world. But I’ve never felt it — that feeling of fuck, I’m an adult — as much as I have the last very trying week-and-a-half of my yung life. It makes me miss snapshots of a decade ago, an era deeply defined by the Jersey rock I was raised on. Diarrhea Planet are technically sons of Nashville, but dammit, “Let It Out” feels so Jerz that it’s disorienting for people like me. Maybe it’s the cacophony of all the guitars (four!), or Jordan Smith’s faux-emo wail, or that it reminds me so much of every drive down the shore I’ve ever had, the sun keeping me company on my right side, my best friend on my left. You don’t have to be from Jerz for those sentiments to resonate, so go ahead, give it a spin, and let it carry you where you to need to go. —DL
Palmistry, “Club Aso”
“You’re the song I love to sing / You’re the one I long to be,” Palmistry sings matter-of-factly. It’s a spring awakening — the preamble to the party that’s about to happen. We can’t divine how his debut album will turn out come June, but these catchy synth feeds are enough to keep us swaying to the easy beats. While sometimes repetitive, the punnings are groovy and the afterglow leaves you hungry for more tunes. —JM
Kaytranada ft. Anderson .Paak, “Glowed Up”
I think Anderson .Paak might be the hardest-working guy in music this year so far. It feels like not a week has passed in 2016 that hasn’t given us something new from .Paak, be it his own song or a feature. Here we have the latter — a new song off producer Kaytranada’s upcoming album. (For more on Kay, I highly recommend his emotional, inspiring Fader profile.) They complement each other’s carefree vibes so well, I almost wish Kay was .Paak’s in-house producer, but that’d be selfish. “Glowed Up” is a two-parter: the first half an ambient, hazy synth fever dream that bleeds beautifully into its jazzier second half. I prefer the backend, mostly because it reminds me so much of Flying Lotus, which is just about the highest props I can give. —DL
