It feels a little churlish to bemoan the fact that there's been too much good music released this week... but it has been particularly difficult, this week, to narrow down all that's been released into the very shiniest of musical gems.
We've managed it though, and if you've been off the radar all week, we've got the greatest, most important new tracks you missed. From the massively hyped likes of Lana Del Rey and The Libertines to up-and-comers such as Banoffee and Dua Lipa, these are the best new songs of the week.
The Neighbourhood - 'R.I.P. 2 My Youth'
Blending rocky shades of Foals with minimalist hip hop, the track is both playful and despairing: "I'm just telling the truth / You can play this at my funeral / Tell me sister don't cry and don't be sad / I'm in paradise with Dad."
Banoffee - 'With Her'
'With Her' acts as its own, brilliant remix. Like someone's taken a dreamy, bedroom pop ballad and added expansive, trip hop drum beats, and an intriguing steel drum-like noise over the song's thumping chorus.
Lana Del Rey - 'Terrence Loves You'
The covers itself in a smoky veil with soft string sections, and gorgeous falsetto that grows into a theatrical crescendo akin to a gentle hallucinogenic experience. "I lost myself when I lost you / But I still got jazz when I've got those blues".
The Libertines - 'Anthem For Doomed Youth'
A tender, aching and swaying lullaby about the pain and beauty of those nights gone awry. The band had previously performed it at Glastonbury with Ed Harcourt, when fans knew it as 'Handsome'.
Deerhunter - 'Snakeskin'
Tighter, and more funky than anything Deerhunter have produced before, and with playfully opaque lyrics: "I was born already nailed to the cross / I was born with the feeling I was lost / I was born with the ability to talk / I was born with a snake-like walk."
Lapsley - 'Hurt Me'
The song holds closely to the minimalist, trip hop formula that's worked so well for Lapsley in the past - but with deeper vocals and a more expansive rhythm breakdown.
Florence x Drake - 'Back To Delilah'
Am immensely enjoyable mash-up of Florence + The Machine's 'Delilah' and Drake's recent Meek Mill diss track 'Back To Back', this track "explores an alternate reality where Drake is a member of Florence + The Machine, which results in his diss tracks being even more dramatic than they already are." It's the mash-up we didn't know we needed - but we're so glad it exists.
Honne - 'Love The Jobs You Hate'
There's something both delightfully retro and distinctly futuristic about Honne's brand of soul, and no track demonstrates this more effectively than 'Love The Jobs You Hate'. With funky bass riffs lurking underneath rich, bitter vocals: "Thanks for that second chance / But let me tell you something you'd understand / Go fuck yourself. Don't tell me that you are who you are."
Haiku Salut - 'Hearts Not Parts'
The new one from the instrumental post-folk band is so minimalist - gentle violin and guitar repetitions over a rolling drum beat and hypnotics "oooh"s - that it serves as the perfect soundtrack to its bizarre, "Hyper Real Feminist Horror Movie" video, which is "concerned with the media’s destructive stereotypes and the audience’s assumptions and judgements."
Dua Lipa - 'New Love'
The 19-year-old British singer is already being compared to Lana Del Rey, because she recently signed with the same manangement - but, while there are certain aesthetic similarities in the pair's press shots and videos, that's where the similarities end. Lipa's music is less brooding and more upbeat, with R&B inflections, its chorus cascading effortlessly around the two words of its title. She may well get very, very big.
